Motivation

socistep

I started commuting by bike mid way through 2012 and its the norm now 5 days a week, motivation has never been an issue as the alternative of bus or car is slow and frustrating and I miss the energy boost from being on the bike!

walkingbootweather

I was going to share how I maintain my extraordinarily high levels of motivation.........

............ but I don't think I can be bothered.

:roll:

LiveGiantly

Spend a week commuting on public transport in London at rush hour/peak periods...

Trust me, you would never run out of motivation after that!!

Kieran_Burns

Motivation...?

Well, I'm not sure really:

Koncordski

CiB wrote:

I'd lost a bit of enthusiasm for getting up at 6:40 to ride 20+ miles in the cold dark wet winter mornings, but surprise surprise that old trick of driving halfway and riding the rest is working a treat. 10 miles, about 35-40 mins, it's close to daylight by the time the bike takes over. Is that an option for you? It used to strike me as utter madness to drive somewhere, dump the car and then ride the rest of the way.

I've been struggling since moving to Kent from Surbiton. Got a new brompton and having been doing the short ride to the station then train to London Bridge then ride to the Wharf. It's just not as much fun doing 5 miles from London Bridge as doing the whole trip from Surbiton, you don't really have time to get into it or indeed any proper SCR. The 28miles over the north downs and very early start mean im unlikely to do the full route. Am now looking at driving to Chelsfield and biking the 12 miles from there to the office, will have a crack a that next week. If that solves to problem then i won't have to renew my £4K season ticket when it expires in March, which is powerful enough motivation. :shock:

LiveGiantly

Koncordski wrote:

CiB wrote:

I'd lost a bit of enthusiasm for getting up at 6:40 to ride 20+ miles in the cold dark wet winter mornings, but surprise surprise that old trick of driving halfway and riding the rest is working a treat. 10 miles, about 35-40 mins, it's close to daylight by the time the bike takes over. Is that an option for you? It used to strike me as utter madness to drive somewhere, dump the car and then ride the rest of the way.

I've been struggling since moving to Kent from Surbiton. Got a new brompton and having been doing the short ride to the station then train to London Bridge then ride to the Wharf. It's just not as much fun doing 5 miles from London Bridge as doing the whole trip from Surbiton, you don't really have time to get into it or indeed any proper SCR. The 28miles over the north downs and very early start mean im unlikely to do the full route. Am now looking at driving to Chelsfield and biking the 12 miles from there to the office, will have a crack a that next week. If that solves to problem then i won't have to renew my £4K season ticket when it expires in March, which is powerful enough motivation. :shock:

:shock:

EKE_38BPM

LiveGiantly wrote:

Koncordski wrote:

CiB wrote:

I'd lost a bit of enthusiasm for getting up at 6:40 to ride 20+ miles in the cold dark wet winter mornings, but surprise surprise that old trick of driving halfway and riding the rest is working a treat. 10 miles, about 35-40 mins, it's close to daylight by the time the bike takes over. Is that an option for you? It used to strike me as utter madness to drive somewhere, dump the car and then ride the rest of the way.

I've been struggling since moving to Kent from Surbiton. Got a new brompton and having been doing the short ride to the station then train to London Bridge then ride to the Wharf. It's just not as much fun doing 5 miles from London Bridge as doing the whole trip from Surbiton, you don't really have time to get into it or indeed any proper SCR. The 28miles over the north downs and very early start mean im unlikely to do the full route. Am now looking at driving to Chelsfield and biking the 12 miles from there to the office, will have a crack a that next week. If that solves to problem then i won't have to renew my £4K season ticket when it expires in March, which is powerful enough motivation. :shock:

:shock:

I've got some friends who commute from Ramsgate to East London every day. 2 hours door to door and £6k each for the season tickets.
They have a lovely house but 20 hours commuting a week and paying that much for the privilege really doesn't float my boat.

I would suggest cycling, but I think 900+ miles a week might be a bit much!

LiveGiantly

EKE_38BPM wrote:

LiveGiantly wrote:

Koncordski wrote:

CiB wrote:

I'd lost a bit of enthusiasm for getting up at 6:40 to ride 20+ miles in the cold dark wet winter mornings, but surprise surprise that old trick of driving halfway and riding the rest is working a treat. 10 miles, about 35-40 mins, it's close to daylight by the time the bike takes over. Is that an option for you? It used to strike me as utter madness to drive somewhere, dump the car and then ride the rest of the way.

