On Christmas Eve it will have been four months to the date since I last rode a bicycle.
What’s my excuse?
Well I can give you a long list of them – injury, work commitments, weather, lethargy, travelling yada yada yada – in the end, all they will ever be are excuses.
Now it’s time to rectify that situation and I need some help from the ST faithful – your words of encouragement and any stories of similar experiences are welcomed.
First, I’ll take you back.
In late August, the 2010 TransWales finished, an event which my brother and I competed in and both enjoyed. With a few days to go I developed a lump in my leg.
Said injury enforced a two week lay-off, during which my motivation rapidly evaporated.
Since then, I have took refuge in the comfort of my bed on any free weekends and when seldom the notion of riding a bike crossed my mind, the sight of rain, wind or even dark skies seems to be enough to scare the thought away quicker than a rat up a drain-pipe.
I currently have a half-built SS in my living room (i like SS just to keep you informed), a shelving unit full of tools and parts gathering dust and some new rubber that’s itching to get to grips with fine trails – but in computer terms, the hardware is all fine, it’s the software that needs re-programming.
What do you do when the idea of riding isn’t that appealing?
Some of you will say “I’ve never had such a thought” – and you have my envy. But to the others who wake up on a planned riding day and think ‘Do I really want to do this?’ – what keeps you going?
What makes you get up and want to ride a bike?
2010 is nearly over and it will be remebered in part for a lack of riding – help me make 2011 the year of the Bike for me.
Make a day for riding, then just get out. No thinking about it, just do it.
nike troll?
Forget the last couple of months. Think back to when you were riding regularly (cue swirling mists of time!). Now you’re back in that time, can you name an occasion when you went out on the bike and didn’t enjoy it? Or got back and wished that you hadn’t bothered?
it’s always more fun on the bike than you tell yourself it will be, when you are looking for excuses.
Get out. Don’t make any plans. Just go ride something you know well, take your time, mess about. If you get an obstacle wrong, go give it another go. If you get something right and you enjoy it, go do it again. Look around at the scenery, listen to the birdsong, set little challenges with your riding mates; if you clean the climb non stop you get first dibs on the haribo, if you brake in this section, you owe the others a beer, however gets the furthest before having to pedal gets the last jaffa cake… whatever it needs to be to just be “fun”. It’ll make you want to do it again and again and before you know it, you’ll be riding regularly.
Alternatively, set yourself a challenge you can’t get out of. Sign up fo Trans-Wales again with the aim of a better time or whatever; you pay your money, it’d be silly to waste it, it’ll help you get out even when you are less inclined to.
Ride to work? Not the same as some nice techie or swoopy singletrack, but the extra fitness will make it easier when you get there and that helps make it more fun to ride than annoying to walk…
But ultimately, just make yourself go – even if it is at 1pm and you’ll only get an hour in; riding more often generates it’s own motivation!
I am in the same place as you at the moment. If you lived a little closer perhaps we could tackle this phsycological barrier together! Good luck getting out of your rut….
a good tip from my own experience of being off the bike for a few months (since july) some might curse me for saying this but, get off and walk if it hurts too much- simple- but walk untill you get your breath back and give it another go, when you’ve been inactive for a while, even walking will help build your fittness, and the main thing is the next time you look out the window and think ” I won’t enjoy it, my legs will hurt” etc, you can say ” I will enjoy it, when it hurts I can always stop, and walk for a bit- take in the view and marvel at the world around- as an old man once told me ” life moves pretty fast , if you don’t stop and look around once in a while , you could miss it…” keep positive, start small and work your way up back to fitness, everyone has to start somewhere, and as other people have said name one time that you’ve come back from a ride and thought, I’m not glad I did that………- I bet you can’t think of one- good luck and have a very merry christmas!
Read the “My Prozac” article in Singletrack’s September issue – it will lift your spirits and motivate you to get out there.
Maybe you need to set a new challenge…. something to get you back in the saddle. At the end of the year i am just the same after enjoyed so many good rides and weather…. then it all goes during the winter and any excuse seems to do not to go out…. failing that, as these guys are saying…just do it!!
where’s the GD mid-week mini movies?
