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.
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@chipomarc
COTHO " Sometimes you have to miss a meal"
Huh? I don't know how old that video is, but we know better now. You eat enough carbs to fuel your training with a small deficit. Note: small, 500 Cal max my coach keeps telling me. Don't eat enough, your peformace suffers in the same way he describes it suffering when you bonk. Take it too far, and you start loosing muscle! Skipping a whole mean? No way! Not unless you ate too much the meal prior.
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!
@sthilzy video was to be in the above post.
In the interests of Rule #19...
My name's Tom. And I'm a cycling addict. As an Aussie (and only a Pedalwan at that), I've been fortunate enough not to know this hunger for much of my life. However, a recent broken arm has meant 6 weeks off the roads and on the turbo trainer. Fair to say I now understand what @wiscot is talking about - I'm counting down the days until I can get back out there again!
@Puffy more a compliment to the banana, the perfect power food, in a biodegradable package as well, if you're racing I reckon shove down whatever works, but in training, water only, unless its a hard ride of more than two hours.
I tried to watch that video, but I just kept thinking "what the f*ck do you know? all your numbers are screwed by doping" All your experiences are tainted by the cheating COTHO.
Starting my 2014 Season Fast on 13 Oct 2013 (http://www.trainingpeaks.com/ui/public/profile.aspx?p=TURTLE%20Training%20Program). With the Jedermann (Everybody) season opener here in Germany set for 9 Mar at the Schmolke Carbon Cup (http://www.schmolke-carbon.de/carbon/scc2014/), I hope to feed the craving in my legs. Never have I trained so consistently as I have this Winter; yet I could have trained better. Regardless next Sunday is the first exam and a breaking of the fast . . . thanks for the reminder to stay hungry until the start gun fires.
Having over indulged in post ride recovery beverages last night (without the ride to earn it!) and over indulged again this morning on pre ride sausages, I simply cannot comment on this article today...I have strayed from the path of enlightenment lord Merckx help me.
On the plus side I am starting the season 7kgs lighter than last year so salvation may be at hand!
@frank
+1 for riding through lunch: No lunch but some crudités is the ticket. Tack on no beer (boo), no meat, and 250km per week, and the kilos melt away.
Very nice piece, Frank!
I research food, eating, health all day long right now, and likely for the rest of my career. It is very, very tricky as a life-long athlete and now a cyclist. For me, food & weight are very, very simple. Eat to ride, sometimes to celebrate or for pleasure (parties/holidays), that is it.
But, then you get out into the world and things get in the way for lots of folks. I still haven't been able to figure out Fat Acceptance Studies and that whole movement...or lack of movement.
@sthilzy
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.