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Anyone else felt like this. Im thinking It time to stop racing for a while and just ride my bike for the fun of riding
Iv been racing in one form or another for 15 years in moto x,enduro,4x4, even some rc car rracing,cross country mtb and now enduro mtb and with a lot of broken bones and with work and family commitments and a srong lack or interest I think its time to put a end to that part of the life
Having never competed it's hard to understand that competitive need to pedal faster than some other blokes in a race... Not to say I don't like going as fast as I can sometimes, but racing doesn't actually look that enjoyable.
Ride for fun.. and if it's not putting a smile on your face or giving you pleasure then don't do it.
When i started racing it was for fun.
A bit late in life to carve a name for myself winning races, so just race against myself and the clock, beating anyone else is a bonus.
Depends on your mindset, i know a few who can only race to win and suffer now, later in life they will really suffer from all the damage. The fun to them is to win or die trying, first or last there is no second place types. Some have got to a point of not being able to win and worried about more damage so just walk away alltogether
I have big gaps off from racing, nice to jump back in and have a go, i enjoy it more because i don't take it serious. Keep a bike, take a break, maybe try an offbeat event. Or just trail riding for fun, maybe bikepacking, something different.
Just ride for fun until you get the urge to do a race again.
I race to keep my fitness over the cold months so when the good weather is here I'm not breathing out of my arse at the top of the first climb!
I feel like that every now and then, and I've been at it 40 years my first road race was 1974.
This year I'm having an easy year, just ten or so local crits come summer.
I'm having a load of fun, yes fun doing audax this year. Though even with the audax I like a challenge, so I'm riding the distances to get my SR (200/300/400/600kms) but this is real pleasure riding.
I might one day wean myself off of racing and do more 'rides' not Sportives though, well except the quality ones.
Won't give up cross though.
But yes definitely getting to the point where I think 'been there done that' with racing.
Looked back over my racing and we estimate I raced between 800 and a 1000 races if not more. Too many.
Not racing as much as I used to but still need something to make me go and push myself harder than I'm supposed to, so will never stop racing...
Im not saying il never race agen just not right now.
I started off just riding then gradually got into racing until it was the focus of my riding.
I took last year off events and racing and just created a plan for rides I wanted to do. Really enjoyed it, met some new people rode some new places and had fun. Did some long rides that I've wanted to do for a while but never quite fitted in.
Got to the end of the year and decide to do some cx again and was persuaded to do some hill climbs. Strongest and fittest I've been for a while. Back in the racing mood now though - having a proper crack at road racing this year as I've never really done it before.
I just need to have goals and plans for riding - what they are depends on my circumstances and mood. It takes focus to be competitive and other riding has suffered. But I'm enjoying it and that is what it is all about.