Solo Artist

Solo on Haleakala. Photo: Elizabeth Keller

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.

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:

Nov 20 2013 at 7:08 pm

@Barracuda

@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 !

I'm not an introvert, but I am naturally stupid and that lends itself to offense. Dinner with great friends last night (Keeper Jim and crew) and I was wicked stoked that I never cursed in front of their 4-year-old. That's a low bar, but I psyched to clear it.
frank says:

Nov 20 2013 at 7:11 pm

@wiscot

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 took a month off after Heck of the North. Partly due to the 1/4 cup of slurry I had in my chammy from the roads, and partly because I know I had over-trained.

I am back and feeling great; lost some of the punch and the lungs complain a bit, but aside from that feel much fresher and more like my old self.
frank says:

Nov 20 2013 at 7:14 pm

@Gianni

@wiscot

Rouler has a great article on Dan Martin. He takes a month off the bike and thinks other pros could stand to get off their bikes more.

I found it perplexing riding out here in Hawaii where one can ride year round. I bet everyone needs to lay off and build up. And if you have hit your goals for the year, absolutely a few week to a month is a good thing, as long as it's not a pumpkin pie a day routine. Obviously, I'm not saying loose too much fitness, do another sport, like hunting and killing moose with a knife, wearing moccasins and not too much else. I'm talking old school here!

I wish we could give Keepers the +1 badge.
unversio says:

Nov 20 2013 at 7:16 pm

@wiscot

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.

Some cyclist do plan a break from the bike each year with the idea that they return with a higher sense of normalcy. 2009 I rode happily up to Dec 31. 2010 Thursday Jan 28 could not be resisted and I went for the return ride. I did feel like Superman and kept trying to tone the ride down. I felt like Superman working out a 24 average. Then I smacked head long into a car. The Pinarello Montello and myself were a mess. I felt like Superman just before trying to push a car out of the way.
DCR says:

Nov 20 2013 at 9:04 pm

@le chuck

@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.

Haha yes the candy lady sells it year round from what I understand. I am almost positive that show is all we are known for these days.
DCR says:

Nov 20 2013 at 9:05 pm

@xyxax

@DCR

where in NM are you? My parents are in Santa Fe; will be there for Xmas.

I am in the Albuquerque area. About 45min south of Santa Fe.
pistard says:

Nov 20 2013 at 11:23 pm

@le chuck

I'm 29, 30 in January. I ride alone b/c finding ppl to ride with is a pain in the ass. Nonetheless, I promised myself I'm going to try harder to make more cycling friends. Also because I don't really like talking.. listening is much easier.. and more productive.

It takes a good amount of activation energy to form a good group - or to find an existing group. Now that I think about it, in the last 3-months I've probably done about 95% of my training alone. I'm now stronger and feeling absolutely great about my form and endurance (Tour de Tucson is this weekend).

I guess I only ever feel lonely when I start to approach the 65-70km zone. Sometimes it's nice to suffer with others. When I saw a photo of myself answering a phone call from my girlfriend during a local Giro, I decided that there must be cure for this odd, new emotion surfacing in my somewhat isolated early professional life (e.g. loneliness).

Simply replace the cassette of Bike #2 with an 11-23 and leave in place your pre-existing Flemish Crank (53-39). (Strack et al). On the next ride, as you approach the said 65-70km zone, you would have already forgotten what loneliness is. Loneliness will be firmly replaced by a much more productive emotion - Fear. Fear that your legs are melting.

A-Merckx

WTF is up with that front brake cable? Are gloves Rule #21 or Goldilocks? I'm so confused.
ChrisO says:

Nov 21 2013 at 12:11 am
Group rides and training are not generally compatible, unless they are specific training groups such as a chaingang paceline. I used to meet up with a few guys for interval sessions once a week, and that was good because I hate them (the intervals, not the guys) but the fact that there is a group doing them makes me turn up and do them, all of them.

This is the first year where I've done a lot of training with someone else, now that I have a cycling flatmate, and it generally works out pretty well. Based on this I suggest the essentials are:
- similar standard of fitness, speed and endurance - if my recovery ride leaves you gasping then we aren't going to be road-buddies for very long
- similar goals - training for Paris-Brest-Paris is not going to be the same as reaching a peak for the local crit series
- compatible schedules or timing preference - are you early morning people or evening riders
- adherence to agreed but probably unspoken rules of conversation... or silence - being within audible distancedoes not create a void which must constantly be filled, but there is also a time and place for idle chatter, family updates and bike gossip.
If any one of those is not in synch then you're better off on you're own.
brett says:

Nov 21 2013 at 1:01 am

I've been pissing people off for decades, and can't see any reason to change... it weeds out the weak and I've got a good group of friends because of it, not despite it.

The solo ride is a wonderful thing, something I need to do more of as every 'easy' ride I go on with the likes of @Denti, @rigid, @Kah and now @piwaka always seem to turn into smashfests and hunting and killing any poor bastard who happens to be riding along minding their own business, on their own solo gig.
brett says:

Nov 21 2013 at 1:03 am

@frank

I was wicked stoked that I never cursed in front of their 4-year-old. That's a low bar, but I psyched to clear it.

Disappointing.