I need inspiration!!!!!

plankton

I've got a big ride coming up and need to get out for a hard training ride before hand. The problem is I can't seem to find the motivation.

What do you do? Is there a certain song? A pice of racing footage on you tube? What gets you on the saddle and pushing hard when you don't feel like it.

Either that or just MTFU and get out.

Zachariah

Just picture in your head the sheer pain and humiliation before your peers, who are all sailing through their big ride while you push the bike up a 5% incline.

verylonglegs

If it's as bad as you say then you need to do something else.

AndyF16

Can't say I've needed to use it to get me out the door, but someone has put the ITV4 closing montage from this year's TdF on YouTube which was to "Dog Days Are Over" by F&TM - superb little sequence including Cavendish 'driving the HTC stagecoach'

SteK

How to motivate people is different from person to person. What motivates you when you get dressed? Do you think about how others will perceive you? Or do you think about your own comfort and practicality?

If you think about how others will look at you, then start telling people about your big ride, everyone that will listen, set the expectation high, shrug your shoulders and tell them you'll breeze it. Knowing they'll raise an eyebrow if you're totally sh*t might be enough for you to get out and do something about it.

If you're more based around yourself and your own perception perhaps you could set yourself some goals? Set out a route, a target time and chip away at it.

That's just one (slightly wishy washy) example - but hopefully you get the point. There are lots of different types of person in this world, the factors that motivate each of those types of people vary wildly - so much so that what works for one can be anti-motivational for the other.

Think about other motivations in your life. What makes you tick? Tap into that and you're on a path. The rest of it becomes training it as 'habit' in your brain/lifestyle. That's just a perseverance thing - any good habit (in this case training on the bike) is often up against a bad habit (in this case laziness) - so breaking the bad and establishing the good can be a fair-sized task.

The bad habit is more established tomorrow than it is today. The good habit is further away the longer you leave it. Work out what fires you up - and MTFU

Stephen

Cleat Eastwood

chris boardman once said that he never made his mind up to go riding until he put his kit on....then he felt he was obliged to go on the bike. So, why not sleep in your kit, helmet, food and innertube in back pocket then you'll be out of bed in a shot and straight out the door.problem solved.

Chip \'oyler

Some great ideas here. I agree that if you've got your kit on then you'll go out riding - get the kit on then the rest will be easy.

plankton

Thanks for the tips and advice.

funnily enough I managed to get out on my bike by sitting at home in my kit. I got my bike ready and put it in front of the door too. That's definitely one to remember.

It was a good ride too, lovely hill and sunshine

ConsciousPilot

If I find myself lacking motivation for "training", I just tell myself I'm going out for an "easy" ride. After being out for about 20-30 mins the easy bit often gives way and end going like the clappers for the rest, pushing to "up the average" before getting home.

dmch2

Sign up at endomondo.com and join a challenge on there. I'm doing the monthly one (350th out of 9790), I challenged myself to 1000 miles before Christmas late in the summer (804 miles so far) and one of my friends challenged us to the most miles in October (1st of out of 4 ).

It also records total distances, lets you see the routes you've done (via phone GPS) etc