I’m at a crux in my life right now as well, deciding if it’s worthwhile to spend time on cycling or just move on.
Cycling is about the most selfish sport I can think of. It takes me a crazy amount of time to improve to the point that I can enjoy the sport, I risk life and limb every time I go out, and I can’t spend anytime with my family while cycling.
When my kids were toddlers, I gave myself the excuse that they don’t really have their own personalities yet so it’s OK that daddy is gone every day for a 2-3 hours. Now my kids are in middle school and grade school, they have their own interests and they’re looking to me for support and validation. If I’m not there, can I give it to them?
I let me therapist tell me it’s ok to be mediocre at many things and then try my best when I train. I also will try to stack hobbies/things when I can. So now that I can get outside (thanks MN), I’ll bring my boyfriend/friends who don’t race for trainer ride and plan to go somewhere that is appropriate for the work out. I am letting my sewing and knitting drop to the side for the season as rides get longer.
It does mean that I’m slower than I could be, but I think it’s more sustainable. I can also have clothes I made, speak in another language not terribly, and support growing my local bike community through board involvement.
Same. Not that I am any good really, but I never seem to get enough time with any of these. I actually don’t remember the last time I picked any of them up
Man, I bought a Dingwall Jazz bass last year and I’m just so in love with it. I’m in the process of selling off most of my other guitars to finance a custom 5 string next. (Note - these are the dealer pics. That’s not my house )
Glad to have this thread back. Fitness has taken a bit of a backseat for me over the last few months due to some life and health upheavals. Still been doing shorter social rides and running because it’s easier scheduling-wise, but definitely more recreational than performance-oriented, which has made me realise how important it is to have other outlets for all my crap.
Art is a pretty huge one for me. Thankfully it balances well with cycling from a physical standpoint (aside from my crappy drawing posture) as well as usually being more interesting to my non-cycling friends, but it also has a fairly large time demand for the ‘nice’ pieces. Also I generally find it harder to feel motivated/inspired when I’m already fatigued from training, so I’m slowly learning that I’m better off sticking to quick/fun sketches during heavy builds, as well as being a good time to invest in learning through watching YouTube tutorials and such. Usually ends up being more fulfilling/productive than sitting around watching Netflix because I’m too cooked to do anything big (though I do my fair share of that too )
I will often write when I can’t be bothered drawing- through some combination of being a not-very-good writer who does it mostly as a personal thing and underestimating the investment required due to my relative lack of familiarity, I’ll often start thinking it won’t be ‘hard’ and then spend a fair amount of time on it. There’s some crossover with the visual side of things, too- with creative stuff I think there’s definitely a ‘rising tide lifts all ships’ thing.
14 to 21 hours per week is elite level training. It’s completely not necessary. I know a guy that maintains a 275 watt FTP on 5-6 hour per week total with only 3 sessions per week on the bike (3.5 hours).
Cycling has ebbed and flowed throughout my life. Some years I rode 0 miles, some 1500 miles, and some 6,000 miles. It’s really ok to not be fit enough to ride with the 20 something guys that don’t have kids and work part time at the bike store.
Soon your middleschoolers will be in high school and not want to talk to you much. You’ll have more time in the future.
That’s my bad, I meant every weekend. I do bike on the weekdays but usually in the middle of the day when my kids are at school.
That’s the issue isn’t it? I’m not there yet, but from what I am told, spending more quality time with your kids while they’re younger means they’re more likely to spend more time with you when they’re older. From a personal example, my parents were too busy trying to make a living to spend “quality” time with me. When I became a teenager I resented them (typical of a brat); it wasn’t until I became a parent myself that I realized what they sacrificed. My cousin, on the other hand, is a single child who wasn’t spoiled but had a lot of quality time with his parents. He has always been close with his parents, even through high school and college.
For the last few years, I declared Saturday morning to be mine (club group ride) then we would usually go out to lunch after my ride. I would take Sunday off as a recovery day and family time. That worked well. There was no resentment since it was already on the calendar and my only real time to spend with other grownups outside of the house. (Working from home.)
My parents were a bit selfish. My dad worked a lot and my mom loathed to be forced to go to a baseball game or even take me to school or pick me up from practice. “Can’t you ride your bike?” Neither parent ever came to a cross country meet or golf match. It was a different time though and most parents didn’t show up to high school sports unless it was football or basketball.
I just started playing tennis again after taking close to three years off and I was basically wrecked after the first night.
I’m on a mid volume plan so I’ve got two days off and have started going back to a tennis meetup on one of my rest days. The first night I played pretty hard for two hours and instead of getting DOMS my quads were really sore while I was playing. I was noticeably sore for four days and actually changed my Tuesday workout to Z2 so I could face it. After the 2nd week I was still noticeably sore, this time in my hip flexors, but not so much that it impacted my workouts.
My cardio is great thanks to all the bike training so I can work hard for hours but my body was not ready. Being that tired after a couple hours of tennis really highlighted the need to be a little more well rounded and got me to focus more on recovery and mobility so hopefully it will have a positive impact on my body, if not my cycling specifically…
My youngest has the chess.com app and uses it everyday. I now have to really pay attention and hope they make a mistake. I highly recommend it if you want to improve, but it’s not enough to get me to use it myself (try to limit phone time).
Cant speak for him obviously, but I play Starcraft2. Always been a fan of real time strategy games. Only problem is it takes a lot of time to be competitive…it’s pretty hardcore.
The problem I have is I’m looking for a more chill game, but chill and competitive tend to not align haha.
Diablo, easy to bounce in for an hour and kill the minions of hell, and it only requires 2 fingers on your right hand and the ability to use ‘1 2 3 4’ on your left.
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You’ll have more time in the future.