[Closed] How do you dig deep?

I can't afford a taxi.
I have no one to call to pick me up.
I can't walk more than about 2 miles.

I tend to avoid such situations these days but in the past visualising a hot, soapy tit **** kept my mind off the misery 🙂

At the moment I tend to get angry with myself, however from now on I'm going to be adopting jota's hot, soapy tit **** technique:)

Lol. Next time I'm struggling that thought will appear in my mind now. Nice. Cheers.

I tend to avoid such situations these days but in the past visualising a hot, soapy tit **** kept my mind off the misery

That was inspired! ....and really made me chuckle.....right, back the 'I'm so wired'...context 🙄

[quote=Rorschach ]I can't afford a taxi.
I have no one to call to pick me up.
I can't walk more than about 2 miles.

+1. Just. Keep. Going.

TBH Robert Paulson doesn't float my boat but each to there own likes

[img] [/img]

Bigger spade

You are King of that hill. Everyone else is a wimp for not being there. Then just laugh at the absurdity of it all. Many people have made it through far worse adverse situations. It's not that bad. Just keep turning those legs. More random thoughts... Oh look I'm nearly home.

I just think that the faster I go, the quicker I'll finish. If I stop, that just delays getting home.

right, back the 'I'm so wired'...context

Not with you there, sorry

I joined the army at 16 and had digging deep beaten into me by my big hairy welsh guards rsm

Suitcase full of courage?

Cake

Last time I had this was when I was 110 miles into a 150 mile ride and hadn't slept for 24 hours.
I was driven on by the fact that the sooner I got home the less of a bollocking I'd get from the Mrs.

With a shovel.

I swear at myself

I channel Jens Voight

'Come on F##ker, you're in charge, get that ###king bike up the road and stop being a Nancy' you know that sort of thing

I used to kind of go into a neutral blank mindset and keep pedalling, and detach myself from the suffering. Recently for 'life stuff' I've found Grrrr seems to work pretty well. You can't have too much Grrrr 😉

Main thing is to not think about the cold and tiredness and the wind, your body and DNA aren't going to let you slump in a heap while out riding I don't suppose, unless you bonk I guess. For that there's Jelly Babies. 🙂

I used to kind of go into a neutral blank mindset and keep pedalling, and detach myself from the suffering.

Same, I completely zone out.

I picture the summer miles and absolutely ripping the legs off everyone I know on any given climb because I've been out all winter and in all weathers, suffering, putting in the miles while they were sat indoors getting weaker. It doesn't necesarily work by the time the Summer comes around but who cares by then, it's Summer, everything's great and all the pain is forgotten.

If it's sleeting and dark cycling back to Sheffield from near Burbage I zone out, it's kind of bleak in that situation so there doesn't seem like there's very much else to do I guess, where sliding around in snow calls for a different kind of digging deep, a bit more 'grrrr' than zoning out.

I think of my dad going through his next chemo. His constant sickness, absolute fatigue, but knowing he can't stop because quitting means giving up for good. And I think that no matter how shit I feel, it's nothing in comparison, and above all I'm here because I want to be.

And I know I'm made out of bits of him, and I know for that reason I can go on. It's only a bike ride, it's not serious.
Chapeau Dad. Almost a year done since. Keep kicking it's arse.

Get off and push.

I think about my great great uncle Henry Bowers walking across Antarctica with Cherry Garrard and Wilson in the middle of winter on almost total darkness to collect penguin eggs. And then as if having completed "The Worst Journey In The World" he wasn't enough he went on to meet his end on the pole journey while never once making any complaint about what they endured.

" shut up legs"

I use my old picture of myself to mentally scald myself with things like "listen you don't want to be that fat **$*%*%*$ again do you "

[URL= http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg167/weeksy59/boy%20and%20wife/Before.jp g" target="_blank">http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg167/weeksy59/boy%20and%20wife/Before.jp g"/> [/IMG][/URL]

[URL= http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg167/weeksy59/boy%20and%20wife/wedding1.jp g" target="_blank">http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg167/weeksy59/boy%20and%20wife/wedding1.jp g"/> [/IMG][/URL]

Wow, some of you think too much.

Relax the shoulders, straighten your back, stretch out, lift that furrowd brow, drop your jaw and then smile. Pace off, roll out for a couple of hundred meters whilst doing all of this then pace back on again.

What doesn't kill you etc

"It's not gonna get any warmer if I slow down"

It's not gonna get any warmer if I slow down

and, remembering previous against-all-odds conquerings of hills and rain.

