The more I rode, the more I began to realize that I could endure a great deal of physical suffering on the bike. The more I suffered on the bike, the stronger I would become mentally. I took to training in the hills as much as possible. There are two ways to bike hills, you can survive them or you can try to conquer them. The difference is essentially in the proximity you come to having a heart attack at the top. Almost anybody can put a bike in the easiest gear possible and make their way over the top of a hill. In my hill training I try to go as hard as humanly possible, muscles seizing with lactic acid, lungs searing with oxygen deprivation, and at the point where I think I can't possibly go any harder, I stand up on the pedals and go harder. One summer I signed up to do three hillclimbing centuries. The three rides covered 340 miles and had a total of about 27000 feet of vertical gain. One of the rides I did in Colorado, called the Triple Bypass, covered 120 miles with over 10,000 feet of vertical gain that went over three Rocky mountain passes. Toughest part of that ride was that the entire ride took place between 7,500 and 12,000 feet of elevation. My lungs were making a strange gurgling sound at the end of that one.
I started getting better at dealing with stress. I found that I could leave a lot of pain, anger, and stress on the roads. I would destroy myself on the bike and, in the process, found that the efforts would also destroy any demons I had inside. This proved to be instrumental in my ability to recover from a separation and divorce that affected me worse than I ever would have imagined. Without getting into the details, I'll just say that if it wasn't for the bike and a couple close friends, I may still be looking for my way out of a bottle of whisky.
It was at this point I started realizing that I could ride with some really strong riders. I felt that I could suffer better than most, which lends itself well to hill climbing and road racing, and since I've always been the competitive type I decided to start racing. I set my sights on the Mt Washington Hillclimb, considered one of the toughest hillclimbs in the world. 7.6 miles of up, with no down. Not only that, but the average grade is over 12%. That grade is approximately equal to the steepest paved roads that you've ever driven on but typically only extend less than a half mile. As much as I try, I can't really do the difficulty of climbing Mt W on a bike any justice in words. You have to experience it to understand it.
I was training for Mt W with my friend Bill, a very strong climber who can suffer with the best of them. Bill and I would do rides in the White Mountains with 30 minute climbs and 50MPH descents. I would train alone and do hill repeats on the nastiest hills in Mason, New Ipswich, Ashby, and Wilton. At one point, Bill and I did a ride in Vermont that covered 130 miles with over 15,000 feet of vertical gain climbing over 6 mountain gaps. We covered it in under 8 hours! Training like this had an obvious effect on my physical conditioning, but it also had an amazing effect on my mental state. When you're spent physically and you're coming into the next climb and it's staring you down telling you that it's going to kick your ass and you dig that much deeper and put yourself into the kind of pain where your brain is screaming at you to back off but you don't, that develops mental toughness. When you do it over and over again it develops the type of mental toughness that allows you to deal better with difficult situations in all aspects of your life. This, along with the support of Michele and Bill, is what got me through the most painful period in my life and set me up for where I am today...
Next... road racing, shaving, and the best day of my life on a bike....
best,
kevin
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