Pain and methods to over ride it

Pedal even harder than you do now

The best advice I've been given is this: "When you have to ride really hard, first start to grin, then, as the suffering reaches the edge of your tolerance, turn the grin into a full-blown overenthusiastic madman-type smile. Ear to ear. Keep concentrating on that smile and start to pretend that what you're doing is a really sexy manouvre. The more it hurts, the more sexy you are. This is cycling intercourse, there is no pain, only pleasure. You are giving the bike ecstacy. Keep those pedals turning until your sexy calf muscles start oozing fluid. In reality it is merely sweat, but push reality aside for a minute while each pedal revolution one by one turns you into the sexiest man in the world. You are becoming a sex god. Make love to the bicycle in a way that only a sex god knows how."

GiantMike wrote:

pcb24 wrote:

Can't believe this hasn't been said: pain is weakness leaving the body!

No it isn't. No matter how strong you get you can still push yourself hard enough to feel pain, you just perform better when you feel the pain. If you stop feeling pain it's because you're too weak to endure it and you have stopped trying as hard.

GiantMike - I think you took that quote a bit too literally, with a slight misunderstanding.

Pigtail wrote:

I don't know if I lack imagination, have a high pain threshold, or just don't 'read' my own body very well, but I don't find riding my bike painful. Much of the time I think I can pretty much empty my head of everything and just keep going.

Do you win a lot of races?

Pigtail wrote:

I don't know if I lack imagination, have a high pain threshold, or just don't 'read' my own body very well, but I don't find riding my bike painful. Much of the time I think I can pretty much empty my head of everything and just keep going.

Pigtail doing a Z4 session.....http://youtu.be/dhtB11GAUX0

GiantMike wrote:

liter wrote:

Training should not be painful. Save it for the racing.

Training should induce sufficient physical stress to get the body to adapt. This may involve 'pain' (actually more like lactic acid build-up and discomfort from high demand activity). I'm not sure I agree with your 'easy training' mentality.

That's to some extent the point I was trying to make. It's not really pain is it?

I've worked hard and spent a couple of weeks straight with aching legs, noticeable every time I took a step.

I've also had broken bones - thankfully not for some time- that were real 'pain.'

There's just no comparison between the two.

whojanicanackerov wrote:

I thought it was train hard a race easy

Agree with the above.

Although only done a few races, adrenaline carries you though these and never think about this during racing.

Distraction seems key. I find, in order of effective distraction:

- Racing
- Road Riding
- Turbo

So the turbo seems worst for pain vs power and racing is the least invasive.

But distraction is key... think about anything else rather than concentrating on the pain.

There is a great scene in the film/book:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touching_the_Void_(film)
Where in pops 'Brown Girl in the Ring' into his head, and he can't get rid of it.. but it was all about blocking out pain.