The Janus of Suffering

Time for a different kind of suffering.

I came strongly into the Fall, stronger than in other years thanks to a late-season objective to do well at my first Heck of the North gravel classic in Minnesota. I was light and I had built good power and endurance by riding the steep gravel roads that pepper the North Cascades and suffering through brutal interval sessions on the windswept stretch of road along Shilshole Bay. I was good at hurting myself.

With the race behind me and the first of the next season’s objectives many months away, I entered into what in many ways is my favorite time of year to ride: Winter. The months between objectives at that time of year provides a kind of serenity on the bike that is hard to find when goals are looming. Focus shifts away from building a sharpness in the muscles and towards putting in long base kilometers at steady speeds. There is no need to push hard on the climbs, just slip into a nice tempo and explore the beautiful quiet of a steady rhythm.

With that serenity comes a different kind of suffering; not so acute but where the cold winds and rains harden the mind against the long hours of discomfort and somatic pain. Simply staying on the bike all day, riding from sun up to sun down, is suffering in itself. The willpower and discipline needed to hold the course and do the Work is itself an entirely different but very real kind of suffering – even if the suffering is not intense at any given moment.

But as Winter slowly loosens it grip and the days grow longer, so too do the objectives for the coming season loom nearer. It is time to pull myself out of steady rhythms and once again build towards the sharp sensations of a hard effort. I find I’ve nearly forgotten how to do it; my body resists the signals coming from the mind; its first impulse is to employ the Scotty Principle, I’m givin’ ‘er all she’s got captain! It seems my mind has forgotten that whenever it gets that message, there is always another 10 or 20 percent left to to be taken from the body.

Janus is the Roman god of beginnings and transitions; he has two faces – one looking to the past and one to the future. I’m transitioning from one kind of suffering into another; the work I did yesterday will make tomorrow’s ride a little bit better. My mind navigates through the mixed signals it receives, and the body responds and adapts. To transition is to explore the boundary between two seemingly separate entities. Science explores the boundary between ignorance and knowledge; art explores the boundary between reality and imagination; Cycling explores the boundary between the mind and body.

We are Cyclists. The rest of the world merely rides a bike.

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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Mike_P says:

Mar 18 2014 at 1:45 am

@Fozzy Osbourne Strong work. Welcome aboard !!
Fozzy Osbourne says:

Mar 18 2014 at 2:24 am

@Mike_P Thanks, man! This is an excellent site. I can't wait to get more involved in discussion, especially if Cancellara tries the hour.
Bespoke says:

Mar 18 2014 at 3:29 am

@Xyverz Continued healing and fast road to recovery. Enjoy the ride on the journey to full health and fitness.
revchuck says:

Mar 18 2014 at 4:09 am

@frank, the feeling of going from base to race is a whole 'nuther ball game. In the South, we're already into race season. It's the first time I've done a real base effort - two months of 16-18 hour weeks - and that part of the motor is working well. Taking it off cruise control and flooring it at my first crit of the season showed there's a lot of work to be done on the top end. I'm currently enjoying the top end work - "If I live through these intervals, I'll be faster" - and it's all good.

Scratch that. It's all awesome.
VeloSix says:

Mar 18 2014 at 5:18 am

daylight savings.....Ah,... the signal for all the shops to start their weekly rides. One in particular has me a bit nervous each Tuesday as I gather my gear together. Tuesday Nights World Championship. No idea how this ride got its name, but its mercilessly fast and punishing. This will be the shock to my system, today, that I hope will be the barometer as to the success of my winter training. Its a ride where I sometimes feel like I'm cheating death to simply reach down, and grab my bidon for a quick sip. Rotating pace lines, angry demands from behind to "PULL THROUGH DAMNIT" as your tongue drags the pavement. Oh the joy!

Yes, winter is over. My first race is now less than a month away. Bring on the speed, pain and sufffering. Shut the fuck up legs, its time to enforce Rule #70.
The Oracle says:

Mar 18 2014 at 6:37 am

@Ron

Excellent!

