I walk away from social gatherings with an acute sense of accomplishment whenever I haven’t offended anyone and when my friends all stayed awake. I view myself as a bottle of wine that keeps getting better with age, but I’m slowly coming to grips with the notion that I am actually a bottle that may be corked. The great irony of life is that as we become more comfortable with who we are, we become more annoying to be around.
Fortunately, I enjoy being alone. I haven’t always felt that way, but my natural charm means I have had to cultivate a taste for it. That isn’t to say I don’t like being around others – quite the opposite – but being alone allows me the opportunity to reconnect with who I am. This is especially true when riding my bicycle. Riding alone, there is nothing to do but focus on the sensations of the ride: the wind in my face, the smells in the air, the sound of my tires as we hum along together, rider and bicycle.
Doing a long ride alone is an exercise of discipline. The little voices in your head may start quietly, but they build to crescendo inside your skull after a few hours of solitary suffering. The doors and patios on the cafés at the roadside start looking larger and more welcoming with every kilometer that passes under your tires. A point comes, on these long rides, at which Rule #5 becomes a matter of continuing on with the task; a determination to finish what you have begun.
We learn fundamental things about ourselves when we are alone in the Pain Cave, after we’ve dropped the flashlight and watched helplessly as it rolled off the shelf and into the void. Questions come knocking, and they won’t go away until you’ve dealt with them. This is when we grow, when we build confidence in the face of doubt.
We are lucky to find ourselves at crossroads where every direction leads to more suffering, where the direction we choose is irrelevant. The choice is simply to suffer or to go home. In a world where we have made a science of luxury, we Cyclists choose to suffer.
Vive la Vie Velominatus.
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
@frank
You havnt been stalking me with some secret spy drone have you?
Reading the intro it was way too close to the truth, Im an introvert by nature and tend to put on a brave front in the company of others, to get through! The bike is an excellent way of releasing the "inner you" !
Excellent, stop it, i like it !
@DCR Thanks Man. May head out there next year sometime. You guys still have any of that blue crystal? It's great for bike riding.
This reminds me of those moments that happen when I am riding alone. I think of them as Emerson moments -- when there is no end in nature and no end to cycling.
I train almost always alone, and I like it that way. If I'm a bottle of wine, I must be turning into vinegar. I've been known to mutter for...fuck's...sake in time with the top of my pedal stroke when in the pain cave on some nasty grade. Mostly no one wants to hang around and listen to that, anyway. On the big climbs I'd rather keep to myself. It's my church: and all I want to hear is the wind, my drivetrain and my own breath. Doing a long ride alone is an exercise of discipline. Agreed, but surrendering to the sensation of the road makes those solitary miles go by quickly. After riding with a group - which is fun in it's own right - I slip back into my solo routine with a sense of relief.
I typically ride solo and relish every moment. But October a year ago, I did a 240km ride - the first 160 with two other riders, the last 80 solo. With 50km to go, I found myself downtown and entirely spent. I decided to pack it in and take the lightrail home. At the first two stations, my debit card didn't work at the kiosks, and I had no cash. The ATM at a nearby bank was out of order. At the next ATM, I discovered my debit card was cracked.
Calling a friend to pick me up was out of the question - too much pride and I'd never hear the end of it. The only option was to finish the ride. That slog was the deepest I'd ever explored the pain cave, and it was unquestionably one of my best experiences on the bike.
These last few years, I've found, I'd rather talk bikes and racing over a beers than be out on a group ride. I'm not really sure why that is...but it could be the "New Golphas" are easier to weed-out at the pub where if they don't have anything interesting to offer up they get dropped...as opposed to out-on-the -road sitting in on wheels where they can get away with offer nothing...for a while at least.
Question for the community. Do any of you take a break over winter? Nothing major or extended, just a week or so off the bike - be it outdoors/trainer/whatever?
I got in a good few kms this year and have hit my target for the year. I'm willing to do more because I love going out on the bike, but live in SE Wisconsin, the weather is turning pretty crappy and motivation to exercise, be it bike or gym, is hard to find. I'm not sure if it's a mental or a physical break I need (maybe both) to restore some hunger to suffer - and every ride around here at this time of year entails some degree of suffering.
Of course, the biggest block to taking a break is the massive guilt at not going out on the bike.
Any input/thoughts/experience appreciated.
Great article @frank but if you're going to adopt the SI units of the modern world you might as well spell them correctly. That'd be kilometres then. Of coarse you can measure them with a meter, a kilometre meter.
@wiscot
Pretty lucky down here in South Oz regarding winter weather so I have the opposite problem.
Need more time on bike wherever possible, a break is the last thing I need, two young kids sees every window of opportunity being seized.
Have you tried rollers instead of the stationery trainer ?
Anyone can go into the Pain Cave while riding with a group. It's going in when no one else is around that will really make the difference.
@Rom
If you're going to criticize @frank's spelling, you might want to proofread a little better.