Training: The Fourth Bridge
Before the New Year, it was my ride up Haleakala. At present, it’s Keepers Tour: Cobbled Classics 2013. Before Haleakala, it was one of the various Cyclocross races and before that the Zoo Hill Time Trial. The targets change, but throughout my life as a Velominatus, there always seems to be a goal looming over the horizon which spurs me on. Training, for its endless nature, is like painting the Forth Bridge in Scotland: it takes a year to paint and you have to paint it every year.
In contrast to my opinion of painting a bridge, training is something I fundamentally enjoy. Lucky for me, I love training for the sake of training; I don’t feel any compelling need to do a particular ride in any particular time. What I do feel, however, is the need to do any particular ride in a better time than I have previously. I’m fortunate to delight in the process of finding form and fitness, of getting better. I love seeing the improvement; I love setting incremental goals and reaching them through the elementary process of working towards them.
Cycling, in this way, presents me with an incredibly rewarding outlet for that bit of my nature that lives on seeing marked progress. In every walk of life, things are complicated. The deeper we wade into any endeavor, the more embroiled we become in the mechanics of staying afloat – to say nothing of actually moving towards an end. Yet, Cycling is simple; put in the work and the results come.
The more complicated my life gets and the more conflicted my priorities, the more I find I love Cycling for its elemental simplicity. Set a goal, make a plan, follow it. There is no one to look to but yourself. There are no external dependencies. There is only the endlessness of The Work.
Vive la Vie Velominatus.
@Marcus
Good to know! I actually want one. Now just need to convince the VMH that I need a fourth indoor trainer. Should be easy, right?
@Ron
Yeah, it’s called being crazyass OCD to near needing medication levels. If I can convince myself that I really want to do something, I can usually totally get into it. Good for some things, not so good for others!
@frank Aewesome Foook’in pic, even though his face seems to be saying, “Jeshzus, another fookin bozo that I have to have my pic taken with.”
@Nate
Exactly! I have crashed off my rollers more than once and it is crazy scary! Worse than crashing on the road in my opinion. You seem to have more time to think about it on the rollers as you realize that you have spun out of balance and control and you start looking around and realize that there is NO soft place to land. Just which wall or floor do I feel like putting a hole into now.
Frank – might the Keepers develop a protocol for meeting/greeting/requesting a photo with a PRO? I’ve never met one & I’d like to react/act accordingly. Don’t want to be too adoring, but damn, you gotta show you’re a Velominati & not just some regular old cyclist.
I did literally bump into David Alan Grier one day on the street in Washington, DC. I playfully punched him in the arm & said hello. He’s a big dude & seemed to not take this as threatening.
@Marcus
Yes. This!
I plan on knocking out one Ironman in my life just to have done it. I have “raced” some tri’s in the distant past (last one 2009) but nothing longer than a half iron and I always hear people bitching about how incredibly hard they are and the hardest one day event that there is, etc and I think that is total bullshit. Ultra marathons suck ass majorly for pain, 12-28 straight hours of running is a mental toughnes test like nothing else. And Paris-Roubaix last year put me into a hurt locker that I did not now even existed.
I will do one IM just to say, fuck that, I’ve done one and it is not as hard as an ultrarun and the ultra is not as hard as Paris-Roubaix.
Probably all the wrong reasons but whatever floats your boat, eh?
@PeakInTwoYears
Or Dean Potter:
^^^What’s missing in the Photo of Dean (and the answer is not shoes).
@Buck Rogers
Ultra runs are a serious pain fest – particularly for the larger gentleman. Back in the day we used to find local “longer distance” mountain bike trails and run them for practice.
@scaler911
That second picture is making my hands sweat…
@scaler911
Many things but what I wonder about is that it looks like he has a climbing rope around his waist loosely tied but I do not see it leaving his body. Is that just a belt or is he tied in (although it would be a painful fall as that is no harness) and the photo has been shopped?
I know the dude Free solo’s 5.14 or something crazy like that so I do not doubt that he would do that walk sans protection. Just curious as to to what you are referring to.
@Buck Rogers
Maybe the rope is holding his chalk bag?
@Buck Rogers No rope. That’s just webbing holding a chalk bag (tho not sure why he’d need that). Dean’s the man, and a nice guy.
@Buck Rogers
@scaler911
Yeah. He’s from right near where I grew up but across the river in NH. Saw him one time climbing on Cathedral and he was in Rumney as few times when I was climbing nearby. He’s only a week younger than I am.
But, as “cool” as free solo stuff sounds, I think it is crazy and would never free solo anytyhing, not even a 5.4.
@Steampunk
Indeed. That’s why I always try to have my goals set out a few in advance. What’s coming after Keepers Tour? A few road races. Cogal and crit in June. TT in July. Cogal in July and one in August…and so it goes on.
@scaler911
That is beyond harrowing.
@Buck Rogers
Before my accident, I considered soloing some 5.6 at Smith. Now the thought of it makes me nauseous. And watching me try to slackline will inspire derisive laughter; only my closest friends have been allowed to watch.
@frank
Likewise – after being left in the far distance at the KT I’ve got the potential humiliation of London Edinburgh in two days in early May with newly revised distance of 715kms (what could possibly go wrong there), the Coast to Coast in a Day with the 30% grades and comedy falls again at the end of June and…come to think of it what can I do in July, August, September and October?
@PeakInTwoYears
“Before my accident”, words I never like to hear or say! I have only tried slack line walking a few times and, let’s just say, it didn’t end the way I had hoped it would!
@Buck Rogers
The disconcerting thing is that despite seeming to have more time to think about crashing, you still don’t have time to clip out and keep your bike from getting scraped up (or gouging the bamboo floor of your newly renovated man-cave. I’ll only ride Bike #2 on the rollers and even then I’ve considered building up a Bike #3 (really it would be Bike #6) just as a rollers bike on the off chance I lose control and crash again.
