"Cycling is about suffering, whoever can suffer the most usually wins"What is it that makes us want to go out and inflict pain upon ourselves? What drives us to push our limits until we feel the pain, till the suffering becomes so much more than a physical reaction to the exercise? There comes a point when your mind starts to play games. Thoughts of letting up, just relaxing, taking a quick breather, or just quitting start to creep into your head. Eventually, each pedal stroke becomes a laborious effort of mind over matter. You can count the strokes, you can will yourself to continue, but eventually you break. It can be an imperfection in the road, an otherwise inanimate object catching your attention, or just utter exhaustion that causes a break in your concentration.
Quickly, after you've broke, your cadence slows and your thighs start to burn. Lactic acid pools in your muscles as maintaining your rhythm becomes a herculean, yet futile, effort. Eventually you're hunched over your handlebars, tunnel vision has set in as you watch your legs slowly turn the pedals. All the time hoping that recovery will be swift. Nobody wants to be seen in an incoherent state, especially while on the bike. An unbalanced state of mind shows weakness, it shows that you are human, and worst of all is shows that eventually you will crack. The less your opponent knows about you, the more dangerous you can be. Sometimes the opponent is an imaginative, more fit version of yourself, staring back over their shoulder as you fade back and out of sight.
When there's nobody around, it's just you and the bike, the pain in your legs has become almost insatiable. What's to keep you from giving up and just relaxing. You can let up for just a few minutes then get going faster than you were before. Who's gonna know, better yet, who's gonna care?
Knowing your limits is good, but knowing how to break through them is better. It's in our nature to learn from our failures. Every time you crack you've failed in one form or another, but at the same time you've provided a channel to learn something. Whether it's a lack of mental or physical capacity is for each person to determine on their own. How you go about building your capacity goes back to the quote at the top... cycling is about suffering. To improve one must suffer!
Finally, after suffering time and time again we're able to put ourselves to the test. The unspoken race between you and your friends, the individual time trial you're always attempting to best, or joining an organized event. Whatever the venue, you will be able to apply the peak physical and mental capacities you've learned over the numerous self-imposed suffer fests. It's during those tests that you are able to define who you really are. If you are the lucky one, the one who went through the most self-imposed suffering, then you may pull out a victory!
When it comes down to it, we don't ride because we're looking for an easy escape! Lance Armstrong put's it best here,
"Cycling is so hard, the suffering is so intense, that it’s absolutely cleansing. The pain is so deep and strong that a curtain descends over your brain… Once, someone asked me what pleasure I took in riding for so long. ’Pleasure?’ I said. ’I don’t understand the question.’ I didn’t do it for pleasure, I did it for pain."
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