The Fasting Ride
I’ve been doing fasting rides on the weekend, before breakfast and maybe also before lunch, depending on how long the ride is. The longer the ride, the lower the intensity. Also the more likely I am to meet my old friend, the Man with the Hammer. I might bring an Emergency Gel, in its glass tube, but I never use it, no matter how enthusiastic his visit is.
I love the hollow feeling you get just before his visits; it sharpens your senses and brings out an awareness that is hard to achieve with a sated belly. I’ve read that mountaineers experience euphoric hallucinations when they are on the verge of collapse, high up on some Merckx-forsaken snowy mountaintop. Similarly, La Volupté seems to make her appearances just prior to our own collapse, like a siren calling our ship to the rocks where her lover lies in wait with hammer lifted high.
The impulse is strong to avoid the dreaded bonk; we feel weak and if we’re riding in a group we will be unable to hold the wheel in front of us. It is not a pleasant experience. But when we continue riding in this state, the body will eventually adjust and find a way to carry on, albeit at a lower pace. Where prior to the collapse we felt a special awareness, afterwards there is a special numbness; a cloudy haze clings to us, insulating us from external stimuli. There is only us, the bike, and the road before us.
In these moments, the body becomes an automaton; the mind still works but its connection to the legs has been severed. The hands push the shifters and pull on the brakes as needed almost without influence from the head. This is for the simple reason that thinking is the least valuable thing one can do at times like this. Thinking will only lead one to become aware of the suffering. Thinking will only lead to wondering why we are putting ourselves through this. Thinking will only lead us to consider making a phone call to be collected in a heap at the roadside.
None of those thoughts will make us a better Cyclist.
I have had my espresso this morning; I am ready to ride. I look out the window and see the rain drawing its shifting patterns on the street outside my house. My phone tells me what the temperature is, but it does not tell me how cold it is. Only the ride will tell me how cold it is.
Today, I set out to meet my old friend once again; the rain will make his visit all the more brutal. Today is a good day to ride.
@Krames
Oh, you will know when you meet him !
@Barracuda
You might be eligible for a gruppo grant before March 2017 – for you to be inducted into a plan for those May events.
A Gruppo grant is mystery money allocated towards the cost of cycling… to be specified at another time.
I used to go on long rides back in college with just water in the bidons and maybe a piece of fruit in my back pocket. Looking back on this, I attributed my habits to stupidity. I haven’t bonked in years now that I eat differently on the bike, but I did weigh 5 kg’s less back then…
If ever @Frank needed further proof that no one actually reads the details in the article, this is it. FFS people, he’s not prescribing a bonk seeking ride before work/other commitments!
These are for the weekend days where the first half of the day can be dedicated to riding, the second half to cleaning up from the ride & then lying on the couch moaning about the guns…which is where having a fellow cyclist as your significant other, and a distinct lack of children comes in handy.
For what it’s worth (possibly nothing), I’m an intermittent faster and winner of the 2015 “Most Glorious Failure” from Rapha/Festive 500. I stop eating at 7 PM and don’t eat again until Noon the following day. Doing this 360 days a year means I can ride without consideration of food and without bonking (I hope I didn’t just poke the Man with the Hammer in the eye).
But I prolly don’t look as good as Frank doing it.
@Barracuda
Ridiculous thing is that we weren’t short of food/drink on that day, it’s just that it was never going to be enough given the conditions!
@Mikael Liddy
Ahhh, I was well short of sustenance, due to self imposed pressure of running the day and not eating properly the night before.
Note to self – stop worrying about what others think / expect. It’ll be alright on the day.
@Buck Rogers
R.I.P. Jobst.
@James
I did not know who it was, just that it was a super photo. I just looked him up and he sounds like he was an exceptional man who led an exceptional life. May we all ride as much and live life as fully as he did!
@universo
I just received orders to move to Germany this August for the next 3-6 years!!! I might just be in for this trip on the Gavia. Cannot WAIT to be living in Germany full time for the next multiple years!!!
@Buck Rogers
Good. Let’s keep me accountable. Much is projected to happen this year, but this day on the Gavia will be the pay off.
@Buck Rogers
Where in Germany are you going to be based? I lived there for 8 yrs, am now based in Vienna, Austria. Looking forward to a cogal somewhere close.
@1860
I will be working at the Landstuhl Military Hospital right next to Kaiserslautern. And yes, a Cogal will be in order!!!
@Buck Rogers
Holy shitballs, Batman. The European dream. So much goodness surrounds. A $100 flight or day’s drive could see you anywhere from the cobbles to the Pyrenees. No excuses now for Keepers’ Tour 17.
I rode the Gavia last year. Its a beautiful symphony. It didn’t hurt me too badly. I also did the Mortirolo soon afterwards. If the Man with the Hammer has a basecamp, its on the Mortirolo. Highly recommended.
There’s an interesting section in Michael Hutchinson’s book ‘Faster – The Obsession, Science and Luck Behind the World’s Fastest Cyclists’ where he discusses the science behind the ‘fasted ride’, and that while you might be in fat-burning territory for a long time, you’re also probably in protein-burning, eating-your-own-legs territory as well. For those who haven’t read it, it’s a very interesting book. It also discusses at length something @Gianni wrote about in one of his articles dating back to 2012 (Choose Your Parents Wisely) that ultimately genetics will decide the difference between champions and those who come close. Hutchinson for example has an incredibly high VO2 Max figure, but his rate of blood lactate build-up is also high meaning he could never quite cut it with the best. Definitely recommended reading.
