Stalled on the bike commuting
 

I have a work schedule where I work 4-5 days a week (every other Friday off). Since September I've been averaging riding to work every day of the week except one, when I have off-site meetings that I haven't worked through how to ride to (yet). Anyway, aside from that day which is usually Wednesday, I've been riding every day of the week.

Except this week. :(

Monday was a combination of severe weather, and I had to stop on the way home from work to pick up flooring I'm putting down in my living room (from a place very near my office), so I decided to drive. The thunderstorms were supposed to end Monday night, but I awoke to the sound of thunder on Tuesday. I got lazy and stayed in bed a little longer since I won't ride my bike in a t-storm. By the time I got ready for work (and by then too late to ride), the storm had cleared off and I could have ridden after all. Today is that day when I have off-site meetings.

Tomorrow I plan to ride; in fact I couldn't ask for better weather- sunny with 50-degree temps in the morning and a high in the 70s, with light winds. But then Friday I have off. I plan to ride, but not to work.

So where I've usually been riding every day except one, this week I'm only riding one day.

I'm a little worried that with the colder weather coming in, I'll get lazy and give up riding for the winter. Help me, BF Buddies! Inspire me to ride!

You can do it man! I understand how you feel.. I overslept today for school(bad actually) so I missed class...and missed riding. I have missed a day or two this semester due to weather but not many. My ride monday was great though, Cold, breezy, light drizzle during parts of the day, snow just a few miles away. I loved it, MUP all to myself and it was extremely peaceful. Just stay to it and you will be fine!

Same kind of situation in my neck of the woods. Decent temps but rain rain rain. I rode in on Monday but since then no go because of the rain. (I'm not going to do rain when its 35F outside, thats what I have a car for!) I put the bike on the trainer for some exercise but its not the same thing. I'm just waiting for a break in the rain so I can get back at it. You need to do the same, hang in there!!

Yes we can!

I often have "dry" spells, too, but I don't let it bother me. I know that there will be days that I can't or don't feel like riding, so I just accept that fact. I know I'll never be an uber-commuter like some folks here, but then again, I am not trying to be. Besides, when I do get back on the bike after a break, I feel a little stronger and I remember why I like to ride in the first place. :)

You live in Texas. HTFU.

What you need is a situation where your alternatives to biking to work really, really suck. Works for me.

cold, in Texas, right.

Cold is all relative. When we are used to 110 degree commutes and it drops down to freezing temps with high humidity it is pretty cold. Also the AM commute of 40 degrees and evening commute of 80 degrees is tough on my old body. 40 is still just at the point where I'm good with shorts but need knee warmers but pretty soon it is going to drop to 30s and below in the am and 70s at night bah.

I missed the worst of it monday and just had to suffer with some wind. Not that I love pouring rain that floods the streets and lightning that you can see for miles the wind is really annoying. Riding over those freeway overpasses that have no shoulder and a 3ft or less concrete wall that I could very easily tip over if they wind pushed me that direction with a heavy gust sucks. I move to the left of the lane and sometimes into the left lane but those gusts of winds up there are pretty brutal.

Note: if you do ride through the winter beware of sprinklers.. All those businesses like to keep the street nicely watered but it sucks when the temp drops to freezing.

The only thing I miss about Connecticut is riding through the winter. That was alot of fun. These severe thunderstorm with tornado warnings where the wind, downpour and lightning last for hours I could do without.


Hmm... Oh and lets see a reason to ride down here in winter.. Hey at least it ain't 110? *shrug* Don't forget that riding in the darkness is fun and the roads are a little clearer because drivers come in a little later, at least on my commute.

I'm having the same problem (rode on Monday, but not since).

I don't know how long your commute is, but on days you can't bring yourself to ride, can you drive part of the way, and ride the last few miles?

I sometimes do that. My full commute is 16.5 miles one-way. I can park 3.5 miles from work, or 2 miles if I'm really feeling lazy. If I do the 2 mile ride, I almost consider it a time-trial :lol:

However, those plans didn't help me yesterday or today, I drove the entire way. I am weak.

I'm originally from Fairbanks, Alaska and I know a man there who bikes to work all year.
over 15 mi each way with significant elevation change.

In the middle of winter that means:
dark both directions (sun comes up at 10 am and sets at 2 pm)
-40º F/C
fighting a snow berm along the edge of the road the entire way
Large frost-cycles hanging off of your beard
keeping your water bottles under your coat so they don't freeze
studded tires

Oh sorry - you said inspire you, not make you feel like a total wimp.....

Don't worry about it to much
there are plenty of days that riding is such a joy that you never want to stop.
Then there are the days that pain in the ass - but only 'till you get out there and start going.
And then there are the days that you don't bother - and that's fine too

No reason to be ashamed of not riding in thunderstorms, rain, and believable threats of either.
Most of us live in climates that are dry more than they're wet.

Until you think of your bike as the vehicle you take to work, weeks like this will occur. I've had weeks like that in the past. I've just adjusted my mentality that my bike is my mode of transportation. It is now a very rare week that I don't ride my bike to work five days. It took two years to get to that point. If I have to do pickup-and-drop-off of the kids at daycare, I drive the kids with the bike on the rack. Leave the car at daycare and ride to work (reverse in the evening). There are no excuses. Just do it.

Today is Wednesday and I haven't ridden since Saturday, almost unheard of for me as a year round commuter in the Boston area. I had an achy flu-like illness, and I think I'm better today, so with a little more effort than usual, I'll ride tomorrow, especially since it might rain Friday.

There have been multiple threads about motivating to ride, and the listlissness after a break in regular cycling, and I don't have much to add. If it's any help, my ride tomorrow will be in the dark, about 32 degrees. But in considering your plight, I'm more motivated to resume my riding tomorrow.

