What, another guest post? Seemingly yes, but in fact we are keeping to our every-other Friday guest post schedule. We must Keep The Schedule! @Harminator’s post about pigs was the little seen “pop-up” article; a confluence of Paris-Roubaix, Orchies pigs and Jupiler beer. These things go very bad, very fast if not served quickly.
@Ccos is serving up some thoughts on suffering; coming from Rhode Island, he knows something about it. Right now his roads have a winter’s worth of sand and salt still on them. Every corner is dangerous. Every ride means a gritty bike. Every driver is already fed up with cyclists.
VLVV, Gianni
We cyclists are a unique lot. There are myriad reasons why, but the most striking is our habit of seeking out something that most people in their day-to-day, and even sporting lives try very hard to avoid. We seek out suffering.
We seek out suffering like no one else, not every time we ride, but certainly when we are trying to become better. Pain and suffering are not unique to the sport of cycling by any stretch of the imagination, and occur with great regularity in any number of causal and professional sports. Elsewhere though, pain or suffering is usually brief, unexpected, unplanned and many times leads to a time out or other some such break. Suffering for the cyclist, however, is a very different animal.
As cyclists, it is our approach to, embracement of, and dependence upon, suffering which makes us unique. It is the only way to become faster, stronger, thinner. Without suffering, we cannot improve and of course, without it we cannot ever win.
Talk of suffering suffuses our vernacular. Read any article of an important race or listen to any television commentator and something will be said of the suffering of the riders, of their pain, of their agony. You probably use the same words when you describe your epic rides especially if climbing is involved. Suffering is our unit of measure, our currency, and yes, our virtue. It is also the single most difficult thing to explain to the non-cyclist.
Our greatest champions have mastered suffering and only by doing so can inflict it on others. It is not unusual too to learn of the struggles of these people outside of cycling which have allowed them to endure the necessary suffering to become champions. Many toiled as farmers, laborers or miners when younger and there learned the toughness from which to endure their self-inflicted suffering later on the bike.
Well brothers and sisters that road can be paved both ways, because sometimes life can be 200 kilometers of potholes, headwinds and angry rednecks. Spending time in the pain cave, if you pay attention, can teach you many things about yourself well beyond how many watts you can generate. Suffering makes us tough beyond words. Sometimes we have to rely on this toughness to get us through events in life, which would otherwise cripple us. Rule #5 has applications off the bike too.
Of course, suffering has many benefits; it is why we seek it out. It leads to greater joy on the bike. Joy, which can come from the increased speed to win, from the gained ability to drop some jackass on a group ride or from the sheer pleasure of that moment when the suffering stops.
We are cyclists. We find the good in suffering and we are much better for it. VLVV.
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@ChrisO Can you suffer more in training than in a race setting? Especially when training by ones self. I've amazed myself checking out heart rate, speed and cadence data over time from a race that I've never matched in training. There's certainly for me something about the race setting that steps it all up a notch. Though I'll admit I probably don't know how to train properly.
I think the athletes that suffer most for their sport are the MMA fighters. Give it all ya got and be rewarded with a broken nose and pinned on the mat in some jujitsu submission hold. No thanks. I recall summer 7's tourney's on the mall in DC as a young man that involved some suffering. And I've always guessed that water polo would be an especially difficult fitness challenge. And I know some cross fit folks doing some particularly goofy stuff that involves suffering.
After reading this, before posting, I Googled: "hardest sports in the world". The lists that I read made me laugh: Tennis, Gymnastics, Football etc. Now I'm not saying that those are "easy" sports. Far from it. But until Roger Federerereerer plays 4-7hrs a day, for 20+ days, it's a ridiculous statement.
Suffering is our glory. Great article Ccos.
I just finished watching an excellent documentary on the 4 deserts race: 4 ultramarathons across 4 deserts. The documentary was on a few individuals who did a 4 deserts grand slam: all 4 in one year.
http://www.4deserts.com/
I've always thought solo, non stop, around the world sailing the most extreme sport. No stopping for 40+ days, 45 mins is a luxuriant night sleep!
I would like to think cycling as more refined, getting beat into submission thats seams like suffering . Maybe suffering is the wrong word really. Cycling is way to awesome even at it's worst to be a suffer. For me it's allways bitter sweet, but suffering is to be without a bicycle, and good beer!
Pain brings clarity. I ride looking for the moment when everything gels and the world makes sense again. This usually happens only after I've pushed body and mind to the ragged edge of what they'll tolerate before breaking.
I've been told that I ride my bike because I'm fleeing from my demons. I say, "Fuck that. I'm going out to meet my demons and beat them down."
@Captainsideburns
Yes, I suppose not sleeping and having to poop in a bucket on your multi-million dollar corporate sponsored boat is very extreme, but the article is about suffering. Look at Kelly's face that's what a cyclist looks like. You know exactly what that feels like (an order or two magnitude lower I suppose). If you have ever had to sleep with road rash, you know what sleep deprivation is all about.
@wilburrox The cyclist is wired differently from other athletes. Geraint Thomas finished the Tour de France with a f'ing fractured pelvis. 'Nuff said. The MMA dudes would have quit. No debate.
@wilburrox
There are certain hormonal responses triggered by racing that you can't really match in training. Alberto Salazar, famed running coach, routinely lets his top athletes do a short race (5k, preferably something shorter on the track or XC) and then sends them over for a brutal interval session. Apparently if you're strong enough not to injure yourself doing it, the body responds beautifully to such input, and several of them ran PBs in those coupled sessions. Here's an article about Galen Rupp's workout immediately after setting an American record.
That's also the reason cycling pros need to "get racing in their legs" before the races they're actually targeting - there's no stimulus quite like the micro-surges of the pack, and nothing will drive you harder than a breakaway attempt. The best preparation for racing is racing.
@Ccos
Having sailed yachts on sunny, calm days, I can only imagine what high seas sailing is like. Catamarans used for transatlantic racing are about as comfortable to sail in as Tony Martin's TT rig would be at Paris-Roubaix, and it's bloody hard work. Never mind the fact that if you fail to pull that cable hard enough, either you or the entire boat will end up capsized in the middle of nowhere. The skin rash, the chopped fingers, the broken bones - they're all there, but you're sometimes days away from medical help.
If anyone thinks suffering is the cyclist's privilege, they're invited to try and hang with proper runners, swimmers, rowers, or any other physical endurance sport. I suppose the difference between cyclists and other endurance athletes is that cyclists are write more prosaic about their suffering. Speaking of which:
I've often finished a TT with a numb pecker, but nothing like that. Ouch.
@anthony
There is nothing "refined" about it, even on nice days you get sweaty, salty, and dirty.
@tessar
I want to know, but don't want to know regarding that Martin picture.