Solitude
The task spreads out before me like molasses poured onto a tabletop, indulging in its viscous immensity. Its growing breadth makes it a kind of enigma, the sort distinguished by an elusive end and therefor an intangible beginning. It occurs to me, at this moment, that the difference between those who achieve and those who stagnate is not measured by their greatness, but by their courage to begin. There is a boldness in embarking on that to which the end is unknown, to trust in your ability to navigate a path along which the way can be felt more than it can be seen.
In life, our path is fractured by the paths of those in our social and professional proximity. In training, we are simply a product of our discipline and will. In a world full of change and flux, training stands out as a beautifully simple thing. Time in the saddle goes in one end, and progress comes out the other. The magnitude of the change we see as a result is directly proportional to our commitment to a goal; there is nowhere to to seek answers to our failures but inside ourselves.
The most sacred act in Cycling is, for me, the day-long solo training ride, especially in Winter. On these days of 200 or more kilometers, I rise with the sun still lingering behind the Cascades to the East. There is a chill in the air even inside the house as I shake off sleep and prepare for a ride book-ended by the twin fires of sunrise and sunset. I wait patiently for the streets to be lit well enough to allow my safe passage; perhaps I’ll have another espresso while I wait for the sun to laze above the horizon.
Setting out, my heart will be heavy with dread knowing the ribbon of kilometers, hills and climbs that lies ahead. In Winter, the effect is heightened by the gray clouds in the sky and the knowledge that rain and possibly snow will accompany me. Before I even begin, my mind casts ahead to the warm shower and hearty meal which will greet me at the end of this long day. Yet, the only way to arrive is by loading the pedals at the outset and getting to the business of turning them endlessly until I return to the house.
My usual long training route consists of chaining together my daily training loops. While familiarity with the route serves to comfort me, the conclusion of each loop carries me by my home – each time I find myself tempted to escape into the warm confines where my family, a shower, and a meal awaits. Yet, with each passing of the house, my resolve is energized, I continue. I continue with only the thoughts in my head, my discipline, and the cold and wet to keep me company. When I finally return home, my spirits fill with a sense of accomplishment.
These rides help me find form, certainly, but they serve a more fundamental purpose that echoes in my personal and professional life. They serve to remind that a large task is an aggregate of smaller, more simple tasks and that we need only the courage to begin. Just as a long ride is accomplished by the simple act of turning the pedals, we achieve our goals in life by starting today to incrementally move towards them.
I am reminded through the solitude of the ride that simply beginning is the most critical element to finishing; fail to do that, and you will never have the opportunity to finish. Vive la Vie Velominatus.
phenomenal work Frank, there is more intellectual meat here than I can digest in a week
this one is one of your top ten works
Solitude here where I ride is the expectation. You rely on yourself, your steed, because your entirely on your own. Its quite rural here as many of the towns here only have a few hundred people, and the larger ones are only ~10k people. There are miles of sanctury land where there is zero population, where google maps cannot find where your at since there is NO cell service, where dogs look at your and wonder…what da hell? This area of the country I live in is loaded with mostly fat ass’s who would rather watch tv and feel the socialization with the flatscreen than move, moreless ride or run or whatever. I literally have 2 friends who ride regularly, one masters level racer the other can hang with cat 1/2 boys and has a diesel engine paired with lungs. We get out for a ride on rare occasions, and the daily grind is in ‘Solitude’. It is as you say, a paramount distinction of one’s character, discipline and fortitude. Knowing, as you roule out of bed, that your going out to get slammed by the man, and that your going to get it in repeated doses, takes guts. Most people around here ask ‘why’, perhaps most logically, but the dividends are worth it and getting the privilege to ride with someone else on the rare occasions I do, I sure hate getting my ass whacked when I do, so I lone wolf it quite regularly.
Solitude for me is quite comfortable though, I like it. Its soul time for me, medicine for my soul healing the ailements of my day dealing with all the crap that I do, the bike is my daily dose of prozac, and when I take it I am happier and sleep soundly. Its another dividend we yeild as cyclists.
@Souleur
While I perhaps derive the most pleasure from the dynamic a group ride provides, unfortunately, due to time and logistical constraints, like you most of my rides are done on my own – beginning and ending at my garage door. Admittedly I’ve never put in a 200km solo effort, let alone one in the Winter months as Frank describes, but I have certainly emptied myself on the road on rides punctuated by lifeless arms draped over the bars on the gentle decline that leads back home. I feel the same as you regarding the solitude – its comfortable. reassuring. Its the time I take from the day for myself and the journey that leads me from my doorstep and then back again brings me full-circle, ready to start the next day, always a little better than the day before.
