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
@DerHoggz
Like I keep saying, get a fleecy hat, that'll keep your feet warm
@DerHoggz
check these out. they may help you in your effort to stay warmer. they also have some knee warmers for the same price. I know its rough being on a tight budget but if you look you kind find some decent kit.
@DerHoggz
Fixed your post.
@cblackride
Sure, they're different things. But both of them require discipline to do it. Both of them require that you push yourself to get around to the work of being a cyclist.
As a matter of clarification, I'm not sure where you live, but bad weather and training in it is just part of being a cyclist. Where I live, if I only rode in bad weather by accident, at least 150 days of the year would be off the calendar just as a matter of course.
Absolutely, though, riding in bad weather is terrible for your bike if you don't also maintain it accordingly. Those of us who are able will devote a bike to this, with carefully chosen frame and components that are appropriate to the purpose and work within our budgets. For me, thats an old used Alu frame that matches the geometry of my main bike, and an old 9spd Shimano group. Those of us who have to ride Bike #1 in the rain, well, maintain it religiously and make sure you get each and every bit of grit out of the drive train and bearings before the next ride. Which is a beautiful process, by the way. Aided by cycling videos and beer.
@Steampunk
Its also not for your use of blockquotes!
@Chris
Unfamiliar with that site and will now be a regular reader.
@frank
I was hating you guys during the ride, as well as secretly relishing it. The looks and questions I got were great, "You are wearing shorts right now?".
I was certainly breaking all sorts of rules. Baggy shorts, mountain shoes, hairy legs, and a host of other violations.
As to Rule #33, I am planning on becoming compliant pretty soon, probably over Christmas break. I feel like I needed to improve before I shaved the guns, and I am ready to take that step IMO. Hopefully there is some kit under the tree this year, so I can look pro.
@frank
This would be less of a problem if "preview post" and "submit post" weren't right beside each other. And if I wasn't an idiot. I'm flattered, though, that you can see my value beyond my devilishly good looks (and just a little weirded out).
@Steampunk
Yeah, yeah...when the preview post happened automatically, it did little to improve the quoting ratio of not just you but anyone. The preview is there as a curtesy at this point; its useless. I have to load up a richtext editor for the posts, that's all there is to it.
If it makes you feel better, I was looking at a picture of you when I pre-stretched your new bibs. Talk about weirded out: the fact that you requested this service is odd...
@frank
Wow! Just wow.
@frank
Is that a service offered for free or is it an extra charge?
Maybe I will pick up a V branded kit...
@cblackride
Train in the conditions you'll race in. If you don't race because of rain, well, you've wasted a lot of time and money.