How do you stop yourself getting bored with cycling

I usually buy new stuff, try new things. I am a rampant consumerist :laughing:

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I admit that I love tennis more than I love cycling. I am lucky to have decent mountain bike trails and an indoor velodrome close to where I live, so I can try those if road cycling doesn’t appeal to me any more.

There is a big social component to cycling, having friends that you enjoy riding with and who can motivate you to show up for the ride.

Jolanda Neff talks a bit about it here

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There certainly can be, but the opposite can be true too. I really cycle for the solitude of being on my on.

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Ride to the top of mountains!

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Twice that.
If you get bored with solo riding - then try a group ride, or call your friends. Change your training routine or try different places. There are rare occasions when I just need to get somewhere so I have an interesting ride. If you can’t change the scenery, change your riding style. Maybe carry less so you can ride faster and more aggressively? Mix it up with the occasional all out sprint?

We had one, and it was turned into a zoo. Still can’t see that building without going into a rant.

http://espacepourlavie.ca/biodome

I often choose new routes for cycling. It is always interesting and exciting. In addition, I combine the bike ride with a tour of the surroundings, photography, and collecting herbs.

I love it, always have, so I’m not sure I’ll ever get really bored with it. BUT, when I started back in with endurance sports in my 20s after growing up a runner, I knew I didn’t want to just run. So I bought the bike, remembered that I loved it as a kid… I kept from getting bored by becoming a triathlete, being outside all the time and having a wide variety of workouts.

Now? It’s pretty easy to keep from getting bored because the bike is what I love to do. That said, I’ve shaken things up this year from my normal tri racing seasons by focusing only on the bike (largely due to a new baby and work), racing some crits, some road races, working on bike handling, etc.

In short: variety. Variety of riding. Variety of training. Variety of racing. And, most importantly, variety of bikes (of course).

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At the macro level - always have some kind of event, challenge or goal I’m working towards, even if it’s quite informal e.g. being in good shape for a cycling weekend with friends. Mix it up - spending months focused towards a big A race like an Ironman, 70.3 or marathon can be really satisfying, but doing shorter local races like crits or sprint tris every week or 2 can be really fun too. I mix up the sports as well - I enjoy the challenge of balancing the 3 triathlon disciplines, but it can also be a bit all-consuming and I often go a few years of not doing tris and just focusing on running and/or cycling. Have done MTB, rowing and other random challenges (e.g. 4 Peaks) over the years as well.

At a micro level - I love group rides, the miles fly by when you’re riding with other people, and with the right ride you can really push yourself harder than you world solo. Netflix or Amazon Prime keep me interested training indoors, if I’ve got a good boxset going I sometimes can’t wait to get back on the trainer! Podcasts for running and occasionally for cycling if I’m solo on safe roads with little or no traffic. And again mixing it up - working on different power zones, not training too repetitively. Tracking improvement (weight, FTP, etc) can be motivating but also potentially demotivating when things are heading the wrong way. Can’t always improve, (particularly now I’m mid 40s!), so also need periods where you know life of going to get in the way of training and just enjoy staying fit without obsessing about the numbers.

Lastly, after >25 years of nearly continously training for something, it’s become such a habit that it feels weird not to train. I don’t think I’m obsessive, but it’s pretty rare for me not to train in any given day unless I’m sick or injured, even if it’s just a quick 10 minute body weight circuit squeezed in before a hectic day of work or travel.

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keep buying new bikes!

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I bought a gravel bike, initially I thought this was a gimmick but its the most fun I’ve had riding in years.

I like the fact that I can go for a ride and take just about any direction, on or off road, and just ride

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