Praying on a bike

Our loving neighbour Sister Alice was another person who disapproved of my participation in the Across Canada cycling tour. It was during our buffet lunch before Christmas that I told her about the tour and my intention to take part, and she echoed my wife in suggesting that I shouldn’t, saying that the tour would be too much of a challenge for me. It was perfectly understandable that the 81-year-old senior would have concerns about my wellbeing should I embark on the long journey which she considered hard and risky. It would have been reassuring to have her endorsement, but I appreciated that the disapproval was out of love and concern.

It was heartening that when I told Sister Alice in April that I had signed up for the event despite her well-meant advice, she said that she fully respected my decision and was happy that I committed myself to something that obviously meant a lot to me. I was even more grateful that, a couple of weeks later, she gave me a copy of an article called Praying on the run, on which she wrote “on a bike” under the words “on the run”, which clearly expressed her meaning that what the article says about running is applicable to my biking trip. I also saw this as a gesture of her support to the trip.

I read the article and found it to be an excellent piece. The central idea is that the “great-to-be-alive” feeling that comes with regular, vigorous exercise stimulates the brain centre and determines our spiritual receptivity to God and our fellow humans. As per the title, the “regular, vigorous exercise” the article focuses on is jogging, but the message applies to other kinds.

According to the article, there are three main reasons why a regimen of jogging can be beneficial to our prayer life:

1. It is helpful for the total disciplining of our lives. 2. The astringent effect of physical exertion provides a stimulus to our intellectual and emotional faculties, resulting in a more perceptive and warmer devotional spirit. 3. A great deal of pleasure is derived from jogging, leading to the general sense of well-being that accompanies the conditioned body.

The writer argues that our “spirit, soul and body” are interrelated aspects of our being. The weakness of our body is the cause of our inability to meditate and lift our hearts in prayer. Despite a thousand lovely thoughts, we often fail to act. The point is supported with the following quotes:

“The spirit is willing, but nature is weak,” said the Lord. (Matthew 26:41)
“Hell is paved with good intentions.” (Samuel Johnson)

So we need to move from the good intentions to the real starting line of physical and spiritual fitness. Rejuvenating the body through physical exertion will invigorate the soul, bringing us the created closer to the Creator. Such effort is necessary for, as these lines quoted from The Kneeling Christian says:

“God will not do some things unless we work. He stores the hills with marbles, but he has never built a cathedral. He fills the mountains with iron ore, but he never makes a needle or a locomotive. He leaves that to us. We must work.”

The close relationship between spirit, soul and body and how the improvement of the body leads to that of the others are ideas which dawn on me these days when I physically exert myself every day to get ready for the cycling tour. Very often, I pray on a (stationary) bike and reap the benefit of it.

Training is hard, but also joyful

Earlier this morning, I heard a 70-year-old Nova Scotia man called Chris Anderson, who has been running in 29 consecutive Boston marathons and looking to do his 30th, say on TV: “We marathoners often joke that ‘running a marathon is easy; It is the marathon training that is the hard part.’”

What he said definitely strikes a chord for me who now undergo hard daily training so as to be ready for the 7,515 km bike ride in a few weeks’ time. According to the principles of training overload and progressive overload, for the training to be effective and beneficial, one has to keep challenging himself to do something he presently cannot do, then give it time to recover and adapt. Naturally, such training is hard because one is constantly pushing himself to face and overcome new hardship. I can definitely testify to that. Very often, the overload introduced in my training, which is beyond what my current physical condition can handle, leads to breathlessness, discomfort or even pain so tortuous that it takes tremendous willpower to resist the temptation to give up.

Paradoxically, though, the hardship is also where the pleasure of the training lies. I do not mean just the outcome - of seeing progress made, of being able to go beyond previous ‘limits’. Such triumphs are, of course ,the source of sheer joy. But the process itself, with (not despite) all the sweat and blood, can also be joyful. To allow capacity to enjoy the process, I have to screen out the feelings of fear and doubts, the mindfulness of the challenge, and the sensations in the forms of discomfort and pain. Then, and only then, will I be able to focus on the effort and repetition and experience the joy. I find it useful to pay attention to my breathing. I also find it useful to recite prayers. My favourite is the following Taizé lyrics:

Jésus le Christ, lumière intérieure, ne laisse pas mes ténèbres me parler. 
Jésus le Christ, lumière intérieure, donne-moi d’accueillir ton amour.

Its message about not letting my darkness speak to me and enabling me to welcome the love of Jesus is very relevant to the situation of hard exercising.

So, yes, I agree with Chris Anderson that training is the hard part, but I have to say that it is also where joy is. He did not say it, but I am sure this is also what he has experienced.

I was wrong about fitness centres, and the people using them

I used to detest and despise going to the gym, thinking that it is the most boring form of exercise in the planet. When I was in Hong Kong, whenever I walked past the glass windows of fitness centres in commercial buildings, I would privately sneer at the people I saw running on treadmills. “Do they have a problem? Are there no better things to do than trapping themselves here running like caged mice on wheels?” Surely, exercising outdoors, be it jogging, biking, tennis or whatever, is a whole lot more fun.

Now that I am going to the gym almost on a daily basis, I can see how prejudiced I was. I see this change of views as having anything to do with cognitive dissonance, Leon Festinger's social psychological theory which posits that humans seek to adjust their attitudes and actions to ease their mental discomfort caused by internal psychological inconsistency. It is just that, eventually, after my firsthand experience, I am able to see what an interesting place a fitness centre really is.

