Categories: Defining MomentsLa Vie VelominatusNostalgia

Training: The Fourth Bridge

The Forth over the Firth in Scotland

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.

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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Buck Rogers says:

Feb 14 2013 at 6:52 am

@Marcus

@Buck Rogers

Get the LeMond Revolution as well Buck. Combine them with Kreitlers and you have everything you need other than good weather and dry roads.

Good to know! I actually want one. Now just need to convince the VMH that I need a fourth indoor trainer. Should be easy, right?
Buck Rogers says:

Feb 14 2013 at 6:54 am

@Ron

@Buck Rogers

@Nate

@VeloVita

I am no maniac on the rollers but find I can do a sufferfest on them. I don't stand up for efforts, but can otherwise get a very good interval workout. They are twitchy, but got more manageable when I adjusted the wheelbase-you might want to try this, key is to get the front roller directly below the front axle. You might want to check this. It's much more bearable than the resistance trainer.

I am definitely in the minority here but I actually love my rollers. If it weren't for my Doc's orders I would be riding them at least twice a week. I love setting up a youtube vid of an old pro race, usually in Italian or French and turning on the fan to cool me down and spinning. I ride for hours on them and it really doesn't bother me.

You should probably give lessons in how to pull this off, as most folks hate riding them. Could be a really great business. Buck's Zen Roller Riding.

Yeah, it's called being crazyass OCD to near needing medication levels. If I can convince myself that I really want to do something, I can usually totally get into it. Good for some things, not so good for others!
Buck Rogers says:

Feb 14 2013 at 6:55 am

@frank Aewesome Foook'in pic, even though his face seems to be saying, "Jeshzus, another fookin bozo that I have to have my pic taken with."
Buck Rogers says:

Feb 14 2013 at 6:58 am

@Nate

@Sauterelle Far from it. Anyone who claims to ride rollers, and claims to have never fallen off, is probably lying, and certainly not trying hard enough!

Exactly! I have crashed off my rollers more than once and it is crazy scary! Worse than crashing on the road in my opinion. You seem to have more time to think about it on the rollers as you realize that you have spun out of balance and control and you start looking around and realize that there is NO soft place to land. Just which wall or floor do I feel like putting a hole into now.
Ron says:

Feb 14 2013 at 7:02 am

Frank - might the Keepers develop a protocol for meeting/greeting/requesting a photo with a PRO? I've never met one & I'd like to react/act accordingly. Don't want to be too adoring, but damn, you gotta show you're a Velominati & not just some regular old cyclist.

I did literally bump into David Alan Grier one day on the street in Washington, DC. I playfully punched him in the arm & said hello. He's a big dude & seemed to not take this as threatening.
Buck Rogers says:

Feb 14 2013 at 7:04 am

@Marcus

@Nate I once fell off rollers in a mate's cinema room whilst admiring Jessica Biel's breasts. What did I learn?

1. Riding on rollers in a dark room is a risky pursuit.

2. Admiring said Ms Biel for extended periods can move you too far to one side of rollers.

3. Puncture wounds from mate's kid's plastic Star Wars toy being embedded mid-thigh really fucking hurt. And get easily infected.

To be clear, I am doing one tri, and one tri only (an ironman in 6 weeks time) just to tick it off the list. At this stage it looks like i will be walking the whole fcuking marathon due to chronically fucked calves from being an old inflexible cunt.

Yes. This!

I plan on knocking out one Ironman in my life just to have done it. I have "raced" some tri's in the distant past (last one 2009) but nothing longer than a half iron and I always hear people bitching about how incredibly hard they are and the hardest one day event that there is, etc and I think that is total bullshit. Ultra marathons suck ass majorly for pain, 12-28 straight hours of running is a mental toughnes test like nothing else. And Paris-Roubaix last year put me into a hurt locker that I did not now even existed.

I will do one IM just to say, fuck that, I've done one and it is not as hard as an ultrarun and the ultra is not as hard as Paris-Roubaix.

Probably all the wrong reasons but whatever floats your boat, eh?
scaler911 says:

Feb 14 2013 at 7:29 am

@PeakInTwoYears

@Marcus

@frank

Your real wake up call should have been your weirdly long arms. That bag should be full of bananas.

Ape index. If Frank were a sport climber, he'd want to be FranÃ§ois Legrand.

Or Dean Potter:
scaler911 says:

Feb 14 2013 at 7:30 am

^^^What's missing in the Photo of Dean (and the answer is not shoes).
the Engine says:

Feb 14 2013 at 7:31 am

@Buck Rogers

@Marcus

@Nate I once fell off rollers in a mate's cinema room whilst admiring Jessica Biel's breasts. What did I learn?

1. Riding on rollers in a dark room is a risky pursuit.

2. Admiring said Ms Biel for extended periods can move you too far to one side of rollers.

3. Puncture wounds from mate's kid's plastic Star Wars toy being embedded mid-thigh really fucking hurt. And get easily infected.

To be clear, I am doing one tri, and one tri only (an ironman in 6 weeks time) just to tick it off the list. At this stage it looks like i will be walking the whole fcuking marathon due to chronically fucked calves from being an old inflexible cunt.

Yes. This!

I plan on knocking out one Ironman in my life just to have done it. I have "raced" some tri's in the distant past (last one 2009) but nothing longer than a half iron and I always hear people bitching about how incredibly hard they are and the hardest one day event that there is, etc and I think that is total bullshit. Ultra marathons suck ass majorly for pain, 12-28 straight hours of running is a mental toughnes test like nothing else. And Paris-Roubaix last year put me into a hurt locker that I did not now even existed.

I will do one IM just to say, fuck that, I've done one and it is not as hard as an ultrarun and the ultra is not as hard as Paris-Roubaix.

Probably all the wrong reasons but whatever floats your boat, eh?

Ultra runs are a serious pain fest - particularly for the larger gentleman. Back in the day we used to find local "longer distance" mountain bike trails and run them for practice.
the Engine says:

Feb 14 2013 at 7:33 am

@scaler911

^^^What's missing in the Photo of Dean (and the answer is not shoes).

That second picture is making my hands sweat...