being comfortable or being uncomfortable - discuss.

[brucew]

what if i run a compact with a 28 and get used to that gearing and then go to vermont where the hills and way longer or d2r2 where the hills are way steeper? im pretty much screwed.

That's it in a nutshell right there.

I didn't start cycling until age 49. It was hard for me, right from the start. I learned pretty quickly that without doing the hard stuff, nothing would ever be easy. After a while I figured out which parts of riding I wanted to be easy, then worked hard on those parts. For example, if I wanted my commute to be easy, I had to work hard on non-commuting rides. If I wanted a 2% grade to be easy, (and trust me on this, 2% was really effing hard at the time) I had to train at 4% to 6%. And so on...

Put another way, I had to build excess capacity. Only when you have excess capacity does doing something seem easy. Since I couldn't drop another motor on the bike, I had to work at building excess capacity on the one I have.

I thought I was getting pretty good on hills, until I switched to a standard double. In my second year of riding the standard, now I'm getting good at hills. When the old guy on the standard double with an 11-21 drops the entire group on a climb, well, man, that's worth every night of sore legs.

[Tom Officer]

Wow, I go to bed and you guys go nuts here! Since it turned into being fat or not and riding a compact or not, here's what I went through. I weighed 135 to 140 when I raced as a kid, my gears were never smaller than a 42-23 and that includes doing Mt Washington. At 50 yrs or so I was 210 lbs, had a 38 waist, smoked a pack a day (Winstons, hard pack please), owned a big business with 70 employees and drove an A6. The American success story, except I was miserable. So I put all that shit in a bag, got rid of it and got back on my bike. I had a Cannondale (my wife got it as a b-day present, trying to tell me something I think). So I started riding, the weight started to come off, stopped smoking, sold the business. The bike had a 39-26 or 27 on it, I used to get off and walk up most of the hills, now go up those same hills in my 39-19 no problem, my waist is anywhere from 32 to 30. To the point here, while I love being fit again and can thank being alive today because of it, I wouldn't trade what I went through. All part of life's lessons I guess.

[Tom]

I don't know if I am the classic case of the idiot that doesn't know how to train or I have a screw loose somewhere but I just can't be comfortable on the bike. I just can't. Days I know I'm supposed to be just easing along in the little ring and letting things get ready for the next day when I'm going to put on some pressure they start that way but somewhere in the middle I'm turning intervals. Other days I think "Screw it, if I'm going to steal time and get to work late I might as well go do some hills." All in the name of making myself better at it, for no reason or goal that I can discern. Ironically, that's what makes some days absolutely sublime because I have relatively good days where I just eat up the road like biscuits. I've thought about this question a lot because I can count the days this year where I left it in the little ring and just cruised through a whole ride on maybe one or two fingers. I'm thinking that if I just slow down I'll just keep slowing down until I stop and that would be stupid because there's a lot I'll miss that way.

[gearguywb]

Besides the fact that I will always be fat (by this thread definition). Some folks are just built different. I have audacity (and genes) to look like a barrell with legs. Hey...whatever. I ride my bike. A lot (for me anyway). I like to ride as hard as I can. Take pleasure in getting up the hills with little skinny f$%&^.

I doubt anyone on this board is riding (racing) to make the mortgage payment. Doesn't stop anyone from taking it seriously or working damn hard at it......but don't loose your mind.

[Too Tall]

bingo.

im first in on his tig frames

zank rules

!!!! Mike, you got some 'splainin to do.

I like Tom's take on this. Purposeful pain is not uncomfortable it maintains my focus and enthusiasm. Now take that for what it's worth and stretch it out for three days and you have PBP on the rivet. My own ability to stay focused despite an maximum of all things that join to unhinge me can last for 600kilometers...fact not fiction.

Why do we do put ourselves in these situations? Darren?

[Bittersweet]

Let's not hide the third rail in PMs. My bet is that Van Summeren's waist is ~35". He's 6'5". TT's is probably ~36". Skeletal limitations. I agree with the generality though. Most people's biggest weakness isn't skipping riding the bike, it's not skipping the buffet table. Funny thing is that because eating can be done at work and elsewhere there is no reason to "skip" this part of training.

[Saab2000]

I don't get what the comfort and discomfort thing is. WRT to the gearing I like to have what works and for the Baller's Ride (now a benchmark standard) I had a 39x25 low gear. For my level of fitness it wasn't really low enough but I got up all the hills anyway. But I think keeping the legs spinning more would have been nice. More comfortable? Maybe, but definitely more efficient. My bikes are comfortable to me. Cycling is a tough game in so many ways but I'm not trying to make it more comfortable with the things I do, but I might be trying to make them more efficient.

[WayneJ]

Saab is a tough MOFO and exemplifies the essence of this forum
He may be fat by some standards (I am too), but he looks good on the bike, rides as much as his busy schedule allows, and can put a hurt on a lot of people 'cause he's tough.

As far as comfort on the bike goes ... Comfort is Discomfort. Whether dishing it out or being the receipient of someone else's good fitness, putting yourself in the hurt box (regardless of which gear you're in) and surviving it is what keeps us coming back, right?

Darren, you should get a triple, and restrict yourself to the granny gear when riding with me.

[Bob Ross]

No, it's a fucking accurate comment that offends those over the arbitrary threshold.

Frankly, it also offends some of us who are under that arbitrary threshold too.

You are/were a better athlete when you were younger/lighter.

