Originally Posted by
well biked
Commuting to and from work has been pretty much all the riding I do lately. And I don't mean that like it's a bad thing, I love that part of my cycling life. I've been a nearly every day bike commuter for many years, but the fact that I'm not doing quite a lot more mileage for recreational riding kind of has me feeling down, I just can't seem to get motivated to do the kind of mileage I used to do, just for fun.
My commute to and from work is only 2.5 miles, round trip, and that's been the case for the last eighteen years with my current job, just to put the work-commuting mileage in perspective.
I do love that I get up every day and get on my bike to start my work day. It's been a difficult year so far, with some health problems, hopefully that's all behind me and I can get back to my old self, when cycling for transportation was just one part of my cycling life.
I can relate very much. The vast majority of my miles are commuting, and now I'm even more grateful for that than before. I also lament that I don't feel like riding recreationally. Last weekend, I was invited to join a monthly full moon ride. It was mostly on the
Wallkill Valley Rail Trail and it started before sunset and ended after sunset. I don't remember if I had ever ridden on a trail at night. It turns out my lights which I use for being seen also work well enough for seeing. That was 21 miles. Then on Sunday, I led my student on a ride which also turned out to be 21 miles. It was his biggest ride ever for him, quite hilly and very challenging for him. So 42 miles in one weekend is a nice amount, more than any mileage this year. I think I
*might* be ready for the big ride I signed up for next month. I signed up to do 75 miles, and that's questionable.
I'm not sure what the secret to getting motivated. Maybe friends who enjoy the same kind of riding at the same time. That's a tall order, though.
The nice thing about my new job which starts in a couple of weeks is that the commute is only 4 miles each way. That's short enough that I'll be able to do it most of the time. When it was 13 miles each way, I did it less than once a week since it was so damned hard and tiring and required a lot of preparation.