Tricks for keeping cadence?

I am amazed how many masochist bicyclists there seem to be, all this
talk of suffering and pain, bonking and blowing up. There is no one
giving merit badges for these tales of woe except in the imagination
of the writer. Is this really what bicycling means to the many riders
I see with their expensive equipment?

I'll stay with my comment to so many ride reports, "If you didn't like
it, don't tell me about it." I believe there is more to bicycling
than the effort, especially on remote roads away from the competitive
daily grind.

Jobst Brandt

On 21 Oct 2004 11:25:45 -0700, (gds) wrote:

Badger_South wrote in message . ..
(Next week I start the next phase, riding the hill route with a
full
camelback two days a week, and making those 'hard' days. Mine is 8lbs full,
with some gear stowed in the bottom. Dumb idea? Good idea? don't know yet,
but as a weight lifter, this is the kind of thing that seems logical. I
might play with it and take off the weight on the last pass near my house
where I have 2 miles of flats and try some speed work on the last part.).

Sure! the extra weight will have a positive training effect during
your climbs. But it would be interesting to know if the marginal
benefit is better or worse than ditching the weight and trying to
increase your pace. Might be a differential for gaining stregth (with
the weight) vs. gaining speed (without the weight.
But I'd say no need to drop it for your finish on the flats. I think
that marginal effort on the flats is tiny.Most of the track, sprinters
and classics winners are a bit bigger than the pure climbers and GT
type winners. Muscle counts as a positive on the flats.

Yeah, this is clearly farting around, but I was thinking of motivational
and psychological things, I guess. (I'm lighter...I'm bound to break the
sound barrier, here, lol).

Much better to get a red bike, eh? ;-D

-B

wrote:

I am amazed how many masochist bicyclists there seem to be, all this
talk of suffering and pain, bonking and blowing up. There is no one
giving merit badges for these tales of woe except in the imagination
of the writer.

I read these pain and suffering stories as cautionary tales,
particularly the ones that involve "rookie mistakes" -- failure to
eat or drink enough, failure to bring adequate clothing, failure to
pace oneself properly, etc. I recently related one of my own "oops"
moments from this year's Climb to Kaiser when I had forgotten to
drink enough. I was in bad shape and had to lie on the ground for an
hour before continuing the ride. I learned my lesson.

Then there are the other tales of perseverance and accomplishment,
when one must dig deep to achieve a goal. I find those stories
entertaining glimpses into the power of the human spirit. As
ridiculous as it may sound, some suffering can be enjoyable.
Armstrong calls suffering "cleansing".
--
terry morse Palo Alto, CA http://bike.terrymorse.com/

On Thu, 21 Oct 2004 14:33:29 -0700, Terry Morse wrote:

wrote:

I am amazed how many masochist bicyclists there seem to be, all this
talk of suffering and pain, bonking and blowing up. There is no one
giving merit badges for these tales of woe except in the imagination
of the writer.

I read these pain and suffering stories as cautionary tales,
particularly the ones that involve "rookie mistakes" -- failure to
eat or drink enough, failure to bring adequate clothing, failure to
pace oneself properly, etc. I recently related one of my own "oops"
moments from this year's Climb to Kaiser when I had forgotten to
drink enough. I was in bad shape and had to lie on the ground for an
hour before continuing the ride. I learned my lesson.

Then there are the other tales of perseverance and accomplishment,
when one must dig deep to achieve a goal. I find those stories
entertaining glimpses into the power of the human spirit. As
ridiculous as it may sound, some suffering can be enjoyable.
Armstrong calls suffering "cleansing".

Man, I enjoy the -hell- out of the training, and muscles screaming and
breathing hard and sweating. In my bodybuilding days,10 sets of Leg
extensions on the MedX machine with the whole stack, followed by 20 rep
sets with over 315lbs, supersetted with leg press and leg curl. This stuff
rocks. It's kind of 'painful', but not like having your fingernails ripped
out (I'd imagine). It's a -good- pain. Sure you barf now and then. That's
not real fun. But I'm high as can be and singin' with the radio on the way
home.

Somebody needs to tell jb to relax, there's no way a freak 'o nature like
him can understand struggling to ride a bike, nor should he need to know.

What's strange, and I'm mostly joking is why a world class cycler has to
come over to the freakin' .misc group, fercryinoutloud, and say things like
that. Uh, we already know we're not worthy, lol. And, he did seem to miss
the talk of 'it's a phase...'.

Would Mozart go over to the local high school and say 'why is you homies
playing all those wrong notes!?'.

Having said that I appreciate the sarcasm, tongue-in-cheek aspect of his
comments. If you look at the outer appearance of the cyclists talking about
bonking and suffering, in fact you see happy, excited people riding their
bikes.

But here we expose the internal dialogue and the inner workings and magnify
them in order to discuss them. That's all. Nobody's suffering any more than
any other biker ever did to get good.

