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.
I know as well as any of you that I've been checked out lately, kind…
Peter Sagan has undergone quite the transformation over the years; starting as a brash and…
The Women's road race has to be my favorite one-day road race after Paris-Roubaix and…
Holy fuckballs. I've never been this late ever on a VSP. I mean, I've missed…
This week we are currently in is the most boring week of the year. After…
I have memories of my life before Cycling, but as the years wear slowly on…
View Comments
Since we're digressing, my favourite part is the scene in the Negev desert where the camera just stays on the sun inching slowly up over the dunes until it fills the screen.
It has an even greater resonance for me in my current location of course. I really do think of that scene frequently when I'm out cycling and see the sun coming up across the sand. For most of the year I know I've got another 3, maximum 4 hours, before it becomes intolerable and that's with a steady supply of water.
Second-best movie based in a desert... Ice Cold in Alex. Sylvia Syms... mmmmm.
@frank
I think the point was this film had a formative effect on me. Our drama teacher wrote the script, we rehearsed it for months and watched the film a number of times. It's interesting that it has turned up here, though like all the best things, I can't put my finger on why.
@Blah
The missus and I didn't stay to watch Kevin Spacey finish his Richard III a few weeks ago because it was going to go 3.20.
Save you the effort... no horse, he dies.
@ChrisO
SPpssh - Sylvia Simms.....Sylvia Simms.....
Actually once I erase the Carry On movies from my mind, she was damnably gorgeous in that - was the entire film an analogy of one of your 180km desert rides @ChrisO? Bet that frosted beer must taste beaut when you get home
So the sun rose on me too, as I commuted in this morning, just in time for me to see the black ice I was just about to hit, as I adjusted my glasses - pointless adjustment in the end, as I had to put them back on a few moments later, after I picked myself of the road - Excelled myself by falling off again about 20 minutes later going over a bridge with a bunch of walkmuters - seems to entertain them, so well worth it - anyway, I think I hurt myself, but I thought of Lawrence Oliver of Arabia, and didn't really mind, so on I went
Hmm, as far as cold weather riding goes, I'm more Withnail, drinking lighter fluid and covering himself in embrocation than Florence of Arabia.
@G'phant - I agree on the pain. When hammering along, mouth agape with drool in 52/12 or so, there is a tiny little part of the brain, tucked way back, that's still chuckling, Butthead style, and saying..."cool..."
@frank
Hear hear - no excuses for typos - good to hear someone feel bad about them! By the way, what does extra time her on out mean?
@ChrisO
Never more a noble subject for a film...
I'm extremely envious of your desert sunrises. The last couple of times I've set out before the dawn I've been hopeful that it would end up sunny. On the first, the fog was too thick and on the second, the starry night had given way to clouds by the time the sun was due up. Maybe next time.
Sunsets are great but sunrises feel so much more special because feel that you've done something to earn it, even if it's just getting out bed in time.
@Dr C
Who are you thinking of Dr C ? It's definitely Syms with a 'y' and according to her Wikipedia filmography she was never in a Carry On film.
You aren't getting her confused with Joan Sims are you - heaven forfend. A lovely but more homely lady than Sylvia.
I tried to watch Inception last night - WTF was that all about?
Gave up halfway through and went to bed - woke up several times in someone elses head, then wasn't convinced that my alarm clock was real, so slept in - maybe that wasn't me that actually fell off my bike twice on the way in this morning - ah bollocks to that
@Dr C
His VMH needs to spend more time proof reading his posts.
@Chris
Fucktard. More proof reading for you. Never more noble a subject for a film...