how to get myself motivated to ride

[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.