Where Optimal Meets Effortless: Make Great Rides Inevitable

Ok, so what’s this “where optimal meets effortless” all about?

Well, not only is it the strapline of Souplesse Cycling – my passion project – but it is also a very carefully selected set of words. “Optimal” is personal; “effortless” is engineered.

Word by Word

In this blog and indeed in what we do at Souplesse it is the place “where” these two worlds meet. Hence the word “where”. Ok that was too easy…

Optimal – this word was chosen very carefully to take into account that everyone’s version of optimal cycling is different. We aren’t all pros chasing the best power to weight ratio for sustained mountain climbs – there’s a huge variety in what an optimal cycling experience looks like. Some people really enjoy the tech and the feel of a great bike optimised for speed or comfort. For others it is the watts and the speed and the feeling of progress. For another group it is the camaraderie and enjoyment of shared experiences with others. For yet more people it is the simple joy of the wind in your hair and taking in the world at such a wonderful speed (quick enough, so you see plenty and slow enough so that you can take it in).

Now this optimal cycling state is not easy to achieve. We all spend time chasing that perfect ride, that epic ride, those days where it all comes together: weather, legs, fuelling, company etc etc.

The theory behind Souplesse comes from years of trying to make these sorts of rides effortless. As a passionate cyclist with a full time, full-on career I worked hard to find a way to make these optimal rides happen more often. Being an engineer, I created systems and frameworks that helped put me (my mind, my legs), my bike and my kit in the zone where I had the best chance of making these epic rides happen. Hence making these optimal rides feel effortless. If I just repeated the same set of habits around my riding then, hey presto, I had a great ride. It almost felt like cheating!

It is in these habits and systems that those optimal rides became more effortless – giving way to the title of this blog.

The more these systems have developed the more I thought I could share and teach them to others.

But how do you know what is optimal?

Well, that comes back to the C in our CHAIN Methodology. It is about Charting Your Course. We have a set process to really identify what is important to you, what limits the joy in your cycling experience and then we work to build good habits to support that (and eliminate unhelpful ones). Everyone’s cycling dream and cycling goals will be different and we are totally tailored to that.

How do we know the result is optimal and that we are making the right moves? Well, that comes back to being an engineer. I obsess over the latest cycling science and tech in all areas. Moreover, with years of testing the applicability of this science to real riders with real lives I feel as though I am in a good place to assess the latest and greatest with a view on how well it works for amateurs fitting cycling in around life.

How do you make it effortless?

Do you remember every action you took the last time you drove somewhere, the last time you cooked your favourite meal? Probably not. Why? It has become habitual. That is how you make things effortless (or at least low effort). We make the things that support great riding happen on autopilot, then great rides happen more and more effortlessly.

Habits being the H in the CHAIN method. They aren’t always the easiest to manipulate in terms of building new ones and removing old ones that don’t serve us anymore, but I fundamentally believe that they are the cheat codes to modern time-crunched lives. The more effective we make our habits, the more they support the results, experiences and who we want to be, the more effortlessly moments of joy can be found.

So, yes, I’m going to talk a lot about science, data, tech and above all else habits.

If you’re unclear what is limiting your joy in cycling check out our cycling scorecard and get a free tool to address the issue immediately:

https://james-kg7dpynb.scoreapp.com

PS Join our Sacred Hour Project to get some mindful minutes in your week and support cycling charities. https://www.souplessecycling.com/sacred-hour