Dr John M

cardiac electrophysiologist, cyclist, learner

  • Home
  • About
    • About Me
    • About the Blog
      • General Cardiology and Internal Medicine
    • Six Reasons why I Blog
    • What’s Electrophysiology?
    • ICD/Pacemaker
    • Electrophysiology Column / Medscape
    • Contact
  • Afib
    • AFib
    • AF in Athletes
    • The best tool to treat AF
    • Know your CHADS-VASC Score
    • 3 non-warfarin anticoagulants
    • AF ablation
      • 13 things to know about AF
      • Atrial Fib Ablation -2012 Update
      • Gender-Spec results of AF ablation
    • Female gender and stroke risk in AF
    • My AF Story
  • Heart Healthy
    • Heart Disease (by DrJohnM)
    • Healthy Living
    • Exercise
    • Nutrition
    • inflammation
  • Policy
    • Policy
    • Health Care
    • Health Care Reform
  • Doctoring
    • Doctoring
    • Knowledge
    • Reflection
    • General Medicine
      • Does your cholesterol level matter?
    • General Cardiolgy – Medicine
      • What is a normal heart rate?
      • Cardiology/Internal Med
      • General Cardiology
      • Athletic heart
        • The ECG of an athlete
      • General Medicine
      • Stroke
      • Statins
  • Cycling
    • DrJohnM on Cycling
    • How I became a bike racer
    • My top 12 Likes on Cycling
    • Cyclocross
      • A CX-Primer
    • Fitness
    • Athletic heart
    • The Mysterious Athletic Heart

Cycling Wednesdays: #5…Focus!!!

June 10, 2010 By Dr John

A beautiful young fan yells encouragement to me during a cyclocross race.  She repeatedly hollers the word, “focus!”

The beneficial effects of cycling are seemingly infinite. There is the fitness, and the well known accompanying cardiovascular benefits.  Blood pressure is lowered, arteries more elastic, waistlines shrink and as long as one can avoid moving trees, the body is the better for it.

This obvious premise is hardly newsworthy.

However, consider the notion that successful cycling requires absolute focus. Some might even say, laser-like focus.

Multi-tasking on a bike simply doesn’t work.  In our increasingly distracted, multi-tasking society, activities in which one is required to use laser-like focus are approaching the fate of the wooly mammoth.  Of our daily waking hours how much of our time is actually spent with a singular focus on accomplishing one task? Heck, focusing on one task at a time isn’t even happening at MIT.  How many blog posts are devoid of distracting imbedded links?  Oops.

Take as the most dangerous example of multi-tasking, the epidemic of distracted driving.  I know this because I ride a bike on the same roads as the texting, twittering, face-booking drivers of large vehicles.

Even the police are distracted.  Exhibit A: Cannondale bike with doctor aboard, versus unfocused police cruiser… Ouch.

At work, beepers are gone, replaced now by the smartphone and its omnipresent connectivity to all manner of distractions. Rare is the patient visit undisturbed by the chirp of this multi-tasking appendage. The lead walls of the EP lab used to provide a sanctuary of unilateral focus.  No more, though, as the signal boosters allow signal penetration into every nook and cranny of the hospital.  Plus, everyone knows that everyone is connected, so not responding immediately is often considered a slight.

But then there is riding a bike.

Balancing on a twitchy, two-wheeled marvel of human powered locomotion requires focus.  Bike behaviors like navigating a rotating paceline, swerving through a glorious single-track, carving corners in a criterium and getting clipped in quickly at the start of a cross race all require maximum focus.  It is like meditation; no other background noise can occupy the brain.  Unlike running, walking or gyrating on some gym machine, cycling mandates concentration for successful navigation. And in this day and age, endeavors that discourage multi-tasking, even for brief moments, are indeed welcome intrusions.

All cyclists have their own examples of laser-like cycling focus.

Cross-eyed in a race, trying desperately to maximize smoothness of motion so as to hold the wheel of the stronger rider who is doing the same…Focus

You look down the rocky descent.  A ‘y’ in the road is about you.  Ride or walk: this is the question.  Ride…Ok, but this will require maximum concentration.   Commit and focus…

Approaching a sand trap, not with a golf club and cart, but rather with a bike, calls for a deep breath in and then: commit, accelerate and focus…

Yes, laser-like focus and cycling go hand-in-hand.  These all to brief moments of total immersion into one beautiful task are surely one of cycling’s greatest benefits.

Go bike…

JMM

  • Email
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • More
  • Reddit

Related posts:

  1. Cycling Wednesdays: #4…
  2. Cycling Wednesdays: #3…
  3. Cycling Wednesdays: Tuesday Night Madness…
  4. Cycling as a treatment of severe neurologic disease…

Filed Under: Cycling Stuff, Cycling Wed, Cyclocross Tagged With: Multi-tasking

John Mandrola, MD

Welcome, Enjoy, Interact. john-mandrola I am a cardiac electrophysiologist practicing in Louisville KY. I am also a husband to a palliative care doctor, a father, a bike racer, and a regular columnist at theHeart.org | Medscape

My First Book is Now Available…

Email Newsletter

Search the Site

Categories

Find me on theheart.org | Medscape Cardiology

  • Electrophysiology commentary on Medscape/Cardiology

Mandrola on Medscape

  • My Medscape column on general medical matters

For patients...Educational posts

  • 13 things to know about Atrial Fibrillation — 2014
  • A new cure of AF
  • Adding a new verb to doctoring: To deprescribe is to do a lot
  • AF ablation — 2015 A Cautionary Note
  • AF Ablation in 2012–An easier journey?
  • Atrial Flutter — 15 facts you may want to know.
  • Benign PVCs: A heart rhythm doctor’s approach.
  • Caution with early Cardioversion
  • Decisions of 2 low-risk cases of PAF
  • Defining success in AF ablation in 2014
  • Four commonly asked questions on AF ablation
  • Inflammation and AF — Get off the gas
  • Ten things to expect after AF ablation
  • The medical decsion as a gamble
  • The most important verb in our health crisis
  • Wellness Requires Ownership

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.