The picture of WG that I tried to post above…
@Chris He is also riding sans gloves there. What a great pic. LOVE these Hardmen photos!
On a mostly unrelated note, I rode yesterday for the first time ever in my life without gloves. It was getting near sunset and I was all set to go when I realized that I had left my gloves in the basement. I did not want to waste the time running back to the basement so I said screw it and rode. It was actually really great. Felt super. Might be riding without gloves again soon.
Nice article Frank, but I don’t think some of the comments about clothing are sensible. On long (several hours) winter rides it’s VERY important to keep warm. Your body uses a lot of energy just to maintain core temperature in these conditions (I speak from experience, living in the north of Scotland), and it’s easy to underestimate this. Better to be too warm than too cold – you can always take a layer off but you can’t put another one on if you haven’t got it with you in the first place! An extra cafe stop is a great way to replenish that extra energy!
@Buck Rogers
If you want to ride sans gloves more often, this stuff is great, it is light enough and has a really luxurious feel, also very grippy in the wet. I think fizik microtex in white will probably clean up better but this stuff is great if you want bomber hand grip and great vibro dampening…some pro teams are using it now.
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/lizard-skins-dsp-bar-tape/
Wonderful. When asked what I want to do for vacation, my answer is always, “Take a very long ride alone.” No one believes me. The schedule dominates. My soul suffers a little bit even though it is uplifted by the family I surround myself with. But it is true. I want to take a long ride alone more than anything. I will probably have to put it on the calendar. Schedule it. Oy.
I particularly like, “…. but by their courage to begin.” Truth.
@Marcus an hour later and I am still laughing at this – too funny!
@Buck Rogers
I’ve forgotten my gloves occasionally, and it does feel quite nice to ride without them (until your hands get sweaty, or it’s raining and your bars get slick).
I find that the padding in gloves is what bothers me about them – my hands usually have problems going numb because of the padding, and on long rides I wind up having to switch up my hand positions constantly. I notice this isn’t as much of an issue in the fall/winter/spring when I wear long-fingered wool gloves that don’t have any padding. I need to try harder to locate some good mitts for next summer without padding.
@VeloVita
my first 200k winter ride will be later this year, so there are two of us in the hunt for this, and yes…frank is the man
Frank, you have, as usual given the master class in distilling your subject. Good work!
@mcsqueak @Buck Rogers, no gloves are great til you go down, the only reason I wear gloves is so I can work on Monday if the worst happened.
My all time favorite summer gloves were paper thin Italian leather. Now in the interest of budgetatus minimus I cruise the weight/workout section of the big sport store and have found some great thin cycling like fingerless gloves that are perfect and cheap – why pay for padding when you donts wants padding?
For pure aesthetics nothing beats the look of the power rider on a steel frame laying down the V.
@Buck Rogers
In your line of work, think about whether you (or your patients) want (you) to have roadrash on your hands before you make a habit of this.
@mcsqueak
Yeah, I was/am having issues with ulnar nerve numbness on long rides with my pinky fingers going numb. I did not notice it at all yesterday on after after the ride. I am thinking that I need some new, less padded gloves for riding or no gloves at all.
@Rob
Yeah that’s why I continue to wear them, road-rash insurance basically. I actually don’t mind wearing them in general, as it’s part of the ‘kit’. I’ve had good luck with Giro gloves in the past, but when I tried some castelli gloves the summer the padding just annoyed me a great deal. I’ve had some ulnar nerve numbness which @Buck Rogers mentioned as well.
@Buck Rogers, @mcsqueak I don’t know what sortof bars you are running but the numbness that I used to suffer from decreased markedly when I switched to A carbon bar and stem combo. Seems to dampen out a little more of the vibration. I also find that when I’ve been riding a lot and my back gets supple, riding in the drops is the position that suffers least from numbness.
Still looking for a decent pair of gloves though.
Fucking iPads, how do people put up with them?
@frank
Great piece. There is something deeply satisfying about cycling on as pass close to home or reach one of those point beyond which there is no easy ride home, where to turn round is no easier than to continue.
Yep, just like molasses this was thick, sweet, and syrupy.
@Nate Yeah, that’s a good point. Guess I need to find some basic leather, non-padded gloves. My current Giro gel gloves have a huge pad on the palmar surface right near the ulnar bone/pisiform. But, it did feel so great ridiing without gloves. A new experience for me!
@Deakus
Yeah, feels great but unfortunately I can’t recommend it. I put the lairy pink on my CX bike and found that in the span of one (admittedly very muddy 68km gravel race) the top surface of the tape had worn through on the drops from the combination of vibration and grit.
