knobster

I actually moved to Oregon to be able to ride more. What ended up happening is finding a lot more things that interested me. Cycling took a back seat quickly. My view of cycling is different now. I'm now happy with rides of 35 miles where before I would whine and complain if it was anything less than 50. I think it's better to have diverse interests than solely focused on just one. I know my life is much more complete because of it.

pallen

I changed jobs and my commute dropped from 100mi/week to 10mi/week. Now that I'm not getting the automatic miles in, I find myself hesitant to try longer rides because I know I'm in the same shape I was last year. Its been a snowball effect. I'm shooting for a long ride once a month and at least 3 fast group rides a month. Sometimes I don't even make that. Now I'm getting to the season where there's end of school kids activities and someone in my family has a birthday pretty much every other week for the next couple of months. All that adds up to less free weekends for cycling.

NRZ

I've only been road riding a few years but last year I got in 4500 miles, it was huge for me. I was riding 4 days a week and loving it. Winter hit, it was worse than last year and I started playing softball this year on one of my riding nights (I did say I would go another day but it hasn't happened much if at all...) and the weather just started turning around to a point where I want to get back out and ride. I probably 500 miles so far this year...and I don't mind.

garciawork

I usually go pretty hard from feb-sept (just training, no racing), and no matter what I do, even though I get an odd enjoyment out of riding in the cold, my head just isn't in it and I take a few months off. Then, I repeat. Seems to work pretty well if I can keep burning myself out at the same time each year.

Oh, MTB helps mix things up a bit.

Seattle Forrest

And for the same reason.

I've been getting more and more involved with rock climbing. It's opening up new possibilities for me, I can suddenly take my mountaineering interests further than I've been able to in the past. Last weekend, a partner and I rappelled to the bottom of a canyon, scrambled along the shore of the torrent of a river at the bottom, and then climbed a few pitches to get out. I'm spending about half my weekends camped at the crag to be able to spend more time climbing. After work, I'm practicing setting protection (stoppers, cams), and going to a climbing gym.

Weekends I don't climb, I'm doing more backpacking as the snow is starting to melt in some of the highlands.

This stuff eats away at my cycling time. It also feeds my soul.

I don't think this is a bad thing at all.

I still love cycling, always have. My interests come and go like the tides. This is a low cycling time, at other points in my life it's been about all I've wanted to do, and it won't be terribly long before I start to miss the longer rides exploring mountain roads. When that happens, I'll naturally start doing more of them again. As it should be.

kansukee

I stopped riding around the early part of '94 and didn't pick it up until the second half of 2011...at that point I was riding around the MUP which was less than 14 miles and I remember how tired and winded up I finished...then around March-April of last year I met a great group of people who were heavy into road cycling and really taught me all about riding in a group and how to train. 28 pounds later and I am close to being in the best shape of my life at 41...

CrankAndYank

They don't call me YoYo for no reason.

Velo Vol 

Some lazy people here.

hhnngg1

I definitely feel that as someone who's usually for something, either a bike, run or triathlon race, I'm tired a lot. When I (rarely) take a step back from it allI find I sleep better, feel more energized, and feel in general peppier and happier.

Alas, I know that's really a short term illusion. I only feel so great when doing nothing because I've put in the hard work to enjoy that quality of life when I kick back. Give me a year or several at that relaxed state, and health and weight won't be so good anymore.

You're a lucky one in that you had to force feed yourself to maintain weight - for most folks, myself included, the moment I stop working out, my weight goes up. Heck, even while doing 18hrs of week of training, I was still 20lbs heavier than I was in college. (Not all fat, but definitely not all muscle either.)

BoSoxYacht

I was off the bike for 127 days once, but only because I had 3 fractured vertebrae in my neck.

I can't imagine going more than 1 day without cycling, unless it's to recover from an injury.

kenji666

I stop every time my ride is over. When I want to ride again, I restart.

