8am - that horrible sounding iPhone alarm awakens me from my beauty sleep. Another day of training lies ahead. As I lay there, silently praying for my body to feel recovered from the previous days efforts - I am listening to the familiar sound of wind and rain almost plummeting through my bedroom window. A regular morning if you live in Ireland! First the little devilish thoughts or excuses seem to form an orderly queue. Too wet! Too cold? Too windy! Too tired? Go back to bed for another hour or so. And so on, and so on…
Then comes the positivity. Who’s queue is a lot shorter and seems to speak so much more sense. “It’s not that bad, just get on with it” ; “Man up” ; or my personal favourite “Time for a cement milkshake, harden up!“ After all, I’m going to have to race in the rain too!
I’ve learnt to ignore the devilish thoughts to the point where they rarely enter my mind. The one thing I always ask myself is - “why did you set that alarm in the first place?” I must admit it’s not a very pleasant feeling waking up to such weather conditions or achy muscles, but it never seems to stop me getting myself out of the bed and getting to work. Sometimes you’ve got to ask yourself - “What do I want now?” ; or more importantly - “What do I want most?”.
As I rode over the Vee today, on some of my favourite roads to ride my bike - with the much welcomed winter sun on my back, I yet again realised how lucky I am! I’m in a position in which I've come to realise - I've put myself in, through working hard. There is no shortcuts in cycling, or life to that matter - and there’s no doubt I've worked, suffered and sacrificed a lot to be given the opportunity to ride my bike full time. I don't take anything for granted and I am willing to put in the training required.
I always say - if only you could hear some of the stuff I talk to myself about while I am out pedalling around the countryside - you'd think I was insane! I am lucky not to have too many problems in life, at least nothing major. But if I did I am sure they would be resolved while riding my bike. I do all my thinking behind the bars, staring at that little Garmin screen whilst pushing the pedals a little harder, is where I make all my decisions. I pour all my thoughts onto the road ahead of me, and ride over them.
The freedom that cycling provides is incredible. While I am out riding my bike for 3,4 maybe 5 hours a day - you do a lot of thinking. Not just useless thoughts either, it’s mostly logical pondering’s on life. Thinking about things that may never cross your mind while sitting at home. It’s like taking a detox from the world. Suddenly, from that moment you roll out of your door - it’s just you, your bike and the roads.
I mostly train on my own - and for a number of reasons. It's how I seem to work best (when there’s specific work to do!). There's nobody to distract me from the task at hand - and while I'm out on the roads pushing on the pedals, nobody can come into my bubble and disrupt my thoughts. In saying that, I love to train with my brothers, friends and team mates. There’s only a certain amount of time in which you can talk to yourself of course!
You become in tune with yourself through the sport. It gets to the point where you become so aware of every little implication that life brings. There’s a certain selfishness involved at times. There may be days where you have to say “no” to people asking you to go out, or to go shopping. Even on recovery days - remembering the days purpose! Recovering, staying off your feet. There’s no doubt it can be difficult, but the sense of satisfaction is incredible. Indescribable. That feeling on a race days evening where every step of the staircase is burning like crazy. We are strange creatures us cyclists.
Cycling is such a complex sport though; and there’s so much more to cycling than just riding your bike. Cycling teaches you about life. It teaches you discipline, sacrifice, dedication, focus. How your body works and responds. How your body adapts to such physical exertions. It teaches you about the world. Different cultures. It shows that when you work hard for something you can make it happen, and most importantly - it teaches you about the up’s and down’s; the high’s and low’s that life will throw in your face!
However hard it may be - I wouldn’t change anything for the world! I love what I do. I love life behind bars.
Twitter: @Eoin_McCarthy
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