@mcsqueak
@Buck Rogers
I can highly recommend Spesh XC Light gloves as they have no padding whatsoever. Problem is for the rule holists, that they’re full fingered.
I had a lovely pair of Castelli S Tre gloves which had no padding but a sort of ribbed palm for grip that also dampened the vibration. They seem to have been discontinued though. If I found a store that had them I would order five pairs to last me for a while.
The Castelli race gloves which come up over the wrist have very little padding too, but I think wearing those for training is a bit OTT.
@mcsqueak & @Buck Rogers The Giro aero gloves have no padding and are actually pretty comfortable. Best worn tucked under arm warmers if you want to avoid the “trying to look aero” look. As it’s summer here in Oz I might take a pair of scissors to mine to shorten them because they’re the closest I’ve found to riding gloveless which is, as Buck Rogers said, an absolute pleasure.
Beautiful post Frank. It often seems the long rides are solo rides. Many think those long rides are too much and finding a like-minded sufferer on the right day is not easy. Usually better to go it alone.
@freddy
yea man, it is great to do some epic rides with a well matched friend, a brother or clone. Just keep fucking taking turns: time on the front, time on a wheel, repeat.
@Souleur
First post here guys – be gentle!
+1 – Agree entirely – my commute home is where I chill out, sort out the crap from the day, and plan what to have for dinner. The longer rides on weekends mean you don’t have to wait for slower riders, can dig in without having to worry about dropping them and the Strava upload at the end of the day keeps you honest.
Erik – for my birthday this year I treated myself to a 120K, 2000m solo – best present ever!
@mouse Ah…just put in on my new N1.. I had heard they don’t shed dirt all that well but had heard no concerns about longevity. I will keep and eye on that thanks!
@mcsqueak best mits i’ve heard about are grio zero mits, no padding extra nice pittards lether!
for a minimalist-padded goatskin glove, try aerotech designs. it’s got a crotched back, & the company is in pennsylvania. they make most of their stuff right here in the good old u.s. of a.
@Marcus
HA!
@cognition
There are so many awesome photos from that race…and those legs of his always give me gunbone!
@Souleur, @VeloVita
Nothing against the group ride for sure; those can have such a great dynamic, whether its a Casually Deliberate ride with friends or a lung-busting hammerfest (also possibly with friends), there can be deep enjoyment from them.
But the solo day-long slog is another animal altogether.
Speaking of which, one of my major grievances with group rides is the fact that no one seems to be able to keep a lid on the V and just ride as planned and agreed beforehand. Rides are always billed as easy, or no-drop etc, and then sure enough, as soon as the road goes uphill someone will go to the front and put the hammer down. For people who ride in groups enough, we all know this happens and we all adjust our expectations accordingly, and we learn to love it.
But I think its very discouraging for people how are trying to get into the sport, or who for whatever reason expect the ride to be as agreed. I think as good Cycling Ambassadors, we could do well to get better about sticking to the agreement on a ride. But it takes all of us, and we all need to hold each other accountable to stick with it.
@McTyke
I agree that its easier to take layer off and stow them, and I think whomever suggested you dress for forty-five minutes or an hour in is a nutter.
But the point is you shouldn’t dress to be comfortable when you step out of the house, because after 10 or 15 minutes your core will be warmed up and you’ll be roasting. I like to feel just a bit of a chill when I step out – just enough to make me wonder if I should have a gillet on or if I should have worn a long sleeve jersey instead of a short sleeve with arm warmers. Usually by the time I hit the first climb, I’m perfect or even a little too warm already.
@Erik
Shifting from Cycling, I think we often assume that people had a holistic plan in place when they set out to do something awesome. But in reality, they just started and figured it out as they went. Edison famously said that he didn’t fail to make a lightbulb a trillion times (number may be exaggerated) but discovered a trillion ways to not make one before he found one way to do it right. He just had the courage to get started on it. And, of course, the vision of making one, but he was a long way off from knowing how he was actually going to do it.
@mouse, @mcsqueak, @Buck Rogers
Padding sucks ass. Pick where you put it, and it sucks. In saddles, in chamois, in gloves. I use Castelli’s Aero Race Gloves and they have almost no padding and just super light lycra over the hands. You don’t even know they’re there. In colder weather I wear a variety of gloves (wool, neoprene, etc) but none of them have actual padding in the palms.
@ChrisO
Those are the ones I used to use, and indeed the Aero Race Gloves are over the wrist and I use them for training and OTT is kind of my style, so I’m good with it!
@Yannersan
As demonstrated by the Prophet, complete with V Face.
