how to get myself motivated to ride

[surgtech1956]

I need some help to get myself motivated - to ride. I ride by myself - no riding friends. I have a knee injury - so the riding would be OK for my knee - have been off work since January(worker's comp). Kind of depressed about the whole injury thing - and worker's compensation, need to lose weight. I'm just not consistent about riding. Any suggestions???? Thanks Nancy

[Starfish]

I mostly ride alone, too...and I have weight to lose, too. For me, it is all about having a goal, and having support.

I am motivated by having a goal ride to train for, and by telling everyone so that I can't back out when I feel like it. With charity rides often having very short options in addition to their long rides, people of all levels can find good goal events.

Also, I recently had the great good fortune to find an online training buddy...nothing formal, but we swap emails, and I find it extremely helpful to know that there is someone out there I need to report my efforts to. These forums are wonderful for finding encouragement and support.

Finally, I find that when I have support in all areas of my life (whether it is through a prayer group, al anon, a counselor, what-have-you), I do better about taking care of myself through biking.

Hope this helps!

[suzieqtwa]

I also ride mostly by myself ,and like Starfish I use Charity rides as motivation. If I don't ride in the morning on the weekends I wont ride. I just get up ,and put on my stuff ,and go. I always feel better about myself after I've done it. If you do it about the same time every day it will become a habit. Sometimes I look at other runners/ riders as motivation. Once you get out there it will become easier.

[KnottedYet]

Start using the bike for errands.

Park the Jeep for a while, buy a rack and a set of panniers. Use the bike to go to the library, the store, to visit friends, go out for coffee.

I do rides in all sorts of ways, but the rides that make me feel all warm and fuzzy are the errands and commutes! That's where I get my greatest satisfaction.

(your "it's a Jeep thing" line makes me laugh, cuz my car club had a sticker that said "I got your Jeep thing, and now it hurts when I pee.")

[DarcyInOregon]

I am like starfish and Suzie, I use event rides as my goals, and then my daily rides are training for whatever future ride. And Suzie is my TE email buddy, plus a riding companion for some of the event rides and an occassional weekend ride. And Ellen, another TE friend, is good for an occassional weekend ride.

Try to find some TE ladies in your area and get to know them. Once you share a ride with someone, you will bond really well.

All you need to do, as you read through the forum, if you see a TE lady who lives in your area, send her a private message through TE.

Here is the link to find an event ride in your area:

http://www.bikeride.com/calendar/events.asp

Or a lot of people who are part of this forum belong to clubs, and they can tell you how to find a club in your area.

Darcy

[cosc]

Surgtech, I can understand your lack of motivation. After an injury it is so easy to find a excuse not to ride-speaking from my history. (I might reinjure ailing limbs, too windy, cold, rainy, might storm, not enough time and you know the play-back that goes through our heads. Regina is right on with setting a daily time with whatever works with your schedule and just do it. Don't over think it! Try to have your bike road worthy before time to get out the door. Keep gear and apparel organized so you won't get slowed up when your rarin to go. Keep only positive thoughts about how much fun and benefits you'll reap to be a more confident, stronger and contented woman. Do set realistic goals that are doable for you and build from there.

[RoadRaven]

Hmmm, very hard to get motivated sometimes... I understand this too

I do most of my riding on my own too

It is about little goals, baby steps and keeping your eye on the prize

little goals: Getting up to the top of the hill in a bigger gear than last time... or complete a course a few seconds faster...

baby steps: Fitting in the rides I can and being pleased, even though they are not always the length I want.

the prize: Well... two prizes for me... weight loss to regain self-esteem as well as be able to climb/race better... second prize is to move up grades in my club... from G, to F (where I am now) to E, to D. I'd be thrilled to be competitive in D grade in road races, and to do TT times that belong in C.

[northstar]

I second Knot's advice on errand running. (I can get back to this now that I've replaced my stolen hybrid with a 197X Schwinn Suburban 10 speed...shiny blue with skinny tires and fenders! It's older than I am and in great shape.)

Errands feel like a treat for me when I get to do them on my bike. I get to listen to the birds and ride right up to the door without messing with parking lots (or the 3.25 gas here this weekend!). It makes me realize how lovely riding is, and I can't wait to get out on my road bike and really fly.

Sometimes it helps if I give myself a destination on my road rides. I'm going to get to X point (hopefully by a certain time) and rest by the lake. Or have a latte. Or visit a friend. (I'm not a hard core roadie!)

[Grog]

I used to have motivational problems for exercise, especially for running. I'd start doing something and then stop soon enough... I'm amazed that I've spent nearly a year now running or cycling at least 5 days a week. The main trick for me has been to do it first thing in the morning, especially when I have no other motivator. I make sure all I need for either cycling or running is ready the night before (which might even mean putting my bike in my kitchen - our appartment is very small and we definitely do not have a garage!!), fill the water bottles, get the food ready along with my other riding accessories (or just my running clothes if that's what I'm setting out to do). The night before I remind myself a few times, once I'm in bed, that the next morning I am going for a ride/a run and think about the route I'm going to take. Or I talk about it with my sweet partner (also a cyclist, that helps). I guess you can call that visualization.

