Before the New Year, it was my ride up Haleakala. At present, it’s Keepers Tour: Cobbled Classics 2013. Before Haleakala, it was one of the various Cyclocross races and before that the Zoo Hill Time Trial. The targets change, but throughout my life as a Velominatus, there always seems to be a goal looming over the horizon which spurs me on. Training, for its endless nature, is like painting the Forth Bridge in Scotland: it takes a year to paint and you have to paint it every year.
In contrast to my opinion of painting a bridge, training is something I fundamentally enjoy. Lucky for me, I love training for the sake of training; I don’t feel any compelling need to do a particular ride in any particular time. What I do feel, however, is the need to do any particular ride in a better time than I have previously. I’m fortunate to delight in the process of finding form and fitness, of getting better. I love seeing the improvement; I love setting incremental goals and reaching them through the elementary process of working towards them.
Cycling, in this way, presents me with an incredibly rewarding outlet for that bit of my nature that lives on seeing marked progress. In every walk of life, things are complicated. The deeper we wade into any endeavor, the more embroiled we become in the mechanics of staying afloat – to say nothing of actually moving towards an end. Yet, Cycling is simple; put in the work and the results come.
The more complicated my life gets and the more conflicted my priorities, the more I find I love Cycling for its elemental simplicity. Set a goal, make a plan, follow it. There is no one to look to but yourself. There are no external dependencies. There is only the endlessness of The Work.
Vive la Vie Velominatus.
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It's Forth, as in the Firth of Forth Bridge.
It's Firth, as in Firth of Forth
AMerckx to that. Le métier. It's a noble calling... Even if you lack the genes , fitness and physiology of the pros. Training for the sake of training. I'll paint that bridge. Whatever colour you want.
There are four bridges over the Forth now - downstream of Stirling at any rate. The one pictured is the Forth Rail Bridge - the oldest and now also the fourth (downstream).
It was painted on a five year rolling basis one end to the other and back (big Sisyphus thing going on there) but they've now coated it with new paint that means it shouldn't need repainting quite so often.
We ride over the Forth Road Bridge as a club every so often. The Forth Road Bridge was built primarily to give everyone a good look at the Rail Bridge.
The river that runs past (and when wet, over) the bottom of my garden is the Teith a tributary of the Forth. Oddly the Teith is the bigger and longer river before it joins the rather wishy washy Forth just above Stirling. If there was any justice for rivers we'd talk about the Firth of Teith and painting the Teith Rail Bridge - ah well.
Tomorrow I ride.
Very nice, Frank.
I don't think I would have loved cycling as a lad but it's really perfect for me at this point in my life. I enjoy that it's me, the Machine, and my desire to put in the training time, which always results in gains for me.
I actually logged tons of saddle time the past few years in an effort to avoid/pretend life wasn't going to become more complicated. And sports have always been something, for me, that I could control to a large degree. Adult life is a bit more challenging to bend to one's will.
I'm doing my best to transfer my ability to put in long-term training in sports to putting in long-term focus on other projects. And guess what? Progress is coming along.
Right on, VLVV!
I believe they now use a fancy epoxy paint on the bridge, so once they are done, the painters can take a cupla years off...kinda like a doping suspension.
@the Engine
@ Frank - a good post, I hear ya.
@ The Engine - you better get out and ride tomorrow, beats googling hairy beard things ! I be home in a couple of days if the goddamn chopper does not break down again, will give you a shout.
@strathlubnaig
Good man - my feeble excuse for the last few days hinges on eldest Junior Engine's burgeoning international career.
@ The Engine - Out of curiosity, and being on night shift out here, I decided to count how mnany other Forth bridges there are, above Stirling, which could be accessed by road bike, legally. There are 10 (ten) if you count the Causewayhead one but ignore the old pedestrian only one. Would be interesting to try to stitch a route together which takes them all in, and even out to the lower Forth too. We could call it Franks Route since he inspired me to investigate this through his wonderful dit.
Rejoice in thy suffering.