Your ability to suffer for even a tiny bit longer than the next rider is very often the only thing that makes you as good, or better, than they are.
The video below outlines 10 ways you can better cope with suffering.
Some of this may sound like a gimmick.
But in cycling the key thing is not to be left behind by the group during a hard patch out training, in a sportive or racing.
If you master the art of coaxing yourself through those sticky patches, you will be absolutely amazed at how much further you can go – not to mention harder and faster – based on your current condition.
This is absolutely vital advice in our sport where one moment of mental lapse can mean you let the gap to the wheel in front of you grow by a couple of yards, to quickly become minutes.
More often than not, this happens simply because you couldn’t suffer that little bit more until the pressure eased off.
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You must become a master at fooling yourself it will ease off any second. The clip below seeks to help you do that with topics such as:
- Focus on the wheel in front of you; stare at it for an eternity if required.
- Practice distraction techniques; simply think of something comforting, or even count your pedal revolutions over and over.
- Positive thinking; why not think of how fast you are going, how far you have gone or how much everyone else is hurting.
- Visualisation; think of previous achievements or of smashing goals and it may just get you over the hump.
- Ignore the numbers; try and ignore your power, heart rate or other numbers when you are getting it rough because they will simply remind you that you’re swinging.
- Plan your suffering; know when and how you will suffer and mentally ramp yourself up for those periods.
- Change your mindset; simply remind yourself (again and again) how your tough ride is making you better and working you towards your goals.
- Train out of your comfort zone; make sure you put yourself under the kind of pressure out training that you will endure in a race or sportive. If you don’t, the shock to the system when the reality kicks in might wipe you out mentally.
- Remember that if you are suffering, then others are too. Look at their faces and rocking bodies and take comfort from the fact that they are as bad, if not worse, than you are.
- Take a break; you need this to recharge and refocus after periods of strain and mental and physical suffering.
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