The relationship between Buddhism and Endurance Cycling

If you are a spiritual person then at some point in our life you may have come across Buddhism. I am not religious in the slightest, but I do have an affinity and appreciation for Buddhist teachings and interestingly, I think embracing Buddhism has helped me as a newbie endurance cyclist these last few months, given the truth of suffering is the first of the 4 noble truths and core to Buddhism. I.e. embrace suffering as part of life, don't try and fight it.

You don't get through an endurance event like London to Brussels, or anything else of an equal, lesser or great scale, without coming across a reasonable amount of suffering and pain along the way. Any professional cyclist will tell you they need to embrace pain and suffering on the bike in order to get through the miles and have the best chance of winning their race. The same is true of amateur cyclists trying to get through a long training ride, or climb up a steep hill, or even cycling 379km from blackheath in London to the centre of Brussels.

Read my previous blog entries about my 3 days in the saddle across Kent, Calais, Brugge, Ghent and Brussels and you will come across numerous constant references to various levels of pain or hardship I had to endure in order to make it to the finish line. The thing I love about the bike the most is the fact it's all on the individual, nobody else can turn my pedals for me, I can draft in someone else's slipstream to make it easier for me, and I can take energy drinks etc to give me a turbo boost, but ultimately it's all on me. If I am to get through the miles I need to find pain and suffering, accept they are part of the journey, find my own (often private or internal) ways to accept or shut them out, and then break through the other side.

And when, eventually, you do break through the other side (of suffering), there are few greater feelings in life. The realisation that you have conquered and overcome personal fatigue, pain, suffering, mental torture on your own, that you have embraced suffering as part of the bike ride you're doing, is for a lot of people the meaning of life on the bike. Or one of them at least....!

The irony of Buddhism teaching us to not have attachment, compared to endurance road cycling being all about (for some) the pursuit of numbers, watts, calories, targets etc, rather than just riding to be, has not escaped me. I leave that argument to other more qualified Buddhists though, I'm not about to punch that far over my weight!!!

Back to the point; getting through long distance cycling events is all about suffering and pain, Buddhism can help you find ways to embrace them as part of normal every day life, which eventually makes it easier to get through them on the bike. It's a constant journey and the pain and suffering on the bike never stops, but in an endurance event you need all the help you can get, and whilst this isn't the only trick I use to get past pain and suffering, it is one that helps, which is fine by me!!

The face of pain and suffering as I endured through the 2012 wiggle Yorkshire weaver sportive!!