balancing life and the bike

[girlracer]

Here is a question for all like minded bike crazed cyclists: I love my bike. It has gotten me thru tough times in my life and racing has brought a sense of challenge--but a fun one--in my life of professional challenges. The one thing I have noticed tho. Whether it is in the season of racing or in the winter training months, I am sapped of energy after training/racing....so much so that going out at nite to have a drink with a friend becomes an impossibility. I take naps after long training rides and still feel the tiredness and would rather sleep so i dont get dropped on the following mornings ride!!
does anyone else have this same issue and if you dont, what are you doing that you can go out and I am not?

Please post opinions and suggestions!!

[Mr. Bloom]

Silver and I just got back from the store. I was whipped after today's windy ride. My back hurts, my neck hurts, a leg muscle hurts.

We were going to work out tonight, but we're too whipped.

We feel your pain.

One thing that has helped is incorporating our rides into other activities:

• Visiting my parents - 12 miles
• Getting a haircut - 14 miles
• Going to the chiropractor - 3 miles
• Saving on $3/gallon gas - priceless!

[RoadRaven]

Afraid its just a fact, if you use heaps of energy you need to dedicate time to replenishing yourself which means more sleep.
I am the same too - I often want a nap in the middle of the day after a ride, or if I have ridden hard the day before.
I try and manage it by getting to bed at reasonable times and when I can, allowing a cat nap after work, or during the day at weekends...

[OakLeaf]

Sympathy and no help here, too. It's why I burned out on racing, and on cycling entirely, and didn't ride at all for 10 years. Hope you find some balance and don't wind up in the same boat I did... or that you're successful enough in your racing to make it all worth it.

[Starfish]

A couple of weeks ago I lay down on my office floor, and I woke up an hour later! It was the a.m. workout.

I notice that since I added an hour of body conditioning and strength training class before the spinning class a couple days/week, I'm going to bed a good two hours earlier at night!

Today I had some errands and little projects in mind, but after my ride, I decided to bag them for tomorrow, when there is just an hour of easy exercise on the schedule.

That said, for me, there is time and energy to do more stuff on the off days.

[Brandy]

How do I balance it? I have no life! Kids, work, train...that's what I do. We're typically in bed before 9:00 p.m. and acting like athletes these days. If we try to do it on less sleep, we end up sick, exhausted and sucking on the bike.

[shootingstar]

We are like the Silvers, except we don't have a car at all. Never bought even a parking spot in our condo.

During warmer season, I build in part of my work commuting with bike..(homeward) and he meets me at bike locker pickup halfway in my work commute homeward off the light rapid transit.

We do all our weekend shopping to market and everywhere else by bike. Often visit friends by getting there by bike..and it can be a beautiful ride...over bridge, facing the mountains and soaring Douglas pines or take ferry on vacation, across ocean inlet..he has cycling association meetings.. He is retired, but setting up cycling consulting company ...so goes to his business planning meetings by bike...visits his mother in nursing home by bike... picks up bits of fresh groceries during week on bike..

I combine my passion..cycling to art class early in morning when sun has just risen right now.

There is a way to achieve balance between bike and other stuff, but does take abit of advance planning, packing and time managment...so we don't end up at home at 11:00 pm too often. after getting off bike.

[OakLeaf]

[*]Getting a haircut - 14 miles

How does your stylist take that (and maybe more to the point, Silver's stylist, if you don't go to the same one)? I'm always afraid that jamming on a helmet right after my haircut is just like a slap in the face to their work.

[shootingstar]

How does your stylist take that (and maybe more to the point, Silver's stylist, if you don't go to the same one)? I'm always afraid that jamming on a helmet right after my haircut is just like a slap in the face to their work.

My hairstylist does have me...when i walk into the salon after getting off bike. She has managed to find and give me a style that requires only a little gel/mousse for uplift...because the style is short. However the helmet thing...does make me picky on sorts of cuts that I can live with for next 4 months before next cut. She thinks it's a great thing that I cycle, regardless of whatever cut I get.