Then the next morning, before I can think about it, I put on my cycling or running clothes. Once they're on, I feel silly changing out of them, and going out of the door is much easier.

I also agree with all the other pieces of advice, especially the errands. I really enjoy going to the grocery store on my bike...

And above all: smile while you're doing it. :)

[Geonz]

I used to be all dressed for jogging so that I could be out doing it before I was even awake. Cycling... I don't need to.
Logging the miles and minutes is good, too, because *every* time out adds to the cumulative total, and I focus on the cumulative. I'm a person who does better if I'm out ahead, absolutely certain I am going to fail, but hey, I'm ahead of the pace right now so I'll just see if I can hold on a little longer. Then, sometimes, I do surprise myself and regardless, I am ahead of thegame.
Sometimes I have to get down to the whole "one day at a time" thinking... what am I doing **right now** ... forget about the big picture that intimidates me and sends me back to my room. Just thsi fifteen minutes...
I try to pay attention to what has worked and use it :)
... which reminds me, I really do need to make that phone call I've been putting off forever...

[dingster1]

Most definitely agree on the errands. I park my car now except for church, running my son to night classes (no bus options or he'd be on it) and long distance trips). This morning I rode to breakfast. :rolleyes: Im thinking of getting a grocery pannier sometime soon. I do one large carful of groceries a month and then small runs every so often which I can do on my bike.

[surgtech1956]

Thanks ladies for all the 'motivational' ideas. I like the idea of running errands and going for coffee. I need to post a thread on 'bike locks'. Nancy

[northstar]

I absolutely love my grocery bag pannier (I think it's a Trek). I want another one, bad. If I had two, there would very rarely be a case when I had to drive to the grocery store.

Get one! ;)

[KnottedYet]

Thanks ladies for all the 'motivational' ideas. I like the idea of running errands and going for coffee. I need to post a thread on 'bike locks'. Nancy

I have an "On Guard" u-lock/cable lock combo. 5 keys. (cuz I lose things) U-lock secures the frame, cable secures the front wheel or saddle. Keeps my bike in place when I go run errands (but then I don't tend to park in high-risk areas). No bike lock is completely safe, you just have to make it inconvenient for theives or opportunists and hope they leave your bike alone.

[pooks]

When you wake up in the morning, put on your cycling clothes. Being dressed for it makes the idea of actually doing it easier.

In fact, lately I've noticed I'm going in circle gathering all my "stuff" to ride and need to get organized and keep it all ready to go and together so it doesn't take so much effort.

I'm another one who is all about the errands. They are VERY fun and motivational to me! I keep track of my "green miles" on my blog -- miles that I travel by bike that I otherwise would do in the car.

And last but not least, the longer I stay off the bike, the harder it is to get motivated to get back on. But I have not had a single instance where once on the bike and road, I wasn't mentally slapping myself and saying, "What an idiot! This feels so great -- what was I thinking?!?"

[Starfish]

And last but not least, the longer I stay off the bike, the harder it is to get motivated to get back on. But I have not had a single instance where once on the bike and road, I wasn't mentally slapping myself and saying, "What an idiot! This feels so great -- what was I thinking?!?"

Strangely enough, for me, it also helps to do something else if I am moaning about taking the bike out. I'll let myself go swim or go to the gym instead. I find that within a few days, I am again really looking forward to getting out the on bike...something about keeping it fun.

[teigyr]

I am definitely the same way and I know first hand about how it's difficult to get back into it. While I do use charity rides or other rides to give myself a timeline, I also know I am very bad at long-range planning. Part of me doesn't see the result of exercise as a long and slow process and I then think "I can do it tomorrow".

My two tricks are:

I tell myself I'm going out for a certain short distance and if, at that distance I am not having fun, I'll turn around and go home. I generally go farther because once I'm on, I love it. Periodically I do the minimum and that's ok...I didn't fail because that WAS the minimum.

I also just got a heart rate monitor. For somebody bad at long-range things, this toy is cool! I can see immediately calories burned, max heart rate and a myriad of other things. Yesterday I went out for a run (running is not my strong suit) and as I watched the calories burned thing go higher and higher, I ended up going an extra mile because it was pretty impressive just how little exercise it takes to burn calories! (Yes, I know it might not be 100% accurate but still, it makes me motivated and gives me different goals!)

I also agree with others about making it fun and using the bike for errands. I think we get so locked into thinking what a ride means that we forget we can be on our bikes and not have it be "exercise"!

Good luck. It has to be so rough coming off an injury and being away from work for so long.

[Zen]

If its the least bit chilly I can't get motivated, I haven't ridden for two days now and I don't live close enough to civilization to be able to do any errands on the bike.

I am definitely motivated for tomorrow. It's supposed to be warm and when I went to the grocery today I saw two guys out riding. I have everything ready to go except my lasso (where is that thing?)

Going to a flat fixing clinic tomorrow!

[Geonz]

Love your name for your locale :) (I grew up in MD)

I also *swear* by the "I'm just going to go out for ten mintues and see how I feel" strategy. I learned it from my swim team days when I was always *sure* I was too sleepy and exhausted to survive that day's practice... but I would never remember that 15 minutes into it. THere are hormones and things that send messages that I can't deny... but I can humor and work around.