Categories: Defining MomentsExportLa Vie Velominatus

On Rule #5: Not Minding That It Hurts

Lawrence of V-rabia

In my favorite scene from Lawrence of Arabia, T.E. Lawrence, after lighting a colleague’s cigarette, allows the match to burn down to his fingertips before snuffing it out. Having witnessed the stunt, the dim-witted associate attempts it himself, only to blow out the match before it gets anywhere close to burning down. “That damn well hurts!”, he states, barely concealing his amazement. “Certainly it hurts,” replies Lawrence with the cool calm of a man who is at ease with The V. “Well, what’s the trick then?”

“The trick, William Potter, is not minding that it hurts.”

The trick to becoming a better Cyclist depends, they say, on one’s capacity to suffer. Riding faster is easy, after all; all you have to do is push harder on those flat things attached to your feet. But that, as many of us have discovered, is the complicated bit.

Our ability to suffer is driven by our willingness to push ourselves, to resist the signals our bodies are sending – whether those signals tell us to stop an effort, to stay inside when the mercury drops, when the rain falls, or dipping into the cellar for a session on the trainer rather than for a bottle of wine. To walk the difficult path of becoming a better cyclist requires, in a word, willpower.

Many of the obstacles along that path require us to eschew the wisdom taught to us by our elders and society. Listen to your body, they tell us, when in fact our bodies are chatty things that have only a few sensible contributions to make. Stay inside when it’s wet, or you’ll catch cold, the folk knowledge claims, while in reality those who stay indoors are more likely to catch cold and if we were to heed that advice, we would rarely throw a leg over a top tube during non-summer months. What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger… well, I suppose they had to get one right.

In practice, weakness breeds weakness and strength breeds strength. We may not allow ourselves to take the easy path, for nothing worth travelling to lies at the end of it. If we relent to the pain during an effort, it only makes it easier to do so again next time. Allowing ourselves to stay off the bike for today’s bad weather makes it easier to do so again tomorrow. On the other hand, enduring today’s cold steels us for tomorrow’s chill.

To claim we enjoy suffering, that we enjoy the pain of an effort, or that we enjoy riding in the wet and cold is a bit misleading. While I believe there might be those who possess a perversion that does indeed allow them to enjoy pain, for most of us, we have merely discovered that the burning of our muscles today strengthens them for tomorrow. We have learned that submitting to the deluge or climbing aboard the trainer in winter helps build towards a result that won’t be realized until our planet reaches the next equinox. Rather than enjoying suffering, we enjoy what suffering does for us and have learned through practice to associate current pains with future gains.

Personally, I enjoy riding in the rain more than most, certainly when it comes as a refreshing change from riding on dry roads. I enjoy the rain splashing up from the road, or the cold air in my face. But to say I cherish riding throughout the cold and wet Winter months is certainly an overstatement. During this time of year, I have to push myself to go for a ride every single time. When I am warm inside, there is no part of me that wants to pull on cold-weather gear knowing I will be cold and uncomfortable for the duration of the ride. Instead of thinking about whether I want to ride, I simply do it; focusing on desire or comfort does little to improve the condition. Quite the opposite, in fact – a frozen toe is better left not contemplated when one lacks the means to warm it up.

The trick to becoming a better cyclist doesn’t have so much to do with our capacity to suffer. Certainly we suffer; the trick is not minding that we suffer.

frank

The founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking. As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it. Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen. Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.

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frank says:

Dec 6 2011 at 2:00 pm

@Steampunk

It's all very simple. Typos happen. But attention to detail is a big part of la Vie Velominatus. I suggest a method of self-policing that involves hill repeats. But pointing out somebody's failings? Show a little class and don't be a fuckwit. When in doubt about whether you're being clever or classless, check out the below. What would Hugo do?

Thank you for this. I knew there was a reason we keep you around. (It's not for your good looks.)
frank says:

Dec 6 2011 at 2:03 pm

@leadout, @Dr C
Yeah, WTF? We need details.