Thanks everyone for your words – it’s reassuring to know that I’m not the only going through / gone through a similar experience.
As you all say, there isn’t a time I can look back at and say – “that was a sh*t day on the bike”
Langy – riding to work is something I had considered but it’s a 30mile journey and until I can regain some modicum of fitness it’s way beyond my current state. It is however a potential incentive.
Muppet – Curse the lay of the land but i do hope you can find a way out of the rot. Please let me know when it happens.
As for me, I think it might be time to sign up for a challenge. Trans Wales again perhaps, mayhem maybe?
What I am going to do is take my bike out of Jan 1st – start the year as you mean to go on and all that. Maybe that will be the cure?
Do you know yet why blood came out of your face? and what the lump was?
Nathan – Sign up for the Classic Weekender in July! 🙂
http://www.singletrackworld.com/weekender
How about walking along a good trail. Look at the lines you could take. Imagine the feelings, the speed, the adrenalin. Then rebuild that ss. Visualization can be pretty useful. But I’d say having a bike sat there ready to rip staring at you forlornly might tip the balance
Go and play for an hour on your bike with a mate somewhere it’s interesting to ride, preferably with an easy spin to the top. And then go to the pub. It’s good to get away from the ‘must do miles’ mindset.
Remove as many possible excuses possible. Pick a day to ride, pick a route to ride, and pick them well in advance. Stick to it rain or shine. Make sure the bike and all your kit is ready to go well before hand. Go out first thing as soon as you get up, don’t lie in bed or sit in the chair and let yourself think of excuses. Tell yourself you’ll enjoy it. Don’t expect too much, especially after four months off.
And remember, a crap ride is still better than sitting at home feeling guilty you didn’t bother 😉
Start with the aim of doing 10 minutes and seeing if it feels good and take it from there. If it’s no good you’ll still have done a 20 minute ride (10 out and 10 back don’t cheat by doing a 10 minute lap!).
The best ways I can suggest to get you going are to get a new bit of kit – doesn’t matter what it is, could be anything from new socks to new forks – which you are just itching to get out and try.
The other way is to arrange to show a group of mates around a trail. Make a firm date – that way it’s not just yourself you would be letting down if you bail.
Also, remove all other possible excuses as Andituk has said above.
And remember all the valuable advice given to you on this forum – if you don’t get off your hairy one and ride, you’ve wasted all our time 😉
Have a good Christmas, and one final thought to get you out of the house – look at the TV listings! Would you rather be pedalling or watching Come Dine With Me or Kerry Katona’s “life” story? FFS
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I’m in a massive total hole of lethargy at the moment, so you have my absolute pity. My long list of excuses include two kinds of illness (neither serious, thankfully), crap weather, two small kids and a stressed wife.
Echoing some of the earlier comments, I’ve got some good friends driving a fair way to ride my local trails with me. No way I’m not joining them, but the fact it’s been planned as an “all day ride” has been giving me The Fear. I broke my duck today by getting on my road bike and riding to some friends’ house 25 miles away while my wife drove over. It felt *awful*, but I know the next ride will be all the easier for it.
A huge motivation comes from knowing that mountain biking is a lot more fun with a bit of extra fitness. Not being the guy slogging up the climbs and keeping everyone else waiting is the mental image to hold in your mind!
JFDI. It gets easier.
Good luck!
When I am not working 70 hours a week I alternate over varying timescales between resting, climbing, mountain biking and writing music, so losing motivation in one thing isn’t really a problem. Resting is important. Stop giving yourself a hard time dude. Maybe do nothing or do something else. Who cares? Just enjoy whatever you are doing. You’ll come back to the other things, or not, that’s fine. My first music writing layoff was 18 months, I wondered if I would ever do it again. A year later I was performing monthly and running a night, now I’m in a lull again. So it goes. I don’t worry about losing motivation in one thing anymore, I just do something I am motivated about instead.