Riding in the evenings

ic.

I'm very time limited and find I can't always get out both days at the weekend, so I try to ride after work at night

After getting in, cooking dinner, then bathing and bedding the kids it's past 7 and I sometimes find it really difficult to motivate myself to get out, especially in the cold weather lately. When I do manage it, I always enjoy it. Always. But that knowledge sometimes isn't enough to get out me out of the door.

I know it's the chimp syndrome. I know I've never regretted a ride, only not going for a ride

Does anyone else have the same issue? How do you motivate yourself to get out in the cold and dark?

styxd

Go out on your bike as soon as you get home from work. Have your tea after you've ridden your bike.

ben@31

It won't be cold and dark on an evening for much longer.

slowbike

I commute on my bike - so to get home I have to ride ...
But to ensure I don't just drive the car in I've set myself a target distance for the year.

You could set yourself a (sensible and achievable) goal that means you need to ride more in the evening ...

keef66

Kids now gone, so it's just me & wife. She encourages me to ride cos I get grumpy when I don't, so size and timing of evening meal can be fitted in with the bike. Often it's the rubbish on the telly that drive me out of the door. I can have quite a rewarding spin in an hour or two. Me and the bike are winterised and I have OK lights, so I sometimes get to ride further in the week than I do at the weekend.

sskelly

I feel your pain!

Last night I rode home from work, cooked tea for the kids then went into the garage for 45 mins before eating my tea and then taking one of the kids to football.

It is always a struggle but like you say one you get on the bike you are fine but it is a massive push sometimes to get there.

ic.

styxd wrote:

Go out on your bike as soon as you get home from work. Have your tea after you've ridden your bike.

Not an option, I want to/have to spend time with the kids before they go to bed.

Commuting isn't an option either, because I have to take the kids to school. It's only a 2 mile route direct anyway. No showers or anything at work either if I went on a longer trip to get here.

Good to know others have the same issue though

slowbike

We don't have showers here - just a basin with a cold water tap ... bracing!

southdownswolf

Set yourself a target that you need to train for. A race perhaps, or building up to a distance, 100miles?

I am doing a JOGLE later this year, so I know that I need to train most evenings. Now that the evenings will be getting lighter, I am looking forward to doing more out on the roads, rather than being stuck in watching the football while using the turbo trainer. :roll:

styxd

IC. wrote:

styxd wrote:

Go out on your bike as soon as you get home from work. Have your tea after you've ridden your bike.

Not an option, I want to/have to spend time with the kids before they go to bed.

Your choice....

saprkzz

Can you eat at work, On nights I am doing a hard ride like interval training either on the turbo or out on the road, I take a microwave meal in, and eat at 5pm, get home for 6pm and play with and the bath kids, spend a bit of time with wife, then get ready to start at 7:30pm

This works extremly well for me, I know everbodies circumstances are different though.

DavidJB

Become a racer, then spend 15-18 hours a week on the bike and be so scared about losing fitness you never slack off!

ic.

styxd wrote:

IC. wrote:

styxd wrote:

Go out on your bike as soon as you get home from work. Have your tea after you've ridden your bike.

Not an option, I want to/have to spend time with the kids before they go to bed.

Your choice....

I think that's a daft comment tbh and I hope it is meant in jest.

Comments advising about mileage targets or earlier/later/lighter meals are helpful. You saying it's a plain and simple choice between spending time with my young family or riding a bike are just silly. I'm looking for ways of gaining motivation to ride when the time allows, I'm not looking for answers on which bit of my life you think are dispensable.

nmt

I have 2 young boys and have to take them to football / rugby 3 nights a week and i've just started to put the bike in back of car drop them at training then go for a ride for an hour.

navrig

I have the same issues. My biggest distraction is getting home to "tea's on the table". Once I eat I wont go out on the bike.

Get some riding buddies and make a commitment to go together then peer pressure kicks in.

