A really helpful reflection from Rich Dixon.

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You and I know we can’t operate, long-term, on determination and adrenaline… in the middle of Week 4, it all caught up with us.

Riding only five days each week was supposed to allow physical recovery and time to catch up on blogging, social media, and unending logistical details. Things didn’t always work out.

On a “rest” day we did a noon speaking engagement. When we finally reached our hotel in Bowling Green, Missouri, we still needed to update the blog and plan the next day’s route. I was beyond tired, and both Becky and I were feeling the cumulative effects of shortcutting our morning quiet time. In the blog I wrote:

Our buckets are just about empty.

I’m not complaining. Tomorrow I get to take a bike ride – things could be a lot worse.

A lesson learned. If you want to travel well, you can’t go full speed with no recovery time. That works in a short sprint, but life’s a marathon. You can’t run a marathon on empty. If you want to travel well over the long term, you gotta refill the bucket.

Dream-following is a long-term commitment. It’s important to train and prepare, but equally essential to replenish physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual reserves along the way. You gotta refill the bucket.

So, what happens when the bucket’s completely empty and you wake up to a full day?

At breakfast, I tried to remind myself how blessed I was to have this opportunity, but I wasn’t feeling it. My pretend optimism blew away in a fifteen-mile-per-hour south wind that meant an entire day battling a chilly headwind. I grumbled and snapped at Becky. As I pulled slowly away from the hotel I wondered if this might be the day I’d fail, crank a mile or two, and give up.

Maybe the bucket was just too empty.

To be continued…