Some of my coworkers have informed me that voluntarily choosing to suffer is not a normal human response. I think a lot of athletes have "The Sufferer" personality type. My tolerance for pain is high particularly when I know that the pain is temporary. When my dentist (the Queen of Pain) gives me a shot, the pain only lasts a few seconds. When the salon employee rips hot wax off my skin (the pain women go through to look beautiful!), the pain only lasts a minute or so. And during a sprint triathlon, I look at my watch and calculate how many more minutes the pain will last until I cross the finish line.

One Saturday last summer, when I was first starting out as a cyclist, my mentor took me on a 72 mile ride, just myself and him. He wouldn't allow me to draft off him for the entire ride. As I became stronger throughout the season, 72 miles became easier to conquer. But that first time, I crawled back into the house after the ride and passed out on the sofa. During the races following that ride, I thought back to how badly I was suffering that day and realized that the race was nowhere near as difficult. The suffering provided a frame of reference for me.

Lance Armstrong notes that he thinks of conquering cancer when he is on his bike. No suffering could compare to that experience, and it has made him a much stronger cyclist after his recovery.

Suffer away!