Coping with Working Late...
 

I am wondering how you all handle long days / overtime?

In the summer, I could work up to ten hours and bike home okay... But if I work 10-12 hours straight, my motivation and energy to bike home really declines. If it is past dark and i have worked 10-12 hours, I really don't want to bike home.

I have a management job, so no one is telling me I must work late, but some days there is just too much to do and not enough free time to get it done. Sometimes, I can do some of it from home after biking home. But, sometimes I need to be at the office.

I find that I am more annoyed if I need to stay late when I bike, compared to staying late when I drive.

Maybe a set of very good lights will make you not dread riding your bike. Have you tried good lights? I feel much comfortabler (to coin a word) on my bike now.

Riding home is my end of day treat. My job's enjoyable, but my commute's much more so. And a commute length ride is just the ticket to re-energize.

Same here. I'm a marketing and proposal manager for an international consulting firm. My hours are always unpredictable and insanely long. Riding my bike home is stress relief, exercise, and a chance to think of something else for an hour or so. Same thing when I wrench on bikes (or sculpt, or do some other things I like to do that require concentration, but not a lot of deep focused thought). In the end, I'm no less productive (and probably more). I am often a better problem solver when I'm not consciously thinking about the problems I'm trying to solve.

As a city P&D driver, I never know when I will get off, but rarely work much over 10 hrs. I have a mile long 10%+ grade to climb on my & mile ride home which can be tough after a hard day. I really enjoy starting my day with a ride, so it balances out.

I'm looking forward to putting better lights on my commuter.

It sounds like biking to and from work isn't something you actually like, but just one more thing you have to handle. Maybe there is something you can do to get more excited about the ride home? Maybe something physical during the last part of your day, to get the adrenaline going?

I prefer riding to home in the dark. I have a Cygolite 700 so I can see fine. Most of the ride is on MUP and there is little to no one else out there which makes the ride awesome. I ride a little slower because it is dark, but I really enjoy the solitude.

For the most part I look forward to the ride home even late into the evening.
There's about a quarter mile stretch on my way home that gives me the willies. it starts at a Safeway strip mall and continues on just before I turn into my neighborhood. the traffic is crazy fast with motorist and there's zombies walking all over the place. I avoid looking them in the eyes. Sometimes they hail me to come over but I just ignore them. And of course there's those Night Riders without any lights or reflectors that I just cant help thinkin' they're up to no good...

In the winter it gets dark by 5 pm. After that, it really doesn't matter how much later I stay - dark is dark.

+1 on good lights - let me get some popcorn while the battery folks and the dynamo folks get ready for war.

I work 12 hours every day so I guess it's all relative. For what it's worth i left my cushy corporate manager job almost a year ago and couldn't be happier. As it approaches winter I'm riding to and from work in the dark. I have a Cygolite headlamp like a previous poster said and the thing is pretty incredible.

I can sympathize with his post. Just because you love bicycling doesn't mean you have to love it regardless of your current mental and physical state.

I've struggled with similar feelings late in the day. Particularly because my daily commute/work/home life schedule leaves limited time for relaxation. Even if I'm not working late, just getting 8-9 hours in keeps me pretty busy. I'm up at 4, leave the house by 6, get to work and showered by 8, leave work about 4:30 and get home around 6, eat dinner, watch tv, cleanup, in bed by 8 - repeat.

That said, I've noticed that when I'm leaving work late and dreading the ride home and would rather just sit down and mash the accelerator (of a car I don't own), the feeling dissipates soon after I get on the road. I try to remind myself of that and quell the feelings of anxiety/mental exhaustion that might flood my consciousness while getting ready to head for home. It also helps a lot to cut myself some slack the next morning and think about that ahead of time because a lot of the mental pressure comes from worrying about managing my life and getting enough sleep before returning the next morning.

Coping with Working Late...

I replied about my solution to a Living Car Free Forum thread. "Long range commute, without a safety net of a car/public transport."

try some creatine monohydrate, or honey and butter on toast, or a 5 hour energy shot on those bad days.
it might wake you up and give you the drive to pedal back home.

Creatine always wakes me up. However prolonged use can cause baldness and excessive DHT.
You will walk into the office and sound like james earl jones after a week.

How long is your commute? How hilly is the homeward-bound leg? What is the weather like?

I agree with getting good lights. I'd recommend newer LED units that are rechargeable via USB. Get good tail lights, too.

Is any part of your concern related to anxiety about safety riding home in the dark? I had that issue. It helped me to get good lights. I added some reflective tape and I have a reflectorized backpack, too. I probably look a little goofy but I don't care what people think...riding is a fun treat.

After my first winter I got very comfortable at night, but not cocky or over-confident...still need to be vigilant when riding at night.

I only have 3-mile commute to get home with a (tough-for-me) 100-foot climb. Never gets too cold, and sadly it hardly ever rains these days in my part of California.

I always look forward to the ride home....where there be cold beer and a shower waiting (and a pretty lady for that matter). It's the ride to work I don't much care for, and am convinced it has 100% to do with waking up and going to work. Better than driving, though.

