On Rule #6: Resistance
Strength can be a fickle thing this time of year, when the training isn’t as consistent as it should be; it comes and goes, sometimes several times in the span of a single ride or even a climb. Like a rosy-eyed dreamer I keep awakening as I train, thrown like a rag doll between a state nearing euphoria and one resembling purgatory.
My mind is what drives me as a Cyclist, it is what allows my to keep going despite the burning in my legs and lungs. It is what pushes me to leave the comfort of my home to climb aboard my bike when it is dark, cold, and rainy. But there are times when the legs won’t go or the body fails in some anomalous way when we are struck by the reality that we are but puppets, pushed and pulled by forces that exist outside outside the jurisdiction of our will.
Whether or not the body fails, the mind can still resist. It can resist easing back. It can resist turning around. It can resist turning the bars to steer away from the extra climbing loop. Giving in is the worst kind of weakness we have in Cycling. With time all the acute reasons why we want to quit will pass; the acid will flush from our muscles, the gasps for air will give way to steady breathing, the cold will leave our bodies. But quitting, and the doubt it cultivates can last much, much longer.
Quitting begets quitting. It wears down your confidence and makes you question yourself. It asks questions of you that you will struggle to answer when the 2am Ghosts of Lost Opportunities come calling. Worst of all, quitting gets easier the more you do it.
Before my rides, I will decide if it is to be a hard day or an easy day; whether I will do the extra loop with the big climbs or look for the flatter roads. Once on the ride, I will shut off the part of my mind that asks those questions and simply shut off the part of my mind that processes those considerations. I will not stop until I am done.
Our strength may be fickle, but our minds are steady.
Great study as usual Frank.
I personally find that the notion of quitting, when it comes about, usually lingers over me up until I summon the V to kit up and wheel out. After that, it dissipates.
Also, it the sum of the quit is usually directly proportional to the epicness of the ride. The more quit one has to overcome to get out, the more one is rewarded by La Volupte.
VLVV
mrhallorann
Great piece. Should be posted regularly for those of us for whom the open road isn’t an option right now. (SE Wisconsin) This may sound kinda bad, but I did 90 mins (instead of the usual 60) in my garage on the trainer yesterday despite the complete lack of feeling in my toes after an hour or so. Was this resistance? Yes. If I was out on a ride with 20 miles to go, I have no option but to suffer. But I had a very easy option – quit, climb off and head upstairs to the warmth.
Ps Kudos yet again to Ms Vos the Boss. Seventh world championship. Truly, my respect and love for her grows exponentially each year.
I was in a 40 minute breakaway last year. I gave up 2x a lap after 20 minutes. Each time I pushed myself to get back on. I wasn’t going to do the walk of shame.
I finished 2nd.
If you do the math, I quit about 10x.
It never got any easier though.
I am the Cafe Roubaix guy, so I have to look like I am fit at the very least. I had a man-flu over the weekend which kept me from doing much constructive, let along the pain cave. But got back on the trainer today. I shut down the little voice that said, “oh you could use another rest day…”
No, I could use more time in the saddle.
I, on the other hand, am a quitter. Occasionally on a training ride, after a few kms, I feel like shiet, or in a wretched mood, not getting any enjoyment out of being on the bike, I quit. I turn around to ride another day. I don’t quit on a real ride, I’m too dumb and stubborn to do that. Not every ride is a real ride for me.
Many many years ago, I tried my hand at bike touring. The peugeot px-10 weighed metric tons: tent, stove, pots, etc. I had to walk it up part of the coast range west of Palo Alto, that was bad enough. The next day I had to pedal while riding downhill with a headwind and I said fuck it, this is not for me. I rode to Santa Cruz and that was it, I quit, and very happy about it. The one day tourist. I didn’t want that ugly experience to ruin my love of the bike.
Dan – is a man-flu what Canadians call a liquor-induced hangover?
Nice! This piece obviously has a lot to do with the V-Moment of the Year Award from 2013. Cancellara put his mind to it, and did it.
I feel for all of you riding indoors or having to pull on booties, winter caps, etc. for every ride. Just getting dressed can be enough to crush you mentally.
