Solo Riding Motivation

Sheptastic

Toks wrote:

bigbeezer wrote:

Hi folks,

what do you use to motivate yourself to go on solo training rides?
i am finding it very hard to do so and my fitness is suffereing as a result,don't want to let all my hard work this summer go to waste.

cheers

you'll have to set yourself some objectives or challenges
1. I'm gonna ride for 60 mins today or I'm gonna ride from A to B
2. I'm gonna try to ride a total of 6 hours this week and if I do I'll treat myself to XXX
3. Find a popular training loop where there are plenty of other cyclist and tag along (in London, when suitably motivated I can ride in Richmond Park for a couple of hours partly because there are other cyclists there)
4. Find a long term challenge - e.g. sportive and build towards it
5. Change you thinking and tell yourself its the best way to train.

I have never rewarded myself like that for training hard. does it work??

Toks

Sheptastic wrote:

Toks wrote:

bigbeezer wrote:

Hi folks,

what do you use to motivate yourself to go on solo training rides?
i am finding it very hard to do so and my fitness is suffereing as a result,don't want to let all my hard work this summer go to waste.

cheers

you'll have to set yourself some objectives or challenges
1. I'm gonna ride for 60 mins today or I'm gonna ride from A to B
2. I'm gonna try to ride a total of 6 hours this week and if I do I'll treat myself to XXX
3. Find a popular training loop where there are plenty of other cyclist and tag along (in London, when suitably motivated I can ride in Richmond Park for a couple of hours partly because there are other cyclists there)
4. Find a long term challenge - e.g. sportive and build towards it
5. Change you thinking and tell yourself its the best way to train.

I have never rewarded myself like that for training hard. does it work??

Yep I often do 60mile easy paced rides with the girlfriend (not so easy for her) and we promise ourselves an unhealthy take away meal as a reward. Starting next month I'm going to ride no less than 40 hours every month. If I get to the 120 hour mark by the end of Jan I'll be treating myself to some new cycling gear. That might sound like a load of old tosh to some people. Ultimately you do what works for you. Like SBezza, because I race it's not too hard for me to motivate myself to train alone. Admittedly, as a newbie it was much harder to do the solo rides - but I got there eventually :twisted:

DubaiNeil

@ Toks, not sure an unhealthy takeaway meal with the girlfriend was the "XXX" that Sheptastic was fantasising about....

Personally, I would support the "Long Term Challenge" idea, as there is no way I can keep motivated over a longer period of time just for "general fitness". Although as this is the Amateur Race section, there should the winter (CX?) series and obviously next summers races to focus on...

I had a 4 day event in early September that was my target from about June onwards, now I have an event in December to target - along with plans for Cingles De Ventoux next July/August.

Without these "motivators" I would not have the inclination (or drive) to beast my weary body according to a sadistic training schedule...

Neil

Toks

DubaiNeil wrote:

I had a 4 day event in early September that was my target from about June onwards, now I have an event in December to target - along with plans for Cingles De Ventoux next July/August.

Without these "motivators" I would not have the inclination (or drive) to beast my weary body according to a sadistic training schedule...

Neil

Yep I agree. 8)

dulldave

You need to stop going out on rides with that **** McComisky that's your problem. He'd drive the motivation out of a kamikaze pilot.

Seriously though if you want to keep up your fitness I'd suggest getting yourself along to either the ERC or Stirling Bike Club rides on a Saturday. I remember you saying in a previous thread you wanted to get better at hills (unless I've got totally the wrong person in which case the McComisky comment will make no sense at all) so I'd suggest Stirling over ERC in this case.

You'll also learn a bit about group riding (I've jumped to the conclusion that you don't ride in groups much).

The reason you've got some of the responses you have is because you've posted in the Amateur Race section so you're asking guys who race how they train and some of them are pretty focussed. They've assumed that you're asking about race training and I'm assuming you're not.

Surfr

softlad wrote:

I will usually ride 5 days out of 7. usually between 30-70m, depending on weather, or how I'm feeling. Living on the coast means my available route choice is about 50% less than someone who lives inland (ie, I can't head west without falling into the sea) and the terrain is pretty unforgiving around here, which can make you feel a bit jaded at times, but so long as you keep mixing up the rides a bit it's never a problem...

I ride the same roads and hills and I find it's the views and countryside which help me get out there and ride. If I was in a city, I'd struggle a bit more to just hop on my bike and do a quick 40 mile training ride.

And to the OP, do you actually enjoy riding? If so, it shouldn't be too hard to persuede yourself to get out there in all but the mankiest of weather.

edhornby

put it this way

would you rather get slower because you can't be bothered? so that bike becomes another ornament in the house cos you never ride it

or you go out with someone else and they are either whipping you all the way or holding you back ?

if you stay in you have to do jobs around the house....

get out and ride your bike 8)

briantrumpet

I've just stumbled across this one. Not much to add, except to say that I think I have a number of different things that motivate me - so at least one of them spurs me to get out there. Nearly all of my riding is solo, and it's not for racing so far. My motivators: enjoying the feeling of being on a nice bike; enjoying going fast under my own steam; enjoying exploring the local countryside; enjoying pushing myself fairly hard; enjoying the post-ride tiredness buzz; enjoying seeing if I've maintained a target speed for the ride; enjoying being able to eat ridiculous amounts of food and not put on weight; enjoying the resulting fitness.

With all that enjoyment, it's a bit more of an addiction: needing to get out there to satisfy a craving, watching forecasts and grabbing an hour or two when the weather's going to be kind, or an entire day if it's going to be a glorious day to be out in the countryside (e.g, last Sunday). I think that any activity that you want to do regularly has to have a range of pleasure rewards. If you can identify a range of reasons why you enjoy cycling, then that should give you the motivation, I would hope.

incog24

Non of my riding is solo these days. There's always 8-15 guys to ride with 3 times a week. Being at uni is hard sometimes... :roll:

dmch2

incog24 wrote:

Non of my riding is solo these days. There's always 8-15 guys to ride with 3 times a week. Being at uni is hard sometimes... :roll:

I probably live less than a mile from you then!

Problem is I have a 4 year old daughter and my wife works shifts. So I'm limited to 50-100 miles a week. I'll wave if I see a big group of you (in navy and purple uni kit I guess?).

Where do you normally go? I find west is best (NW and SW too), south has too much traffic and dual carriageways (688, 689), east (including NE and SE) is nice but a bit flat and North is too dominated by the big roads (167, A1, A690) and towns (Gateshead, Newcastle, Washington).

MattC59

Nax-ian wrote:

...... get yerself a new ride, I find that always helps to get me out.

off the back

Get an mp3 player - some good tunes and get lost on the back roads and be grateful u are enjoying the real world n not getting dragged to B+Q or some naf shopping centre If that is not enough let ur mind wonder and pretend u are training for next years tour!

danlikesbikes

RIde the same routes as you would do in a group. Does get a bit boring but helps keep the fitness up as if you've put in all that hard work you don't want to lose to much.

1) makes you stronger in training as your always at the front not getting a tow
2) helps you learn the route so you know in group when you can go hard and when you can take a bit of a break
3) riding similar routes to those you ride in group gives you a good comparison of your pace alone over the same course in a group
4) you'll probably find a few others you ride with feel the same and you might end up with a smallish group (in summer our club rides are in the 30's for my paced group down to 2-3 mid week in the winter)