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 5 2011 at 4:13 pm

@Souleur

i saw this on pez and thought of the suffering, with exclamation point as Moser freaking leads out the motorcycles!!...IF your doing THAT...your deep in the zone and really don't mind.

What a shot! Funny, because I just found another incredible shot from CorVos/Pez today as well:

@scaler911

Nice article Frank. Allow me to paraphrase: "HTFU Fucktards"

A picture says a 1,000 words, so technically your two-word paraphrase is a 1002 word paraphrase. I win.

P.S. Fucking love that shot. That's our Rule 9 Caption, if I'm not mistaken.
Ron says:

Dec 5 2011 at 4:14 pm

Oh, and I also have a new winter bike all set up. Good, wide tires, full fenders, a relaxed position, modest enough that I don't care about putting it through junky weather.

All the more reason to get on out the door!
frank says:

Dec 5 2011 at 4:21 pm

@G'phant

I am not sure that it is misleading to say we enjoy the suffering. The post-ride reflection on a job well done is clearly pleasurable. But so too, albeit in a different way, is the knowledge at the time of riding that your body is yelling 'Whoa Bessy' and that you are responding by pushing all the harder. That sense of overcoming your body's (in my case extensive) limitations, of not minding that it hurts, is one of the things I like most about cycling.

Great post - and I don't disagree with that at all. I (usually) enjoy pushing and suffering and seeing how far I can go. But I would argue that the "enjoyment" is an indirect one; you're not enjoying the physical sensation of pain, you're enjoying what that pain is bringing you, whether its overcoming your limitations (which is what I love about it, makes me a better person) or the simple fact that you have, for once, some recourse for your body always calling you Bessy, as appears to be the case for you. (My body only calls me masculine things.)

The point is that we can't stop it hurting, it's just a matter of finding some way of fooling ourselves into doing it anyway.
frank says:

Dec 5 2011 at 4:26 pm

@Steampunk

Great post, Frank, and something I have been ruminating on (cogitating, indeed) lately: that the romance of "our agony"”our badge of honor"”our sin" is something that rarely happens in the moment. The state of mind in the moment is markedly different"”and terrifically encapsulated in not minding that it hurts.
Of course, sports science can reduce a cyclist's abilities to a series of tests surround power, weight, etc. Leaving us fans with the desire/hope that will counts for something bigger...

Science sucks when we can make up perfectly reasonable-sounding explanations without doing all that extra work.

I'll tell you another reason Science sucks. You have to reproduce your evidence. Prior to doing my big ride Saturday, I postulated to Jim that Zoo hill (the monster we do the ITT up) would be even harder when riding it 160km into the ride. After (barely) completing the climb in one piece, I texted him that the hypothesis was confirmed. He replied back that I had to replicate the data before I have a publishable result. Fuck that. I had all the duplication I needed: the data in each leg spoke for itself.

By the way, disappointed that the distance was only 190km, but the elevation wasn't bad - and the worst climbs came in towards the end. Not to mention that the inversion made it coldest the lower I was, which was almost always at sea level.

@ChrisO
I've turned over a new leaf. Decided that it is an abomination that I allow my limited time to be an excuse for poor grammar and spelling; after all, its a disgrace that a guy running a site all about authenticity and respect for the finest details in our sport would ignore something like spelling and grammar. I consider it a small victory that so far, no one has seen fit to point out any errors. Thanks for prodding me on.
frank says:

Dec 5 2011 at 4:33 pm

@Buck Rogers

Food never tastes as sweet after having gone without for a few days, being warm is never as satisfying if you have not experienced real cold and the memory of pain is never as sweet as when reflecting on what you have endured while you're sitting with your legs are up, warm and twitching, after another brutal Rule #9 ride with a heavy dose of Rule V thrown in.

Absolutely - something worked hard for is so much sweater. I bet whatever dinner you had after the Cogal yesterday was the best food you've had in ages.
frank says:

Dec 5 2011 at 4:42 pm

@Souleur

This mental acceptance of suffering is indeed a graceful virtue that we as cyclists don each and every ride out.

Acceptance of this good virtue does separate us from the 99% of others out there in our neighborhoods and communities.

This is so totally true. Its funny the way one might roll through their motivations...one day I'll be excited about trying out some new bit of kit, or a just the fun of getting into the rain, or to push and see what happens. Other days I don't have any particular desire for any of it, but I'll find motivation in the fact that by going out, I'm separating myself from all the people that don't understand what it means to work for something and think I'm an idiot for being out.

I share your concern with the obesity issue; its really scary. It creates so many problems. In fact, several revisions ago had a passage referencing a bit from last weeks Sunday Times where people are becoming so willing to blame genetics or claim that they simply don't have "reserves" of willpower. Some scary stuff - some "scientists" are claiming that once we use up our glycogen stores, we're at our "animal's" mercy and we're powerless to control our eating, shopping, and - wait for it - straying! Unbelievable bullshit. Harden the fuck up, world, and show some fucking discipline.

OK - found the original paragraph, I'll paste it here because while it got cut from the article, it is still interesting (I've had to learn to cut things from my writing regardless of how in love I am with what I was saying...)

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.
frank says:

Dec 5 2011 at 4:43 pm

@SurLaPlaque

However, on that day I realy learned something. I cannot say what but I feel like a better cyclist and now see that the road ahead has a lot more to teach me.

I can say what it is: you are becoming at One with The V!

@jank

There are few acts of defiance so satisfying as making the quads burn fiercely even as the entire world turns to ice and darkness.

Welcome, and well said!

@Aristeia

I tell my friends and family about the grueling rides, the painful climbs, the almost constant throb and ache in my legs, and they raise their eyebrows and question my sanity.

Thats the first sign. You're one of us, now. No turning back, mate.
minion says:

Dec 5 2011 at 5:47 pm

@ Fronk:

something worked hard for is so much sweater

Sweatier? Sweeter?

Chuckles.

And you're right, science cah go f.ck a duck. If we beleived science, we'd (I'd) all be alcoholics diabetics, would spend 22 hours a day washing our hands, and Cav would be a shit sprinter. The genetics argument is tiresome and encourages people not to try. Sure, you might not get to the super cyclist status of a pro, but you'll get something better than what you have now, and you'll never learn anything new.
G'phant says:

Dec 5 2011 at 5:55 pm

@frank
"Decided that it is an abomination that I allow my limited time to be an excuse for poor grammar and spelling; after all, its a disgrace that a guy running a site all about authenticity and respect for the finest details in our sport would ignore something like spelling and grammar. I consider it a small victory that so far, no one has seen fit to point out any errors."
Ahem: it's a disgrace.
mcsqueak says:

Dec 5 2011 at 5:59 pm

@minion

I've worked damn hard for every sweater I own, including the argyle one I have on now.