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July 21, 2004
Cycling on a hot day
Today I rode my bike 20 miles after work, which included two of the toughest hills in the metro area. It was really hot outside! At least the wind was blowing to help cool me down as I rode. This wasn’t just any ride though. I truly got a good workout because I was riding with my friend Dan again.
Dan is like Lance Armstrong. When he goes up hills, he makes it look so easy and his normal riding pace is faster than mine. I did really good keeping up with Dan for the first 10 miles of my ride, then we split up to go our own routes home. So with the heat, the heavy pace and the killer hills, I probably should have had heat stroke or something. But I didn’t. I was ok, and I actually enjoyed this ride.
One of the dangers of exercising in the heat with the wind blowing is that we don’t always feel like we need to drink water. We are still sweating our fluids out, but the wind evaporates the water and cools us down. We don’t feel as hot, but we are still losing water at a fast rate, which leads to dehydration. We need to balance our intake of water with the fluid we are losing.
I went through almost two bottles of water, and then had a power drink when I got home to replenish my bodily fluids. without it, I might have severely hurt myself. Our bodies are made up of a high percentage of water. Water is a life sustaining thing to our bodies. In heat or cold we need it to survive.
Water is to our bodies like God’s spirit is to our souls. We are made of God and whether we believe it or not, we cannot live without it. When the wind blows on us we might not think we need to drink but we still need to replenish ourselves. To keep ourselves functioning properly while going through life’s exercises, through times of abundance or times of hell, we need our source of strength and life continuously. Without it, we still go through life, but we suffer and risk dehydrating ourselves. Then life is without joy. No matter what the conditions in life, when we have a continuous supply of God we can work hard and still enjoy the ride.
Posted by carl1236 at July 21, 2004 11:02 PM | Balance