Lighter, eh, probably ...although it's been so long since I was lighter than I am now...see below
Younger? Sorry, wrong. I may have had more endurance and flexibility when I was younger, but I had absolutely zero competitive drive...and that makes for a Really Shitty Athlete.
I didn't become a "serious" cyclist until I was 45. I'm in better shape now than I ever was in my adult life. And while I rode my bike around alot when I was a teenager, I never busted a nut trying to hang with the fast kids for 3 or 4 hours at a time until I was old enough to be the fast kids' father. I wasn't a "cyclist" (sic) when I was younger.
So, no.

[WFSTEKL]

Tom O's description of riding Mt. Washington in a 42 X 23 put a smile on my face. In '82 or '83 I went up there to do a recon. Back then it was still allowed to ride up the mountain at any time on a bicycle, or maybe I just slipped past the gate guard. In any event, I had a 42 X 24 on my bike for the climb. I stopped in a local shop before my ascent to chat with the guys. They took one look at my gearing and began to smirk. Then they filled me in on the facts. On the spot I bought a 32 freewheel and a long cage derailleur. I went back to the motel I was staying at and did the mechanical reconstruction in the parking lot. I felt like a wuss with the pie plate attached to my Colnago. Anyway, I still had no respect for the mountain and attacked the climb right from the first pedal stroke. Then about 1 K up I had to swallow hard to keep my heart from leaping out of my throat. I made it to the top, but man, it was a beast. I didn't return to the mountain to race it until '98. It took me that long to recover. Good stuff.

[Badonkadonk]

Wow, I go to bed and you guys go nuts here!

thursday night is get drunk and fight night at vsalon, i guess

what about us assholes that don't smoke, can't quit our jobs, eat ok and STILL have ~6-8 lbs that need to come off? i may have to *gasp* stop drinking to get this final piece done.

[Tom]

Another thing and this is really revealing I got a screw loose. It occurred to me after I looked at an email about my mom, who's sort of beginning to age out. At some point life itself becomes an endurance event. Sometimes those episodes happen right in the middle and you get out the other side. Whatever happens, everybody I know that's been in one and is an endurance athlete of some measure finds it easier to deal with because they've been there in the middle when the excitement's over and now it's a slog and you're tired and you can't see the end of the road you're on and it's a steep hill and you hurt. Get used to being uncomfortable because some day you'll need the skill.

[EricKeller]

this thread just reinforces my conviction that cycling is an eating disorder.

[Christian Fox]

You are/were a better athlete when you were younger/lighter.

If this is really all you're getting at, you are, of course, correct. My grandma was hotter when she was 25, too. These are not cutting edge revelations. Also, I'd like to point out that you're not 'talking shit', you're typing it

[sonny]

I'm most comfortable being uncomfortable.

This statement is what rings most true for me in this conversation.

Gear-inches, waist lines, and being old or young has nothing to do with the ability to submit oneself to the bike.
It is desire of and habituation to the process of concerted exertion and concentration within an activity that allows one to be in that moment--fluidly atmo.

There are these people who are more at home destroying themselves on a bike, hanging off a freezing multi-day wall pitch, or out in the field harvesting 10,000+ fruits under a 105 sun, than they are in their own beds.
They don't shut it out or make it more serious than it needs to be.
They feel it all, and let that be the fuel and inspiration for getting up the next day and pounding themselves into snot.

Doers atmo.

[thollandpe]

Funny, a recent job switch has me doing my mid-week riding in the MA/VT/NY corner, which is hilly. Damn hilly, and the Tuesday Night Worlds usually has beaucoup dirt roads.

Around here (central-western MA and CT) I can ride my 30-year-old bike and do just fine in the 42-21.

Out there, I’m the only guy with a 39-23 low and I get my arse handed to me regularly. Late summer fitness is coming so I can finally trade kicks on the hills but man it would be nice to have a lower gear.

So again, context rules.

[thollandpe]

But as far as comfort heck yeah, I can’t commute 2 miles without arriving in full froth. I love hitting a hill so hard that I can’t spell my own name by the top.

"I came out for exercise, gentle exercise, and to notice the scenery and to botanise. And no sooner do I get on the accursed machine, than off I go hammer and tongs; I never look to right or left, never notice a flower, never see a view, get hot, juicy, red – like a grilled chop." ~ H.G. Wells, The Wheels of Chance

[e-RICHIE]

hey todd where did you end up? i thought you were down below amherst. are you in the real western mass, like florida or hawley???

Funny, a recent job switch has me doing my mid-week riding in the MA/VT/NY corner, which is hilly. Damn hilly, and the Tuesday Night Worlds usually has beaucoup dirt roads.

Around here (central-western MA and CT) I can ride my 30-year-old bike and do just fine in the 42-21.

Out there, I’m the only guy with a 39-23 low and I get my arse handed to me regularly. Late summer fitness is coming so I can finally trade kicks on the hills but man it would be nice to have a lower gear.

So again, context rules.

[e-RICHIE]

this thread just reinforces my conviction that cycling is an eating disorder.

agreed atmo.

Epic for me is about food and how riding makes me feel. If I know I can eat anything I want and still be ahead of the game, whether it’s weight or calories or good tan lines. Tan lines become important when summer roles around, you come back and take a shower and you can see the difference in the mirror when you’re naked. These things are important. If I go out and come back feeling like I didn’t earn a donut or a pastry, then what’s the point of riding? So epic comes when you drain yourself so completely, somewhere along the line, that you can start eating whatever you can find. Most people wouldn’t understand that, but cycling is a vain sport.

[steve575]

This thread is a lot like golf.

Anyone not as good as me sucks. I am the benchmark.
I hope the guys better than me realize this.