"Keeping The Cadence..."

After visiting with Kraig at the Adventure Blog yesterday, and musing over his new gear for biking adventures, I began pondering over what we have learned about cadence...

I learned about this movement metaphor first in Outward Bound; we saw it applied by an older person so well on a long distance trek; it was taught again to me on a multi-day paddle; a friend and mountain guide also shared the potency of it on a very challenging approach and climb; and while biking the slickrock in Moab its subtle power was very apparent...

There can be found within us and out there... a zone of sorts... a way of being in cadence with our body; with the activity; and more in tune with the elements we are journying through...

Some say it can be a kind of 'flow', where the movement - as hard as it gets at times; simply becomes part of us, as much as our breathing and our heart beat. There are moments where we even transcend the effort and are almost above or apart from it as something of our internal being simply observes the ongoing exertion...

'Cadence' is a very valuable physiological, psychological, emotional, even spiritual technique...

It has distinct usefulness at altitude when everything slows yet becomes so much more difficult. It can be applied when paddling for hours in opposing winds where getting off course or being driven back are not safe options. And on those very long days, at the end of a trek, across unknown and broken ground; this cadence of mind and body can keep us moving ; keep us carrying on, even when we may have thought we just couldn't...

Cadence can be the key in the mind moving the body; when the body says stop...

Cadence can also be used to keep the mind in neutral when certain thoughts and doubts and tired anxieties are distracting us unnecessarily... Cadence is measured movement... Intonations within the mind, body, and spirit that propels the whole forward...

Marathoners know it well; cyclists experience it intensely; adventure racers embrace it closely; long distance paddlers and trekkers practice it often...

All of us adventurers can discover its hidden benefits and secrets...

A personal cadence can be almost anything that works for your own internal rhythm... Sounds, song, sensations - whatever is mantra like and meditative for you personally...

Keep the cadence out there my fellow adventurers...

DSD