This Hunger is insatiable

My favorite feeling is perhaps the empty hollowness of hunger. That statement, in itself, is a declaration of the privileged life I’ve led; it is borderline obscene to boast of such a thing in a world where 842 million people don’t have enough to eat. Nevertheless, being lucky enough to have been raised in America and just competent enough to hold down a job, I find myself in the enviable position of needing to invoke “discipline” in order to experience this sensation.

All that aside, I love feeling hungry, both physically and metaphorically. Physically, being hungry brings something primal out in me; there is an edge that awakens which feels dormant when I’ve eaten. I’m sharper, more alive somehow.

When I eat or drink too much, I feel it in my flesh; I feel the lethargy that comes with food everywhere. I feel it on my back, I feel it in my limbs, I feel it in my eyes – everything is weighed down and blurred. When I am overweight, I find I can go all day without eating and hardly give it a thought. When I’m training and riding well and my weight is down, I can eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner and never feel sated. That is the feeling of hunger to which I refer; not a desire to starve, but a physical condition where sustenance feels impossible to achieve. This is a beautiful state where everything feels alive and there is a sharpness and precision in every motion.

There is also a metaphorical hunger, which I don’t think we can achieve without the physical sort. The metaphorical sort is borne of desire and need. This is what drives us to achieve more than we normally would. Sean Kelly talks of this hunger in his book by the same name; in his opening chapter, he says he would rather fall into the any of the greenhouses below the sweeping hairpins along the descent from the Poggio into Sanremo than face defeat by Moreno Argentin. That is hunger in the metaphorical sense.

I am a better person when I feel hunger; I have drive, I have humility, I have courage. When hunger stirs, we come alive with an urgency we don’t otherwise find. Without it, there is no compulsion to act, to fight, or to endure.

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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  • @wiscot

    Great stuff as always. I have two kinds of hunger here - after a shockingly cold winter here in WI, I'm ravenous to get some real, non-trainer miles in my legs.

    Good lord, +++++++1 on that sentiment.  I've done all I can on the trainer/rollers, but it was negative-13 (f) at my house two nights ago, and we've had 5 inches of fresh powder in the past two days.  Even when we get a clear day, it's either (a) too cold, (b) absolute shit condition on the roads, or (c) all of the above.  There are no shoulders  left on any roads in Fond du Lac county, and most of the roads are caked with hard-packed ice and snow on the driving surface.  It's not even an option to ride down the middle of the road in most places.  Hell, my driveway has three inches of ice from when we had a day of rain a few weeks ago that instantly flash-froze when the temperature dropped from 33(f) to negative-10(f) in the space of a few hours.

    My guns are feeling good, my cardio is terrific, and I'm at close-to-climbing weight, but I'm beginning to wonder if I'll even remember how to take a corner once I finally get out there.

    Grrrrrrrr...

  • @ChrissyOne

    @sthilzy

    Speaking of bananas, it took me over 40 years to do it right!

    I use to eat before a one hour ride. Like out of bed, kit up, stretch, eat - banana or bowl of oats or bananas, go. Wouldn't carry food in the pockets at all. Now I get up, kit up and go ride up to two hours on the meal on the night before. Since doing the later, held off six kilo's. Six more to go!

    Cheers to that. I've never been much of a regular breakfast eater. Breakfast is like a volume switch for my weight. I rely on coffee to keep the pangs away and give me just the right amount of sugar through the morning hours. I try not to eat until well into the ride. Once I'm moving I hardly think about it.

    I'm off and on with breakfast.  In the past I'd usually skip it and go with the coffee, too.  Recently, however, it seems that eating a light breakfast (e.g. some fruit and a granola bar) mid-morning helps me to even out my eating later in the day.  Without breakfast, I'd have to eat lunch, and then I'd go home and eat an entire frozen pizza along with a couple of beers, and then promptly go to bed.  With a light breakfast, I'll often either skip lunch or have a salad, and be able to control my portion-size for dinner as well.  This also has the side-benefit of giving me enough energy to go down in the basement for an hour of pain on the rollers later in the evening.

  • I'm a firm believer that you can shrink your stomach. A few weeks of slowly scaling back the intake and pretty soon I simply can't stomach what I had been eating.

    I also try to eat every three hours. It keeps things steady, it makes eating a chore so by the time you don't feel full, you have only 45 minutes to go until you have to do it again. Feel overly stuffed is a good way to force yourself into not eating more than you need.

    And water! I drink a lot of water, some black or green tea throughout the day. Fill up yer belly on liquids and you can't fit anything else in.

  • @Puffy I know folks that swear by that idea: never let the body plateau as a result of regular diet. In other words if they operate on 2500 calories a day one week, the next week it'll be 2000/day. I can appreciate the concept of changing it around a bit between carbs and protein too. I guess our bodies are wonderful machines that continually adapt to stresses in order to normalize or something like that. Me personally, I just eat whatever I want and try to ride ride ride... I do know I drink a whole helluva lot less alcohol on w/e's than I did before I started riding the bike and wanting to cover miles on early Sat mornings and racing on Sun's. More than anything that's been good for my weight and health I'm guessing. RC

  • Granola! Any warnings against eating good ole fresh granola in place of heavier meals? I'm assuming that this choice is safe. Ordered from Bob's Red Mill and having a box of granola delivered to my desk is different.

  • [Bananas are freaking magical...just sayin] I like to think about the big hunger - whatever our 'A-race' might be. Having a big project on the horizon keeps us hungry, and keeps us honest in our work to get there.

  • In the video 'The Road To Paris' Lance eats a banana with his hot tea when he had to stop due to snow while out doing a mountain recon.

  • @chipomarc

    In the video 'The Road To Paris' Lance eats a banana with his hot tea when he had to stop due to snow while out doing a mountain recon.

    It certainly may have "looked" like he ate a banana -- who knows... ??

  • @chipomarc

    Dude seriously quit COTHO trolling under this nice article. You were told to piss off on more than several occasions on other forums and you're here now. Do yourself a favor and wake up from the Lance nightmare you continuosly living in. Your links to Lance activities are really valid and important only to you. Wish I could recommend somebody to help you but it's hopeless. It has been going on for so long all over the net that I begin to think you're the COTHO himself in disguise.

  • I don't think it's borderline obscene to discuss hunger of any kind. It's a natural function and instinct of the body. It may be obscene to over eat, which most of us probably do in the west. It takes discipline to go hungry or work at fitness and such. These disciplines are all things we should take the time to think about whenever possible. Nice words Frank, made me think.

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