I had to dig deep last night..

I was just basking in the warm afterglow of a very satisfying soapy tit ****, when I noticed we were out of wine and fags..
The 24 hour garage near me stops serving booze at midnight and I had about 7 minutes to get there..

I made it with two minutes to spare 😀

"Stop whinging. Joe Simpson made it so what's your problem?"

That's a [b]hell[/b] of a change you made there weeksy.

(You're the one on the right, yeah..?)

I think of my late best friend and riding buddy giving me s and buzzing my back wheel, I can often hear him in my head when out on rides, it always makes me smile widely and push like f.

Nice one Weeksey.
I have the same Before and After photos, except they are in the opposite order.

Yunki - must've been all that stretching you did to perform the "soapy" beforehand

impressive, all the same

theotherjonv - Member
I think of my dad going through his next chemo...........

and that is the difference between digging deep because you have to rather than you want to I guess

I find remembering all the times I've been pretty all in and still made it help - shuts out negatives

Hermann Buhl was my inspiration when I was younger - used to keep his biography in my desk draw at work to remind what life was really all about

I find I can pull objects towards me by staring at them really hard. That, and relaxing the shoulders as bikebuoy says.

Normally mixture of the calm detached just keep spinning my legs, "it can't go on forever can it?" and the angry man must defeat the hill tactics, along with judicious use of caffeine if available.

However I've an inkling jota's HSTW visualisation method will be applied sometime soon.

Nice one Weeksy. You look much younger without the beard.

I try

a) detach from the situation and think of nothing;
b) concentrate on relaxing, calm breathing and spinning;
c) think about the winter season and that this pain will make me fitter for backcountry skinning/snowboarding; or
d) swear, a lot.

Sometimes it works, sometime it just hurts.

I sometimes tell myself to imagine how much more painful this would feel if I was running instead of riding the bike. It kind of opens the door to enduring a higher level of pain. I am not a good runner.

I tend to do a few things, including:

Focus on a bike length at a time. Riding one bike length is easy, even when on the limit. Just do that, then focus on the next one.

Or I relish the pain in my legs, and imagine I'm building it up to unleash on others at a later date in a race/ride/whatever.

Or think about it as getting the pain all over with now, so you can ride one more hill in summer, with no pain, cos you've already paid for it.

I can cope with wind and rain and headwind, and I can cope with being tired with empty legs.

When they both happen at the same time it's hard work, but thinking of the other STW undoubtedly helps. And I've gotta get to work and back.

I used to kind of go into a neutral blank mindset and keep pedalling, and detach myself from the suffering.

This +1 usualy, just sperate out the "I'm enjoying being out on my bike" part of the moment from the "I'm ****ing cold and ****ing miserable" part. Got home last night and the missus said "got wet then?", I've gotten so good at it I didn't actualy know whether I had or not!

For the really bad days, Jota's method or variations thereof work.

Headwind, pannier and 42x15 gets my cadence down to about 65-70. So I get low on the drops and stare at the stem. It will be over soon enough.

"Better than the alternative" seems to be our family motto. The alternative in this case being not being - and we've too much experience of that.

And when I'm racing, I just say to myself "Never, never, never give up". That got me around the last 10 laps of a recent 100km road race after I'd bruised my ribs on the pump track at the Bike Show the day before, and fallen off the back of the pack on the second lap. Finished 31/32, but I beat the 24 who chose not to finish at all.

Great stuff. I try the zone out. It will be over just keep pedalling. I also think, lots of people would love to be able to be in this situation.

I was grinding up a hill once and some old boy walking with a stick smiled. We both knew that smile.

I had it on the big grassy climb at last years SPAM winter challenge. I just completely put any thought of pushing out of the equation- that was not an option.
Then, that just leaves one pedal revolution at a time to complete and suddenly a zen like peace descends- only grinding up an awful hill can you be truly in the moment 😀

Not far from the top now 😉
[IMG] [/IMG]

(and yes, I did buy a copy of the picture so not a total chav 😉 )

This one comes a bit out of leftfield but always works for me.

I tell myself I've witnessed childbirth and consequently any argument I may have had about being a little uncomfortable whilst playing out on my bike becomes entirely irrelevant.

Like I say unusual but works, that's not to say I'll not try the soapy tits trick next time!

Hah.... STW - Single Track World or ......

I just know what will be popping into my mind during the next big climb now.

Cheers 🙂