Getting over not wanting to ride alone

[Geonz]

www.bikejournal.com

The thread on hte forum about "quarters" - 25 to 50 mile rides - got me out for a real ride yesterday instead of hte 10K that is the "minimum daily ride to count as consecutive days ridden" that's another thread. (Today likely to be an attempt at 10K because it's *foggy* here - in the city - and I dunno what it'll be like at the mountain destination...

[Heifzilla]

When I started riding, I hated riding by myself. I hate doing anything by myself, actually. I had to have someone to chat at, etc.. However, I was forced to ride alone because there was just no one to ride with around here except DH, and he can't ride with me all the time. After a few weeks of getting out there and riding, I found that I *wanted* to ride by myself, and actually riding with DH is mostly annoying :lol: Plus, my average speed goes *way* down when I ride with someone.

Maybe you just have to do it and you will find yourself eventually enjoying it.

[OakLeaf]

Well since just freakin' doing it is so much more interesting than sitting around on the internets talking about it, I got out for 51 miles/4000 feet of climbing today at a sightseeing pace. Which is actually the longest I've ridden solo since I came back to cycling. I didn't set out that way, I'd actually only planned for about 43, but had to backtrack a little bit for some road construction, and then at the end I turned left instead of right to get just one more hill and an extra 4 miles or so.

It didn't kill me. I didn't get lost (thanks, Garmin). It was kinda fun just poking along - probably not much actual exercise, but I think the objective right now is to get myself to want to do it, and then I can think about training.

[tctrek]

I so wish I could ride alone... but I'm such a newbie and really have no confidence most of the time unless DH is with me. I've only been riding a little over a year and I just recently got enough confidence to allow DH to pull away from me from time to time and actually get out of my line of sight. That used to freak me out, but now I know I can catch him eventually (actually he slows down and waits for me, which is totally humiliating).

In June, I'm taking a Carmichael Women's Training camp and I'm hoping to take away some basic maintenance knowledge on the bike so that I might feel confident enough to go out alone.

I'm not a hopeless case, but definitely a work in progress

[woohoo]

Thanks for the tip further up, Pedal - sounds brilliant!

[shootingstar]

Well since just freakin' doing it is so much more interesting than sitting around on the internets talking about it, I got out for 51 miles/4000 feet of climbing today at a sightseeing pace. Which is actually the longest I've ridden solo since I came back to cycling. I didn't set out that way, I'd actually only planned for about 43, but had to backtrack a little bit for some road construction, and then at the end I turned left instead of right to get just one more hill and an extra 4 miles or so.

It didn't kill me. I didn't get lost (thanks, Garmin). It was kinda fun just poking along - probably not much actual exercise, but I think the objective right now is to get myself to want to do it, and then I can think about training.

Great, Oakleaf.

Each person has a different definition of "training". I'm probably slower compared to many folks here. However if I did overly focus on that weakness, the enjoyment of cycling would have been sucked out of me years ago. I wouldn't have stuck to cycling for this many years so far and for long stretches of time where I have and still do cycling solo when no one is immediately available to cycle with me at certain times.

Meantime during this time period of just cycling abit longer distances nearly daily..I've lost abit of weight despite eating about 10% more food.

The only goals I have in mind when I cycle solo is to do certain distances within really vague time frames. To help myself when I go on long touring loaded rides with my partner. And I don't get obsessed about those daily time benchmarks. Half of the time, I forget to check my watch at the end of the ride.

At this time in my life, I'm a pretty absent-minded cyclist in terms of technical details of what I achieve annually...except I do have a vague idea of total cumulative mileage, I do want to control my weight and I know what type of terrain, weather and maximum ride distance, I find easy vs. very difficult.

I am hopelessly slack compared to many people here.