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.
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@frank, @DrC
Nice assumtions! I am leaving, notice I did not say "being released" or "checking out" today. My 7 day stay in hospital will be over today.
Done with Vicodin days and Dilaudid nights. I have found that my recovery program must include cycle treatment: that is bicycle treatment of course. Best days always lie ahead!
@mouse
Certain things such as this, I blame on being bilingual. The meaning that two vowels have when next to each other are oposite in the two languages I speak/write on a daily basis. I do my best, but it is what it is. Mistakes in Articles are one thing, posts another.
@Mikael Liddy
That will be nice, if for only two reasons: first, posts about CYCLING will be kept with their relevant articles, and then I can just go to one place and fucking delete all that shit in one sweep. Kind of like the spam list - one click and I'm done.
@mblume
Spectacular! I love it, I share many of these items with you. Fresh white bar wrap factors heavily on the list as well. Having vanquished the last squeak or creak from the machine and rolling out in silence...The list goes on, I suppose.
Cheers.
@minion
What always amazes me is how different those guys look than road cyclists. They're monsters!!
@Chris
Possessed by the V! Gold! Both GB guys are making Vunny Vaces. Awesome shot, Minion!
And thanks for bringing this back to...wait for it...CYCLING. (You too, Buck.)
@leadout
The mystery deepens! You still haven't told us what crime you committed to wind up there.
@mblume
Super post! You've captured something that I also feel but did not realize it until you posted this. Thanks.
@Chris
It becomes so much nicer once you can stand up and cycle for a while as it makes the whole body position so much looser and more relaxed.
I snuck in a 1:15 ride this morning on the rollers and I am now able to stand up and pedal for two to three minutes at a time and after the ride, my backside was not sore at all.
Still loving the rollers. Nothing like the outside rides, but I actually enjoy the rollers.
Suffering and riding in the rain are two different things. Yes, riding in the rain makes you tough; but why do it if you don't have to? It makes a mess of your equipment and caused premature failure of components. I don't ride in the rain unless I have to. Got caught in the rain on a training ride. Get to the race and it is raining. You get the idea. I don't mind suffering. I have suffered with the best of them. Dry and wet. Suffering is best when you get to dictate the suffering; it is much more rewarding when your suffering causes others to suffer as well. Even better when they give up.
I hate you guys. After reading this post and the Robich link I decided to go out yesterday. It was like 4 degrees with 15km/h wind and some wet spots on the road. I was wearing shorts, an under-armor type long sleeved compression thing, and some polyester short sleeved shirt. Did the first 25km loop with fingerless gloves, hands were freezing, so I put on my leather driving gloves and did another loop. In the end it was definitely worth it. My legs were fine, but my feet were frozen.
@frank
Dude! That's not nice!
With "not minding that it hurts" in mind, I thought this as I read the packaging of DZNuts while waiting for my post-ride espresso today: embrocation is for the weak. There. I said it.
@Buck Rogers
I'm working on it. Baby steps. Spent the recovery between the 20 minute efforts riding one handed while moving the other around randomly to get used to the effect it has on balance.
Went one cog smaller and suffered.
@Steampunk
I'd disagree, crying in the shower after the ride because of the embrocation burn is weak. Ignoring the burn and drinking beer in the shower while receiving personal service would not be weak.