In celebration of being wrong (again)!

I have spoken before, of my love of being wrong. So many times in fact, that at the bottom of this Daily Reminder I shall post a whole bunch of links for you, so that you can revel in all my mistakes, or at least the ones I'm comfortable admitting, eh?

(Lest you were labouring under the impression I know what I'm doing 😆)

Why is being wrong so good?

Because it's how we learn! It's how we grow! It's how misunderstanding falls away and we get a little bit closer to the truth of things. Because this process is going on for all of us:

• Ego creates a belief, from stuff it's heard
• It goes looking for evidence to support that belief (finding it, easily)
• Once established, it gets very tetchy if that belief is challenged (often doubling down, rather than changing its mind; something called ‘belief perseverance’)
• Egoic beliefs ultimately place conditions on our happiness, thereby limiting our apparent choices
• Without even noticing, our lives shrink, as we need things to be ‘just so’ because it looks like that's the only way we can be ok.

It's classic outside-in thinking, it's the source of all human misery and if we ever want to change anything, then almost by definition, we have to be wrong.

That's why I love it so!

Beliefs about ‘keeping warm’

“I think I might have been wrong! Like, really wrong, for a long time! It's brilliant!!”

This is my greeting, as I meet up with a cycling buddy, a half hour's ride between his place and mine.

It's cold, a bit drizzly and I'm dressed rather strangely. Not outwardly, but beneath the surface.

You see, a few days previously, I'd watched a rather curious cycling video, where they did some experiments on themselves and concluded that the best way to cycle in cold weather—to stay comfortable, without compromising performance—is not to ‘wrap up warm’ in the conventional sense.

You see for years (all my life until now) I've had a very clear, unchallenged belief that when it's cold and you're out on your bike, the most important bit of you to keep warm is your core – your torso, essentially.

This belief has manifested almost as a little voice in my head—the voice of every mother, across the aeons—saying something like, Look after your core, and your extremities will look after themselves.

So whenever the temperature has dropped and I've headed out on two wheels, I've layered up. Big time. In winter, if it's proper cold, I might wear as many as six layers total on my torso – multiple base layers, jersey(s), gilet, jacket… Big, thick, bulky clothing.

It never seemed to totally prevent me from getting numb feet or cold hands (even with big gloves and bulky overshoes on) and whenever I stopped or when I arrived home, all the inner layers would be sopping wet with perspiration.

(I have been know to stop and take layers off, having ground to a sweaty halt, such was my commitment to ‘not catching a chill’, when making clothing choices.)

As with all unchallenged beliefs, I never really questioned it, or even really saw reason to – it just seemed like the inevitable inconvenience of performing an outdoor sport in cold weather.

Until I saw the video, and the evidence (albeit from one person, but a person I know and respect).

I couldn't wait to try it out for myself!

Getting my own evidence

And this is what I'd experienced, on that half hour's ride in the cold, over to meet up with my friend (who was wearing the traditional 6 layers, and thought I was crackers).

Instead of my usual get-up, I'd double-layered my arms and legs, but was just wearing a skimpy little single base layer under my jersey (which I had unzipped)… and it felt fine! 😎

I spent 5 hours, ‘inappropriately dressed’ that day, in what was fairly classic crappy Welsh winter weather, but neither overheated, nor got cold.

All those years, overdressed, I'd been delightfully wrong—again!—and if you ever have occasion to ride a bike outdoors when it's cold, I'd invite you to have a go at being wrong too.

It could be the start of something beautiful!

(I've put the video at the bottom, so you can make your own mind up… but you're going to have to try it, to see how it feels.)

I've been out on my bike, ‘inappropriately dressed’ a few times now and I'm such a convert, I even got my wife to take a pair of scissors and hack all the bits of a thick winter base layer away, apart from the arms & shoulders – I now have a cheeky little winter bolero to wear! 😂🤣

So anyway, if you ride a bike, watch the video, get curious, try it out and report back in the comments, below.

Here's to more comfortable winter riding (thanks, Si) … and to being wrong in general!

💟

Giles

p.s. If you want to read the old Cycling Plus article I wrote about Simon's team and their commitment to anti-doping, I've scanned and uploaded it here: Cycling Plus May 2008 - Racing Clean

The infamous video