This is some serious broscience. You are clueless.

FYI...Creatine is only useful for people who do power sports such as, powerlifting, bodybuilding, track sprinting, short duration HIT workouts, etc...Creatine will do absolutely nothing for an average commuter cyclist besides causing weight gain from water retention in their bodies.

no. not true. Creatine does increase DHT.
FROM MY OWN EXPERIENCE, at 20 grams during a loading cycle, creatine creates energy to last through a very very long workday and to be more mentally alert and ready, WITH MORE ENERGY.
Remember, everybody/every body is different

And I would appreciate if you would stop mudslinging.
I would like to be on a nice, open-minded and respectful forum not surround by attitudes like that.
Remember, there is another human being talking to you. One who may have a very different outlook and life experiences than you.
People seem to have zero respect for each other on this forum. This is the reason why people have issues with bicyclists and their "self-righteous" attitude.

And it could just be that the OP's circadian rhythm is such that he's having to ride home about the time his body wants to call it a day, no matter the nutrition. There is a reason why some people are "early birds" and some are "night owls".

I commute to work in the early morning hours, between 3 and 4am. Its different. I do about a 10+ hour day and there are many days I am pretty much toast by the time I get home.

I've been there and done that...big time! For me, I needed something that shook things up for me. I got a Fixed Gear. Not everyone's cup of tea but ride one up in the hills (High Country out here.) and it will put some wind in your sails, for sure. Find a clear path for yourself other wise you'll end up burned out.

I don't mind the dark or the season but I'll stick to lit roads if it's late enough. Bike trails in the late night dark attract people who want to get away with something.

Thanks for the ideas and replies. I actually love riding my bike to and from work. I always feel better when I bike to work vs. driving.

It just seems that 10 hours seems to be some kind of cut-off for me, where my motivation/energy to do anything after that (aside from drive home) is close to nil. If I work 8 hours, I generally look forward to the ride home and enjoy it. If I work 8-10 hours, I might feel tired, but I usually am happy after I ride for a bit. After a 10-12 hour day, I feel spent - physically, psychologically, intellectually... It is hard for me to summon up motivation for the ride home.

I feel very safe on my commute, that is not a concern. Lights might be a factor. I have a Nightrider Lumina 650 on my handlebars now and I was going to use another light on my helmet after daylight savings. The discussion about lights made me think of another possible factor. I have a thyroid disorder and have taken thyroid hormone for about 10 years. One thing I have noticed since taking the thyroid hormone is that my night vision is not as good. I also need to get a new pair of glasses & I've been procrastinating about doing this. My new prescription is just a tiny bit stronger than my current one. I have terrible vision and am pretty much blind without glasses.

As far as creatine goes, I don't know. I'm female and the the possibility of losing hair and retaining more water doesn't seem very appealing. Since taking thyroid hormone, I have found that I can build muscle easily if I work out regularly and eat well. If I don't work out a lot or eat well, than I put on fat easily...

Maybe I'll try a smaller cup of coffee closer to the ride home if I am tired. I will also experiment with getting new glasses and a stronger light.

[MENTION=362451]halcyon100[/MENTION] I think you could try some caffeine 15-25mins before you ride home it might help. I am not sure if you need creatine.. It really depends on how far you are riding. Sometimes your body just has to rest and driving is a good way for your body to get the rest it needs. Another suggestion i have to recommend is to tell yourself that you are excited to ride home. I know that I have had to tell myself when the weather is less than perfect at least I am riding and get my mind involved in the process too.

Finally, I think you also might want to make sure you are not outriding your lights. take it a little slower in some sections.

Save some life for life. Work is good for us but too much is quite unhealthy. Try to figure out how you can keep your work day to under 9 or 10 hours so you'll have something left at the end of the day for yourself. As an employer I was always far more impressed with people who got their work done in 8 or 9 hrs and had a healthy life outside of work than if they needed 12 or 14 hours to do it. Occasionally someone or a group might need to put in some very long days but that should be the exception (at one company we implemented a no email/cell between 7p and 7a and none on Sat/Sun except emergencies. I highly recommend it.)

Just having a bit of time for yourself every day will improve your energy (and work performance). Make sure you eat three good meals (breakfast included) and take time to enjoy and digest each and not rush through them (healthy/natural type foods are important and especially if you have thyroid issues). Cut out junk food and between meal snacks. Enjoy some small chocolate thing each afternoon and make sure to have dessert after dinner and get enough sleep each night. A change of environment can help too so maybe head out to a cafe for an hour or two in the morning or afternoon with your laptop.

Get up and walk around a bit at least once per hour if your job involves sitting. Standing desks are wonderful for some people. I raised all of the surfaces in my cube once as an experiment, never looked back and have had a standing desk in every cube or office since. Work centered on a laptop has made this much easier since I can more easily go back and forth between my sitting and standing desk.

If you are more of a morning person can you shift your workday an hour earlier?

I know how you feel. After a long day's work, I want to be home as soon as possible so I can veg out on the couch. Fortunately, my long hours at work were only temporary. I don't know how I would handle it if I consistently worked long hours.