I grew up playing lots of competitive sports, and while I wanted to play my best, I also wanted to beat the other team. Hating the kid from the other town or team or club made it easy for me to push through and never give up. Oh yeah, being smaller than most other players also gave me a mean streak and an unwillingness to give a centimeter, no matter how much it hurt.
In contrast, I only compete with myself when on a bike, even when racing. I wonder how my competitiveness would have been shapely different had I only done solo sports or endurance sports.
Another good read @frank
I many many reasons to quit, some real and some imagined. The imagined ones are the worse!
My neck injury is the real one but fortunately for some weird reason feels ok on the bike.
Maybe the endorphins kick in and the brain and pain receptors just love those endorphins.
My Grandfather used to race on a big old heavy single speed up and over some of the same roads I bitch and moan about now on my light carbon geared steed. This fact of how awesome he must of been at full flight serves me well when an easy quit is an option due to the perceived or real reasons to throw the towel in.
“Ride on” a little voice in my head says, its what he would do !
I’m well into my third decade of road cycling, and don’t feel the need to ‘push through’ or ‘overcome’ anything.
Oh, and fuck off Strava.
@Frank
I think its fair to say the we’ve reached the point where it wouldn’t be out of order if your Rule Exposition Essays also included a little homework for the Velominati. It would be aimed at demonstrating or providing an experience of some aspect of the lesson in question.
@Chipomarc
[ Pee Wee Herman voice ] “Ah ha! I love that story!” [ sarcasm ]
Funny the mind/body thing. One hot summer day my friend and I hooked up with some new ‘acquaintances’ for a ride on totally unfamiliar terrain. The road turned upward and I was suffering more than usual. So much so that my friend was quite concerned. As it turned out, I was very stressed out that day, and it was reflected in my performance. I pushed on, and slowly the road pushed the craziness out of my head. Before long, my legs were freed to spin at their usual pace. Best therapy there is.
I may still be youthful in my knowledge of being a cyclist, but I am keen on fighting the forces of quit. If quit were a person, he would be a supremely manipulative bastard. One you might find yourself in steadfast agreement with when staring over the edge of delirium, when you would otherwise flip that asshole a bird and pedal away. It is fighting the forces of quit that will build one’s character. Your success in denying quit to take over your will is quite the organic performance enhancer.
@James
Wouldn’t that be in violation of Rule #81
Frank, thanks. This is the inspiration one needs in the crux of February and promises that puxitony Phil the rodent may actually be right and a heck o the north may still prevail
‘Quitting begets quitting’. That’s poetic and deep. I take care of a lot of people in my work. Some with brain cancer, colorectal cancer and bone metastasis and the list goes on and on. Despite the best effort, some die and never easy. A few years ago I pasted the name of one who I cared for who really suffered but never quit on my stem. That was something I could look at when my head would drop, and i could remind myself of things, and that helped me not give up and appreciate the pain, after all, its really nothing in comparison
“exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope;…”
Romans 5:3
“To crush my enemies, have them run before me and hear the lamentation of their women.” Conan the Barbarian
@souleur
Well said, makes my “Granpa” story on the fixed gear bike very insignificant. The people you care for are going through a whole other world of pain.
@unversio
That movie was a major inspiration for me as a young teenage cyclist. A story about a man and his bicycle. He dreamed of winning the Tour, had no upper body strength, weighed a scant 44.4521kg, was absolutely obsessed with his bicycle and, most importantly, he never quit.
It certainly happens at different times, in different ways.
A couple seasons ago I was doing a local weekly circuit race. It’s a short loop, but you’re either going fast downhill, in a park that has dogs, joggers and others unaware of your presence, or you’re climbing. I went out wicked fast at the gun, and led the first few laps. About half of us blew the rest of the field apart, the pace went faster, and the pain came. Near the top of the climb, it pitches up just enough you have to decide wether or not it’s a good idea to drop into the small ring. I’m 10m off the back, and just about to hang my head and just finish when I hear a spirited “get in there daddies”. My then 5 year old gave me new vigor, I pushed myself back into the field, and while I didn’t win, I finished with the front group (mostly consisting of dudes young enough to be my ‘older’ children).
So now, when I get the thought in my head that I could just “take another day off, it’s fucking February FFS”, I remember my son telling me to “get in there”. All the motivation I need.
There will be plenty of time to quit when I’m dead.
