Motivation and lack on it...
 

Hello all,

I just finished my training ride on the trainer tonight. It is raining and I really wanted to go outside today and ride. The ride on the trainer was boring to say the least and I am finding it hard to be motivated about the trainer when I really want to go outside and ride...

I really enjoyed my ride on Saturday and the small ride on Sunday I did before the rain. I usually am very motivated to go but today was different. I only got in 30 minutes on the trainer, muscle endurance and I knew I could go farther but I did not.

I went and took a hot shower, shaved my legs, and relaxed a little and I am more motivated now than before that. I feel like I could go another hour on the trainer if I wanted to... unfortunitly I have to go to work now :( .

What do you all do when you feel unmotivated. I mean those times when something does not work out ot you are stressed and riding just does not look good?

I know I am not burned out, but when you look forward to going on a ride, plan the route and don't get to go it is discouraging.

Thanks as always.

I just pour myself a glass of wine, sit back, and relax!

Yeah--sometimes poor motivation is a result of overtraining or just being stuck in a rut. If you don't like the trainer, maybe you could switch over to the Winter Cycling forum and try riding outside. At least it's never boring!

I was thinking at work tonight and one thing that kills a training ride is lack of information. My HR monitor was not working and for me a HR # is a major motivating factor. I guess I will need to be getting that fixed real soon...

My experiene has been this. If you want to be good, really good at something, then you need to train/practice often. Forget any fascination with motivation. If you wait to be motivated, you'll never hit your goal, and in any competition you'll be rolled over by all the guys that pushed themselves even when they didn't feel like it.

If you do something often enough it will be boring sometimes. The more often you do something, the more "bad" days you will have. Those times when you're not motivated are the most important times to train -they are prime chances to strengthen your will power.

A buddy of mine who wrestled in college once told me, "Motivation is for wussies."
(That's not direct at you, by the way.)

Diggy--It sounds like becoming "really good at something" is your motivation.

The point is: it's helpful to be aware of your true motivations--not to think that you are too strong to need any motivations. I admire your ability to work hard but I hope you have some fun along the way! :)

First of all riding the trainer sucks. Period. I have only had to use mine a couple times this winter so far. I have ridden every other day, including some days when the windchill was well below 0 F. I am not a competitive cyclist although I could probably do pretty well if i wanted to be.

I ride to relax. For some reason, riding is relaxing to me. It is not hard to get motivated to relax, so I guess I have never had that problem. If I had to ride the trainer every day, i probably wouldn't do it. It is not relaxing at all, it is just boring.

I think some of the best rides I have had have been when I was under so much stress or in such a bad mood that I hated getting on the bike but I forced myself.
But in any case check some of these out if you haven't, they always get me pumped up to ride my bike, www.digave.com/videos

I always remember that 90% of all success is just showing up, also known as consistency.

The next 5% is enthusiasm or attitude.

And the last 5% is talent.

So, even if your attitude sucks and you have no talent :) , just keep doing what you need to do to be successful and there is a 90% likelihood you will be.

If you don't show up, if you're not consistent, there is a 100% chance you will be a failure, no matter how enthusiastic or talented you are.

some neat videos

I spent 5 days/week on the trainer last winter and it sucked. I must have watched the same 3 tapes at least 10 times each. Not wanting to face the same thing this year, I spend 30 minutes on Tuesday, Thursday and Sat mornings on the trainer and go to the gym on MWF. While it's probably gonna take a month for my cardio to catch up at the beginning of the season, I already feel stronger ... and most importantly ... I don't dread my daily workout.

mix it up.

-mark

Geneman:

I hope you let us know how it goes for you this spring. I'm betting that the weight training improves your riding. I mean, how can weaker = better? Also, I'm betting that it won't take a whole month for your cardio to catch up. You are probably working pretty hard on the trainer three days a week.

If you don't mind my asking, How come you don't ride outside in the winter?

When on the trainer, my workout of late has been to bring my HR up to 155 and hold it steady. Then every five minutes I crank up the resistence, put it in 53-13, and get out of the saddle until I hit 175-180 bpm. I then recover to 155 and repeat the process around 6 times before cooling down for 5 minutes. Unfortunately, that's not nearly enough to keep the cardio up and I know I'll suffer for a least 3-4 weeks early on when I can get outside.

Two reason why I don't ride outside. First, it's still dark at 6AM when my only window of opportunity for riding exists (2 little kids at home). Second, 40 degF is my lower temp limit for outdoor riding and we won't see those temps at 6AM for at least another couple of months. When given lemons ...

I'll be sure to let you know how my training has impacted my riding once spring comes around. The goal for this year is to "comfortably" hang with the local race group on one of their fast-paced training days. The other goal is to place well (top 5) in a tough-as-nails century race in Sept. We'll see.

-mark

It stopped raining at noon... I went home extremly fast and grabbed my bike and was late to class. I am going riding outside as soon as class is over... I am so happy (and motivated... yah!) riding outside for once in a week.!

get some videos. CTS or spinervals. they are good workouts, usually aobut an hour long unless otherwise specified, and you can get them for specific aspects of biking. they make the time pass pretty fast, too