Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 Hour Rule suggests that mastering a skill comes down to an incredible amount of practice; however talented you might be, it is the cultivation of raw talent into skill that distinguishes between success and failure. To train is to practice, and every hour we spend devoted to our craft is one spent chipping away at our facade to slowly reveal our true selves, like Michelangelo swinging his hammer to chip away the fragments of marble that obscure the masterpiece within.

Becoming skilled at our chosen craft requires discipline and perseverance. Toughness. Not only on the bike, but in all aspects of our lives. It demands that we get enough sleep, that we eat well, and that we manage our personal lives such that we are still able to Train Properly. Well, two out of three ain’t bad, anyway.

But mastering the art requires that we go out when the skies are dark and the clouds are laden heavy with rain. It requires that we commit to early morning roller or turbo sessions, that we submit to long, cold rides on short winter days, riding within the light cone cut from the darkness by our headlights. Even in Spring and into Summer, as the demands of bad weather and dark days diminish, we are still torn between the work that lies before us and the temptation of the easier path.

Keeper @Marko sent me a set of rollers, which I am ashamed I did not previously posses. I am also ashamed to admit I have not yet ridden them apart from a short spin to make sure they didn’t have any grenades in them. In my defense, just as they arrived, the weather in Seattle morphed from caterpillar into butterfly and I have taken every opportunity to cultivate my tan lines, so faras a Seattleite might have a tan line in April. But I know that starting in May, my training for the Festum Prophetae Hour requires two-hour sessions on the rollers to cultivate my stroke, so I have to wrench myself from the sunny streets to do The Work for the greater objective. Especially because I have heard tell two hours on The Rollers in a nasty thing. Especially on a fixed-wheel track bike.

Picasso said that you should learn The Rules like a Pro so you can break them like an artist. To that end, I am prepared to start riding my rollers for the sake of my Hour efforts in June and August. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to like it. Not one stinking little bit. But it is required, so it will be done.

And speaking of track bikes, my Don Walker Hour bike is being redone in a VLVV paint scheme.