PatrickGSR94

Well I actually got back into cycling pretty heavily just over a year ago, and haven't really let up yet. In fact I'm now trying to start commuting to work (30 mi. RT). However before the cycling I was getting big into running (barefoot), but lately have cut WAY back on the running. I have run all of one time in the past 3 months, where I was running 3 times a week a year ago.

I'm sure I'll get back into it again, but I hope I don't get burned out on cycling anytime soon.

jtwilson

Have you ever just punched yourself in the face?

abstractform20

Can't ride in spring...terrible allergies. Looking forward to riding soon. It's Zen time

spectastic

I had a bike when I was like 5 or 6, then winter struck, and I never rode it until I immigrated to the US at 9. I had to teach myself all over again. First bike I ever owned in the US was a pink/white girl's bike my mom found next to a dumpster. It was a piece of sht; the chain would fall off every 5 minutes. It had those little colored beads running up and down the spokes as the wheel turns. All the kids looked at me. It was horrible. I pouted until my parents bought me a junior walmart bike, which was a huge upgrade. When I squeezed the brakes, the bike would stop! I rode it until it turned into a POS, just like all walmart bikes do. Then I upgraded to my dad's crappy bike, then my mom's crappy bike after my dad's crappy bike got stolen. Then my parents bought me a bridgestone mtb I found on craigslist. I stupidly stripped off the bike computer and toestraps, and tossed them. After that, I went to college, didn't do much aside from regular commuting. Went through 3 vintage bikes. And now I've graduated, and looking to get a little more serious. It's crazy how I went from a pink girl's bike found next to a dumpster to a soon to be $1500 carbon fiber bike that I'll take with me to races. Humble beginnings...


One day, I'll move to SF, where I can ride year round, and don't have to worry about that winter BS.

ThinLine

Yes, after 7 years of racing, training and recreational cycling I was burned out. Stopped completely put my 3 bikes in the basement, covered them in a tarp and veged out for 10 years.
2007 saw a resurgence in both excercise and cycling........bought a new carbon fiber bike and trained alot. I now have 9 new and newer bikes and just finished a 33 mile group ride in the vast farmland roads of new jersey. Addicted.

banerjek

It's not as cool as it sounds (actually, it sucks). Now I actually get to eat reasonable portions and limit intake to keep where I am. Much more fun.

BTW, I also gain weight quickly if I don't manage it. I tried an experiment a couple years ago when I went on vacation. If I eat my "active" diet when I'm not actually active, I put on 2 lbs/week.

My experience with longer commutes is that the more you do them, the more addicted you get. Your commute won't take much longer on a bike than it would in a car and you can get used to anything. By chance, I just happened to have to drive down my old route. Couldn't help but think that anyone who'd do that on a bike was nuts (which is probably why I practically never saw anyone else doing it). But I enjoyed doing just that for many years.

DaveSSS 

I quit riding in November of '10, a couple of months before an 18 month home building project. Good timing because my left knee was diagnosed as needing replacement, about 8 months before I quit riding. Moved into the house last August. I may never ride again. I'll be 60 in a couple of weeks and I've got a street rod project going. Also ordered a 2014 Corvette today. Sometimes you have to change hobbies. 25 years of cycling is probably enough.

I now have to worry about getting fat. Weighed 135 for many years. Gained 10 pounds over the winter - playing billiards doesn't burn too many calories.

The street rod build will keep me away from the fridge, so maybe I can lose the 10 pounds over the summer, if I cut down on the beer.

halfspeed

In the fall I spent a lot less time on the bike and did some running and lifting to try and rehab an injury which, as it turns out, won't rehab. I liked the running well enough, but it irritated an old skiing injury. After a long winter on the trainer and weekend ice rides I'm back on the road and I can't tell you how much it has done for me mentally to be back in the pack. My mind was going to a dark place during those months. So even though riding will continue to induce a fair amount of pain until I get my shoulder fixed in the fall, I'm not getting back off the bike any time soon.

AbsoluteZ3RO

I took most of last year off. Replaced riding with golfing... I didn't miss it at all until about October at which point I started back again. I'm more excited about riding now than I have been in years.

I think it's good to take a break sometimes, so long as you get back to it.