Encouragement Please! :-(

[shootingstar]

You never need to rationalize anything for anyone as soon as you mount your bike.

Just relax abit more on the bike, ride abit more each time...

learn to know the time of the day that you ride best. You will know...when your heart sings on the bike.

My heart sings the best on the bike, starting early in the morning, when the sun rises...and things are quiet. When I lived in Toronto, early morning rides was the best way to deal with rising summer humidity..and the smog alerts later. It felt so good to get loads of riding done by 10:00 am or earlier after heading out before 7:00 am.

(And remember no one is around in morning, to see you --fail or succeed. It's your time.)

[lph]

It might help if you can find some other reason to ride your bike, so that you feel you're doing something useful or something you want to do, instead of the dreaded "exercise for exercise's sake" If you can commute, or use your bike for running errands, or just ride for the fun of it - but often - you will get a lot fitter, but you will maybe not be as focused on your day to day progress (or lack of it). Riding often is key, I think, to get your body used to being pushed a little every day or as often as possible.

But then - I loooove my commute

[OakLeaf]

I don't really have any good advice for you, so just to second what everyone else has said, and add my support.

I'm in that position with music. It's really painful to me to not be able to play any more. But it's even more painful to sit down and see/hear that I can't play like I used to. I really want to get past that, but I don't know how.

So hang in there - if you stick with it it WILL get better.

[Crankin]

I think everyone goes through this at one time or another, no matter what level you are at. I am just not as fast as I was before my Fibromyalgia diagnosis last fall. I generally feel crappy for the first 30 minutes of a ride, and when I only ride 15-16 miles, like after work, that's about half the ride!
I keep telling myself "who cares," but I am putting competitive pressure on myself once I get on the bike. As my husband said, most people who are almost 55 years old can't even fathom riding a bike as far as you do or as fast as you do.
I had a real eye opener this week when I led a ride for people at work. All were 15-30 years younger than me. We went 7 miles and no one could keep up with me, even when I was going 10-12 mph. These people were not unfit. One is a climber,one runs, and one is 23 years old!
So, try and go out and enjoy the ride. I know weather affects me greatly, even when I feel great. I really hate riding in the heat.

[Torrilin]

I won't do much exercise just for exercise's sake. (ok, realistically I won't do *any*)

I *will* cheerfully bike to the library, the pool, my partner's office, the grocery store... If a hill is too hard for me, I walk it. It gets me up the hill, which is what I want. Next time, maybe I'll go another few feet up it before I have to walk. I am most motivated by having a place to go and something fun to do when I get there.

I don't beat myself up over what I can't do. As a teen, I could climb a 5% grade like my nemesis hill here in Madison. But the nemesis is my nemesis *now*. If I focus on what I can't do, I'll never bother with what I *can* do... and soon I won't be able to do what I can do now. If I focus on what I can do, sooner or later I end up doing more.

I like hot weather, so I'm happy enough biking when it's 85 or 95 out. But I also drink lots of water, and sometimes have frozen water bottles or stop for ice cream. If I don't have my water, I feel terrible when it's hot, and I won't do anything. I *hate* cold weather with a passion, so getting out when it's nasty and cold (like today is 58F... and in the winter getting out when it was 10F was even worse) is hard. On my bike, I stay warmer in cold weather, which helps some. But it's still cold, and my joints ache and it's not as nice as a hot day. Your body is not mine, so it might like cold better. There are always things you can do to make your preferred temperatures nicer, and your least favorite temperatures tolerable.

[wackyjacky1]

Thanks everybody!

I am not so down-in-the-dumps today...I think my head was just in a bad place yesterday (work has been particularly stressful as of late) and I couldn't shake my bad mood, even when I was on the bike.

I'm usually pretty heat tolerant, but I was feelin' it yesterday. Possibly I was a bit dehydrated since I had been having some stomach problems for a few days.

All in all, I had a major case of the "blahs." I really do want you all to know how much it helped that you let me use up some bandwidth in order to vent, and then gave me such great feedback.

If it didn't look like it was fixin' to rain, I'd go for a little ride right now -- kind of a "get back on the horse" sort of thing.

[sundial]

Here's a hug for you to get you going again.

Don't be so hard on yourself. Last summer when I took up cycling after a long hiatus, I could only do 2 miles. I dragged my body back to the car and thought gee whiz, whatever happened to me?? Then the next ride it was 3.5 miles. And then 5. Our lbs mechanic is a competitive cyclist and he said the first ride he took was only 1 mile and he had to call his roommate to come get him. So please, just pedal at a pace you can enjoy and s-l-o-w-l-y build up to it. You're not on a schedule, you don't have a race to train for, you have all the time you need to enjoy it. And you will have plenty of company here who have pedaled in your shoes.

[Fujichants]

Can you find somebody to go riding with you and to encourage you during the ride? I find that when I run by myself, I give up easily. That 5 mile run I can easily complete with my bf or friends, I just can't do on my own. Well, I can, but it takes a lot of mental strength from myself.

And don't beat yourself up for being slow, or for not being able to ride far. Everything takes time!

[DDH]

I'm heavy and slow too. If we were close we could ride together. I never have been able to find someone to ride with that is close to my speed or the lack there of.

You will get better. My problem is consistency and I have a hard time getting better when I let other life things get in my way of riding.

[Beane]

I don't beat myself up over what I can't do. As a teen, I could climb a 5% grade like my nemesis hill here in Madison.

Which hill is your nemesis? My personal least favorite is Observatory in Paoli.

[teawoman]

You get there when you get there. Measure your own progress and don't compare it to anyone else's

(Says she who is always moaning about how slow she is compared to the fast people in her club ).

[Torrilin]

Which hill is your nemesis? My personal least favorite is Observatory in Paoli.

There's a little stretch of steep by Edgewood College (it's about 3 blocks from the crest to level). Nothing special, but I'm out of shape enough that it's a challenge. So every so often, I take myself out and go splat against the hill.

[BarbaraAlys]

Odd are you are pushing too hard from the start, so you run out of steam too fast. I speak from experience

I am not a strong rider; on flats I can do 'okay' but the minute I get to a hill I poop out. It seems that every source I've found agrees that they way to get stronger is to slow down....funny, huh? The point is that new riders (and I suspect people who used to ride a lot but have not in a decade) tend to try to go harder than they are able to do over a sustained period. They say the key to getting stronger is to do training rides where you stay in low gears, but keep a good fast cadence (aprox 90rpm). I just got a computer with a cadence counter in order to work on that.

I took a ride this AM who's goal was to work on hills, not to add miles or speed. I only did 9.5 miles. I only averaged 10.5mph, but I didn't have to walk any of the hills and by the end I was starting to figure out the whole 'keep the cadence up' thing.

So, maybe if you slow down, think about your cadencean d the beautiful spring days, rather than how far and fast you are going, you will have more fun and get better results.

Barbara