Somehow, doing it "getting it done" all that stuff gets big respect points. As bikesnob notes in his wonderful book Systematically and Mercilessly Realigning the World of Cycling, there's a big celebration of suffering with road biking, and the cult of the Flahute seems to epitomize it. But what if that's all a ruse? and these folks are having FUN!
For example: today, i went out in real british shite wind blowing rain pouring bleck at about high noon with good light. With the miracle of modern technical fabrics - and some clever use of traditional ones (like wool - nothing like it) - i stayed, well, comfortable. And as such, i was delighted with the ride: few people on the roads; fewer on the limited bike path areas, and the delight of saying "yes" to a training ride rather than turning around and saying i'm baggin' it; headng for the trainer. Truly, v. little in the way of suffering here other than bits of the ride designed as a test of current levels.
And then that test fell apart. I'd had it all nicely programmed so i wouldn't have to think about it: could just read a screen and see data recording, and then it seems i'd mis-set a 1 min interval to an hour forty. IT did seem like something was a bit off. So there's my test ride sozzled - For those who have done these, you know part of the point is to build up to a particular intensity for a test phase. So having to stop figure out what's wrong, try to reset etc - it's not optimal.
Now, i could get all annoyed as i'd built a week up towards this effortful thing, but what would that do? And the joy if it all was it seemed in the first half of the test when i wasn't sure what had happened, i'd actually ridden out further than i'd thought would be likely. That's a Good Thing - may mean i'm a wee bit better tuned than i'd anticipated. Anyway more miles under my belt right now - and more get Fit minutes - it's all good.
So, with a real head shift for me, i let go of the test, and focused on seeing how well i could enjoy the ride home - focusing on tempo and the such like - where the wind and rain were excellent resistance for assessing power, pace, heart rate, etc. And heck, really, what fun. I'm outside - outside is good.
One of the things about outside being quite so good relative to inside is that quite often it calls more systems into play than inside - we have to be aware of stuff. On a bike, it's still life and death (you should see the UK stats). Balance, cognitive challenge of awareness, strength, effort.
The main thing: the ride was FUN.
And this got me thinking about the whole belgian hard man thing - maybe it's fun for them too? maybe the suffering thing is either inaccurate or a cover?
I mean, it COULD be miserable - if i'd been wet and cold that would have been crap. really - i don't find that a great celebratory experience - or particularly intelligent. So perhaps what i'm suggesting is that what looks hard to southerners perhaps or west coasters looking at belgian guys riding in the muck - ain't so hard to people raised in that terrain. It might even be fun.
I admit: i could have this whole thing wrong. Maybe the belgian hard man revels in misery, and my belgian state of mind to love whatever the envirnoment presents is not a belgian hard man of the mind.
But i figure, today, out pretty much alone on the roads, going for a training test so pushing hard, and finding a love in the elements as a help rather than a hinderence - that was sweet. It was unexpected and fun and heck, i did it - and that means i'm actually, measurably, perhaps also spiritually better for it.
joy
you?
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