Given Charlottetown’s small population, it is rare that one would find a place with a lot of visitors. But the fitness centre is definitely one such place. Regardless of which time of the day or which day of the week I go there, there are always quite a lot of people. And very different people, too. People of different ages, sexes, races, size and shapes. They do different exercises and engage themselves in different manners. While they may or may not have specific goals like myself, what is obvious is that they are looking to make physical improvement through their physical effort. And a fitness centre, with a full range of equipment, workout data, programs and personnel, is the perfect place to achieve that. That is probably why this gym I go to is one of the most visited places in small Charlottetown.

Reading and getting ready for «Distance Cycling»

Since coming back from Hong Kong, I have undertaken to prepare for the Across Canada charity cycling tour (and, as a by-product, tackle the expanded waistline). I have joined a local gym as a member. I have also been re-reading the excellent book «Distance Cycling» by John Hughes and Dan Kehlenbach. I am under no illusion that the ten-week tour will be easy and certainly do not underestimate its demands on my physical fitness. The last thing I want is to be a burden to the group so I have to get myself 110 percent ready when the event starts in June.

Based on my reading, I realise that the training is to be targeted at improving both endurance and power, enabling me to overcome long rides and steep climbs. For these, the body has two different energy systems to tap into: the aerobic system (metabolizing carbohydrate and fat for energy) and the lactic acid system (metabolizing carbohydrate to form lactate and regenerate adenosine tri-phosphate (ATP)). Both systems have to be improved.

Obviously then, I need to do aerobic base training to build the necessary endurance and resistance training to enhance muscular strength and power.

Among other things, the aerobic base training is to enable:

• the muscle and liver to store more carbohydrates 
• the respiratory system to bring more oxygen to the circulation system 
• the heart to pump more blood to the workout muscles 

The resistance training will be targeted at the specific strengths required for cycling, namely, core strength, leg strength and upper body strength.

For the training to be effective, there are different principles to follow. To me, the three most important ones are:

• Training overload – When asked to do something it cannot, the body adapts so it can handle the new workload. 
• Progressive overload – The body adapts best when the overloads (both in volume and intensity) are introduced progressively. 
• Stress and recovery – Most adaptations occur when the body is resting, not during the training. Recovery is an integral aspect of conditioning. To keep improving, the body needs time to rebuild. 

In sum, in the next two months, I am to undergo a strict and specific training regime to achieve the goal of improving my endurance and power so that I may survive the 7,515 km trip across Canada in summer.

A bicycle or a wheelchair?

As a biker, I do pay attention to people who share the same interest. When I see a fellow biker on the street, I would keep an eye on him, maybe to see what type of bicycle he has.

But I was wrong today. It was when I got closer to the “biker” that I realised that what he was pushing wasn’t a folding bike but a wheelchair. Obviously, it was not for this young and healthy guy but someone he was about to help - someone who cannot walk normally like we do. I was thinking, what a big difference between using a bicycle and using a wheelchair!

There will always be some people who simply prefer neither - not doing exercise and expecting to stay healthy. Maybe this does happen, but I would argue that using a bicycle regularly minimises one’s chance of using a wheelchair. Of course, it takes some commitment and determination to develop and then keep up the hobby of bike riding. But once the initial difficulties are overcome, the fun and freedom one can enjoy are simply beyond words. The gain definitely outweighs the pain.

Would I prefer a bicycle or a wheelchair? It's a no brainer.

Exercise, discipline, affection

The article What the Dog Saw in Malcolm Gladwell's book of the same name is about how a dog whisperer called Cesar Millan handled rambunctious dogs. His guiding principles were "exercise, discipline and affection".

"When we love someone, we fulfill everything about them," Cesar Millan was quoted in the article as saying. "That's loving." Exercise, discipline and affection are the "everything" he was talking about.

These elements were mentioned in St Paul's letter to the Hebrews (Heb 12:5-7, 11-13), which is the second reading in today's mass. St Paul reminded us not to disdain the discipline of God or lose heart when reproved by him but to endure our trials as "discipline". Such discipline is a sign of God's affection, a sign that he treats us as sons. "For whom the Lord loves, he disciplines," he said.

St Paul also reminded us to exercise. He said that we should "strengthen [our] drooping hands and [our] weak knees so that they may be healed".

Like Cesar Millan who works with the most difficult canines, God never gives up on us but always looks to give us a healthy dose of "exercise, discipline and affection".

Unpleasant surprises

"Life is full of surprises. A Nobel Prize winner, Kao is also an Alzheimer's patient."

This is what Gwen Kao Wong May-wan, the wife of the Nobel winner Charles Kao Kuen said during the naming ceremony of the Charles K. Kao Auditorium a couple of days ago.

Wong added that she hoped the award will provide an opportunity to raise awareness of the disease and it will generate support services for patients with cognitive loss and the training of their caretakers.

It is tragic that the Charles Kao who attended the ceremony is a completely different person from the scientist who won himself a Nobel Prize, due to Alzheimer's disease, which has robbed him of his memory and judgement. It is equally tragic that so many people, Kao's wife included, just focus on taking care of Alzheimer patients and seem to overlook the importance and possibility of preventing the disease. As John Robbins says in his book Healthy at 100: "Our inability to cure or effectively treat Alzheimer's makes prevention all the more important".

The big question is: Can the disease be effectively prevented? According to scientific and medical studies, the answer is a resounding 'Yes'. And the solutions are incredibly simple: Do exercise; eat well ('well' meaning a whole-foods, plant-based diet high in antioxidants). Unfortunately, far too many people, whether they are or are not aware of the full range of benefits of exercise and a healthy diet, do not take the advice. It appears that remaining dormant and eating junk or unhealthy food are a lifestyle that people are always going to prefer, even though sooner or later it brings about suffering that is completely unnecessary.

That sort of suffering is probably the surprises Kao's wife was referring to. Sadly, they are not pleasant ones.