Re the Fasting Ride. I fear the bonk as much as the next guy but could always afford to lose a kilo or 5. I remember reading The Secret Race and Domestique and being ready for the pro peloton doping stories but shocked by the eating disorders.
@Harminator
Definitely. I’ll be about 25 miles from the French border and about 2.5 hours from Liege. Spring Classics 2017, here I come!!!
@Johnny Mac
Yup, I got pretty far in my sport-of-choice as a youth. Worked very, very hard, had the attitude that I was just as good as the best. Now that I’m removed from it, and a bit older, I can watch the sport and see what separates the absolute best from the very good. While sometimes it can be hard work and repetition, there is definitely a genetic aspect to being on top. In team sports, if everyone is a bit taller, stronger, faster…well, that 2nd tier team is just overmatched.
That said, there is nothing wrong with pursuing sporting to the highest level you can reach. It’s satisfying and though I’m not much for official competition these days, I’m still proud to call myself an athlete.
And, as more and more folks take up lifetime sports…you can still spot the true athletes in the pack of people out engaging in sports. On or off the field, just something about how one carries themselves, their build, and their Casually Deliberate movements convey hours and years of training.
@Ron
And that little bit of the brain that ;its you do this to yourself…….
@Buck Rogers
How about a malted recovery beverage based V-social taking in the Zesdaagse Vlaanderen-Gent and whichever of the big Belgian cross events they hold on the same weekend?
@Mikael Liddy
I’m glad somebody got to it before me. It’s a dangerous dance with the Masturbation Principle to start posting along the lines of “Oh, I’d never do that because this one time, at band camp…”
@Ron
Whenever I see a pro (cyclist not streetwalker) I always think, Fuck, they are skinny. Fuck. they look young, Fuck, they look fit. Fuck, they look fantastic (unless they are in Astana kit.)
I suspect that for a pro it’s more of a fasting life rather than the odd fasted ride.
@Ron
I understand what you’re saying. As a younger man I was a keen rower. Trained 7-days a week, was involved with crews who had Oarsmen in the GB Squad, was coached by an ex-Olympic Gold Medalist and GB Squad Coach, but ultimately didn’t have the size or weight to put out the power required to make it to the top (most high level Oarsmen are beasts); and having Asthma didn’t help. I often think there’s a correlation between the only sports I’ve ever been any good at, rowing & cycling – both are ultimately down to individual effort even though you might be part of a team, both take you a very long way into the Pain Cave, and both give you the ability to exhaust yourself beyond the point where other athletes would simply fall over, because your body weight is being supported by a seat. I guess cyclists are in some way all masochists at heart.
@Johnny Mac
If you haven’t read Boys in the Boat, do so. You’ll appreciate it with your rowing background. It’s a ripping yarn to be sure and why it’s not been made into a movie yet is beyond me. Good Americans vs Bad Nazis, scrappy underdogs vs Ivy League, wrong side of tracks against top of the hill.
Johnny Mac – yup, I think most folks can get pretty darn good through effort. But there is a ceiling that’s really, really hard to clear at some point. I can be comfortable in knowing I got everything out of my not-that-big, not-that-strong, not-that-fast body. As you know from being around the elites, they just have something else. In my final collegiate year I played against one of the best who has ever played. I’m both quick and fast but when I tried to catch that guy…no chance. That is what makes professionals a) incredible in their own right b) those who make the other pros look so-so truly a thing to behold.
I played all ball/team sports. If you’d have told me I’d like cycling, I’d have told you that you were crazy. So much of what I did – lifting weights, crashing into other people, tugs and pulls, stepping on a foot to gain an advantage – is not present in cycling. Sure, there is trickery, but very little contact and the pain is inflicted without any contact.
Still, I think if you learn to compete and learn to suffer while training, and in games, putting up with pain, weariness, injuries. Well, I think you can be good at most sports, with some time put in. Not wanting to lose is transferable across sports.
Mikael – I have just about two months left for riding most of the day, lounging and Recovering with beverages the rest of the day. Then it is…newborn time. I know I’m in for some serious changes BUT the VMH is awesome about understanding that I need to get out of the house and exercise, even a bit, daily.
eenies – I’m okay not being PRO skinny. The downside is that unless you are very slim, you always look like a lard ass in Lycra. The upside is that you can do things like use a shovel, swing a hammer, shovel snow.
@Ron
Make the most of those two months, Ron. Have a six month old baby daughter, and although it doesn’t become impossible to get out, it does become significantly more difficult. Although you would have the advantage of the summer months upcoming. We had a pretty miserable winter with heavy flooding which didn’t help the cause greatly though.
Congratulations and best wishes for the new arrival!
@wiscot
Thanks – I’ll give it a go. I guess good movies about rowing are even rarer than good ones about cycling.
@DavyMuur
Congrats to both of you! Davy’s right about it not being impossible, but you’ll learn to love your lights. I’ve found the riding time that has the least impact at home tends to be before work, that is once you’ve perfected your ninja sneak to get out of the house without waking the bub (or bubs in my case).
first time i met the man with the hammer was at work when i was 26. i had just moved to San Francisco from New Orleans, and my Guerciotti track bike was geared 52×16. being a bike messenger in SF is hard enough without riding a fix geared that stout. i kept the bike, changed the gear to a 46×18, and had the time of my life for a year!