Pituophis

I do all my weekday rides at or around 7pm in the evenings, as this is when traffic is really thinning out.
It wasn't so bad (as I'm relatively new to this) when my evening rides only took an hour, but now they've stretched to the 2 hour plus mark, they do really kill the evening off.
I just try and get everything done before hand, and then I find I can't wait to go.
As I'm pretty slow compared to most, I can just about get 30 miles in in the 2 hours. So rather than step up the distance (and therefore the time) I will probably just try to work on my speed a little from now on. 2 hours in the evening is quite enough for me!
I never do more than 3 evenings at most anyway which gives me time to do other stuff while recovering

It's only a hobby, you just have to do as much as you can around the kids. They very quickly grow up :shock:

deadhead1971

The target setting thing is a good idea. You can do this in garmin Connect or Strava, and it gives you a little progress bar as you log more rides.
Why not work out how many miles per week you've been averaging since Christmas, say, then add a few and set that as a target.
Then next time you're making a choice between Grand Designs or the bike, it might just help to tip the balance. Other things can help too, like making sure all your kit is ready and accessible. There's nothing worse than summoning the motivation to go out, then spending 10 minutes rummaging through washing baskets looking for kit! (but that's enough of a glimpse into my life...)
It's useful to arrange to meet a mate for a ride too, because then it becomes about not letting them down.

Good luck.

springtide9

- Set yourself realistic weekly goals. e.g. hours in the saddle per week.
- Get yourself a decent set of lights and warm clothing.
- Look at the weather forecast (and your 'family schedule') and try and pick the best days for riding.
- If you've been soaked/frozen a few days in a row, give yourself a break and skip a day (rather than riding and not really enjoying it, so putting you off long term)
- If you do the kids football training run etc, then try and ride while they are training. It's a good idea is to find a shortish loop so that you can ride for the max amount of time, but never be that far away. If you share the dropoff/pickup - arrange to collect, but drive to the location before the dropoff so that you can get a little bit more time in.
- If visiting friends/family on the weekends, ride out to the location. This even works if meeting in pubs etc as you can just change in the loo. Just make sure that if you can't shower, it's an easy ride and you don't get too sweaty. If you need to meet at a specific time, aim to get there a little earlier - but find a shortish loop so that you can pad the time until your clothes arrive!

It will soon be light in the evenings (and warmer) so it will be much more enjoyable to ride. I think most people can put up with a bit of rain, but when it's raining and very cold, it's far from ideal.

peat

get a Mountain Bike and some super duper lights. You can stay out all night after the kids have gone to bed!

Bordersroadie

IC. wrote:

Does anyone else have the same issue? How do you motivate yourself to get out in the cold and dark?

IC, these are great questions and I have your situation too. Young family and a desire (and need!) to be there for my girls and to help my wife when I get home from work.

Once they're bathed and to bed and me the Mrs have eaten it's 8 or 9pm before I can realistically go out. The motivation is very hard but I never regret going out. I have a turbo trainer but (a) hate it with a passion and (b) it's never as good as a road ride in terms of training, whatever anyone says. I have a great front light, a good winter bike and an ice bike for subzero evenings and plenty of warm riding gear, so no excuse really.

My motivators are (a) always having an event/events to train for, (b) being visible on Strava (my riding buddies can see when I'm slacking), (c) the fear of losing fitness/becoming a fat old git (which I've managed to avoid apart from the old and the git bits) and (d) trying to convince myself that actually a dark ride is exactly the same as a light ride except there's no daylight.

Seriously though, I think late evening rides are best for guys like you and me, in practical terms and, as long as you have a decent route with which you're familiar (the avoidance of potholes on unknown dark downhills is no fun) you can get some decent miles in. My location means my night rides are all rural, so it's arguably safer than daytime (you see cars from a long way away) as long as I don't hit a deer or badger, touch wood.

Hanners

Have you looked at the option of riding early in the morning before the family wakes up?
its worked for me when my kids were younger. that way when you get in from work its all about the family

handful

I read through all of the posts on page 1 and wondered why nobody suggested riding early and then found the one above! I've been getting up to do an early (5.45am)Trainerroad turbo session a couple of days a week and found it very difficult the first time but then coming home that evening and remembering I didn't have to worry about doing one made it worthwhile. I have no problem now and will try to use the same discipline to go out now the weather has picked up a bit.