I sure don't see jobst going up to Tyler and saying 'what's all this talk
of suffering to get 4th place, man', or 'why did you let Ullrich pass you
in 2003, Lance? I thought you were a pro biker?'

Got news for ya. My enjoyment of biking has nothing to do with anything any
other biker ever did, any thing that brandt ever did, and suffers not b/c
of any comparison with any other biker (except for the entertainment
value). It's all internal, all inside, and involves getting in the 'zone'.

For that matter, all the ways to -get there- really mean nothing either;
all the technical talk, training regimes, or epic riding. The truth is in
the being, the doing.

Finally (whew), for me, every mega-mileage ride that Roger does, every new
club ride that km does, and the quirky stories that Elisa tells are just as
interesting and exciting to hear about as any ride jobst has ever done. He
talks about scenery, they talk about their internal landscape...which, now
that I think about it, is -more- entertaining than a brandt travelogue of
pretty trees and livestock sightings.This is no rank on him, though. He's
way cool.

-B

On Thu, 21 Oct 2004 19:03:47 GMT, wrote:

I am amazed how many masochist bicyclists there seem to be, all this
talk of suffering and pain, bonking and blowing up. There is no one
giving merit badges for these tales of woe except in the imagination
of the writer. Is this really what bicycling means to the many riders
I see with their expensive equipment?

This sport has a masochistic streak a mile wide and always has. How many times
have you heard a pro praised "and he knows how to suffer."

I'll stay with my comment to so many ride reports, "If you didn't like
it, don't tell me about it." I believe there is more to bicycling
than the effort, especially on remote roads away from the competitive
daily grind.

Ah, but so many people bring their competitive daily grind with them where ever
they may go. At least it's a competitive grind with better scenery and air than
the rest of the world offers.

Ron

On Thu, 21 Oct 2004 19:03:47 GMT, wrote:

I am amazed how many masochist bicyclists there seem to be, all this
talk of suffering and pain, bonking and blowing up. There is no one
giving merit badges for these tales of woe except in the imagination
of the writer. Is this really what bicycling means to the many riders
I see with their expensive equipment?

I'll stay with my comment to so many ride reports, "If you didn't like
it, don't tell me about it." I believe there is more to bicycling
than the effort, especially on remote roads away from the competitive
daily grind.

Jobst Brandt


I have to agree. Today I went out and rode about 15 miles to test out
my cold weather outfitting. No trying to be Lance, no gripes about
pain, just a nice ride out in the farm area. The worst part was the smell
from the piles of cow manure, but at least it wasn't diesel.
Bill Baka


--
Using M2, Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/m2/

Ron who? writes:

I am amazed how many masochist bicyclists there seem to be, all
this talk of suffering and pain, bonking and blowing up. There is
no one giving merit badges for these tales of woe except in the
imagination of the writer. Is this really what bicycling means to
the many riders I see with their expensive equipment?

This sport has a masochistic streak a mile wide and always has. How
many times have you heard a pro praised "and he knows how to
suffer."

Oh. I take it you think all these folks are in the professional
racing business. I guess the talk is all about fame by association
with those who suffer as professional racers. That explains why the
bicycle advertisement commonly shown have a grimacing rider, be that
on a Sunday ride or on a tour.

I'll stay with my comment to so many ride reports, "If you didn't like
it, don't tell me about it." I believe there is more to bicycling
than the effort, especially on remote roads away from the competitive
daily grind.

Ah, but so many people bring their competitive daily grind with them
where ever they may go. At least it's a competitive grind with
better scenery and air than the rest of the world offers.

Your comment seem to support my perception of all this macho,
suffering talk.

Jobst Brandt

On Fri, 22 Oct 2004 03:07:36 GMT, wrote:

Your comment seem to support my perception of all this macho,
suffering talk.

Jobst Brandt


Would you rather we get together and knit you an antimacassar? g

-B

On Wed, 20 Oct 2004 00:56:41 +0200, "Ivar Hesselager"
wrote:

This may appear to be an idiocyncracy, so let's keep it between us, OK.
When on long rides I go against the wind or up moderate hills, I sometimes
"play machine", which is a non intellecutal meditative activity. Body and
soul turns into: Movement. I breathe out on every seventh pedal stroke,
which means every other time with my left and right leg. And when breathing
out on 7, I "hammer" down the pedal, and the following six strokes are
practically just as fast, but with less effort. I shift my gear to find
the cadence, that allows "the hammer feeling" on every seventh stroke and
this gives me a feeling of at "natural" cadence.

Tried this out, and it works -great-. Variations of it work very well for
me, too. Thanks for sharing.

-B

"Badger_South" wrote in message
...

Would you rather we get together and knit you an antimacassar? g

Aren't those typically crocheted, or even better, tatted?


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