Definitely looking forward to some spring & summer cycling. I'm at the point, which seems to happen every year, where I'm darn tired of pulling on so much gear just to ride. I know in a few months I'll be tired of cooking under the sun and having to apply sunblock.

+1 for truth. I couldn't help but marvel at enormous heap of clothing I had to strip off after my ride this weekend. All I can think about is how much faster I am without all of that crap (and how much better I feel in the summer, when 75% of my energy output isn't directed to simply staying warm!)
Rob says:

Mar 18 2014 at 6:42 am

Frank, As usual you nail it. Having left behind all the angst/joy of winter riding I look back fondly to all the hours put in on the days when the mercury was well below 32f. Once the decision to go was made and the layers were sorted the hard part was over. The fun was being out there where you had it all to oneself and the rest of the world had a hard time wrapping their minds around the fact you were out there at all, let alone on a bike. Some of my favorite memories are from winter rides.

@Fozzy Osbourne

I made an account just to comment. This is a great, great article.

I work in Minneapolis as a messenger, and we feel it year round (because we ride all year, and if you're not feeling it, why ride?), but the utterly different nature of winter's physical and mental demands from those of summer isn't always easy for me to describe. Minneapolis and St. Paul had exactly 50 days below 0F this winter, and I rode most of them. Often, it was a lot of fun, but every day I was exhausted, having only ridden at 2/3 speed about 1/2 as far as I usually ride in the summer.

I've biked through winters before, but this one was rough, and at first, I was mentally unprepared to put those sorts of temperatures plus wind out of my mind and address the increasingly dubious road conditions (there were weeks on end where even the main roads seemed to have been zambonied). I'd never been robbed of my speed, then punished for not raising my heart-rate before. I also never really noticed how much my handling suffered when I was out of my comfort zone. Now, I have some sprint-practice and mild muscle rebuilding to do this spring on account of my pace reduction, but I see the last few months as an extended pain cave designed to make absolute focus an instinct rather than an effort.

All nice days are the same, but each shitty day is shitty in its own way. Rule #9 isn't an injunction for needless self-flagellation. Rule #9 is a reminder that the more extreme the conditions, the more rare, or even unique opportunities you'll have that day to learn new and better ways to ride hard. Rules pertaining to etiquette and aesthetic are important and awesome, but to me, Rule #9 and others like it are the ones that truly make us cyclists.

Go with Gaul

Fozzy, this has to be the best first post ever! You have put into words the feelings and experiences that I have had winter riding and that transition back to the warm. Especially the pure gold in that last paragraph! I look forward to those discussions about Cancellara's bid. Thanks and welcome.
Mike_P says:

Mar 18 2014 at 6:48 am

@frank

Top marks, mate. Top marks.

An addendum though....why is it that now we are entering Spring, I'm finding my motivation to train on the slide? Having put in all the effort over the winter I just want to ride, not stick to the plan, which will lead to a backslide. Time to reflect on Rule #10 maybe.
cyclebrarian says:

Mar 18 2014 at 7:29 am

@frank

@Doug, @cyclebrarian

I've heard quite a lot about those damn Sufferfest vids. I'm going to have to check into that. Do they have one for the Hour Record? I'm envisioning an Obree-style training of threshold hour-long efforts on the trainer to prepare.

@Joe

Oh and I discovered a new (to me) wee brute of a hill out in my regular weekend stomping ground. Climbs 400m in 3k - not fun when rocking the winter Kaiser-belly on 11-25.

Gravity-resisted training is a good way to start the season, just ask Bernard Hinault. The catch is you have to lose the weight by the time shit starts going down.

Not sure if they have one for The Hour specifically, Frank, but if they do, you have to ride a bike that has washing machine bearings. Just sayin'.
Steve-o says:

Mar 18 2014 at 9:33 am

@Doug Ah, Sufferfest videos. Downloaded one and spent some time in the cave with it. When old man winter relented a bit in New England and I could get out for a proper ride, wow! I felt like I was riding like the wind! Turned out it was a tailwind, but still... The wind was not as much a factor on the next ride and the avg good for so early in the season. We cyclists seek to suffer in order to overcome the suffering. Non-cyclists don't get it. It's what puts us above the rest.