Originally Posted by
burnthesheep
Lots of joes can experience that, but you only do if you get into that zone of effort. If you've not trained in those zones at some point, you won't be able to experience that. Same thing for pros. Pros have done it so much in training they can get deeper into it than some random hobbyist like myself.
This is a thing that I don't believe many people in this discipline really understand. Vast majority of cyclists are just doing the ride. Those that "push" will cross efforts that felt like they were "going to die" from time to time. "I went really hard". Then there's the other level. It's not just the pain. It's almost like your body starts to actively shut down functions in an effort to save you and you start finding ways to short circuit your body's wiring and bypass the safety switches. Then all of a sudden secret dark rooms start opening up. It's an over-used phrase now but when we started using it I felt like it had more meaning and aptly described it. A pro I know used to also use it. Pain Cave. as in a literal dark empty space you go inside of you. It's a feeling of being disembodied - consciousness actively separating from the body. The darker it is in there the deeper you're going. "Pain cave without a flashlight" was referring to going deeper into it than ever before.
Now that phrase is used by Peloton instructors telling rec cyclists to "try hard". It's not the same.
Originally Posted by
burnthesheep
I'll credit that the effort to finish an event can be monumental. Some of the most inspiring images are of Ironman finishers half crawling to the line in the last minutes of the night before the cutoff time. That sucks. That hurts. But that's a totally different race/event than the other folks are doing. .
Yup. Endurance is a different endeavor. It's like a long con with your mental being. It's a slow suffocation of consciousness. It's completely different.
The intensity and overwhelming all consumingness of intense efforts is nothing like the mental battle of endurance. this is why gravel and road will never be the same but cross and road are. It's also why gravel will eventually lose its popularity again because the only way for it to continue is by making it "more". Longer. More epic, etc.