For the past 2 years, in June, I spend 7-days riding my bicycle from San Francisco to Los Angeles. I know, why in the world would I do that? This is the point where most people get that crazy scrunched up face and a high-pitched voice says, “are you crazy?”. No, actually, there were approximately 2,400 other riders involved in the AIDS/LifeCycle, all with the same goal – raise money to end HIV/AIDS and complete a massive challenge of riding 545 miles in 7-days straight. Nearly 50% of the participants are returning cyclists from years prior, which not only says a lot about only the challenges, but also the successes.

One doesn’t simply sit down at the dining room table one morning and chart a course, hop on a bicycle, and start riding 545 miles. When done correctly, there are months of training, planning, and doing your best to balance work, health, workouts, emotions, vacations, family and your golden retriever.  It’s not always easy, but I’ve been training for one event or another since 2002, from Ironman to long distance relay runs.

Challenges like the AIDS/LifeCycle are what clarify and help one prioritize life’s goals. But, even with all my experience, I immediately identified a couple big challenges with a 7-day bicycle ride.

1. Physical: The daily distances don’t scare me, but I’ve never ridden a bicycle 7-days in a row. That’s day after day, no rest days, up before the sun and sometimes having the sun chase you into camp.
2. Work: An average of 80-miles a day in the saddle means that I cannot deal with work emergencies. This is not a working vacation, like all the ones since 2000. This is dedicated time away from everything.
3. Technology: Can’t really keep up with email and social media while spending most the day riding. How will the world survive without my daily inputs?

For those that aren’t used to training year round for an endurance event, you get to add in the challenge of long training days every weekend, which leads to losing time with friends and family, along with limiting time to get your weekend chores accomplished. And, don’t even think about working on the weekend – you’ll be training.

More Demands = Better Balance
I know you’re thinking, “how exactly does this craziness lead to a balanced life?”. For some, this isn’t a good recipe, but for me, without weekend training I would be working more hours, enjoying life less, and be completely out of balance.

When there’s a greater amount of time in the schedule than there are tasks to be completed, it becomes easy to allow noise and misdirection into my routine, which ends up diluting my goals. By taking on challenges that are part of my life’s goals, some of which I’m not sure I can complete at the moment I sign up, my prioritization skills are forced to eliminate items that really aren’t part of my mission.

Time Management
Setting my personal challenges and adventures as a priority means the weekend is scheduled well in advance, and the work week has to be disciplined. The phrase, “I’ll just wrap it up over the weekend” doesn’t exist and Fridays are about finishing up the tasks that are to be completed before Monday morning.

In addition, Monday through Friday is forced to be more efficient. Whether it’s because of weekday training or chores that have been pushed from the weekend to an evening, the workday structure gets stronger and more efficient. Carrying work into late hours is less likely when you’re effectively managing life, health, family, and work.

Unplugged time
Like many, I find that I’m plugged in via phone, tablet, or laptop nearly 100% of the day – it’s clearly a present day addiction. Everyone has their nose buried in their phone at the office, in the car, while walking down the street, and all the way until settling in for sleep. It’s the first thing I look at when I wake and I always do one last check before going to sleep.

Fortunately, I’m not the fastest cyclist out there – so while I’m in the saddle for hours and hours climbing the numerous hills throughout the Bay Area each week, I’m provided with quality unplugged time. I’m typically talking to myself and walking through improvements for work, home, and life. Cycling provides me with time to reflect upon how something was managed with a client or how we can improve a situation, and having this time outside the bubble provides an environment that leads to continued intellectual and emotional improvement.

Backwards and Forwards
The time you spent outside of life’s normal template of work, family and friends is critical to closing out yesterday’s events and bringing passion to tomorrow. Whether it’s hiking, running, cycling, softball, sailing, motorcycling… whatever your passion, make sure to schedule that time and allow it to improve your balance and focus.

In the end, none of the concerns I had about completing the event were a roadblock. With consistent training, the ride was nothing short of an epic 7-day experience. Being unplugged every day and away from work issues forced me to depart with all situations covered and 100% trust that my team would manage well. And come to find out, social media didn’t notice… I did make an effort to post pictures throughout the journey and I’d like to think my friends were always waiting to see what was coming next.

I continue to train and am looking forward to next year’s ride!