It's not really what you'd call 'fun' is it?

[yello]

I did a DIY 200 yesterday. DIY because there are no organised rides around my way this time of year. And I need to get my legs turning again in readiness for PBP brevets etc. And, besides, I like riding... I think.

I'd set the alarm for 6am but as I'm rubbish with alarms and keep waking up before they go off, I was actually on the road just after 5am. The first 70km of the ride was hilly (around 1700m climbing), and I was pretty shot by the time the 100km mark came up. At 120km, I was considering cutting short the route; the legs asking 'can we go home now?'. I carried on. Mental toughness needs to be practised to.

Anyone can cruise the big ring downhill, or on the flat, but you're only ever as strong as the last climb... and I was tackling gradients with the granny primed, grovelling on 4%. Butter me, I'm toast.

So the thoughts inevitably turn to 'why the f*** am I doing this'. It's not fun is it? Not in the way 'fun' is portrayed on the tele anyway; there was no dancing going on around me, not that I noticed anyway.

There are paybacks, for sure; La Celle-Dunoise at 7am, nestled in a river valley and mist shrouded, was magical - the storks cranes heading back north in their huge formations, breathtaking in both sight and sound. Stuff like that is transient, you have to be there and - at that moment - in seems worth any amount of effort.

I was home for 4pm, 2800m of climbing in all and the legs felt every metre. I'll be out for a 100 on Weds afternoon - I'm sure it'll be fun. If I could just work out what fun is.

Edit: they're cranes not storks, 'grue' in French'

 

[Fab Foodie]

It's the pain that defines the glory.

When you've completed PBP you'll realise the value of yesterday's effort, reap the rewards of every hard-gained kilometre. Without the winter gruel we'd not experience the summer highs.

 

[palinurus]

"Le cyclisme, c'est comme la boxe ; ce n'est pas un jeu. C'est un sport dur, terrible, impitoyable qui exige de très gros sacrifices. On joue au football, au tennis, au hockey mais on ne joue pas au cyclisme, encore moins à la boxe".

Jean de Gribaldi

 

[PpPete]

"Le cyclisme, c'est comme la boxe ; ce n'est pas un jeu. C'est un sport dur, terrible, impitoyable qui exige de très gros sacrifices. On joue au football, au tennis, au hockey mais on ne joue pas au cyclisme, encore moins à la boxe".

Jean de Gribaldi

Quite so !

 

[frank9755]

Well put!

I think we do it because the endorphin high we get from it is addictive - it just makes us feel good and we remember the good feeling, with subconscious memory, better than the conscious memories of slogging painfully up the hills and the aches and discomforts.

I've just come done a ride of just over 200km and am feeling very happy. Possibly happier than I have felt since I last did a long ride - last weekend!

 

[Fiona N]

Well put!

I think we do it because the endorphin high we get from it is addictive - it just makes us feel good and we remember the good feeling...

I think it's more than just the endorphins - the whole combination of physical well-being with the fleeting moments of being at one with the world (sorry to get a bit metaphysical there but it's the only way I can describe it ) and the beauty of the places we cycle.

At this time of year, the lambs bouncing in the fields are enough to distract me form the pain of the hills. Then there's the late evening sun over the Howgills always make the climb above Killington worthwhile.

 

[Tynan]

yes, I had the pleasure of grinding along behind Frank for most of my 200km, and it wasn't as pretty as Yello's ride I suspect although it had its moments

apart from a rather pleasant tiredness I feel very happy and pleased with myself which is nice because a lot of the ride was rather grim if you took away mental fortitude, 'keep the bloody pedals going round and you'll get there'

 

[Christopher]

I had to get up at 5AM one Monday last August to get a train to work from a country station after some hard caving in the Dales - and I had very full panniers. The reward for that was seeing dawn from the saddle, watching an owl finishing off its night hunt, a hare setting off in the day and loads of ducks grazing in a field...

 

[yello]

'keep the bloody pedals going round and you'll get there'

Yes indeed. At times I really do find it boils down to that.

To be frank, I'm somewhat surprised how tough I found my ride. I was worn out the next day too. No aches nor pains, just tired. Still, these little surprises do us good. Maybe I was a tad complacent and I got my comeuppence!

I had an easy year last year. I rode a 400 in June, but other than that perhaps only 2 or 3 times did I ride more than 100, and never more than 200. You reaps what you sows!

 

[vorsprung]

"Le cyclisme, c'est comme la boxe ; ce n'est pas un jeu. C'est un sport dur, terrible, impitoyable qui exige de très gros sacrifices. On joue au football, au tennis, au hockey mais on ne joue pas au cyclisme, encore moins à la boxe".

Jean de Gribaldi

Oh come off it, we are just talking about audax rides here. It's not that "terrible"

 

[Davidc]

Fun and enjoyable aren't the same.

I've always found cycling to be enjoyable much more often than it's fun. Still do, even if I can't do what yello's doing any more.

Fun and enjoyable sometimes happen at the same time, and sometimes when out on a bike. Occasions to be savoured.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

For me

Enjoyable = most of the time even when commutting providing it isn't pishing it down or icy. But even when the weather is nice and I'm fully fit I still think 'why the f*** am I doing this?' at least once a week when commutting.

Fun = riding with friends, club mates, colleagues, anything that is riding for the fun of it.

Enjoyable + Fun = FNRttC

 

[yello]

Oh come off it, we are just talking about audax rides here. It's not that "terrible"

Very true. It wasn't my intention to aim for some kind of self-indulgent 'how great am I' ego thing with my post. I'd not for a moment suggest I was doing anything other than what I wanted to do nor claim any virtue by way of self-determined 'suffering'. It was more (and something you've touched on yourself vorsprung, the "reprise" in the title was a nod to you) a question of the why of it when there are times on the ride that it is quite far from anyone's notion of fun.

Fun and enjoyable aren't the same.

Very very true. It'd do me well to remember that!

For instance, I always find the last 10% of a ride to be enjoyable, regardless. It may not be fun but it is satisfying. There's something about approaching the finish that makes me smile inside. I guess it's simply a sense of achievement.

 

[vorsprung]

Very true. It wasn't my intention to aim for some kind of self-indulgent 'how great am I' ego thing with my post. I'd not for a moment suggest I was doing anything other than what I wanted to do nor claim any virtue by way of self-determined 'suffering'. It was more (and something you've touched on yourself vorsprung, the "reprise" in the title was a nod to you) a question of the why of it when there are times on the ride that it is quite far from anyone's notion of fun.

I did an analysis of some of the motivations behind riding long distance. Fun is a bit of a thin, underweight word. There's reasons for doing things other than fun but which make perfect sense

http://audaxing.wordpress.com/2010/11/10/how-to-find-yourself-on-a-bike/

 

[asterix]

Altho' I do enjoy long rides, my absolute limit is 200km a day. I tend to go pretty quick and don't mind hills, but the idea of cycling further than 200km just doesn't appeal even as a challenge! I'll never attempt the PBP or LEL even though I was quite happy doing the Raid Pyrenean.