Find Your Rhythm

 Life On Two Wheels

 I’ve been on bicycles since I was in second grade or so.  Back in the days of training wheels, and being very careful riding back-and-forth right in front of the house.  But in all that time, I just jumped on the bike and pedaled away.  I never spent so much as a second thinking about how I pedaled.  In fact, I stayed that way till I was in my 60s.  I didn’t think about how I pedaled.  Once I got rolling, I’d find a gear I could pedal in and just push on.  To be honest, I wasn’t always that picky about what gear I was in.  Some of that was not thinking about how my machine worked; some of it was that the machine was never tuned well.  So some gears just weren’t within reach of my derailleurs.  Riding wasn’t something I thought about.

After moving to Virginia, my riding patterns changed.  I rode in urban settings rather than rural because I left safer there.  It didn’t take much thinking to realize the winding roads with no shoulder areas at all presented more danger than I wanted.  Riding in the city requires more attention.  I need to think about where I am, who else is on the road, add in pedestrians and surprise appearances by car doors in my riding lane. I had to think while riding.  That thinking expanded into other things.

 

You’ll hear “serious” riders talking about “cadence”.  Cadence is a simple concept.  It’s how fast you pedal.  Like RPM on a car, it’s how many times your pedals go around.  Top cyclists will be up around 100 rpm, a casual rider may be around 60.  My understanding is that each rider has a sweet spot that is their personal cadence.  The place where body and machine are in perfect sync.

So what’s my cadence?  I haven’t a clue.  There are fancy devices that will record your cadence and help you fine tune it so you are working at your maximum efficiency.  I honestly don’t care that much.  Experience teaches me that when I’m on my cadence, I feel like I can pedal forever.  Uphill, on the flat, cruising or blasting at top speed, there’s a different feel when I’m doing it right.

All of which interests me and some folk who ride (although they probably find my attitudes on the subject pretty primitive).  When I started thinking about my riding cadence, it dawned on me-riding isn’t the only time when that kind of rhythm makes a difference.  In my creative life, in my work life, just in general, there’s a tempo that lets me be at my best.  Two slow and I lose interest in what’s going on.  I fiddle with other things, lose track and have an “accident” when thing get out of control.  Too fast and I get ahead of myself, working beyond my ability to see what’s coming.  Work is done without enough attention to detail, leaving chaos behind me and leaving me no time to react when things change in front of me.  Again, an accident waiting to happen.

On the bike, with rare exceptions (like a group ride), I get to decide my cadence.  It doesn’t always work that way in “real life”.  There are people who decide the world has to ride at their tempo, no matter what.  I let myself get driven that way several times in my life.  The results never made me happy.  There are always times when we need to sprint, to push the tempo to get around an issue.  In the end, I am convinced that allowing people to find their own tempo in life is better overall.  

Find the cadence that is right for you.  Stick with it and see if you don’t achieve more in the long run.

Peace.