5 Tips To Increase Cycling Motivation

May 6, 2015 by Dyani Herrera

5 Tips To Increase Cycling Motivation

As much as we may love cycling, there may come a time when we lose motivation. We may struggle to reacquaint ourselves with that burning desire to ride at the crack of dawn. When we’ve hit this plateau in our training, there are a few ways to change the monotony of our routine. Here are five tips that will reignite the passion for cycling again!

Time of Day

Perhaps we’re losing motivation to ride because we’re too tired to wake up early in the morning due to overtraining or life’s general responsibilities. Although riding early in the morning does have its benefits, it doesn’t mean we are bound to riding as the sun rises. At times our bodies demand more sleep than usual and we need to listen. It’s helpful to change your ride times to late afternoons instead. By riding in the afternoon we have time to sleep in and get all our work done, rather than rushing to arrive to work on time post ride in the mornings. There’s also the added bonus of finishing your ride and watching the beautiful sunsets. The other advantage of a late afternoon ride is being able to de-stress after a long day’s work. Having something to look forward to at the end of the day, functions as a motivation to finish your responsibilities, and see cycling as your oasis rather than, “something you HAVE to do.”

Riding Partner/Group

If you’re someone who’s accustomed to riding alone and are beginning to find your sessions rather repetitive or lonely, it’s helpful to find a new riding partner. Riding with a partner who is highly motivated can be contagious as well as fun. Also, having someone who you can compete with when riding can not only push you to improve, but make you motivated to ride more. The same can happen when riding with a cycling group. In riding with a group you can take turns being the leader or drafting, both of which have benefits in increasing self-confidence when riding. Riding with a group is also a way to build camaraderie with others who are just as passionate about the sport as you are. Another advantage of group rides, is they usually have set times and days when they ride, forcing you to be held accountable!

New Route

Depending on where you live cycling routes may be limited, forcing you to use the same path constantly. However, in cities where cycling is highly supported there are several bike paths for cyclists throughout the city. Regardless of the circumstances, if you’ve been using the same route continuously it may kill your drive to go out and ride. At times it’s beneficial to stimulate the senses and choose an alternate route. It’s highly motivational when you’re seeing new sights, smelling different air (ocean side vs farm land), and feeling diverse wind patterns.

Fresh Gear

There’s nothing that can increase motivation more than buying a new bike! You count the days, hours even, until you can give your new baby a test ride. Immediately you want to investigate how responsive the bike is, its comfort level, or how smooth the gear shifting can be. Even if you’ve only bought new clothing gear, there’s always an itch to go and show it off. This can also relate to buying new cycling shoes, where you can assess the difference between triathlon shoes versus road shoes. Having new cycling equipment by any means is exciting, it’s a cyclist’s version of Christmas; hence, an effective motivator to go out and train as soon as possible.

New Workout

As a rookie cyclist, every workout seems new, exciting, and challenging, but if you’ve been riding for quite some time now, these workouts can become repetitive. Although there are certain workouts, which act as staples and deliver results, it doesn’t hurt to try out a new regimen occasionally. “I Love Bicycling” has some great articles on different workouts that address specific weaknesses. Also, Joe Friel’s book “The Triathlete’s Training Bible” and “The Cyclist’s Training Bible” both have great workout routines. Friel does a great job on breaking down different types of workouts, providing drills to address weaknesses, differentiating speed work vs endurance work and when to do either one. By completing a new workout, it helps us feel as though we’re progressing towards our goal, and provides us with some confidence when we complete them successfully.

In trying any one of these 5 motivators we will certainly see a surge in our eagerness to ride and consequently in our efforts.

Benefits of Positive Self Talk and Imagery

December 29, 2014 by Dyani Herrera

Benefits of Positive Self Talk and Imagery

Day in and day out we ride, thinking which workouts will serve to increase the endurance of our bodies. However, we tend to neglect the one body part that serves as our center of command…our brains. We need to think of this part as a “muscle” as well, in which we exercise it, push it to its threshold, just to increase it’s endurance in the next workout.

One of triathlon’s greatest veterans (and my personal favorite), Chris “Macca” McCormick, was disliked for the mental tactics he’d use on his opponents when racing. He would study his opponents, learn their tendencies, and find a way to break their mental game. Hence, why the mental aspect of cycling is just as important as the fitness aspect. Here are some tips to improve our mental toughness during training.

Positive Self Talk

As mentioned in the previous article “Positive Talk Increases Endurance,” it’s scientifically proven how vital our mental game can be. We must train ourselves to overcome that little devil on our shoulder telling us “you can’t do this”, because if there’s anything I love more about this sport, it is the ability to prove this voice wrong every day. Being able to do this consistently, really provides us with an intangible sense of confidence. Yet, as we’ve seen with cycling, endurance isn’t gained easily, and we must train ourselves to drown this voice when it rears it’s ugly head.