Beatmaker

styxd wrote:

IC. wrote:

styxd wrote:

Go out on your bike as soon as you get home from work. Have your tea after you've ridden your bike.

Not an option, I want to/have to spend time with the kids before they go to bed.

Your choice....

Yeah, right. I'm guessing you have no kids then Styxd?

topcattim

My advice is to make a precommitment and then try to make it as easy as possible for you to get out.
So, decide in advance what you intend to do, (e.g. 45 minutes in the evening) and then, early in the morning, make it as easy as possible do do this when it comes to it in the evening. Make sure the bike is fettled, your clothes are laid out, your bottles are filled etc. Then when it comes to motivating yourself to going out and riding, then (a) you don't have all the barriers that can give us an excuse to not bother and (b) you more quickly get to the reward that makes it worthwhile riding anyway.
And when it all goes differently, when your kids need taking to football earlier than expected, then that's fine. Tomorrow is another day.

sskelly

The early morning ride is a good shout in the summer.

I make my commute into work much longer in the summer. OK you have to get up at a silly time (just after 5!) but when you get home at night you have done all of your work.

diy

Personally I strap a couple of bright torches to the front and a few flashers on the rear and ride as if its daytime. The only thing you have to worry about is the odd rabbit running out in front.

griffsters

IC. wrote:

styxd wrote:

IC. wrote:

styxd wrote:

Go out on your bike as soon as you get home from work. Have your tea after you've ridden your bike.

Not an option, I want to/have to spend time with the kids before they go to bed.

Your choice....

I think that's a daft comment tbh and I hope it is meant in jest.

Comments advising about mileage targets or earlier/later/lighter meals are helpful. You saying it's a plain and simple choice between spending time with my young family or riding a bike are just silly. I'm looking for ways of gaining motivation to ride when the time allows, I'm not looking for answers on which bit of my life you think are dispensable.

Agree, such a flippant remark i can only think styxd has no grasp of the responsibilities children bring.

I have a similar issues. I can sometimes commute which is great however mostly I need the car for either work itself or picking up little un from school or child minder. Time is then spent making tea, homework etc as the other half doesnt get home until later on - a ride before tea simply isn't viable.

What works for me is having an event set in the not too distant future. I have a big one (for me) in May that i need to train for and it had to start last month. So I have commuted when I can, made sure I have some winter clothing for evening rides when the missus gets home and gone on a longer ride at weekend. Its not perfect but i'm doing what I can.

I cant say i've enjoyed some of the colder rides tbh, however i'm always glad to have done them and this year i'm ahead of myself with miles put in compared to last year. Its not long now before the evenings get light and warmer so I can really enjoy all my cycling!

ic.

Some really great advice coming in here, thank you.

I've never found mileage targets to be much of a motivator, but I am liking the recurring theme of making it easier for yourself to get out. That is one of the issues really for me, especially in winter, I always feel there's maybe 15 minutes of messing about before hand, then 20 minutes of showering etc afterwards.

handful

The tip about having an event planned is also a good one. There is nothing more motivating than knowing you have a 100km Sportive coming up and fitness isn't what it should be!! You manage to find time you didn't ralise you had then!

mabbo

Like others, try to commute on the bike. I target myself with two days a week in winter, and three or more in the summer.

18mile there, 18 mile back. Over 1000 feet of climbing.72 miles a week minimum, weather allowing,(February was a write off down here). All good training, keeps a base level of fitness. In summer I often add miles on the way home.

Keeps fitness up, and save on fuel.................more money to spend elsewhere !!!!

skyblueamateur

I've just become a father for the first time so am in the same boat.

I made a commitment to become a father and that is always going to be my absolute first priority.

With the lil un only being a week old I've managed a few turbo sessions while on paternity leave.

I've decided to try and target time-trials for this season as I feel it's something I can commit to time wise. I'll be looking at following the time crunched cyclist plan on trainer road and will then be looking at hour runs when the mornings are a bit brighter. Will hopefully still be able to be fairly competitive TT-ing