Pain
Phase 3 of training has commenced here in Asheville, NC. And this canuck has been re-united once more with his friend and ally, enemy and tyrant. Akin to a long lasting friend that is always there for you or an enemy you swore to defeat yet never could. I speak of pain, suffering and anguish. A pain so overwhelming, so deep in your mind, in your body one can only laugh as this is suffering performed willingly without question of intent.
Cycling is so incredibly hard, the suffering intense beyond belief, that it’s absolutely cleansing. The pain is so deep and strong that a curtain descends over your brain. Often during my obligatory re-fuels at World Coffee I am asked what pleasure I take in riding for so long. ’Pleasure?’ I reply. ’I don’t understand the question.’ I don’t train for pleasure, I train to defeat my personal demons, I train to feel more and more and more pain.
The history of bike racing abounds with stories of endurance, will power and sheer courage on an epic scale. The capacity of professional cyclists to drive themselves relentlessly day after day through the pain barrier and way beyond makes them a breed apart. We redefine heroism in sport. The suffering is gratuitous, the mileage we cover Herculean, and both make a crucible in which a unique character is forged; an apparently cheerful indifference to the pain inflicted by bike and road, suffused with the transcendent desire to conquer both.
The greatest battle is not physical but psychological. Demons telling us to give up when we push ourselves to the limit can never be silenced for good. They must always be answered by the quiet, the steady dignity (tempo) that simply refuses to give in until the next race – the next ride. Call no man brave, say the Spanish, say only that on a particular day he showed himself brave at the prospect of self inflicted torture. Such strength of character radiates from every bike rider who has shown the requisite courage not to yield, has won his dignity, day after day.
Yet every rider has a limit they will themselves to push, the recreational rider/racer often become content with their pain threshold level, pain is stagnant; growing neither progressively worse nor easier. Can you raise you threshold higher? As fitness rises expotionally, pain tolerance should rise in sync: longer deeper, harder.
The true test of any rider’s mettle is the road traveled upon. How much punishment can you take on a bike? You will only find out after you hear the voice in your head saying ‘STOP!!’ you’ve had it, any more of this battering and you’re going to weaken fatally, and yet, for some reason best left to God and guesswork, carrying on anyway. This endless battle of surrender, never won, never conquered, transcends the mind. Mountains become fabled monsters to be slain, cast down, conquered lest they pounce on any slippage in your resolve. Mysterious forces cackle failure behind your back which can freeze your nerve with the lonely prospect of failure, not here, not on this horrible mountain gradient I say.
Your thoughts and your breath are your strongest allies when you’re suffering. Turn toward the pain and use it, if you allow it to become your friend you can unleash it’s power. Like most anything in life, the more you turn toward it, the faster you’ll improve your relationship to it and the faster your growth as a cyclist will be fueled by it. Never back down, never quit.
Take care eh
-EuroG
damn. for such a young rider you sure do have alot of maturity concerning cycling.
Thanks Roger. Now only if I can keep the pain going racing into an uphill finish sprint!
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