You Need a Gear Change, Son

You know…sometimes when you’re doing something that just doesn’t seem to be working you have to be willing to make a change. This weekend I had scheduled myself for a long training run. I am contemplating a very late fall race to participate in. But…anyways…I had my support crew with me which consists of my two sons on their bikes. At about mile 5 one of them began complaining about muscle soreness…not a good thing when we are looking to cover 20-miles. As we went along I asked him a few more questions as the soreness seemed to be persisting. Finally it clicked in my mind. He was pedaling in a low gear and his cadence on the pedals was just too high. This can be good…but only to a point. If you are pedaling too quickly it will begin to wear on your joints just as pedaling too slowly will begin to fatigue your muscles prematurely. What he was thinking was muscle soreness was really pointing more towards a tiring of the joints. Well, Mike made a gear change and within a couple of miles there was no more complaints. He finished strong. And even at mile 19.5, when I was beginning to feel some soreness from the long run…he looked over at me and reached out from his bike and patted me on the back and said, “You’re going to make it dad. You’re almost there.” You gotta love it!!

The point here is this; my son had to make a gear change. What he was doing may have worked in some applications but it wasn’t working for the ground we were looking to cover on Saturday. It was actually too easy of a gear, and while that may have been fine when we were covering only 5-10 miles wasn’t going to work for 20-miles. Some of you have grown accustomed to a gear that you are used to operating in and you have switched gears for a brief moment but quickly went back to the easier, lower gear because you didn’t like the resistance you felt when you made the change. But I am telling you that if you are going to actually be successful in covering the ground that you were meant to cover you are going to have to use all the gears that you have been blessed with. And sometimes that means using some of the gears that offer a bit more resistance.

What gear have you been operating in? Are you feeling some soreness from pedaling along in too low a gear…or maybe you have switched gears too quickly and you are dealing with muscle fatigue? Whatever the case…sometimes we don’t have to change directions, we just have to keep heading the same way and all we need is a gear change.

Whatever the case may be with where you are at…keep pedaling. Keep moving. Adjust as necessary and keep the forward progress.

Psalm 112:1-2;7-8 – “Praise the LORD. Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who finds great delight in his commands. His children will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed. He will have no fear of bad news; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the LORD. His heart is secure, he will have no fear; in the end he will look in triumph on his foes.”

Have a blessed day,

RodZ

© 2008 – Rodney Zimmerman – All rights reserved