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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i saw this on pez and thought of the suffering, with exclamation point as Moser freaking leads out the motorcycles!!...IF your doing THAT...your deep in the zone and really don't mind.
@Simon
THAT is a cool piece of family history, right there!!! Really cool.
@Steampunk
Yeah, that's painful (but keeping in the tradition of most Canadian humor that I have experienced!)
@ChrisO
That'd be SIR David Lean to you and me. :)
Great post again, Frank. But I am not sure that it is misleading to say we enjoy the suffering. The post-ride reflection on a job well done is clearly pleasurable. But so too, albeit in a different way, is the knowledge at the time of riding that your body is yelling 'Whoa Bessy' and that you are responding by pushing all the harder. That sense of overcoming your body's (in my case extensive) limitations, of not minding that it hurts, is one of the things I like most about cycling.
On a different note, and not with the intention of rubbing our Northern Hemisphere's friends noses in it but merely by way of observation, the weather has proved sufficiently clement for me in the last two rides to eschew arm warmers and leg warmers. (I am usually pretty late to doff these accoutrements, so acknowledge the appropriatenes of the scoffing about to ensue from those fellow Kiwis who've not bothered wearing them all year.) And it has been a real joy to ride with arms and legs bared. For some reason I feel lighter climbing, and more agile on the bike. Which is ridiculous, as I am fatter than Fugslang and agile as a brick. But it's the feeling that counts. Bared arms and legs mean warm riding, les riding under lights, that kind of thing. The spirits lift as. But as I reflected on this I recalled that my first ride of the year kitted out in full winter clothing also felt good. Somehow more pro, more 'ready for anything', altogether more serious than my comparatively whimsical summer attire. Which has, in turn, lead me to the following reflection: our sport is a grand fucking sport. While the essentials remain unchanged and unchanging, and the sport endures throughout the year, as the seasons change so does the riding. There's always something new and different up the road ahead. Something to look forward to and ensure we don't end up in a rut of same old same old. Something to ensure we are never bored. Something to ensure we always have a grin on our face. So to all Velominati facing the onset of a new season's riding, chapeau. Enjoy. Get stuck in. Do not mind that it hurts.
(Long time lurker, I think first time commeter)
I've been biking to work this fall for the first time in a decade, and as the days have gotten shorter, wetter, and colder, it's mentally much harder to get out of bed in the twilight, pull on layers, and get on the bike.
Reliably, once my butt is in the seat, the cranks are pulling my feet in circles, and the steam is beginning to rise off of my chest at stop signs, there is joy. Joy that isnt washed away by rain, isn't cowed by darkness, and isn't immobilized by cold. Bad days at the office are pushed out through legs on the way home, and good days are amplified by the buzz of tires on pavement.
There are few acts of defiance so satisfying as making the quads burn fiercely even as the entire world turns to ice and darkness.
Funny how your list of riding buddies kind of dwindles down when the ride is hard, or cold, or windy, or rainy, or hilly. You are not exerting your will and influence on the bike, the weather or the ride. In fact, it is the opposite and frankly that is what makes it so rewarding. Today it is 17* outside. Later I'll be out there getting spanked around by the the cold and next summer I'll be better for it.
http://hillsandheadwinds.blogspot.com/2011/12/something-to-push-me.html
@G'phant
I think you might be speaking only for yourself. My body has never called me "Bessy."
It's posts like this that make me strive to be a better cyclist. I've only recently gotten into cycling, but it's already completely devoured my life. All my discretionary funds are directed first and foremost at bikes and biking paraphernalia. Every commute to work is a joy. Every weekend ride is my reason for slogging through the week.
I tell my friends and family about the grueling rides, the painful climbs, the almost constant throb and ache in my legs, and they raise their eyebrows and question my sanity.
Embrace the V. La Vie Velominatus.
@Steve Wilson
just got heavily sidetracked by your hill&headwinds blog - nice one
But yesterday the wind pushed me up that long hill - sweet. Like having your own personal team of tifosi.