cycle mentor

Totnestim

Hi,
I've been cycling for 5 months with a reasonable degree of vigor after cycling round London on a Brompton for a few years (but at a very leisurely pace). I now live in Devon and I'm doing about 70 or 80 miles a week in stints of 25 miles and 10 to 15 miles. As you can imagine a flat section of ride is a rarity in Devon so my rides are quite hard going. I'm up to average speeds of 12-14.5mph depending on the severity of the hills. I seem to have hit a bit of a wall in terms of motivation and how to progress and have decided I really need a cycling mentor that is either near by or over the web/phone. What do you think is this a good idea? Can you offer any suggestions?

Sheikhus

If you don't get any better answers, then you might want to look into getting a GPS app, like endomondo, or run keeper (assuming you have a smartphone). A cycle computer would do the same job too I suppose.

I've started using endomondo, and I think you can set yourself targets etc, so this might be useful if you can't find anyone nearby who could help.

Totnestim

Sheikhus, thanks very much for that. I have been using a great app on my phone and that works very well for tracking my performance as you suggest but i feel I need help with technique, how to train sensibly and how to improve. Thank you again for taking the time to reply it's very good of you.

velvetytoast

Best type of motivation is intrinsic - set yourself some goals e.g

Sportive next year - Silver time bracket 100 miles+ route
10 Mile TT sub 28 mins by August

(Remember you've actually got to want to do these)

Now buy The Cyclists Training Bible by Joe Friel (about £10 from Amazon) read it and use it to plan the training for the events. The book is very good because it will allow you to tailor your training to the MINIMUM required to meet your goals (think about how good that idea is!!)

If you start to lose motivation after this, tell everyone about your goals and that you have a plan that you're going to execute - the fear of looking stupid is also fairly motivating.

Finally all the cash you were going to spend on a coach - donate it to charity - job done

Totnestim

Velverytoast, that's fantastic advice, thank you. I'm really enjoying it and determined to carry on but I think setting some targets, as you suggest, will help, like a sportive to aim for. I think I get a bit disheartened When I don't feel like I'm progressing.. And the shier number of hills where I live means every ride can be tough.

I'm going to follow your advice, thanks so much for spending the time to post your reply it's really helpful and encouraging.