Originally Posted by wombat94

While I don't exactly disagree with Wooden Tiger, I don't exactly agree with him either. Fun is great. Fun is AWESOME!

But for a lot of people, fun is not the best motivator to keep you out on the bike (or any other fitness/health related goal).

Now, to be sure I am NOT one of those "no pain, no gain" type of people... I think that is one of the stupidest sayings in the world... and the fact that so many fitness professionals believe in or at least adhere to that principle cost me YEARS of false starts in trying to get healthy.

Absolutely, riding the bike should be fun... but that doesn't mean you can't have other goals if you find them motivating. In fact, having goals - specific achievable goals - and sharing them with friends and family (and online on sites like this and on Facebook) is what got me from sedentary couch potato to now multi-sport endurance athlete.

But... recognize that you need to start small, make each goal achievable based on where you are at the moment and where you want to get to. Keep them small so that the achievement of each goal can help build confidence and momentum.

For me, the first goal was to get a black belt in taekwondo... a process I knew would take at least two years, but which was broken down into each of the color belts along the way. That was 2010 and most of 2011.

In early 2012, I had about 6 months left to get my black belt, so I started looking for another big goal... and decided I wanted to run a half marathon within the year. I started running in January 2012, finished my first HM in September, and ran 3 more before my first anniversary of running.

2013 has been about continuing to run, and now also about cycling... with a goal to ride a century ride charity even next month.

I'm sitting here this morning planning out a 70 - 80 mile ride route for the week after next as my last tune-up before the big even and I'm shaking my head because I would NEVER have thought it would be possible for me to do that... and 3 years ago it WASN'T possible, but what's not possible today is sometimes possible tomorrow if we set goals and work at it.

My big, audacious goals are still out there... three of them keep me motivated for the long term, but I have lots of small steps to get there in between... those goals are 1) Run a full marathon 2) Complete a half-ironman length duathlon (3.3 mile run/56 mile bike/13.1 mile run) 4) Someday complete the Walt Disney World Dopey Challenge (5k race/10k race/ half marathon/ marathon on consecutive days)

Along the way, weight loss was a secondary goal. I never set an ultimate weight loss target (I still don't really have one... though somewhere in the low 2hundred-teens seems like it will make the most sense). At first the weight came off very slowly... then it accelerated greatly and I lost a lot very quickly for quite a while in 2012... it then plateaued but has held steady for most of 2013 so far. As I train up for the century and my next HM, my eating is getting a bit more focused on good sports nutrition, which naturally improves my overall caloric intake... and a few pounds have started to drop back off. I'd like to be under 230 by the time of my next HM in september... and maybe at 220 by the end of the year, but that is not my main motivation.

I go into all of this detail to point out that goals can help keep you focused, but the goals shouldn't just be about the number on the scale or how far or fast you ride. Try to make the goals themselves about achieving something new and different, and then the goals themselves can be fun.

If you are so inclined just go with small increases in your overall weekly riding and/or your long ride for a few weeks... then when you get some more experience, maybe look out 2 to 3 months and find a local charity ride and pick a distance you'd like to try to train for and then set that as a goal. You'll be surprised at what you can do and as long as you don't take yourself too seriously, you can have fun along the way.

Good luck... keep it up and you'll be amazed how far you can go (both literally and figuratively).

Ted