I think I can.. I think I can...

[Grasshopper]

It would be neat to hear what you guys do to motivate yourselves when the ride gets really tough or painful!! It can't get any more wierd than mine!

Remember the song "My favorite things", sung in "The Sound Of Music?" Well, since I was a little girl, anytime I get scared, stressed or exhausted, I find myself humming that song. (obviously it's harder to do when your gasping for air on a hill, but you get the picture). I try to keep the singing to myself when I'm riding because I know it's got to be annoying! :) Last week I was on a hard hill and was chanting "you can do it, you can do it..." over and over to myself....the sweeper on the ride rolls up beside me and says "don't you just hate hills, they're so hard and they don't ever get any easier, you just get faster, I can't stand this hill......." on and on all the way up the hill.....I wanted to push her over and then sing her, at the TOP OF MY LUNGS!!

Anyway, I'd love it if you'd share your motivation...how do you do it?? What gets you through the hard parts??

[Veronica]

I count things. There's one hill we do every Sunday with the club ride. It's a tandem friendly hill - meaning long and not too steep. Tandems have a reputation for not climbing well, so we like to fly up this hill. It's our one chance for glory. :p But it's long. So as soon as Thom does our first down shift I start counting telephone poles. Depending on how we're feeling it's eight - ten telephone poles to the screaming downhill on the other side.

In Hawaii on the climb up from sea level to Volcano (4000 feet in 28 miles, grueling head wind at times) I started just counting anything. It paid off because I saw a nene - the state bird of Hawaii which is apparently fairly elusive.

I count things when I'm on my single too. Usually it's how many "bad" things I have to ride over. When we've been out for a long ride we usually come home over a road with two hills I dislike and a along flat stretch with a headwind. (I live in the Delta - there's always a wind usually around 15 knots some afternoons higher.)

Sometimes Thom will sing to me or we'll sing sea chanties together.

My other trick is to tell me myself that this isn't as bad as X and I did X so what am I squawking about or, "You ain't racing honey so just gear down and enjoy the view."

As you can see I do a lot of self talk.



Veronica

[hibiscus09]

LOL -- ya'll are much more positive than me!! I say "You're not stopping stupid until the odometer gets to ##!!" (however many miles I've set out to accomplish). If the "You can go home" demon attacks, I just tell it where it can get off at. I must be violent!! :p

I get a little nicer to myself at the very end (i.e. about 4 miles or less to go) and say stuff like "This is nothing!! You're there in no time -- think of how far you've come!" or "Do you want to feel good because you made your distance or do you want to say something weenie like 'I stopped 2 miles short'? " :D

[chrisanna]

Yep, gotta say I sing, too. For me, it's most frequently the theme song from the Beverly Hill Billies...Let me tell ya all a story 'bout a man named Jed....anyway, it works for me.

Also, if I'm on a loooonnng ride and feel like I'm just slugging along, I find that I get a fresh perspective when I really look around - you know, smell the roses so to speak...and if there's tall grass along the road I just run my hands past it for a while. Makes it all fun again and I stop thinking about what's so hard about making it thru.

Hey, I got a great break from work today! Lightning struck the place I work at over the weekend and destroyed my computer. Couldn't do a thing.
Took some comp time and I was outta there for a glorious 3 hour ride I would have otherwise had to wait until Saturday to do.

[chrisanna]

OOhhh, just thought of something I think goddess mentioned quite a while back that was so good. It was in response to getting thru something tough...What was it, goddess??? Ummm, something like "I can do this hill and chocolate is my friend". Anyway, I remember I laughed out loud reading that. And I'll think of it every once in a while out there on the hills.

[Grasshopper]

Ha! I'll have to try that song next time!! lol!!

I thought chocolate was always my friend. bicycling magazine as this "because you ride" section....is shows how many calories you've burned and what you can now eat...I LOVE that section!!! I confess I've added it up before to see what I can eat and that IS a great motivator!!! :)

[hibiscus09]

LOL -- after my 38 mile ride, it said I had burned over 1,500 calories! That's about what I eat for an entire day! :D

[Grasshopper]

that's a lot of chocolate :)

[hibiscus09]

I need it too!! I am major PMSing!! :D

[MightyMitre]

I'm afraid I can't remember who it was who posted it but I read a really good one back in March - "breathe and belive". I've tried this loads and it really works. If I'm grovelling up a hill or finding it hard going I often breathe and believe and within minutes I start to feel less stressed. Why not try it next time you're out?

PS Don't be too hard on yourself Hibiscus. Yelling at myself to go faster does work but not half as well as when I tell myself what a top rider I am, how strong I am and how brilliant I'm doing . Just my thoughts...

[hibiscus09]

I'll work on it -- I have really bad PMS and I think the 38 miler on Sunday had me thinking evil thoughts. LOL :D

[Dogmama]

Nothing better than a long bike ride to squish PMSing! If I could just stay on my bike 5 days out of the month...my dh would like that too!

Motivation-sometimes (ok, often!) I misjudge (think I can push through) the heat and extend my ride longer than I should. So, I'm coming home, sweating buckets. What I'll do is tell myself that I don't really have that much farther to go and that I've done the remaining distance many many times (true, but not after I've already gone X number of miles). If I focus on how close home is, the road doesn't grow on me.

Hills - I like what somebody else posted - think that I'm strong, I'm relaxed and this is a piece of cake (chocolate of course!)

[DoubleLori]

I find that on a really long hill it helps to have an altimeter and know what the elevation is at the top. Then I can tell how much farther UP I've got to go, and I can see the elevation get higher and higher as I climb so I know that I AM making progress to the top even when it seems like I'm barely moving!

Thoughts of chocolate DO sound nice!