Touring - Touring withdrawls

Has anyone else had this problem? Since I got back from my 5 day tour in the desert, I've been feeling very detached and almost depressed. Sitting at my desk at work is about the hardest thing to do right now. I fell in love with the simplicity of living by bike, and now I suppose I just have to re-adjust to real life.

LoL. I feel that way after a 20 minute commute to work!
You are in good company I'm sure.

me too. I've been back at the desk for a month now, after 2 1/2 months touring, and I'm planning my next ride. anyone wanna go cross the usa this summer, west to east, any northern-ish route?

:)

Has anyone else had this problem? Since I got back from my 5 day tour in the desert, I've been feeling very detached and almost depressed. Sitting at my desk at work is about the hardest thing to do right now. I fell in love with the simplicity of living by bike, and now I suppose I just have to re-adjust to real life.

I get that after any holiday, even non-biking ones. On average it seems I need a half day for every day I was away to fully recover. Recover as in become interested in work/"normal" life again.

I have a month trip this summer in Europe and I already know its going to be hell coming back. One day I might not come back.

That's why I like to read OPTJ....

Has anyone else had this problem? Since I got back from my 5 day tour in the desert, I've been feeling very detached and almost depressed. Sitting at my desk at work is about the hardest thing to do right now. I fell in love with the simplicity of living by bike, and now I suppose I just have to re-adjust to real life.


Hi Gonesh9. Good to see you. :)

I completely understand your feelings... not being able to do something you want to do and having to do something you rather wouldn't... can be not very pleasurable.

But! Have you had any other (non office) types of jobs that would make you appreciate what you have more.


Think about all the people who also enjoy riding and freedom of touring, but to work, they have to return to

cutting meat department, noisy chemical hazardous factories, buildings roads in 90+ degree heats, clean up restrooms, pick up garbage, suffer from management abuse etc etc...

It's how they say, expect the worst, and the neutral will seem good... :)

Hope you will work out a great compromise.

Inoplanetyanin.

Yep, I know the feeling. I've basically felt that way ever since I got back from Tasmania. Since I've been back I find myself increasingly bored with the conversations going on around me, and with the daily routine. My commute is, by comparison, not very interesting.

I still spend a fair bit of my spare time (probably more than I should) looking at some of the photos I took down there. Will I ever forget the beautiful setting of Hobart? Other things that come to mind are Bruny Island, the spectacular coastline of the Tasman Peninsula, The tranquility of Maria Island, The spectacular climb of Jacob's Ladder, The surreal Climb of Mt Lyell near Queenstown, the number of people I kept meeting repeatedly on the East coast, the number of people I met on the west coast -- and the way we all met up again in Hobart. Even the broken chain and freezing rain the Gordon River Road doesn't seem so bad now, and who could ever forget riding through that scenery?

So in answer to your question, yes, I do get touring withdrawals. We've got a long weekend coming up here soon, so that might sate my demands for a couple of months. However, I know that it won't be long before I need to set of again for at least a couple of weeks.

When a tour is coming to an end , My mind starts thinking of the next one...That is one time it is depressing to see the finish line.

Has anyone else had this problem? Since I got back from my 5 day tour in the desert, I've been feeling very detached and almost depressed. Sitting at my desk at work is about the hardest thing to do right now. I fell in love with the simplicity of living by bike, and now I suppose I just have to re-adjust to real life.
Imagine that you have gone for only 5 days, but when you bike day after day after day for 6 weeks, or more, you produce a lot of endorphins, which are not there anymore when you have to head back to work. I have been there, done that many times. Depression, I know as well. I can control it, especially with exercising. Few advices: Plan your next trip. Write an online journal about this trip that just finished. Make presentations in front of family and friends. Exercise. Go biking will take the edge off. Even if you got only one hour. Running has been very helpful to get endorphins fast. Join a local cycling club and get involved. Have some new training goals. And make sure that you don't finish a trip in late fall, as the light hours is so low that you become naturally depressed.
Hope this helps! Kati

Exercise. Go biking will take the edge off. Even if you got only one hour. Running has been very helpful to get endorphins fast. Join a local cycling club and get involved. Have some new training goals. And make sure that you don't finish a trip in late fall, as the light hours is so low that you become naturally depressed.


I did this. I hammered out about 500km in the week just after I got back from my last trip (including 225km in one day where temperatures cleared 40 degrees C). It did help a bit (and I've continued to do it ever since). However, the thing that bugs me is having to return to a culture that to me, screams "mediocrity". As I said, the conversations that go on around me bore me, I watch basically no television, and work is, well, just work. Quite frankly, since returning I've realised how many things around here just plain annoy me. I can't stand the climate. People here are just, well, I've ranted about that enough already. About the only reason I'm still here at all are the rides in the mountains and rainforests in the hinterland on weekends that provide some relief.

What I'm wondering, is how many people here have decided on a major change in their lives after completing a tour? Did you change jobs? Did you move (possibly to somewhere you visited on the tour)? Did you find returning to your old life so difficult that you decided you'd just had enough?

One extreme example that comes into my mind is the German fellow who went on a tour. Now, several years later, he is still touring. He never planned it, but apparently he did not find any reason to stop.

