Originally Posted by
Mithrandir
I don't really use tools to motivate me... biking is motivation in itself.
That being said, I use tools to track my progress because I'm a huge math nerd and I like to be able to quantify my progress...
I have to say though, these things have a downside. In the past I would simply take my bike out and see how far I could go. In effect I loved not knowing where the hell I would end up.
But now, I feel very regimented, in that I know exactly where each ride is going and how long it'll take to get back. It seems my elderly prudence has overtaken my youthful adventuring spirit. That makes me sad, in a way.
Truth of the matter is however, that I now know this county, and the surrounding 5 counties, well enough that I know exactly where every road will take me, so maybe the tools aren't really the cause of this. I think I am going to start touring next year... see if that won't break this non-adventurous spirit
I too use mileage as my prime motivator to ride more than I would otherwise allot time for, and I'm also wonky about graphing my mileage. I'm a year-round commuter at 14 miles one way and in the nice weather I train for Centuries. I'm also very busy with work and family activities. For training I follow a well-defined 10 week Century schedule with daily mileage quotas. My training is virtually exclusively done by lengthening my commute, including a long ride on Saturdays to go into work for a few hours. So my usual 70 mile week during the winter expands to almost 200 miles per week at peak in the summer.
Without these mileage goals, I would be pretty content just to do my simple commute. So in my case, I embrace my quotas and graphs, and the additional cycling and added fitness is the payoff.
My earlier cycling days were as a tourist, including a cross-country trip, and the novelty of new routes certainly is a powerful motivator to ride. However I am tied down to the Boston area. As great as the cycling is here, it's hard to find novel routes after all these years. FYA, I posted to a recent thread you might find interesting on the Fifty Plus Forum, “Dealing with BOREDOM”:
Originally Posted by
Jim from Boston
I frequently deal with that situation too…Virtually all my riding is done from home as my starting point; no driving out to new routes…