[ehirsch83]

That is a hard question..
I am really fortunate that the BF is more dedicated to the bike then I am. He is a cat 3 looking to move up at the end of the year, so he gets up at 4am at least 5 days a week to get at least 4 hours in a day. Where I don't get on till 5:30 or 6 most days.

But I guess why I am fortunate is because he understands why I don't go out and drink,etc. because he does the same thing- we both get home at night, eat dinner, and go to bed. My life consists of the bike, school, and work. And the bike tends to take priority at times.

It is very hard though, my friends don't understand why I don't want to go out at night- but they always end up staying out till 2 or 4 in the morning and I can't do that. I don't want to be hungover the next day, I want to RIDE!!
On the other hand, I have become good friends with a group of people from the morning training rides and in all truthfulness, they are becoming my group of friends now and the group that was my friends are fading away.

I love it- I love having a set of friends who understand me- we all get up before the sun has risen and go to bed early. The ages of everyone in the group also varies, I am the youngest by at least 5 years- but it is ok because age doesn't matter it is our common interests that pull us all together.

The other way I have found to deal with still keeping my old friends is to go out to lunch with them, either during the week if it can be done or on the weekend. That way you aren't to tired, you can catch up on everything, and there isn't a push to be drinking if you don't want to be.


This probably wasn't helpful at all but I went off on a tangent anyways

[Bron]

Well, I find I need more sleep when I am training too, so I just tend to socialise less at peak training/racing times. The two gaps between tri/row season and ski season are when I get out more.

A couple of questions: are you periodising your training so that you get a rest week every three/four weeks?

Have you had your iron levels checked? Anaemia is not uncommon amongst female athletes and it's easy enough to test for and correct.

[girlracer]

Hey!
Thanks for all the opinions and comments!! To ehirsch83, I feel the same way! My friends on the bike have become my best friends bc we share so much in common and I dont feel that I have to explain why I dont drink or go out on a Fri nite cause I am resting up for a 5 hour ride the next day! The friends I used to go out with even when I first bought the bike just dont understand why I cant stay out all nite or drink like i used to. I guess I have different priorities now. but you are right, I cant live both lifestyles and the bike, which is the thing that makes me sane, comes first.

To Bron,
Yeah, I have now started to periodize my training. I dont have a coach but the woman who is director of my team has been really great in helping me set up a good training plan and I think those rest weeks are important! Of course, it always hurts the first big ride after a rest week, but that is part of training! I do have anemia and take iron pills regularily and make sure my daily iron intake is sufficient for a healthy athlete. It is funny in that it was much worse before i started riding a bike and has gotten much better after I started training/racing.

[Tuckervill]

I think this is a collision of the effort people are designed to put in and the modern life. My grandmother worked the farm from sunup to sundown, and I am certain she was bone-weary at the end of the day. She only went "out" on Sundays, to church in the a.m. and p.m.

Those of us with regular jobs, expected to be conscious and alert for 8 or 9 hours of every day, and THEN go put in the hours on the bike or in the gym, should expect to be tired. We're doing more (not we, you, since I have a stay-at-home job and can rest whenever I want) than the average regular job folks, but more akin to that which was required in "simpler" times. (pre-industrial revolution?)

If I had to do the work my grandmother had to do, I would never have to go to the gym, I'll tell you that!

Karen

[Brandy]

That is a hard question..
I am really fortunate that the BF is more dedicated to the bike then I am. He is a cat 3 looking to move up at the end of the year, so he gets up at 4am at least 5 days a week to get at least 4 hours in a day. Where I don't get on till 5:30 or 6 most days.

But I guess why I am fortunate is because he understands why I don't go out and drink,etc. because he does the same thing- we both get home at night, eat dinner, and go to bed. My life consists of the bike, school, and work. And the bike tends to take priority at times.

My situation is similar and I feel fortunate as well that I am with someone that gets me. My boyfriend does ultra-distance events and to give you an idea...I got in 660 miles in January and he logged 1427. We obviously understand the need for rest vs. partying! Yesterday we stayed in our jammies all day and other than attending to the needs of the kids and cooking meals, we did absolutely nothing!