Hard to mentally get outside

Thanks again for all the replies :sunglasses:

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There’s always Running. Last summer i gave up cycling for 6 months and went trail running all the time instead. It was awesome: All the pleasure of being outdoors and none of the cycling downsides.

I definitely finds this helps me - indoors I have the bike permanently set up, and organise kit and bottles/ nutrition the night before. I do the same for outdoor spins - bike set up (tyres pumped/ lubed/ M check), kit organised based on forecast, bottles and nutrition in the fridge. Even down to bank card and cash in the cycling wallet.

The above is based on a group spin, I’m much less inclined to go outside for a solo spin especially if the weather/ wind is a bit meh. I can do it, but I need the motivation (I’ve done 200km solo audax permanents) but sometimes it’s just mentally easier to hit my workout, and have extra time with the family even if I have the pass!

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I get that, my safe place is riding my bike, I get stressed at any attempt to leave the house, but where going for a mile walk or driving a car (traffic jams, I melt down in traffic jams) is “painful”, riding my bike for 80 miles, is well, pleasant, when it was taken away from me it was a downward spiral, without some sort of validation, I ended up self harming and I took “an incorrect amount of medication”, it wasn’t on purpose, just trying feel something different, and it shocked me how somebody he feels “mentally stable”, reacted, pandemic hasn’t helped me either, 2 years of being told to stay at home, just validated my fears

Personnally, the best thing that I did was find somebody to speak to it about, I have a great counciller (started talking to her about 4 years ago) and she has put everything into context, it took me a while to actually be honest with her about my anxiety, but she has made me think about “blockers”, and what I want to do, and igore all the other stuff, I struggle with super markets (single, feel trapped by the trolly infront of me), I was a making a big deal about it in my head, the conversation with her, would basically be, don’t waste energy on that, get a home delivery, so you have the energy to ride you bike. I’ve done things for years to avoid situations, and she really making me think about what I want to do, and what is ok to avoid (if you don’t want to do it, don’t, just don’t invent blockers)

I get that so much, but is it why you started cycling, if you were to never go outside cycling, would you continue to train, after all, it is ok just to ride inside if that’s what you want to do, I make all the rides outside ones that I want to do, thursday chain gang, I tend to plan my Sunday long ride all week, so that it is something I want to do / go, rather than just “I’m riding for 4 hours”

I’d suggest talking to her, asking her if it’s ok and what time she would like you to get back by, what she is going to do when you are out, and is there anything she would like to go and do, just feeling selfish without addressing it, could just be a blocker

Again, sorry if my reply was off the mark, but if was even close, happy to talk, feel free to PM me if you feel like it, I’m not a expert on these things, just have my experiances

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Yes. The slightest bit of poor weather makes the turbo really appealing for me - I actually wondered if TR was making me even more of a fair weather cyclist! :joy:

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I think I’m becoming a ‘fear weather’ cyclist :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Thanks for your thoughts and experiences. I certainly notice some similarities in my behaviours.

I’ve certainly got some blockers, so I’ve tried to streamline as much as I can. Just seems like I’m finding it easy to get derailed.

So it’s kinda a compliment to TrainerRoad that I enjoy indoors so much. But like someone said I need to make the break, ( break the chain is probably a bad analogy).

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A couple of local guys have a tradition of “f mother nature” rides. Get out for a frozen ride the day in the mid-teens, find the fattest tires when it snows 6 inches, there is a perfect rocky “trail” (creek bed) that makes a good 5-mile loop when its raining 2 inches on the day, or a lunch ride on the days the heat index is over 100F. Short group efforts 100% about bearing/beating the conditions and a little shared suffering to remember the rest of the year.

Gives some good perspective for all the meh weather days.

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Bad weather days where it is raining is all about the gear you have that make it enjoyable. If I did not I would never go out in sort of trivial weather.

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I am a fair weather cyclists. I dont have an issue with it.

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I never go out in trivial weather. I don’t want to get rained on. Make myself harder to see by cars. Increased risk of crashing. The list goes on

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I always try to do the occasional cruddy condition ride where it might be super windy, or rainy, or very cold as not every race will have great conditions so I want to make sure I’m not completely thrown off by it.

I sometimes ride on a long multi use path which is very wide but the first 5-10 miles there are lots of walkers and runners and dogs and kids so you need to be cautious the first part. But last year I had a 4 hour ride and I just wore full rain gear and there were zero people on that path and it was awesome.

Most people wont ride in crappy weather or even a little rain. I will at times but have to remind myself to slow down. At some point I want to do some bike packing.

I don’t often. If it’s just cold I will usually head outside if temps are 35 or above and the ride is 2 hours or more. Under 2 hours and bad weather I’d rather stay indoors.

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It is fair point that events/ races aren’t necessarily in good weather. But it’s really heading off in the misery - the weather is plenty changeable enough in Ireland to get wet weather experience even if heading out in short sleeves and shades! If it’s that miserable I won’t head out, then usually the group spin is called off anyway.

I’m racing this year, so currently two out of three for wet races, albeit both last 20km lap.

I definitely don’t make it a common thing to go out in bad weather.

I’ve went through periods where I’ve convinced myself cycling will be more productive inside. Lol, its usually after I’ve just cleaned the bike even if its near ideal weather. In the first UK lockdown I decided despite the good weather there was too many nutters on the roads also and in the unlikely event anything went wrong I didn’t want to be too far from home.

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I fondly remember the first part of the first lockdown when there were literally no cars on the roads. Bliss.

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The few cars we had here all had idiots inside them. One which put me off the most was one ride where I was on one side of a large rbt and one idiot went speeding through on the other side with screeching brakes and two wheels of the ground. Thank goodness if he had completely lost it there was an central island in the way!

Yeah, it did all turn to crap again pretty quickly. My house looks out onto a National Cycle Route and i noticed a huge increase in cyclists: All different shapes and sizes and ages on all sorts of bikes and i hoped for a step change in the world’s attitude towards us 2-wheeled, vulnerable road users… alas the levels of hate and aggro seem to be higher than ever.

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