--J

Any kind of exercise does it to me, If I don't get to the gym I feel guilty, If I don't walk same thing,and if it rains here in So Florida I really get the downs
Am heading out in July for Europe for several months, open end return,don't know don't care about the return but eventually I'll return and have to deal with the "recovery phase"
I'll probably move west so I can ride in a diff setting, flat So Florida does get boring after a while, can't wait to do a trip south from SF along Hwy 1 and the Pacific Ocean as far south as a road or trail goes
Kinda think the bug has bitten deeply and the cure as yet is unknown

What I'm wondering, is how many people here have decided on a major change in their lives after completing a tour? Did you change jobs? Did you move (possibly to somewhere you visited on the tour)? Did you find returning to your old life so difficult that you decided you'd just had enough?
I went on my New Zealand trip with a job related burn out. I had physical and mental symptoms of it, and I knew I had to do something about it. I rode 6 weeks in New Zealand, hoping for an answer as of what to do next. Did a lot of journalling while there, and lots of soul searching. Although I didn't come up with an answer while on trip, it was certainly clear that I couldn't stay in my former job anymore, just a toxic environment. So I changed. Did something completely different within my profession. Don't regret it at all.

In the last year or so (it always happens between trips) I found myself in a slump, and ajust found a new passion- road racing. Looking forward to get into that more seriously after my cross Canada.

It sounds like you are not happy with your current living situation- The touring trip might just have been the element that will initiate making a change in your life. Be brave and go ahead!

Kati

Has anyone else had this problem? Since I got back from my 5 day tour in the desert, I've been feeling very detached and almost depressed. Sitting at my desk at work is about the hardest thing to do right now. I fell in love with the simplicity of living by bike, and now I suppose I just have to re-adjust to real life.

Yes, indeed! The withdrawal is mild but significant. I've returned from a 32-day California to Massachusetts trip. My mind keeps wandering back to the trip and things related. That's why I'm on this forum and not working :) But after taking that much time off, I've vowed to not do that again. My plan is to get myself back into the normal routine one little bit at a time. Big things like reporting back to work the next Monday and playing with the kids but every little thing also helps. Doing my calisthenics. Walking the dog. Cooking. So far, I seem to be doing well. I'm planning a big ride this weekend that hopefully will be punishing enough to remind me that an office chair is really quite comfortable.

It sounds like you are not happy with your current living situation- The touring trip might just have been the element that will initiate making a change in your life. Be brave and go ahead!


You know, just after I wrote my post last night I headed out for a ride in the hinterland to Hinze Dam. I won't go into a great big spiel about it's location, but it's basically in the foothills of the Beechmont Range. To say that it was a stunningly beautiful ride last night would be to understate it. The temperature was just about perfect, the full moon lighting up the water and the hills around it is something words can't describe, and the short sharp hills that kept on coming really allowed me to let out the temper I had built up.

Rightly or wrongly, that's why I've held back making a big change. I do have something planned in a few years time (i.e. when I manage to save some money, and hopefully in time to avoid mid-life crisis). It's rides like these and the ones in this thread (http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=49513&highlight=2004) that sustain me between tours, and through all the other rubbish that I have to deal with day after day. My job isn't really that bad (although anything gets repetitive day after day), and the rides around here, once one gets away from the city are very pleasant, and something I would undoubtedly miss. So perhaps I should just shut up and stop whinging!

Chris, I can recommend a good Doctor who specialises in labotomy. Makes you much calmer, ensures you send inordinate quantites of SMS messages and look forward to Today Tonight and Big Brother... it could be the only solution. I'm considering it myself.

It's rides like these and the ones in this thread (http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=49513&highlight=2004) that sustain me between tours, and through all the other rubbish that I have to deal with day after day. My job isn't really that bad (although anything gets repetitive day after day), and the rides around here, once one gets away from the city are very pleasant, and something I would undoubtedly miss. So perhaps I should just shut up and stop whinging!

It looks like an amazing area, and maybe even I would call this paradise! Great pictures and thanks for sharing them. Kati

I so identify with that.

I just recently got back from a tour of Southwest England. I've come to deal with that in my own way. At home I have all my maps for my next trip and when I have spare time I read them. I have travel and bike books in the washroom. When I'm on the internet I research weather for my trip and decide which direction and where I'll travel.

So you see, I never really stop travelling. At least in my mind.

Chris, I can recommend a good Doctor who specialises in labotomy. Makes you much calmer, ensures you send inordinate quantites of SMS messages and look forward to Today Tonight and Big Brother... it could be the only solution. I'm considering it myself.

I sometimes wonder if I wouldn't be better off with a lobotomy. I wouldn't always be jonesin' to get out of work and be on the road somewhere.

Chris, I can recommend a good Doctor who specialises in labotomy. Makes you much calmer, ensures you send inordinate quantites of SMS messages and look forward to Today Tonight and Big Brother... it could be the only solution. I'm considering it myself.

Yeah, but the result might be even more scary. I was suffering from insomnia a few years ago, and cured it with an nightly dose of Stan Zemanek. Well, it sent me to sleep pretty effectively, but my mind was numb for a little while after. :eek: