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
@KW
Apologies to all. Just pointing out "kilometres" is more Euro.
Long solo rides are the best possible way of paring any problems you might have down to the bone. 300k worth of hearing only tires on tarmac and speaking not at all has a way of draining the mind of clutter.
It's a gift from The Man With The Hammer: cleansing as compensation for suffering.
@wiscot Living in N Minnesota means taking a break from the road during the worst of winter. I usually take a month off to rest the body, and then 10 weeks of core and strength training in the gym before easing into base building by mid-January...lots of hours on the trainer. According to Joe Friel, this helps balance right-left strength. Afterwards I alternate left-right hand when drinking beer...also very important for training.
Very nice, Frank! I see more solo V rides in the near future, as the temperature drops, the light gets shorter, and the roads more littered with damp leaves.
I get that voice in my head after only a few days without a long solo ride. How do I get back out to that country road? Can I ride that far? Do I want to ride that far? Is this the right bike for that ride? And after I pull it off and roll back to my house I have a laugh for doubting I could do it. A nice sense of accomplishment, for sure.
And damn, that is spot as - as you know more and more who you are, what you want, and what you value, this polarizes you from connecting with most others. The only good news for me is that I continue to make pretty darn close friends even as I get older, the type you talk to for 5 minutes at a party and realize they're an awesome person and you feel comfortable around them, could ask for a favor, and can trust their word. I feared that was something only of one's youth.
My riding partner for a recent trip to Majorca broke his wrist 2 weeks before. Since he failed Rule #5 I went alone. The solitude in the mountains early in the mountains was wonderful.
@Rom
I just couldn't let the irony slide. All in good fun, I assure you.
Granted, I'm 'Merican, but I've never understood the meter/metre, theater/theatre kind of thing. I tend to be fairly phonetic. I happen to have a first name that starts with a K that is more generally spelled with a Ch. I always like to tell people that my name in phonetically correct. Ch shouldn't make a "k" sound, that's what the damn K is for!
@Barracuda Following surgery on my hand as a result of a crash and with a cast, I had to use trainers for about 8 weeks. Kind of got past the hate of indoors and saw how it really is a good supplement. If I can not be outside then I go inside. Never take a week off as I feel like I go backwards physically and mentally. I do use power meter for indoors just help with focus. Works for me. ROAD,SPIN,rollers,trainer. mix it up.
I love riding with my mates, be it a LSD ride, or a hammerfest. But most of the time, I ride alone. It's a way of shutting off the brain from all the input of day to day life, taking in the views, pushing myself hard (or not). Simplicity of just turing the pedals over is a great way to push my "reset" button.
@Optimiste Sounds like destiny was calling.
This is precisely why one must ride with hard women.