I've been struggling since moving to Kent from Surbiton. Got a new brompton and having been doing the short ride to the station then train to London Bridge then ride to the Wharf. It's just not as much fun doing 5 miles from London Bridge as doing the whole trip from Surbiton, you don't really have time to get into it or indeed any proper SCR. The 28miles over the north downs and very early start mean im unlikely to do the full route. Am now looking at driving to Chelsfield and biking the 12 miles from there to the office, will have a crack a that next week. If that solves to problem then i won't have to renew my £4K season ticket when it expires in March, which is powerful enough motivation. :shock:

:shock:

I've got some friends who commute from Ramsgate to East London every day. 2 hours door to door and £6k each for the season tickets.
They have a lovely house but 20 hours commuting a week and paying that much for the privilege really doesn't float my boat.

I would suggest cycling, but I think 900+ miles a week might be a bit much!

Tour de Commute

arthur_scrimshaw

EKE_38BPM wrote:

LiveGiantly wrote:

Koncordski wrote:

CiB wrote:

I'd lost a bit of enthusiasm for getting up at 6:40 to ride 20+ miles in the cold dark wet winter mornings, but surprise surprise that old trick of driving halfway and riding the rest is working a treat. 10 miles, about 35-40 mins, it's close to daylight by the time the bike takes over. Is that an option for you? It used to strike me as utter madness to drive somewhere, dump the car and then ride the rest of the way.

I've been struggling since moving to Kent from Surbiton. Got a new brompton and having been doing the short ride to the station then train to London Bridge then ride to the Wharf. It's just not as much fun doing 5 miles from London Bridge as doing the whole trip from Surbiton, you don't really have time to get into it or indeed any proper SCR. The 28miles over the north downs and very early start mean im unlikely to do the full route. Am now looking at driving to Chelsfield and biking the 12 miles from there to the office, will have a crack a that next week. If that solves to problem then i won't have to renew my £4K season ticket when it expires in March, which is powerful enough motivation. :shock:

:shock:

I've got some friends who commute from Ramsgate to East London every day. 2 hours door to door and £6k each for the season tickets.
They have a lovely house but 20 hours commuting a week and paying that much for the privilege really doesn't float my boat.

I would suggest cycling, but I think 900+ miles a week might be a bit much!

Think you've hit the nail on the head, I presume in some cases people do those sort of commutes to fund a lifestyle that is then compromised by the long commute?

SmellTheGlove

I've got a different impending problem with motivation I think.
With a change of premises the ride will soon be ten miles each way (out from N London) instead of about six (just inside the Nth Circ) that I've been doing 5/5 for several years now. I think a hundred miles a week and more time commuting might start to eat away at the pleasure that I still get from that self-reliant hour every day, not to mention leaving me less inclined to pedal at weekends - really painful that one if it happens - snacking all day, and so on. I'm thinking perhaps I'll ride 3/5 and drive 2/5 (means buying a car, holy-moly) but then, what's this, I lose the effortless routine and habit of just knowing there's one and only one way to get to the job, no need to weigh the pros/cons, just get out and go. When I start to think about it, the ride has got right under the skin over the years. No doubt I'll find a way; I sense that inevitably it'll be quite a big shake-up where there's the one inescapable factor which is that, regardless of transport choice, getting to work is just going to take longer.

OK I've nearly talked myself into it; because the alternatives are so utterly ghastly everything'll be fine...
I'll mod the bike so gearing and everything are totally tuned to the route. Lighter hoops. Perhaps better waterproof kit. It'll soon be spring.

Kieran_Burns

I do 12 each way and generally did (hiatus due to change in work, now over) 4 days a week. My cycling mate does 12 miles 5 days a week and will change this to a 18 mile loop quite often (in fact he did the 18 mile loop every day until I found him the 12 mile alternate)

Oh and he runs 5 miles at lunch as well.

