How do you stay motivated?
 

Help!

I can't seem to get myself out riding,its really getting depressing. Wish I had a riding partner, that might make it easier. How do you folks keep motivated?

Sometimes it's hard to get on that bike - but I know that when I do, I'll enjoy the ride.

I take a look at a picture of myself from this past March and say..."There's no way in HELL I'm going to weigh 200lbs again!!!"

I'm down to around 170. 15 more lbs by spring and I'll be at my goal.

That's how I stay motivated.

Every so often I have to go out of town for a meeting. When I get back from several days of poor sleep, bad eating, and long hours listening to talking heads it is hard to get back to riding. I try to remember that I always feel better after I ride. As soon as I know I am rested again, I start slowly and pretty soon I am eager to ride yet again as soon as possible.

I want to get back to what I weighed three decades ago. I have lost about 20 pounds over the last year plus. There were plenty of fits and starts in that process. When the scale does not move, or moves in the wrong way; I feel shamed into getting out and riding more.

It is difficult when the weather is unfavorable. Fortunately, the weather changes again. I either adapt or the weather changes for the better.

I admit that reading posts on the Bike Forum helps to motivate me. So does reading other books and articles on cycling.

Mostly, I just feel so good after a ride.

It's one reason why I actually LIKE working overtime. If I get off work at 4.30 am, it's hard to resist the lure of simply riding back in the car with my husband (we work at the same place, same hours). But if I get off at 6.30 am, he's already gone home, the bike is there, and it's easy to get on and ride.

Rain doesn't bother me, and cold doesn't bother me. I don't much like ice, although snow isn't bad if it hasn't gotten compacted.

Heat I don't like.

East Hill

All I have to do is remember that if I drive into work, I'll have to pay for parking :)

Yeah, it's hard to stay motivated, especially around here in the rain and the dark and the cold. As I alluded to above, for me it's my way of getting to work. I pack everything the night before so I'd actually have to unpack things if I were to drive in. So for me its a matter of simple premeditation.

Try to find something you want to do. Even if its just going to the store or visiting a friend. Then, instead of driving there, ride. Not every ride has to be a century or an epic or even training. Ride for fun!

I got in my truck last week after a few solid weeks of riding the bike to work and there were cobwebs on my steering wheel! i don't know if that is "motivation" or not, but i thought it was pretty cool; and it encouraged me to keep on it regardless of the weather. knowing i don't have to put gas in my truck more than once a month = Motivation.

Yeah, but the crappy thing is that you still have to pay insurance for a truck you're not driving.

But, but, David Byrne loves his bike! It would break his heart to read this.


:D ;)

I stay motivated cause its my only mode of trasportation. go city living

If I don't ride I rapidly turn into a round boy fast!:eek:Also have seen the price of gas? I feel like I'm giving blood every time I fill up at the pump.

Ciao,
Timothy:D

+1+1 The scale and the gas pump! I'm getting to the point now, though, where I start feeling "off" if I don't ride. So I'm always looking for excuses to take the bike. Now if only I had that fully enclosed, 5-person surrey with the Stoke Monkey backup that's being built in my imagination, I could take the whole family!:D

Easy, money.

The more I bike the less guilty I feel about spending money on bike parts and gear :p

Gotta justify the $400 dollars I've spent so far, and the fact it's climbing -_-/

1bluetrek, can you join a riding club out in eastern WA?

barring that, just being out in the brilliance of mother nature, sun or rain, wind or calm, always brings a smile to my face. it's a beautiful world.

1bluetrek too many reasons to count. Mostly the calm of the sun and wind at my face. Sleeping well, etc.

I ride early in the morning before daylight. Once the alarm goes off, it's useless trying to go back to sleep. You might as well get up and ride. And the morning rides are SO peaceful and really get my day started out right. I drag on the days I don't ride. I hate my "rest" days; I'd rather get on my bike and ride.

Yeah sometimes getting out of the house to start a ride is hard. But all I gotta do is remember that awesome feeling at the end of a long ride, and I'm putting on the cycling outfit and jumping on a bike! :) There's nothing, nothing that compares to how I feel after a nice ride. I lift weights and I climb mountains, but that's peanuts compared to the calories expended and the feeling of well-being after a ride.

I love cycling, both on and off road, but there are two things that help my motivation if I ever thought it could waver.

The first is that I ride single speed and there is just something fun about riding one gear and especially off road because, in addition to the wild ride, the bike cleanup takes only seconds. That means I don't balk at sloppy conditions, I just go get wet and dirty and do a light drip with the hose, wipe the drive train, squirt some lube and put it away--5 minutes.

The second is having set ride days. I ride Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday no matter what (unless I trade a day for some ride a buddy wants me to do.) No matter what means I go with a cold, I go when it rains, I go in the snow, I go at night and I go by myself. It helps that I have a local trail very close to me that I often do for 3 out of the 4 rides for the week--that way I know what to expect if the conditions are lousy or if I have to hit it at 11:00 pm because my wife made me go to a concert or something.

Ride with outhers when they are around, but don't wait for them or you'll never ride.