@mblume

@kiwicyclist: Frank, your article has given me an excuse to post this link to a recent article on consumate hardman Juric Robic which some of you may have seen.
Suffering is all in the mind apparently: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/05/sports/playmagazine/05robicpm.html?pagewanted=all
2 years ago I was part of a 4 man team that did a 1,000km race around Switzerland called the Tortour. Jure Robic rode it solo and if my recollection is correct my 4 man team only beat him by about 2.5 hours. We spoke to him after the race for about 20 minutes: My recollections- 1) he saw lights and answered to a calling very different to most cyclists- it seemed like he was driven by something very disimilar than the rest of us. 2) His guns were insanley large and defined...I have never seen so many veins (outside of that nasty thing Hincapie has on his calf) 3) He said he trained 6-8 hours a day every day of the year. 4)He was a very nice, genuine, but complex dude.
In the last year, I read J.Robic died due to a head on collision with a car on a downhill on his mountain bike in his home country in the rain. When I read that he had passed I had this strange feeling that someone very unique had left us combined with the thought that given his OCD lifestyle this was bound to happen.

This is absolutely fantastic and tragic at the same time. I've read quite a bit about Robic, but had not realized he had passed away. Thanks for the story and the info! A proper hardman.

@Souleur

@ frank

Our current culture trends heavily towards the belief that willpower is limited to genetics, that once our reserves run dry, we are at the mercy of our animal. But those who believe that the will is self-renewing, that strength drives us to become stronger, those are the ones who have the capacity to become great Cyclists.

golden
what article is that? i missed it, and need to go back to read the archives

I think we're loosing each other - that quote came from a previous revision of this article but I cut it out and then pasted it into a post here because (it seemed/was) relevant again. (Updated your quote to include the links in case that's what you were asking about.)
frank says:

Dec 6 2011 at 2:09 pm

@scaler911

@scaler911
And, If you're really good at carelessness (like not being able to tell a dude from a chick), you get a +1 badge to wear around here. See, everybody wins!

Thank you for bringing that up again! On my ride Saturday, a came across several large groups out riding. To my surprise, well over half of them were women, which was really great to see. It occurred to me several times to be sure they were women before pulling a "Scaler".
Blah says:

Dec 6 2011 at 3:58 pm

@Oli

How do you feel about overuse of punctuation, particularly commas?

Well, as it's beneath my post, but with no quote or @blah, I am only assuming it's directed at me. Possibly a jab at my use of commas? Internet forum nuance is hard to gauge...
If so - which specific comma or commas need to be taken out? And why? "It just seems like too many" isn't an answer.
Blah says:

Dec 6 2011 at 4:01 pm

@frank

@Blah

Typos are fine. A typo is a slip of the finger rather than clearly not getting it right. There/their/they're confusion isn't a typo. The problem, for mine, if there is a problem (and that's for the community to decide), is poor grammar, spelling, etc. And that's not typos.

Take, for example, the Keepers Tour debate. First off, I simply didn't know the rules around that, and second, according to the discussion it's a gray area at best.

Ugh. Sorry to keep it up, but... It's not a grey area. Just decide what it means and there's a rule for expressing that.
Blah says:

Dec 6 2011 at 4:08 pm

@Oli
@frank

Actually, this is stupid. Forget the whole punctuation/grammar thing. Self imposed exile for me. When I come back you'd better not be discussing it any more.
mrhallorann says:

Dec 6 2011 at 4:10 pm

Awesome article Fronk, thank you.

But Christ on a bicycle, 115 posts later and I can finally go to bed (I think my OCD is even worse than Tommy Godwin's).

PS LOA and W&I - two of the finest productions ever captured on celluloid. I truly am in the company of the enlightened
Chris says:

Dec 6 2011 at 4:29 pm

Just watched Quantum of Solace on the rollers. Good desert and Daniel Craig's Bond is also no stranger to the V but shit movie, not enough there to distract from the numb 'rse and hands for an hour and three quarters. I need to reorganise my Love Film lists to cover epics to while away the hours to.
Mr Haven says:

Dec 6 2011 at 4:57 pm

I have found that the Spring Classics are good for musing on the bike, if I watch movies you can't go past a David Lean monument.
Souleur says:

Dec 6 2011 at 6:19 pm

thanks frank!
got it