In my favorite scene from Lawrence of Arabia, T.E. Lawrence, after lighting a colleague’s cigarette, allows the match to burn down to his fingertips before snuffing it out. Having witnessed the stunt, the dim-witted associate attempts it himself, only to blow out the match before it gets anywhere close to burning down. “That damn well hurts!”, he states, barely concealing his amazement. “Certainly it hurts,” replies Lawrence with the cool calm of a man who is at ease with The V. “Well, what’s the trick then?”
“The trick, William Potter, is not minding that it hurts.”
The trick to becoming a better Cyclist depends, they say, on one’s capacity to suffer. Riding faster is easy, after all; all you have to do is push harder on those flat things attached to your feet. But that, as many of us have discovered, is the complicated bit.
Our ability to suffer is driven by our willingness to push ourselves, to resist the signals our bodies are sending – whether those signals tell us to stop an effort, to stay inside when the mercury drops, when the rain falls, or dipping into the cellar for a session on the trainer rather than for a bottle of wine. To walk the difficult path of becoming a better cyclist requires, in a word, willpower.
Many of the obstacles along that path require us to eschew the wisdom taught to us by our elders and society. Listen to your body, they tell us, when in fact our bodies are chatty things that have only a few sensible contributions to make. Stay inside when it’s wet, or you’ll catch cold, the folk knowledge claims, while in reality those who stay indoors are more likely to catch cold and if we were to heed that advice, we would rarely throw a leg over a top tube during non-summer months. What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger… well, I suppose they had to get one right.
In practice, weakness breeds weakness and strength breeds strength. We may not allow ourselves to take the easy path, for nothing worth travelling to lies at the end of it. If we relent to the pain during an effort, it only makes it easier to do so again next time. Allowing ourselves to stay off the bike for today’s bad weather makes it easier to do so again tomorrow. On the other hand, enduring today’s cold steels us for tomorrow’s chill.
To claim we enjoy suffering, that we enjoy the pain of an effort, or that we enjoy riding in the wet and cold is a bit misleading. While I believe there might be those who possess a perversion that does indeed allow them to enjoy pain, for most of us, we have merely discovered that the burning of our muscles today strengthens them for tomorrow. We have learned that submitting to the deluge or climbing aboard the trainer in winter helps build towards a result that won’t be realized until our planet reaches the next equinox. Rather than enjoying suffering, we enjoy what suffering does for us and have learned through practice to associate current pains with future gains.
Personally, I enjoy riding in the rain more than most, certainly when it comes as a refreshing change from riding on dry roads. I enjoy the rain splashing up from the road, or the cold air in my face. But to say I cherish riding throughout the cold and wet Winter months is certainly an overstatement. During this time of year, I have to push myself to go for a ride every single time. When I am warm inside, there is no part of me that wants to pull on cold-weather gear knowing I will be cold and uncomfortable for the duration of the ride. Instead of thinking about whether I want to ride, I simply do it; focusing on desire or comfort does little to improve the condition. Quite the opposite, in fact – a frozen toe is better left not contemplated when one lacks the means to warm it up.
The trick to becoming a better cyclist doesn’t have so much to do with our capacity to suffer. Certainly we suffer; the trick is not minding that we suffer.
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WOAH, Shrek the musical...I haven't even gotten anywhere near the movie. Jeez, Chris, you are a HardMan for enduring that!
My experience with this happened during the end of Hurricane Irene. Lining up on the start line, Irene joins in without asking. Great... three hours of rain wind and hailing. While chassing a carrot down the road. I got dropped during a crash and didn't put myself deep enough in the HurtZone, could not bridge over.
What followed was a long lonely ride in. Hands numb, unnable to shift. Braking at this point was useless, only way is forward. From desperation, climbed to a state of focus that led me deeper into pain. I finished the race and placed ignominiously.
However, on that day I realy learned something. I cannot say what but I feel like a better cyclist and now see that the road ahead has a lot more to teach me.
Another good read Frank thanks.
@ChrisO
"Training is the opposite of hoping" I like it.
