Training motivation?

ashleydwsmith

I have two big (for me) rides this year. And need to train for them. However I can't just get on the bike when I get in as it's usually late and I have a family. But I do have rollers. But struggle tiger motivated to get on and do it!

Any advice?

diy

set up a laptop or something and watch a race on yotube - then try to "keep up"

BrandonA

You state that you have two big rides to complete this year. Surely that should be all the motivation you need. If you don't ride/train you might not complete your goals.

diy

That's the other way - don't train and then when you puke your guts up, collapse with exhaustion and need to take a week off work to recover as a result of trying to perform with capacity you don't have it will etch in your brain forever that you need to train

marcusjb

https://www.strava.com/athletes/1419435

^ all the motivation you need.

No matter how bad the weather, how battered he is, he's out there.

You've no excuses. Get on with it.

supermurph09

ashleydwsmith wrote:

I have two big (for me) rides this year. And need to train for them. However I can't just get on the bike when I get in as it's usually late and I have a family. But I do have rollers. But struggle tiger motivated to get on and do it!

Any advice?

Getting in late and having a family are not the reasons stopping you getting on the bike. You've just got to plan things better. Can you train before work? Can you take your rollers and bike with you and do 45 minutes at lunch? Can you ride to work? When you say getting in late, what do you mean? Typically my day involves getting in at 5pm, I then spend time with my family, put the little one to bed at 6-30ish and then I can do my training. This will either be in a cold outbuilding on the turbo or on the road.

You just need to find what works for you. Following a structured plan may also help.

ashleydwsmith

You know what guys you are right, thankyou for taking the time to respond. The only thing getting in y way is me.

supermurph09

ashleydwsmith wrote:

You know what guys you are right, thankyou for taking the time to respond. The only thing getting in y way is me.

Sometimes you just need some tough love!

mamba80

Build yourself a progressive training plan that reflects your lack of time in the evenings, so 3 x week on turbo, ditch the rollers - they will not build your fitness like a specific turbo session will.

Write in your training diary what you did and what your session is next time, set up your turbo/clothing/drinks in the morning so u r ready to go in evening.

ashleydwsmith

mamba80 wrote:

Build yourself a progressive training plan that reflects your lack of time in the evenings, so 3 x week on turbo, ditch the rollers - they will not build your fitness like a specific turbo session will.

Write in your training diary what you did and what your session is next time, set up your turbo/clothing/drinks in the morning so u r ready to go in evening.

I have a sufferfest program.

supermurph09

I did a blog of my time on the Time Crunched Training Plan, it really helped me. 2 midweek sessions of 1 hour, 2 slightly longer sessions at the weekend. Preparation is the key, of course things will crop up but if you can stick to 80% of the plan you'll be doing just fine. https://supermurph.wordpress.com/

mamba80

ashleydwsmith wrote:

mamba80 wrote:

Build yourself a progressive training plan that reflects your lack of time in the evenings, so 3 x week on turbo, ditch the rollers - they will not build your fitness like a specific turbo session will.

Write in your training diary what you did and what your session is next time, set up your turbo/clothing/drinks in the morning so u r ready to go in evening.

I have a sufferfest program.

then its up to you, you have all the motivation you need, you ve bought the plan and the videos, no one on an internet forum can ride your bike for you.

meanredspider

There maybe a few tweaks you can do: my trick is to tell everybody (within reason) that I'm going to do X and then I feel committed. You have two rides - tell people how well you're going to do in them and then you'll feel more motivated? That might not work for you in the way it works for me but you probably get the gist of my approach. Maybe it's writing it down. Maybe it's getting a training buddy. Maybe it's getting donations. If it's just you stopping you from training, enlist some help in convincing you to "get off your lazy ass" and train.

ashleydwsmith

To be fair, I know I'm my own blocker and having read Steve Abrahams task there is no reason I shouldn't be doing my training. So game on!

Cheers everyone.

dilatory

There's a lot of momentum I find in training. Once you've kept yourself doing it for a while it becomes habitual, the sessions you dread become easier because it's just part of the deal.

chrisw12

Very impressed, some great advice on here.

All of the above but what works for me in particular, my target is not just completing events but beating my mates/training partners at the events. The trick is to let them give you a few hammerings in the early season training then stick a photo of them next to the trainer. I never miss a turbo session now.

liter

My advice is if you don't enjoy it don't force yourself

Find something that you enjoy doing

markhewitt1978

meanredspider wrote:

There maybe a few tweaks you can do: my trick is to tell everybody (within reason) that I'm going to do X and then I feel committed. You have two rides - tell people how well you're going to do in them and then you'll feel more motivated? That might not work for you in the way it works for me but you probably get the gist of my approach. Maybe it's writing it down. Maybe it's getting a training buddy. Maybe it's getting donations. If it's just you stopping you from training, enlist some help in convincing you to "get off your lazy ass" and train.

Yup, it's much more difficult to get out of something once it's planned and people know. Then you have to make the active decision to cancel, rather than to go.

I find the only time I get to go out through the week is in the morning, which means gettng up at 5am, which isn't easy! It doesn't help that I would be deciding if I'm going out or not last thing in the evening, when I'm tired! For a while last year a few of us went out regularly on a Wednesday morning, much more difficult to skip if people are waiting for you.

bahzob

Training for a far distant target can be difficult as it seems so far from the future.

Two things that help me are
> Have some "season bests". These are for various time intervals from 10s to 3 hours and can be power or distance covered. These reset to 0 each year and the goal each month is to set new bests for the current year. This helps get a feeling of progress and also help increase training load in a structured way even if you are not following a rigid plan. Hopefully at some point in the year your "season bests" will be close to or better than your all time bests.

> Relate training to the event being trained for. If it has something especially challenging like a big climb then imagine you are doing it while training. Having some sort of external stimulus can help e.g. finding a youtube clip of someone riding the climb or similar. If you are training for a crit type race imagine that for hard intervals you are doing something like trying to make/catch a break, are in a small break riding hard on/offs or sprinting for the finish.