Neil_B

What do you do to get your motivation back? My motivation to ride seems to have left me. For a person who logged 3K miles in his first year of riding a bike, I find I have little inclination to go out these days. Help! :-)

chunkyd

You can do it man! This weather is doing that to me also.. but with all the success you've had.. we all KNOW not much can stop you!

tntom

Neil
Sometimes we just get that way. I was there in January. I just make myself go ride most of the time I have a good time and that helps. If I dont I know I have done something trhat is good for me. I don't brush my teeth because I enjoy it I do it because I like my teeth.

dallen

Find a group to ride with and make yourself go. Buy something new from your lbs. Tour de France usually helps renew my motivation, but that is a long way off.

Dave

b_young

I have posted this before and I guess will continue to do so when someone needs some motivation.



Its like any other hobby, you have your ups and downs. Mine are normally weather related. As mentioned finding a riding partner can help. Keep talking to your friends here, always keeps my spirits up. Your post are always an inspiration to me. I have not done a tour yet, but I am planning one this year.

KingTermite 

You aren't alone my friend. That has been my issue of late too. It started when I hurt my back last August. I was off the bike for about 6 weeks. It's so hard getting back. I finally got back at least on the commute. I did a few weekend rides, but not many to be honest.

Then December came and I forget what took me off bike my last week before I left for vacation (back to FL for family/holidays). Then I came back tired and took a week and a half to get back on the commute again. That was another 4-5 weeks off bike.

Now I've been back on, so far commute to work only, for about 4 days.

I UNDERSTAND the motivation thing. I've not had much in the way of a group to ride with lately either, so that makes it harder. I've thought about setting up my old bike in the living room on the trainer, but I just don't get the same out of it and don't end up riding that much when on the trainer.

CliftonGK1

I recently gave my personal motivation plan to someone else, so now it's your turn.

- Get out of bed right when your alarm goes off. Do not brush your teeth, comb your hair, or wash your face. Just get up and start movin'.
- Take off all your clothes, step on the scale in front of a full length mirror.
- Look at the nubmer on the scale. Look at yourself in the mirror. Do this until you feel motivated to get on your bike and ride.

Sure, I'll take a couple days off here and there. Sometimes an entire week, just to keep from burning out; it's easy to burn out when your commute is in the rain both ways for 20 straight days. A break is a good thing to do... but make sure to get the motivation back to start up again. Usually, a few days off the bike is enough to drive me nuts with wanting to ride again.

CliftonGK1

Oh sure... make me feel bad for not getting the gang together...

I'll see what I can do in a couple weeks about getting people out to ride. This moving process is slowly killing me, between the commute, work all day, then move a couple car-loads of stuff each night. I'm on a 4:30am to 10:30pm day right now, every hour is crammed full of activity. This weekend should be close to the end of it, though. (And I've got some killer new routes planned if we start from my new place.)

bautieri

Let the air out of your car tires then your choice is ride or walk .

Look back at your accomplishments and how far you have come since that night in the ER. This is just a setback that is most likely weather related. It's cold, wet, dark early, and just all round gloomy. I havn't rode my bike outside since late December. All my miles have been on the trainer where its at least easy enough to watch TV and movies...but is nowhere near as fun as riding outside.

Want to go back out to Stony Creek and finish that ride we started back in October? I'll leave the stone pile alone this time.

East Hill

I figure, if I don't ride the bike, I still get out and walk. It's such a habit that I don't even think about it. My routine is going to change a little, because I no longer have the same days off as my husband, but he's thinking about changing his days off to better match mine. He may go to day shift, too. Hard to tell right now.

Yesterday I both went for a ride (had a doctor's appointment), and later in the evening, went for a 3 mile walk when my husband went to work.

East Hill

B Piddy

Three ingriedients to my motivation: (Useful in all aspects in life)
1. Where I've been
2. Where I want to go
3. Knowing I can do anything I put my mind to

Look at pictures of you in the past / numbers (i'm an engineer...love numbers) . Think about the aches/pains/embarrassment you felt as that person.

Think about how much *** kickin/ name taken you've accomplished to get to today.

Think about the consequences of giving up....

Take the phrase "I can't" out of your vocabulary...its bullcrap

****Keep an eye on the prize...different for everyone...could be anything you could possibly imagine. Ya gotta have a drive/determination to make it all worth it...otherwise why do it. This applies to so much more than cycling and is my personal opinion.

Bionicycle

Like many of the other people have said, I think it is mostly weather related. I think I will just hunker down, and try not to eat too much, and wait until spring, or until the weather breaks.
Personally, I just try to find other things to do to keep my mind and body occupied as much as I can, outside of work, and other normal day to day things.

It’s not like I have been lazy, I’m in the middle of a bathroom remodeling project. I have been up and down our basement stairs so many times in the last four days, that my quads are more sore then they normally are after a long bike ride. Who ever built those steps to our basement must have been tall… I’m 6’+and I have to almost jump going up and down each step. I think I’m going to get some bricks and make some half steps in between each full step… anyway I digress.

