Using More than One Gear
One of the pillars of wellbeing taught by Professor Beth Frates is variety. Variety is what we use to help make sure our healthy behaviors don’t move into mundane.
I was trying to add some variety to spice up my workout routine last week. Instead of my regular 30 mins on an indoor stationary bike, I thought I’d try biking outside. My son has recently learned how to ride a bike and so we’ve spent plenty of time leisurely biking around the neighborhood. I have a cute, but very basic beach cruiser that works great for little rides around our home. With school back in session, I thought I would take this bike out for a little longer of a stretch. There is a canyon with a paved path just down the road from my house and I assumed that since the path was paved, it would be a fairly easy ride…
Jump to me walking my darling, but very heavy one-speed beach cruiser up a particularly steep hill. I can barely hear the chuckle of a man over my huffing and puffing while he zips by me on his multi-speed road bike. I’m just grateful he didn’t see me 30 seconds earlier when I was still trying to pedal my way up that hill. I could swear I was almost going backwards.
After reaching the top of the hill and taking a few minutes to quiet my panting, I hopped on my bike again to go down the hill.
Now, I have a different problem. The momentum from the hill continued to pick up speed. I quickly discovered if I chose to pedal at this moment, the pedals would spin so quickly it was hard to keep my feet on them and I would pick up so much speed that the bike itself would begin to rattle violently. Afraid I was going to shake a screw loose; I pushed my foot back to engage the break as best as I could.
Eventually, the road would even out again and I’d have a few minutes of exercise that hit the target I was expecting. That is until the next hill would surface.
Too many times I treat goals, projects, or achievements like this. I assume that things will go in a nice flat line. And I believe that the vehicle I have for getting things done has worked well enough in other situations so therefore it will work well in all situations.
But that isn’t the case. Here’s what this bike ride taught me:
Only having one gear works for only one level of difficulty. A one-gear beach cruiser is fantastic for riding on a flat boardwalk where the goal is to feel a gentle breeze that tosses your hair back and tickles the flowers in your front basket. Bikes with multiple gears, however, are better suited to help tackle the ups and downs of more intense terrain.
Life isn’t a boardwalk. It’s much more like canyon trail.
If I hit the trail without adapting my speed and my gears, it will be far more taxing to me than if I’ve learned how to adapt to the needs of the terrain.
For instance, if I’m approaching a hill, I would prefer to downshift – meaning I’m lessening the resistance on my bike so that I can more sustainably meet the demand of the hill.
Do we do that for ourselves enough when life gets demanding? Too often, I try to maintain the same pace and the same gear that I was going at before – much like if I was pedaling my beach cruiser. If that is my approach, most likely, I’ll have to admit defeat at some point and walk myself up the rest of the hill.
So, when the terrain gets tough, downshift. Go gentler on your own expectations for pace and resistance. When you get to the other side of the hill, you’ll have plenty of time to catch back up (as long as you don’t overdo it and all your screws come loose) 😊
Thanks for reading with me today. I hope you find joy in all the different types of terrain you may be experiencing this week.