Originally Posted by
BluesDawg
My goal for the past few years has been to ride lots and have fun with it. I have to work at it sometimes, but I have achieved it every year and I am on track for this year.
Hear, hear!
Setting goals sounds like too much like a job for me. I have enough goal driven activity in my life - "management by objective".
I recently got back on a bike after decades without riding. I loved riding, and started increasing my distance - probably a little too quickly. Then I started setting goals, at least 40 miles on this ride, 50 miles on that ride. If my goal was 40 miles, and I did 35, then I felt some sense of defeat. So instead of enjoying the fact that I was outside on a bike, exercising and breathing fresh air, I would feel a little dejected because I did't achieve my "goal".
That's crazy talk.
Getting on the bike was becoming a chore. It also lead to
less saddle time. If I had a riding goal for the day, and something came up so that I didn't have the time to achieve that goal, then I wouldn't ride at all. So if I planned a 3 hour ride, and some work or family issue meant that I only had 45 minutes, I wouldn't ride at all.
That's crazy behavior.
My new goal: avoid setting goals - focus on the joy getting back on a bike, and riding the bike for as many errands as possible.