I think once the temperature warms up a bit, and the sun comes out for more than nine hours a day, your desire, and motivation to ride will come flooding back with full gusto. Until then maybe you could go to a local gym and do some exercise… just a thought. Good luck with it... and don't beat yourself up over it too bad, we all have good, and bad, days... mounths, years, decades, lifetimes...

DnvrFox

Biking
Swimming
Walking
Weight Lifting
Spinning
Singing
Trainer
Whatever

It's all exercise, and good for you. I mix things up a bit. So far this week, 20 mile ride Monday, 4 hours swimming, good walk or two, lifted weights. Going to a spinning class next Tuesday. Rode the trainer an hour.

It all adds up. And, it is this season of the year. It was -7F last night, supposed to snow again tomorrow, wind chill of gosh knows how low.

Today, a bunch of the guys in my singing group all went to the hospital where one of our members had a hip replaced after a bad fall on ice, and sang to and with him, and the nurse asked us to sing to the entire floor, which we did. Even singing is good exercise! The nurse said it was great for our friend to sing with us to help prevent pneumonia.

ang1sgt

I guess you need me to come down and pounce on you!

Winter SUCKS in the North East and we just have to bide our time and wait for that day to come when we KNOW we can ride. Don't make an excuses, just go do it!

KingTermite 

Sure.....everything is about YOU isn't it?

That wasn't a dig toward you. It was more of just a general statement. You have been busy, the weather has been crappy, that one guy's wife had a baby, don't know where Sharon is......... I've been off bike and have to start slow and build endurance back up again. It's about 10 different reasons all working at once....it wasn't meant as a dig toward you.

Elwoodab

Wow, I wasn't going to get as deep as some of the other suggestions, I was just going to say, do what I'm going to do, go south for a week and a half and ride on the Florida beaches. It's hard to get motivated to ride in PA. when it's snowing outside. I have been going to the gym on a regular basis, but not riding my bike much at all. I haven't ridden outside since 12/29.

superslomo

Try to find ways to make it not seem like work... or find ways to integrate it into practical activities.

However, what do I know? I can't seem to get myself out and moving on weeknights in the freezing pitch dark either.

Tom Stormcrowe

Neil, when I get unmotivated, I just take a few days break and don't sweat it. It happens to all of us, and usually indicates I've been pushing too hard when it happens to me.

Take a few days and then get out on the bike for a short ride with absolutely no goals but some fun

CliftonGK1

hehehe

I'll be lucky if I can pull people together by May for the TdC ride, much less in time for the Chilly Hilly. I think the cold weather scared the sane people into putting their bikes up on the trainers or rollers for the winter.
I am everybody's motivation at work. I show up in rotten cold pouring rain, in the dark, sopping wet and lit up like a casino marquee, and I ask people when they're going to come riding with me.

KingTermite 

Sounds a little like me. I'm one of only about 4 bikes showing up at work right now (used to be 12-20 in summer). I think you and I are definitely the nuttier ones of the bunch.

I'm just still not geared well for long rides in this weather.

ChunkyB

I agree with Tom that you should just take a few days break and not sweat it. I find that when I really get down on myself for not exercising, or if I eat a bunch of junk, it doesn't help. It just kills my motivation. Just accept the fact that you're not going to be perfect, and take a few days off.

Also, I feel much more motivated when I have a goal to work for. Especially a public goal, such as a group century or other kind of ride/race. If you know that you have a deadline, and you know people are going to see the outcome of your training, then it might help you to get back out there.

Also, try something new when you ride. If you never listen to music, listen to music. If you always listen to music, listen to an audiobook or podcast or nothing. Ride somewhere you've never ridden before. Maybe if you switch it up a little, it will help to make it fun again.

I know it has nothing to do with luck, but good luck anyway.

thaetviking

I have been battling this the last week or two with the gym lately. I find that once I am there though I am ready to do everything I set out to do. A few years a go I would have just skipped it and started slacking. I am not sure why this change of motivation has come about but I am not going to question it.

guybierhaus

Niel, don't confuse motivation with sanity. I had no problem with motivation to ride back on Jan 8th when it hit 60 degrees. My sanity checks in and does have a problem with riding below 45 degrees. And the weather we had the past week and the week ahead, 45 would be a warm day. Only rode 3 days January 2007 and 1 day in February. Using the time for non bicycle activities. What little conditioning I lose comes back very fast. I gotta clean the basement some time, and get the Trek 1000 prepared for listing.

neilfein

It's like anything you love, you're going to get burned out from time to time. I get it with the bike, I get it with songwriting also. I go through dry spells of not being able to write anything - once for as much as a year - and it always comes back when I have something to say. Have faith that, when you need to be on the bike, for whatever reason, you'll do it.

landshark1

Sign up for a challenging ride in the near future. Easier to get riding when preparing for an epic ride.

I'm no shrink, but I would guess that your motivation loss might have a conection to the cancellation of you cross-country tour. You've delayed the journey, so you don't have that pushing you to go out and ride hard, so find another ride to challenge you into training!

The weather also probably has something to do with it! A little warm weather might kick start things again. Works wonders on me! You'll get it back, don't sweat it too much!!