A Party No-No

You know the rules about parties - no shop talk, no politics and no religion. That way nobody gets offended, bored or overzealous and everyone has a good time.

Well, that rule holds true in my blogger world too. Although I seperate my blogs by topic (cycling - personal and race team, family, and other personal interests), I will sometimes come across a topic that relate to all of my blogs.

I will know commit a Party Foul and discuss one of those forbidden party topics.

Work? No, that's boring IT stuff in the big money banking world. I don't see the big money and moving .0000001 of a penny into an account doesn't work - I watched Office Space.

Politics, ever since moving outside of the beltway, I have no interest in politics. Living with political aides and lobbyist for years in the DC area was interesting and exciting to hear all the Capitol Hill gossip first hand.

That leaves religion.

(Just like in a party, when you hear one of those topics come up, it's time to go refill that keg cup or find the shrimp cocktail tray. So here's your chance to click on one of the many bike related links to the right now and get away from this conversation while you can.)

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After what seemed like eternity, we finally made it back to church today. Forefront Church to be exact. We were regulars on Sundays for years since they opened and met at Regal theatre at the beach and then to OLHS. But after a baby and busy weekends we drifted away. If you're in the 757, you've probably heard the wacky commercials on rock stations and read about the church that holds services in a bar on a Tuesday night.

Today's service talked about "Transformers". Yes, the movie, Transformers. The Michael Bay/Speilberg one and not the 80s version (Transformers, Robots in Disquise). You can see by the title of the movie where this is going - how being a Christian can transform your life. How the different forces in the world - Autobots vs. Decepticons - can influence your life. The sermon had a lot more meat than that and my mind wandered some (most) of the time. However, one of the verses that was referenced during the sermon caught my attention. 1 CORINTHIANS 9:24-27

24Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.
25Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. 27No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

What did I immediately think about after reading this verse? Cycling. You see the parallels?

"....in a race all runners run but only one gets the prize...Run in such a way as to get the prize."
"Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training."
"Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly..."
"I beat my body and make it my slave..."

"Run in such a way as to get the prize."
What do you think of? I think of the strategy of racing. In a crit, don't go out on a solo flyer when you know you can't maintain it and end up OTB when the speed kicks up on the final laps (yes, I've done that one before - Langley Crit 06 and then repeated again on the same track in 07). Race tactically and smart. Find shelter, stay up front to get on the break and pick a good wheel.

"Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training."
Train. Eat. Work. Sleep. Repeat.

"Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly..."
It's all about training and training for a purpose. How many of us find it easier to ride when we know we have a goal or a purpose? We train for that upcoming "A" race, and build the base over winter knowing how much it'll pay off come spring or to improve on those long sustained effort intervals so we can chop seconds or even minutes off our TT.

"I beat my body and make it my slave..."
We tell our body to stop crying and do 10 more 2x1 intervals. You'll thank me later.

Of course, this was not the intent of Paul when he wrote this letter to the Corithians but it wasn't too far off. Some of these verses referenced "the games" that were a competition of track and field events held every two years.

I've probably either read these verses or heard them about a dozen times over the course of my life and just passed over it without much thought. Now I have the appreciation of the "strict training" that this passage references and will keep it in mind during this upcoming season.

Forefront Church meets every Sunday at Ocean Lakes HS and Indian River HS and Tuesdays at the White Horse Pub.