By Kevin Kolodziejski
The two stories that follow do not come from Jack Webb. They are not culled from an old transcript of “Dragnet.” This article, however, begins as if they do, for as Webb wrote and “Dragnet” began, the stories you are about to hear are true.
Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent . . . and keep me on good terms with them.
So a guy we’ll call Sir Edmund Hillary asked me to meet him early one July morning at a convenience store in the middle of nowhere and seven miles east of the mountain local cyclists see as their Mount Everest. That we ascended it six times before riding on surprised me. That I managed to ride aside Sir Edmund except for the 10-to-15-percent pitches on both sides surprised me even more. But the real surprise occurred later after he requested we stop at the convenience store so he could slug some Gatorade and scarf down a Snickers Bar.
Surviving the Climbs Is Not the Real Surprise
Between gulps and bites, Sir Edmund complained about his wife — and he went on and on well after his food and drink were gone. Nothing too terrible, though; just typical stuff, like her nagging him about spending too much time cycling.
Still, I was surprised a guy knighted by the Queen was confiding in me, particularly since prior to this we had discussed racing strategy primarily, the weather occasionally, and not much else. Yet that convenience-store surprise was surpassed tenfold when another cycling associate confided in me about 14 months later. This one had me feeling more like Chandler Bing on “Friends” than a sherpa assisting Sir Edmund.
For it came from a teammate we’ll call Ross Geller, whom I got to know much better when he developed a passion for one of mine, time trialing. Even so, only a few of our chats had ever been about anything other than how to go faster in the race of truth. So when he made his first-ever phone call to me one September night while I was babysitting my three-year-old niece, I expected him to tell me he finally bought those expensive, light-weight aero bars he had been coveting.
Far More Newsworthy Than New Aero Bars
Instead, he said that his common-law wife was leaving him for his best friend, a guy who was also a really good friend of mine. That as we speak, they were dining together to decide how to break the news to him. How he knew of this ahead of time I didn’t think to ask, but I’m pretty sure I know what you’re thinking right now. What’s the intention behind the telling of two pseudo-cycling soap-opera stories?
The Intention Behind the Soap Opera Stories
To illustrate something about the nature of cycling and cyclists. Because we share all sorts of experiences while doing the former — some good, some bad, some life-affirming — we feel such a bond that we sometimes share things with the latter that the latter doesn’t expect us to share. I’ll leave the reasons behind this for the psychologists. I just know I do it at times while doing base miles with a buddy, and occasionally in this column for I’ve come to see you — despite never meeting you — as the same.
But when I’m penning a column and not pedaling a bicycle, the intention is not so much to unburden my soul but to help you get a little better. And now that you know my intentions, it’s time to reveal the “simple thing” mentioned in the title. It’s called implementation intentions and is nothing more than an approach to take in order to achieve a cycling-related goal, or any goal at all.
Implementation Intentions
In his second paper about the topic, published in 1997 by the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Dr. Peter M. Gollwitzer makes a distinction between a “goal intention” and an “implementation intention.” While the first is merely having a general aim or plan, the second — a term he coined and is now used widely in any realm of behavior modification — is performing a specific behavior to achieve that plan when you encounter a specific situation at a specific time.
In a podcast hosted by Boston University’s Sergeant College, “The Theory of Planned Behavior and Implementation Intentions,” doctor and registered dietitian Michelle DeBiasse explains you can do this by simply constructing a sentence using the if-then format. Such as “If it is breakfast time and I am at my breakfast table, then I will eat an apple.” DeBiasse also stresses implementation intentions are not habits formed through repeated behaviors, but are “a deliberate plan to act . . . not a general one-size-fits-all plan,” and are “person-specific.”
Which brings us back to one specific person. Not Sir Edmund Hillary, Ross Gellar, or any other false name used in this article, but you. While it’s true that talking about your problems with a cycling buddy is a smart move — that it serves as an emotional release and provides temporary relief and that countless studies have shown it boosts mental health — what’s even smarter is to find a way for your problems to end.
So be aware that a number of studies besides Gollwitzer’s have found creating if-then statements to be an effective way to make that happen. And that I used to have a bad habit of letting my bikes get so dirty that the components were aging prematurely, but that I don’t have that problem anymore.
Because instead of bending my buddy’s ear about my negligence, I bend my own and say, “If there’s any type of precipitation and I’m outdoors and cycling, then I will clean the wheels, chain, and cassette immediately afterwards.”
Kevin Kolodziejski began his writing career in earnest in 1989. Since then he’s written a weekly health and fitness column and his articles have appeared in magazines such as “MuscleMag,” “Ironman,” “Vegetarian Times,” and “Bicycle Guide.” He has Bachelor and Masters degrees in English from DeSales and Kutztown Universities.
A competitive cyclist for more than 30 years, Kevin won two Pennsylvania State Time Trial championships in his 30’s, the aptly named Pain Mountain Time Trial 4 out of 5 times in his 40s, two more state TT’s in his 50’s, and the season-long Pennsylvania 40+ BAR championship at 43.
If you continue to talk toward solutions then I’ll keep reading. 🙂