Nice write up Frank.
I think everyone needs a Rule #6 ambassador.
Mine is just a guy I know (Craig), 5 years older than me not quite as fit or strong who comes out with me on occasion when I do endurance power intervals. He just sits on my wheel using me as a sort of motorpacing. The thing that amazes me is that he sticks on my wheel, and does not let go… ever. He’ll drop back sometimes, but never looses touch. Occasionally, when my coach asks it of me, I forgo the power limit and just push aiming for PB power for that duration. I’ve still not managed to drop him… just hangs on and hangs on. I can tell he’s hurting. When the interval is over he can barely stay upright sometimes.
Now, when I am in the pain cave, maybe just hanging onto a bunch in a race and want to give in I think “Craig wouldn’t give up”. Funnily enough, I’ve always find something more and push through and it surprises me every time.
Rule #6 is one that I am constantly working on. Cycling has come to me relatively late. I have never been a competitive sort. Never the guy trying to be first. Never really relishing in the self punishment. Cycling as you all know is different… I feel it cultivating the suffer love in me. I am learning, trying to shut off the voice inside and simply pedal.
I work in an environment that leans towards employment of “young people”, and find the greatest mental push that I get each day commuting each way for my own personal 10k TT is knowing that they know I could hand their asses to them on any given day aboard a bike. I have a colleague who is two years younger than me and yet any old man jokes that are thrown around end up on his desk, not mine. I never say “not today, maybe tomorrow”.
Where do you guys and the guys over at tumblr like BigRingRiding get all this amazing classic cycling photographs? Do you actually scan them from old magazines or is it just Google?
Australia Day weekend, Alpine Classic in the Victorian High Country. I was doing the 200km. About 150kms in, I’m crawling up Mt Buffalo in my lowest gear. I’ve already climbed 3600 metres and am feeling it in the 34 degree heat, so I’m looking for some inspiration. I look down at my cycle computer (no Garmin here) and see a little icon lit up in the top right hand corner of the postage stamp sized screen. I swear I’ve never sen this icon before in the 7 years I’ve used this unit and I’ve no idea what it means. It’s the letter ‘V’…..made me smile!
Would be great to even get out on a Rule #9 ride that I could consider quitting… instead we sit here in the realm of not a chance one would even go out due to personal safety / extreme frostbite type of weather …. maybe a couple more weeks
@Ron
This is what you need for man flu. It’s even Rule V compliant
@VeloSix, @frank
No because the homework would never involve breathless achievement reports back on this forum or anywhere else for that matter. Its simply an extension of the lesson you’ve already opted into. See also Rule #74.
Sorry I meant: See also Rule #72.
@Rom
Mind over matter, that’s all it is, if you don’t mind the pain then it doesn’t matter. The worst thing you can do on a bike is stop when going up hill as that just prolongs the agony, or increases it as you are forced to push your bike uphill!
I am not and never have been into competitive sports and measure my performances against myself , if you can understand that! i thin the is a quite from chris boardman that is something along the lines of when you ask yourself if you can make it to the end at a certain pace the answer should be maybe! If yes then you’re not trying hard enough, if no then it’s too late and you are destined to grovel like a bastard! At this stage in my life the answer is ALWAYS maybe!
work is the same, as I have no comparators to go by all I can do is be the best I can.
Have I ever mentioned how much I hate iPads for autocorrect, or in the above case, autocorong!
Rom – Interesting your cure includes pseudoephadrine. When playing college sports, I was in the locker room one day getting dressed for practice. I noticed the guy next to me, two years older and with a very liberal approach to what he put into his body, pouring a bunch of Sudafeds into his hand. I asked what he was doing. “Rattlers! They make you feel great.”
I only tried them once, when I was definitely having a booze induced Man Flu, and I felt much, much better during the three hours of running around in below-freezing temperatures.
*At that point I didn’t realize ephedrine was the common man’s speed.
“quitting begets quitting” – After contracting mono while racing in Europe and dropping out of/getting pulled from a bunch of races, it took two years to break the habit of dropping out of races. Now, it’s only if I get pulled (rare) or I seriously crash (also thankfully rare) that I’ll drop out.