For me once you get over the fear of the suffering or cold and actually get out there on the bike, it's never as bad as the expectations. If I've had to have my arm twisted to get out for a ride, by the time I get home I always have a big grin on my face. Sunday's just above 0 degrees C ride being a case in point (although I was the arm twister this time), no wind out, strong wind in our faces all the way home, but well worth it. We had a new member in the group too, riding a track Cinelli with a fixed wheel, should I work on him to get a proper road bike?
I truly love to push myself into the clutches of pain, to see how much I can handle before I start to bend a bit, but, as Fronk says, it is not for the moment of the pain, that just sucks, but for the warming up, for the sipping of the bourbon later, the warm shower and while experiencing those things after the session of pain and remembering the cold and the hurt and contracsting it to the now.
Food never tastes as sweet after having gone without for a few days, being warm is never as satisfying if you have not experienced real cold and the memory of pain is never as sweet as when reflecting on what you have endured while you're sitting with your legs are up, warm and twitching, after another brutal Rule 9 ride with a heavy dose of Rule V thrown in.
Great piece Fronk, esp apropos after your ride yesterday, from what I hear.
@Ron
One of my all time favorite movies. I own the wide screen extra-length version and make my kids watch it once a year (I'm sure they'll hate it for life now!)
It was one of my main inspirations for going to the Dark Side of the Army for 5 years. His book, "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" is just amazing as well. Required reading for any SF guys that I knew.
@Buck Rogers
Wow! Didn't know that Lawrence wrote science fiction (I know, I know...).
Nice article Frank. Allow me to paraphrase: "HTFU Fucktards"
One of my favourite movies - I have a tentative family connection: my grandfather was an ANZAC who after Gallipoli wound up in the western desert as camel-drawn artillery, and participated in the relief of Damascus with Lawrence and the Bedouin. After my gran died his papers got released - it was quite interesting to read about the odd charge or two and an episode of er, downstairs itching.
I dig riding in bad weather for the same reasons I dig riding at night: having adventures in places too easy to take for granted. I have a favourite ride through the bush around Mt Taranaki - it's amazing what a different experience it is at night or in the rain - at night there's all manner of strange things humping each other; in the rain the odours of the rainforest multiply and hang in the air. All welcome distraction from the business of hurting my legs...
Yeah it's been chilly here recently, days are starting out below 0 and get up to 4 or 8 c.
I'd rather have it be cold than rainy, but when your ears feel like they are going to freeze off for the first few miles, the dry air makes your throat hurt as you inhale deeply on the climbs, and your toes start to ache after an hour or two from the cold seeping into your shoes it certainly makes you think dark thoughts about weakness and failure while out on your ride. Fighting the urge to turn home early becomes a monumental task in itself.
For me, the best way to really push myself harder and further is to get myself out where going home easily isn't an option. Many of my rides around town are within a ~16 km radius of my house. But my biggest and best rides are always farther out from home, so simply pointing the wheel towards home isn't an easy option - the only option is to push myself and complete the ride. Standing to climb a hill on the Whidbey Island Cogal and having my legs cramp up after about 1,500 m of climbing? Painful but awesome at the same time.
great post up Frank!
you nail it again, and again, and again.
This mental acceptance of suffering is indeed a graceful virtue that we as cyclists don each and every ride out.
Acceptance of this good virtue does separate us from the 99% of others out there in our neighborhoods and communities. I see it every day, the laziness and apathy to move is killing our friends and kiddo's. In my line of work, I diagnose and treat an unbelievable amount of new diabetics, and I believe it is inherently tied to their terrible diets and dismal lack of activity and this is across the board what affects our culture. In a word: convenience. Everything this is brought to us is convenient, void of suffering in any form or fashion. From the way we order food, to the way we eat it (ie paper and we don't even do dishes), to remote controls, to shag carpet, it is all convenient and all to remove all suffering from our lives.
now, not to be completely tangential here, but there is a goodness in our suffering, our pain, our passion. It utterly identifies us. Not any other sport puts a feather in their cap like we do, hanging our laurels in how we suffer. For example: football players will not suffer like we do, they sprain a thumb and their out; baseball...forget-aboutit, boxing..ok, they do, soccor..they do, but outside that few other sports relish in suffering like cyclists.
That being said, as we do suffer, it may well preserve us and keep us in ways we hardly recognize. It certainly makes us better in many ways.
so, see rule V and apply liberally and often
rub it on your legs, pound it into your foreheads, embed it into your hearts