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.
I know as well as any of you that I've been checked out lately, kind…
Peter Sagan has undergone quite the transformation over the years; starting as a brash and…
The Women's road race has to be my favorite one-day road race after Paris-Roubaix and…
Holy fuckballs. I've never been this late ever on a VSP. I mean, I've missed…
This week we are currently in is the most boring week of the year. After…
I have memories of my life before Cycling, but as the years wear slowly on…
View Comments
@Doug ISLAGIATI is worthy of the name 'sufferfest'. Holy crap, what a ride. BTW you can use the video with trainerroad.com and get power metrics added.
@frank Man, Gene O is excellent. One on One is as highly regarded as anywhere in town, and Gene O treats the messengers that go there really, really well.
I think Rule V and its logical extensions are the ones people who merely ride bikes get to ignore. For most of my friends, bikes are nice, relaxing tools for not-too-strenuous fun, commuting, or beer runs, and I think that's awesome... for them. On really beautiful September Sundays, though, I see a lot of people on S-Works with Zipps, Dura Ace, and full Rapha (or worse, one time I saw a fucking USPS kit WITH the matching Maillot Jaune. Oof.) nervously coasting down hills on their hoods at 40kmph. There's neither a kit nor a bike that could possibly mask such peoples' lack of V. I like that.
I also like the way you write. I care about reading, writing, and English as a language a great deal. Your thoughts on cycling (and Gianni's, and Brett's, etc...) have brought me back here daily for about a year, but you write like you love words as much as cycling, and it makes reading your work a lot of fun.
@wiscot Ugly though it was (3 days with sub-Martian wind-chill indexes), there were always a lot of us working, and we were all in it together. Honestly, the solidarity friendships I made with coworkers and colleagues this winter was worth it, and I worry I'm just crazy enough to let hindsight turn these past three months into a fondly remembered obstacle (rather than a costly, painful bloodbath.)
Good on you for choosing to ride! I ride because I love to, but it's impossible to feel like I love it all the time, especially when it's -0F. Seeing other people tearing it up on the iced-over roads of Hoth and elsewhere always reenforces in my mind that riding is all kinds of wonderful, and people will ALWAYS put up with worse just to bike, because biking is the shit.
@Fozzy Osbourne "was" rough? I'm guessing winter might end this year around about August up in your parts ? Maybe ? Damn I sure give ya credit for riding / working right thru this season's arctic polar plunge freeze in the great white north. And a Big Time Cheers from the Deep South, RC
@Joe
Yes, Griffith Park. Love that circuit. Give Encino Hills Drive a spin. Catch it off Havenhurst...south of Ventura Blvd. Take it up to Mulholland for one great view.
@wilburrox Hahahaha yeah, it's snowing here right now, but wearing one pair of socks tomorrow and knowing the snow will be gone in a few days makes it all better. The windiest days up here were when it was both coldest and really really icy, so you'd choose a line on any given road (for a few weeks, there were almost no dry roads), and literally be slid diagonally by gusts shooting through buildings or across the Mississippi. Snow can suck, sure, but the terror phase seems to be over, which makes everything feel a little like spring.
@Optimiste If I admit it, does that mean I'm not crazy? In any case it'd be a shame not to be at least a little nuts, and I know most here agree. You guys are a slightly different breed of crazy than I (I'm just now saving for my first-ever road bike having ridden nothing but fixed for almost five years, I use mountain-bike pedals/shoes, have a beard, and wear jeans/jorts more often than not), but in principal, I can see that you sarcastic bastards and I (a fellow sarcastic bastard) get a lot of the same things from cycling. If I ever stop breaking components, maybe I'll save up enough for a Cogal-ready bike and join you guys. Trying to keep up on a track bike would wreck my legs for a month.
@Fozzy Osbourne
No. Still crazy. Yet somehow I think you can do more with 1 gear than many of us can do with the inordinate range of gears at our disposal. (But keep the eardbay on the ownlowday. There are somethings we don't speak of, but if we must, only in hushed tones of contrition)
@cyclebrarian
I am truly fortunate, in that I leave my stuff on top of the washer, the VMH runs the wash, and then directs me to hang the items I wish to not melt in the dryer.
@frank
Yes, this is the epitome of what I hate to love about cycling!
Speaking of this suffering.... there was some talk a while back, maybe perhaps on several occasions, about asthma. What I thought my being a pussy, and needing further meditation on Rule V, was actually asthma (brought on by the thing I was doing, exercising). My doctor has assisted me in figuring out this heinous death-is-imminent symptom, and now my suffering has shifted to a new category. So, at least I can breathe while I suffer, without the need to bring my steed to a stand still.