@VeloVita
This is so true. Once it starts, crashing on rollers is like crashing on ice or ball bearings, time might seem to slow but everything else seems to slow just that bit more that the speed with which you’re heading towards the saucepan cupboard.
@Buck Rogers
I understand that phrase. I took a 40 foot fall (on repel, long story) and hit the deck around 5 years ago. Circumstances worked out for me such that I only ended up with a fat lip and black eye. I still get out from time to time, but I don’t climb rock/ ice with the zeal that I once had. You might say it “grounded” me.
@scaler911
Is that where ‘scaler911’ comes from?
@scaler911
Oh shit. End knot come undone? That’s not good. They saw way more climbers are killed repelling off the top after finnishing a climb than falling on the way up.
I used to fall all the time when trad climbing. We always said that if you are not falling, you are not climbing hard enough (although that rule is out the window on vertical ice. There it was simply “Don’t Fall” b/c even a 22 cm screw can pull out on ice!) I once took a HUGE whipper on the third pitch of the “Standard Route” on White Horse in NH. Ended up hanging below my belayer as there is just no pro on that slab. But fortunately I have never had a ground fall.
But ever since having kids, I just do not climb anywhere near as much and nowhere near as hard or crazy. Kids have, in a good way, grounded me!
@VeloVita
Sort of. I was working for a company that does high angle rock fall mitigation and slope stabilization. Guys that do this are called “rock scalers” (not for the climbing part, but the rock removal part). With my medical background I was the safety officer for any jobsite I was on. Thus; scaler 911.
We’re about 150ft off the deck in this photo, working at an elevation of 11,000ft outside Durango CO.
Hmmm. Try one more time:
@scaler911
Looks like it was a fuck’in blizzard that day! Full white out!
I climbed in those conditions one time in Nepal when descending from Camp 3 to Camp 2 during a storm on Ama Dablam. Had to do all our knots blind as we literally could not see our hands with the storm coming in. CRAZY shit scared that day!
@Buck Rogers
Beautiful mountain.
@Ron
it takes a big man to not be offended. Literally.
OK. there it is……..
Hey it’s great there are loads of velominati who also climb, must be something aging rock jocks turn to more and more.
I climbed, a lot, in the past, less so now, but cant put my finger on why, it’s still a blast but maybe the bike is a good mistress too.
Still get out, and on the local MRT, so all is not lost. All makes for good dits in the pub.
@Buck Rogers But ever since having kids, I just do not climb anywhere near as much and nowhere near as hard or crazy. Kids have, in a good way, grounded me!
The same here, Kids took me off the adrenalin market also. I love to skydive back in the day ( pre kids ) but never any serious climbing for some reason just didn’t call too me? Just a shit load of hiking which would lend itself to bouldering no and agin. Good times!
@scaler911
beautiful Arizona
In looking up a latin saying a mate had posted online today I came across this little gem sitting right below it in the translation list…
perfer et obdura; dolor hic tibi proderit olim
Be patient and tough; some day this pain will be useful to you.
Words to train by if ever I’ve read them.
Bunch of climbers here. Very cool. I earn a living running a climbing gym. A former co-worker shot this video of Potter in Squamish. Go full screen for maximal scrotum shrivelage. Nut. Fucking. Case.
@scaler911
upper cortical activity
@gaswepass
I was going to say “brain” but this is a better answer, as he must one have one hell of a cerebellum.
@starclimber
I’m surprised he did that with it so windy out. Nice vid BTW. I’d not seen that before.
@Mikael Liddy
Speaking of tough, and cool… in a race today Paul (the guy I roomed with on the Tour of Sharjah) had a blowout as he was attacking on a very fast downhill at nearly 100km/h.
He realised he had to stay upright so he used the concrete dividing barrier in the road to stay upright and grind the speed off, Nascar style. Has totally fucked his wheels, bars and levers and his hand is a bit messy but otherwise OK.
I passed him about a minute later and thought he’d just had a normal puncture and stopped. If it was me I’d have been a blubbering wreck. A hard man, with very impressive bike skills.
Different kind of bike story here. Years ago my friend and I were at a gas station during a tornado. We saw the facade of a building across the street get blown off and fall into the street. Just as it happened a guy came flying down the street on a motorcycle, hit the pile of lumber and somersaulted over it twice before sliding sideways on the bike into the gas station driveway. He got up, dusted himself off, came into the gas station and asked for a pack of Marlboros. I’ll never forget that.
Had to give up climbing about 6 years ago. Had to get one shoulder repaired and the other had major impingment. Just got tired of being in pain all the time. I have thought about setting up a slack line over my pool.
The latest video of Potter was great
Moonwalk from Reel Water Productions on Vimeo.
In other news I completed my cardiac rehab today. I hope I never have to sit on one of those exercise bikes again.
@seemunkee
AWESOME!! Didn’t know that you’d had problems. Did you have a stent? Scary stuff.
@starclimber
Why is he wearing my grandma’s jeans?
@scaler911 Yes, had a 99% blockage of right coronary artery. No heart attack, no damage.
Although the expression is still in the Lexicon, the Forth bridge no longer requires continuous painting….
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/7250560.stm
@seemunkee
This is why I like to keep my blood treated with plenty of ethanol, makes it nice and thin so it can get through all those small places and keep things running.
Congrats on your rehab progress!
@Sauterelle
FUCK’IN HARDCORE!!! I dream of doing stuff like that! Of course I would have been in the fetal postion crying like my four year old daughter after her big brother stole her Ferbie and chucked it against the wall (with my permission, of course).
@Buck Rogers
you’ve done enough trauma to know the dude prolly had a blood alcohol >0.2. just saying.