The trick is to just keep riding, no matter what! This is the perfect time to prep yourself for the coming winter. When it rains and snows, be sure to go out there and ride - no matter what the conditions.

I'm going to be traveling to Europe this winter and I luckily live in a very cold, snowy location here in the States, so every time it's rained and snowed, I go out on my bike and ride. On these rides I learn what kind of clothes I need, which shoes work best, how to stay dry, how to navigate in adverse weather, etc. The trick is to just keep riding. As soon as you start skipping days, that's when you get in trouble and may stop riding entirely.

Getting rid of your car all together is a great way or forcing yourself to ride because you simply have no other choice when your car is gone.

Both ways uphill in the snow? Barefooted too I'll bet!! :roflmao2::roflmao2::roflmao2::roflmao2:

I have a similar schedule except I work 2nd shift. I now park my car at work instead of at my house. I am forced to ride to work that way. If I must drive I can still use my wifes car but that will have to be an extreme emergency.

Thanks for the encouragement, guys. I'll ride tomorrow. I have Friday off but I think I'll try to ride about 30-50 miles and that will get me going again. The Saturday breakfast ride should be easy-peasy; the restaurant we're eating at is just a couple miles from my house. So I'll ride to the meeting point, do the breakfast ride, then probably leave the group and cruise around the neighborhood a little, looking for that perfect garage sale bike. So maybe I can still get close to 100 miles in this week. Not bad for a slug. ;)

Today was cold, windy and raining. At 8am, I couldn't get myself out the door in the dark to meet my usual Wenesday group ...

but, this afternoon, I put on the appropriate clothing -- rainjacket, helmet cover, neck warmer, waterproof booties -- and headed out into the, er, mist.

It was refreshing ... beautiful even. I should know by now that any day on the bike is a good day.

I'm in the middle of a dry spell as well. I was sick last week.

I was riding M-W-R(sometimes)-F

Now that my ski shop job has started up (again), that rules Fridays out. My kick boxing class is on Monday and Wednesday, and I've had personal stuff to deal with on Tuesdays for the past month or so.

So that leaves Thursdays open, which is today, but it's raining and 35ºF! Wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I need to find a reasonable balance for the winter months...if there is one...

pfffft.

So you're taking some time off. So what? It happens. Maybe you'll drive the car for a bit. Maybe you'll catch a lift with that really cute lady from up the street. Maybe you'll be riding again like there's no tomorrow. Maybe you'll toss that geared monstrosity and go fixed for a bit.

Mate, it's not an issue. If you want to ride, you ride. If you don't, don't. But beat yourself up because you didn't ride and all of a sudden, it's a chore, a duty. Sheesh, do that to yourself and even if you do ride you won't get the benefit because you'll be twisted mentally. Many people give up because they made riding an issue and eventually found that it was 'too hard', not physically but emotionally.

Soooo, if the weather's ****e, DON'T RIDE ... unless you really want to in which case it's cool.
Even if the weather's fine, if you don't want to, don't.
You'll soon start to miss the ride and you'll be back on the bike.

I'm an old phart, someone who's year has been overly stressed (going back to uni in your fifties does that) and who's been fighting the Black Dog for more years than he likes to think about. I KNOW about this 'forcing yourself to ride' caper and believe me, it's not worth it. You're not going to keel over with a heart attack if you stop riding for a bit, but you will turn yourself into a mental pretzel if you force yourself to do something, even if that forcing is rather mild in the beginning. According to my log, I did less than 500 km in the year leading up to July, but I've done well over 1,000 since then. Why? Because I started uni and then had rampant gear failure on the bike and decided it was too hard for a bit. So the bike hung on the wall. I got my head sorted, got the bike sorted and started riding again. So I lost six months of riding (and spent a lot in parking fees) but I'm back in the land of the stupidly active again.

All of us find it hard to get on the bike some days. Quite often, a bit of discipline will make us get on the bike when we don't want to and we find ourselves enjoying the ride anyway. That's normal and healthy. But there is a point where you really do not want to do something as opposed to having an attack of the maybe's - push past that point and you're setting yourself up for failure. Only you know where that point is but be warned that you often only know you've passed it in hindsight. But whatever happens, it's reversable, once you learn to accept that YOU ride the bike and it goes when and when YOU want it to and then, only if you flamin' feel like it.

Richard

Don't beat yourself up over it. You are already riding and bike commuting more than 99.9% of the population.

However, if your goal is to bike commute all of the time, then you need to have an attitude like "riddei." That is, you have to consider biking your default mode of transportation -- like you don't even own a car. I don't view things that way. My view of bike commuting is similar to yours -- I try to bike commute 4 days a week and drive once. If work or weather gets in the way, so be it. I don't think twice about driving if there are thunderstorms or sleet, or if I have a meeting that requires having a car. Despite that attitude, I bike commute about 4 days a week, 300+ miles/month year round -- and I don't get burned out by it. I still ride 40-65 miles recreationally every Sunday with my friends.

:50: Snow?!? You actually have snow? Spoiled little rotters. Why, when I was growing up, we didn't even have snow to ride in. We had to make our own snow. We didn't even have hills; we had to borrow the neighbor's hills so we could ride home, in our homemade snow, up our neighbor's hills, both ways and we were thankful to even have that. :50: :roflmao2:

My goal is to ride in 3 days a week. But some days I have to have a motor vehicle when I have to be in Timbuktoo or something. So I look at it every weekend, schedule and weather forecast wise. Some weeks I may only ride in 2 days, others 4. I've never done 5.

But it evens out.

Others beat me to it! You don't have winter in Houston. I admit to being a cold weather weanie, but I'd love to have your weather. I miss global warming!!