Getting Comfortable Being Uncomfortable

With exactly a month to go now until I start pedalling, I wanted to reflect on the fact that this journey started well before I fly out to Cairo in 4 weeks and share some lessons I’ve learnt on the way. It’s a two-parter as a year is a long time to cover and no-one wants to read that much at once..

I’d always considered myself for a keen cyclist. I don’t remember learning, but if you believe my dad (to which I’d urge caution), under his guidance I was pedalling before I could walk. What I do remember is my love of two wheels beginning with weekend adventures, following him through the trails of Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire, over the “bunny-hops” and along the “down-up hills” and into Robin Hood’s back yard. Ever since, a bike was never far away and I also continued various other athletic pursuits. So with this in mind, and with a year to prepare, my physical fitness to complete this challenge was never really a concern at the outset.

With a year to go I went about my preparation. Never one to accept professional help or guidance I figured I’d just set my own training path, just build up the kilometres over the year and the fitness and speed will follow, simple. January - new girlfriend is only in London for another month. New year’s training resolutions out the window immediately, preparation begins in earnest in February.

The first training milestone was to incorporate my commute a couple of days a week into my cycling regime, previously the idea of cycling 60km on top of a full day at work appeared somewhat insurmountable so this was a significant early win, and furthermore I had overcome the ridiculous notion that exercising in the morning was not for me. As the training built up it was evident that not just a work-life balance, but a work-life-training balance was an important one to judge, combining the commute with cycling proved to be a great way achieving this. Not only time-efficient but with the commute often cited as the most stressful activity of the day (and driving daily in south-west London, not a citation I’m going to argue with), my state of mind was also improved with the satisfaction of getting to the desk in the morning having already achieved something.

With this early optimism, I began to think about the timed element of the Tour D’Afrique. Billed as the longest stage-race in the world, this seemed all too tempting a proposition. Always a lover of competition, I convinced myself this was something I could aim to win. Then began my love-hate relationship with a little app and community called Strava. Now able to directly compare the average speed of my rides with that of other riders, some I hadn’t considered particularly fit and some a number of years older, this notion was suddenly knocked back a few. It started to sink in that simply being generally fit did not, necessarily, translate into being a world class endurance cyclist. Plus, the sheer number of kilometres being put in by my Strava connections put to shame my previous fitness program of playing hockey once a week and maybe going for a run one evening, Lesson number 1 - cyclists put in the work. My sense of my own fitness turned out to be somewhat and naïvely inflated.

Following this revelation, it was time to take this a whole lot more seriously and calling for whole new level of motivation. Firstly needing to overcome those mornings where you your mind races around trying to find a reason to succumb to the lure of staying in bed instead of getting on the bike; it’s better for my body if I rest today, that twinge yesterday, better not push it, I’ll put in an extra ride over the weekend… This was particularly acute, of course, as the days drew in the temperatures dropped. And then transitioning from cycling to work once or twice a week when I felt like it to almost every day. This was much more of a mental challenge and I actually found that simply repeating back to myself lesson 2 - “You never regret going for a ride” whilst lying comfortably in bed, significantly improved motivation.

Increased effort on the bike was also necessary. Naturally you try to block out pain and discomfort, and on a bike that can often be listening to music or playing endless arithmetic games in your head, working out average speeds, counting down arbitrary kilometre stretches, anything to trick your mind away from the fact that your legs really bloody hurt. But I found this only really works up to a point, and really only for sprints or shorter climbs, you can only fool your body for so long. Again, I found that a slight shift in perception helped keep the motivation levels high. Sitting on a solid leather saddle for hours on end, exposed to the elements and forcing your legs round and round in 10’s of 1000’s of repetitions is not going to be an altogether pleasant experience, finding acceptance of that fact and even focusing on it, paradoxically eased the passing of kilometres. lesson 3 – “Get comfortable being uncomfortable”.

This being particularly helpful when trying to push through those off training days. When the strap on your helmet that you’ve never noticed before suddenly becomes the most irritating thing in the world. When riding even along on a seemingly flat and windless stretch, you convince yourself your rear brake must be rubbing, when you’re trying to figure out where the nearest train station is to cut your route shorter. Finishing these days is when you get better.