@asyax
Welcome, mate. I just took a job with a 45km commute each way; good for the legs, better for the soul’s wind-down after work. In the dark, in the rain, doesn’t matter. Just heals.
@Nathan @actor1 – great, thanks for the suggestions, I’ll check them out!
I do think the Castelli aero race glove looks good, but I wish they made one that didn’t go so high up on the wrist.
@frank Try going cold a little longer and you might not get a little too warm so soon. Either way we each choose our own comfort level. I have the sense that you aim to dress very precisely* and I choose to dress very basically*. Under dressed.
@frank
Can anyone tell me what make and model that support car is along side Merckx?
@unversio
Clearly a Peugot based on the grill emblem. Probably a 404:
Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Peugeot_404_1966.jpg
@asyax
welcome on board, the pace is smooth, and there is a tailwind lately
@frank
yeah, i agree. When buddy calls up for a ride/or texts, i will ask what the pace is and he sometimes will reply ‘spirited’
that translates nicely into your ‘repeated hammerfest’, racing for signs, or mailbox’s, & smashing hills flat
@Nate
Yep 404 and a 404 in the Faema photo as well
@Souleur
Don’t get me wrong, I loves me some town line sprints, but the Cash Del group ride-turned-race is just a challenge to Training Properly and welcoming in noobs.
@unversio
Fair enough, but you’re still a nutter, as defined by me – another nutter. So after you carry the one and divide be V, it all winds up being about neutral.
@Nathan I agree with this – I have three pairs of the Giro Zeros and love them.
I ride alone. I can dig into my inner self far deeper when I’m 100 or 200k from home and there’s only one way to get back. We live accosted by a barrage of media, sound, people, etc. When I ride, the phone is off, merely there for an emergency, and I engulf myself in being one with my world. I have never understood why one would wear headphones for music or an earpiece to talk. Riding time is time away from the world. If your rides are such that you need music for stimulation, well, I find that sad.
I do really like solo ride, especially when I’m on holiday, when you don’t know the route very well and because of that I feel a slight sense of uneasiness. I feel that especially when I am in the Dolomites mountains. Those solo ride are made in a class of their own, unique.
This method of crafting a long route is foreign to me. I know many people simply do long rides by linking their shorter routes, but don’t you ride those routes enough? Part of my love of the long ride is the exploration. If I’m going out for 200k, that means I can ride a loop that goes 100k from home. Isn’t that part of the beauty of cycling? The level of commitment is admittedly higher, in that you have to get home, and the only way home is to crank out that 100k, or whatever distance it may be.
Being in the flatlands of southeast Michigan, wherever I ride is essentially the same. Some areas are a bit lumpier, but otherwise it’s trees and farms. Thus, I make every route a loop and try to get out onto new roads on occasion. When I head back to mountainous country, then the routes change because the long climbs place more constraints on where you ride.
A vast number of people out here ride the exact same three or four routes over and over again. I always find that baffling. How do all of you go about deciding your routes? Geography plays a huge role obviously, perhaps that’s why you do a meta-route for your long rides Frank?
@Collin
For me it really depends on how I’m feeling that day, and how I feel about forcing myself into the inevitable “death march” home depending on how hard/long the ride was. The really *good* routes here that take me a ways from home all seem to involve at least 4-5 hours on the bike, so you need to have the time free during the day to put that much time into the ride.
On days where I’m not feeling 100%, I’m more likely to string together a route from my shorter rides, that way I’m never more than 20-30 mins away from home when I feel “done”. This is especially true in winter when I’m wet or cold and just want to strip off the soaked kit and warm up.
I also get into the rut of riding the same routes often because living in a city, they just happen to be the best routes I’ve found for cycling in the immediate area, and they fit in well if I’m strapped for time and don’t have 5 hours for a ride that day.
@asyax
Funny you should mention that, tomorrow’s the birthday & as luck would have it Strava have put a challenge together with BMC to cover at least 128km (79mi) in a single ride over the weekend. Looks like Saturday morning will involve a solo recon of the Adelaide Cogal route as a birthday present to myself.
@Nate Thanx! I’ll need one of these eventually.
@frank
This shits me like you wouldn’t believe, we have a Wednesday morning group ride that meets at 6 at the bottom of one of the more popular climbs just outside Adelaide & then is supposed to be a 20-25 minute spin (most of our pr’s are in the mid to low teens) up the hill that’s designed to welcome newer riders to riding within groups.
Unfortunately, without fail in the last few weeks, there’s a bunch of riders who’ll join up with us & then attack from the gun…which just means they need to wait around longer at the top. Stoopid