One effective method is positive self talk, where we replace these negative comments we say to ourselves with positive ones. Last year, I had the pleasure of sitting in a small seminar MACCA gave, and he discussed the idea of “folders.” Essentially, he explained we must create different mental folders for diverse situations we face in training and racing. I’ve modified this idea and have named my folders “not so bad”, “ok, this sucks,” and last one, “alright, I might die today.” In these, I’ve not only placed positive comments, but also memories of training/racing triumphs, motivational quotes, and lyrics to my favorite songs.

For my first folder I have comments like “you got this”, “keep working while others sleep”, “champions are made when no one is watching.” My second folder contains specific memories in training when I really thought I’d explode, and yet completed the session successfully. Also, I use some of my favorite quotes like “embrace the suck,” “when the pain comes I smile,” “keep going, this is going to make you better”, “you’re not a quitter”’ or “you’ve faced tougher things than this!” In my third folder, I typically keep lyrics to songs I like so I can sing them to myself such as “started from the bottom now I’m here”, “lose yourself”’, or “remember the name” by Fort Minor. I also remind myself of how I started cycling and how far I’ve come. Therefore, even if I’m not PRing, I’m in a better position than last year. Last thing, I make sure to keep adding material as new experiences arise and time goes on.

Imagery

This tactic involves imagining a particular goal manifesting itself. It is a great tool even outside of cycling, which can be used to cope through injuries and life trials. When struggling through a workout you can imagine yourself to be in a race setting, where giving up is not an option. On days when I’m lacking motivation, I imagine having someone behind me, and tell myself if I slack I’ll lose the race, and dishonor my hard training to date. Sometimes for fun, I envision my favorite Pro next to me, and not wanting to embarrass myself next to them.

Imagery is subjective to one’s feelings, goals, and experiences. There is no “wrong” image as long as it’s not one with negative outcomes or emotions. The idea is to stay positive and place yourself in an image where you are succeeding. Also, it helps to practice this often, and be as detailed as possible when creating the mental scene. By using this tactic, we can improve motivation, effort, and desired outcomes. It can also be used to decrease anxiety towards a particular experience such as riding in a large group, mountain biking over a treacherous hill, or returning from a cycling crash. The more we go over these scenes in our mind, the better prepared we will be when encountering these scenarios in real life.

By using both of these sport psychology tactics, we can increase our mental toughness in a sport that requires endurance in multiple ways. Sometimes the best athletes in cycling aren’t necessarily the most talented, but the most mentally tough, and know how to “suffer” more than their opponents.

Clara Hughes Motivation

December 14, 2013 by Guest Post

Clara Hughes (Canadian Olympic Champion)

It’s that time of the year when the snow comes and goes but hasn’t decided to make it’s winter home just yet in the mountains I call home. Lately, that home has been Utah’s Wasatch Mountains. That time of the year when it’s a constant self-inflicted arm-wrestle to get the butt out the door and on the bike or in trail running shoes. I’m honored to share with the network of fellow cycling enthusiasts and soon to be riding companions on July 13th for the Granfondo Axel Merckx Okanagan what motivation is like in the mind of a former athlete like me. You see, people often comment about the level of commitment and resilience they see with Olympians. Oh, if they only knew the constant war waged in this thick skull of mine to simply keep the wheels turning. I have to admit, it was a little easier when I was training for an Olympics.

Winter or summer, on the blades or bike, there was a sense of responsibility to the ultimate goal of trying to win big races every four years. That, and the team of coaches, trainers, therapists, physiologists, psychologists, and teammates…all waiting to give you a hard time if you’re late, let alone absent. Not training was simply not an option. Now that I’m a recreational athlete, it’s a little different. I’m actually quite lazy at heart (Editor’s note: According to Clara’s Strava© profile, in the last month she has averaged 345 km on the bike per week. If only we could all be that lazy!).

I love sitting inside watching the snow fall with a coffee in hand. Why be frozen and miserable if you don’t have to? Well, because I like even more the feeling of getting out…rain, snow or shine. Exhausting myself on foot, bike, ski or snowshoe, and then sitting with that coffee in hand watching the snowfall is even better. The challenge is that first step out the door. My advice? Set yourself up for something so big – like a Granfondo or a cross-Canada trip on two wheels – and scare yourself with visions of suffering, slobbering and not feeling ready or motivated. It all serves as effective fuel for my motivational fire. The pay off is feeling great not just physically but mentally, as well. There is the satisfaction of the adventure when you do get outside that money cannot buy. Dreaming, not dreading, the summer of cycling ahead is where I’m at. I get creative with what I do. I cross train…a lot. I go with the flow of the forecast and environment I’m in when choosing the mode of exercise. Which brings me to our little get-together next July. I promised Axel and Jodi I’d come and take part in this fantastic event a few years back. The timing is finally right. Can’t wait for the ride!