As an aside, my team contract in Holland included a clause that stated that you HAD to quit if you were dropped by the pack, since it would bring bad publicity to the sponsor to have riders off the back. Seriously, in a Kermesse or crit, you’d have to disappear before the start of the next lap. I don’t know if that was unique to my team, or indicative of the hardman culture of racing there.
Great article as always @Frank. I’ve been working really hard this year, in my mind, on the ethos of good summers being made in the winter. I think it’s also helped me, although I know it doesn’t for all of you, to have a training plan mapped out. It kinda keeps me honest and I have no hiding from the facts if I think about skipping sessions.
Excellent article. On two occasions (both on long climbs, one in a race) I have heard a voice, an actual voice in my head which explained to me how much better off I would be if I would just get off my bike and stop what I was doing. The one during the race even hatched a plan to have me fake a flat tire to save face. Thankfully both times the voices shut up when I was over taken by a chasing group and then was able to keep going.
Bicycling magazine had an article about something like this in the late 80’s. We are not wired to do the things we do, but can override our brain’s mistaken protective mechanisms (which can take quite active roles in some).
I just wonder what Tom Simpson’s brain was telling him on Mount Ventoux.
@unversio
Fuck’in AWESOME verse! I have always loved Isaiah 6:8 but that Romans one ROCKS!
In all the training that I have done in the Army the motto has always been “Mental Toughness”. You know, the biggest guys, the most muscled Dudes, are not the ones that make it through the really crazy SF stuff.
It’s the wirey guys, the guys that you just cannot kill, that keep coming back again and again no matter how much you fuck with them.
One great story from a friend who did Ranger school (I never went to ranger school) was when they were told one time to gear up, that they were headed out for a 15 mile ruck march in the cold and rain. They all pulled their shit on, formed up and went trudging off for hours and hours through the woods in the rain and cold. Finally they finished the march and did the “rucksack flop” and were all lying there half dead for around 5 minutes when the Ranger Instructor says, “Oh wait, did I dsay 15 miles? Get up, we’re marching back right now the full 15 miles”. A number of Ranger candidates just quit right there, but not my buddy. Mental tougness in Spades, man.
I always have that phrase running through my mind whenever I think about quitting. Mental toughnes is what counts.
Great article, Frahnk!
I don’t quit. My problem is different. I have trouble stablishing new goals and challenges. I’m now trying to do a transition to a more experienced group of riders from my currently “newbie we only ride bycicles” group. It’s really hard for me cause I don’t wanna be the last guy on the peloton. I need to take some shots of the V.
@zugo
I think this is one of the great things about the bike: the ability to set goals and achieve them – even if it take a shitload of suffering to do so. I know the Rules say it’s not about distance, but distance is a very good way to set and achieve said goals. For example: as the year progresses, my rides go from 50kms to 80kms, 100, 120, 160, 200, 200+ The goal this year is a 320 kms ride. Sure, time and daylight sometimes dictate otherwise, but there’s also great joy when you head out on a ride, feel better than you thought you would and blow past the goal for the day. Truly a win-win.
@Buck Rogers
That’s more volunteering than persevering
@wiscot
+1
@zugo put that ego in a box for a while, join that faster group and accept the batterings for a while. You’ll not be at the back for too long, but in my humble opinion “I don’t want to….” is a path to certain disappointment. I prescribe liberal doses of Rules #5 and #10
@Buck Rogers
The KJV has it as “And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience” – 17th Century Rule #5
@the Engine
Oh yes, the Isaiah one is all about volunteering to lead the way. I was just remarking that I love the Isaiah one but the Romans one is awesome as well and actually relevant to the conversation (a first for me).
Wise words @frank the idea of setting your goal before you ride is that you know that you are not permitted to shorten it. When the man with the hammer comes calling your mantra can only be to get home, and that in turn means completing the ride.
Between getting up at 5:00 am to get the wife and kids (and me) off to work/school, and putting the last kid to bed at 8:30 at night, my only conceivable time for riding during the week is 8:30 to 9:00 at night. It has been oh-so-hard to force myself down into my 45 degree basement to crank out an hour’s worth of pain on the trainer/rollers. More often than not, I’ve been losing that battle and going to bed. I think I’ll print out this post and stick it to my bedside table.
@Buck Rogers
Thinking now to state it as “Rejoice in thy suffering…” on the top tube.