Does it ever get easier
Greg Lemond once said, “It doesn’t get easier; you just get faster." This is for me, one of the most profound ideas that I have learned from cycling. Every cyclist knows that this is true, but why? Shouldn’t improving your fitness, getting a new and lighter bike, changing your gearing, or losing weight make it feel easier? There is no doubt that making any or all of those changes certainly helps performance. In fact, after making some or all of those changes, you may be able to get up a steep pitch that you couldn’t do before, or stay in the middle of a pace line of C’s, or finish a time trial faster than previously. But the surprising thing is: it hurts just as much; it didn’t get easier, as we imagined it would. Why is that? Isn’t it supposed to?
The reason why you get faster, or better, is because you continue to “effort" at the same level as you always have, which is as it should be. It’s the effort level that caused the pain, or discomfort. It’s also the effort that produces the improvement. The lighter bicycle or the weight loss helps, but it’s the effort that the cyclist puts into it that determines what will be accomplished.
Most of us have a built-in effort level that we will try to maintain automatically, regardless of improved conditioning, or better equipment. Our positive changes make it possible to do more, but not feel more comfortable doing it.
What I especially love about Lemond’s aphorism though, is its relevance to life in general. I once had the idea that as I got older, I would learn to manage all of my problems and challenges and at some point I would pop out into adulthood, fully matured, maybe even enlightened, and life would be smooth. Now that I am older, I think I understand how it works: the challenges keep coming. In some ways they even get harder and more complex, but I get “faster;" that is, more effective, more skillful, more able to bring my experience to bear. When I have a difficult problem now, I often say to myself, “it doesn’t get easier; you just get faster." It is particularly satisfying when I can take the lessons that I learn from cycling and apply them to my life off the bike.
Scott
The first time you do something - It's going to be a personal record!
Thank you for sharing!
You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them. ~Michael Jordan
My Goals:
1) 200lbs ACCOMPLISHED
3) 170lbs
4) Run 5K
"Unneeded food is not any less wasted in a body that doesnt need it, than it is in the trash." ~Brandilynn
"Those that will not be governed by God will be ruled by tyrants." ~William Penn
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right now. somewhere. somebody is working harder than you.
Greg Lemond is one of my personal heros and as inspired me over and over with his views on cycling and life in general. He's a man who's been at the top of the mountain but has fallen from "grace" several times in his life. When he falls, for example when Trek dropped him for his comments on doping and Lance, he always dusts himself off and fights back. He's a survivor and an amazingly talented man.
Thanks for posting this very relevant message on one of life's important lessons. My take is the pain doesn't go away if you're always climbing the ladder and reaching for the next rung. Getting out of our comfort zone and accomplishing what was heretofore unthinkable is a remarkable sense of accomplishment especially for us ex-heavyweights. To stay in our comfort zone is an invitation to slide back to our old ways. That's why I always try to set ever increasingly difficult goals each year. Don't always accomplish them but the feeling of the "ATTEMPT" is what's important.
Cape diem Scott......may the pain never go away brother.
Boner