I'm going for the guilt approach on this. Is it working?

markhewitt1978

For those who cycle some days and drive others, how do you choose? Do you say that e.g. Mon-Thurs is cycling and Friday is driving, regardless of the weather, or do you start looking at the forecast first? I would imagine it's easy to slip into not bothering?

j_mcd

I do just over 20 miles a day (18 miles in and 2.5 miles back) and take the occasional day off. The way I choose the day is simply to cycle every day until I can't be bothered.

I find that if I plan to take a day off (Wednesday for example) then something else will come up in the week such as drinks or lazyness or torrential rain that means that I don't go another day as well. Then I've missed two days.

I guess if you are going to take a particular day off, make it a Friday so you've got more energy for the weekend.

Kieran_Burns

If I do a 3 day cycle week I cycle Mon / Weds / Fri

If I do a 4 day cycle week I do Mon / Tue / Thur / Fri

I stick to it as a way of making myself go out on crap days

iPete

South West Trains want nearly £15 a day
It isn't quicker
If its raining i'll get wet walking either side of the train journey anyway
Strava is watching me.

vertigo16

Went away for Christmas/NY so didn't cycle for 3 weeks straight (while eating and losig fitness). First day back yesterday, motivation all gone - thought it was the fitness thing but it's not that because I enjoy working back up to speed.

Realised I'd bought Cav's second book a few days before and was actually resenting the fact I couldn't read it on my commute (the only time in my day I ever get to read is on the train)! It's the small things...

johngti

Rode yesterday, got drenched on the way home, didn't care. 17 miles total, 13.5mph average there and back so fairly happy.

Drove today (long teaching day and early meeting with a parent) and feel crap.

There's a pattern here isn't there!

markhewitt1978

Yes, getting soaked on the way home makes you feel crap the next day?

Kieran_Burns

markhewitt1978 wrote:

Yes, getting soaked on the way home makes you feel crap the next day?

Getting wet means you teach more?

johngti

:roll:

roger_merriman

for me though Public Transport isn't that long, takes 40mins but it's two stages, it's bus/train and then walk.

bike is under 20mins.

I miss not being able to know exactly when i'll be somewhere rather than have to be early just in case, so that for me is motivation!

Initialised

What's been sapping my mojo this week?

Not sure but it had me flat out on the sofa all Saturday and Sunday and it's making me get headaches if I ride to hard, turns my lungs inside out if I let my heart rate and breathing get to high/hard which makes me cough up all sorts and hurts my chest. Still, I've only missed one day because of it.

I ride the long way with a good effort on the good days so I've got the stamina to take the quick way, slowly on the bad days.

adam0bmx0

Never had an issue with motivation but then door to door from E&C to Westminster is about a 8-9 minute commute for me.

lastant

iPete wrote:

If its raining i'll get wet walking either side of the train journey anyway

This is the one factor that usually swings it for me - I'd rather arrive at work soaked, have a shower and get changed into dry, clean clothes than arrive at work having travelled in on damp public transport.

warreng

My motivation is taking a pasting at the moment. There's a dedicated shower room in the office which is absolutely great but since Xmas the hot water has been a bit sporadic - never knew whether it was going to be hot or freezing. I had a chat with the office manager and it turns out that the boiler is in the cleaner's cupboard and when they go to turn off the light they sometimes also turn off the boiler. So I got in early one day to catch the cleaners and explain that one switch is for the light and one for the boiler and can they please stop dicking about as I may end up killing one of them. I even sellotaped a sign over the switch to physically prevent them turning it off.

Come in this morning and they've turned it off again

markhewitt1978

Perhaps you need to tape a plastic box over the switch!

il_principe

I never struggle with motivation for the commute. Getting out at weekends it a different matter at the moment though.

bdave262000

I got paid early last month (middle of December) and overpsent during Christmas, I have no money left and its still two weeks to pay day. No motivation required as I have no other option its either cycle or walk 13miles each way to work.

warreng

markhewitt1978 wrote:

Perhaps you need to tape a plastic box over the switch!

I found the culprit. It's the same person who thinks it's hysterical to let the air out of my tyres.

essex-commuter

WarrenG wrote:

markhewitt1978 wrote:

Perhaps you need to tape a plastic box over the switch!

I found the culprit. It's the same person who thinks it's hysterical to let the air out of my tyres.

In that case I would rewire the switch in a 'certain' way. He/she will only switch it off once more.