Yeah, it’s definitely not a binary choice but sometimes I have only X time for a ride before work or between meetings so a few minutes help. Sometimes it’s just laziness, so one less task makes it easier. Or sometimes it’s about making it in time for a group ride.
Again, it shouldn’t be a big deal but it helps when tend to drag your feet.
On the other hand, sometimes I’m not in the mood to ride but doing easy things like pumping the tires, preparing a drink, etc, helps to get going.
Making overnight oats is a quick timesaver for me. Instant oatmeal doesn’t take long to make/eat but having it premade and eating it almost right out of the fridge does save a few minutes.
Where are you keeping all this stuff such that you have to run around the house? My routine is pretty similar, except I only use drink mix for long, hard rides. Otherwise I take pocket food.
Pocket food, lights, computer, shoes, helmet, sunglasses, handpump, wallet, HR monitor, earbuds, and keys all live on the cabinet next to my bike. Pump and shoes are on floor next to my bike. That leaves kit, which is all in my room. The hardest part is remembering what order to put on winter layers (ugh).
So for post-work rides, it’s home → room (dressed) → kitchen (stuff face, fill water bottles, and grab extra pocket food if needed) → go over to bike to stuff pockets / prep bike (clip things on, load bottles, check pressure) → then helmet, shoes, and go.
The longest portion of that is eating if I forgot to eat enough during / toward the end of work. But I’ll admit that in the winter, putting on kit alone is a huge pain and 30 minutes seems pretty reasonable for everything in the winter.
I think 5000TLs are a good setup I had multiple sets on multiple rims and they ran fine ok you cam delimit to my sets but thats a good set up but the 5000TRs are not. With a good set up regular checking of pressure certainly isn’t required.
Some great advice here! For me, it also takes about 20-30min for a ride prep, especially in winter. A few tips that you could try:
get a few extra bottles, so you can pre mix it beforehand and store them in a fridge. Kind of like meal prep that folks usually do once or twice a week.
the actual meal prep food in advance for breakfast.
if I know that I need more food for a long ride, I also tape a bar or a gel to a bottle with a duct tape, so it’s easy to grab both later
get a few spare bike kits if you can, so you can put one quickly each time. I have 3 now and rotate them through the week. Each kit lives in its own box, so I don’t have to look around the house for a pair of socks, bibs, etc. every time.
try to keep the bike clean, so you are aware if anything needs maintenance or alignment. it helps to inspect it faster before rides and not discover any unexpected things
lights and computer are secured on the bike when not charged. Charge them right after the ride and put back before the next ride
not sure if it’s a real timesaver, but mentally for me it is helpful to divide all prep into few categories and follow them in a certain order or a flow, like “clothes/ food/ bike”. So, at first, I get dressed, then eat or grab food for the ride and lastly check the bike. Following the same flow helps me to stay focused on each part and not to try to do everything at once or things in random order, especially early in the morning.
also if coffee is an important thing pre ride for you, there are coffee makers that you can program in advance or use espresso machine to make a quick a shot.
You need a designated “locker room” somewhere in your house where EVERYTHING is stored. And that is where you prep for a ride. There is no reason to ever be running around the house gathering stuff up, whether you’re doing it 12 hours before a ride or 10 minutes before.
You don’t get organized for a ride. You’re always just automatically organized all the time.
Besides saving the running around, if everything has a place in the same place you can just look around in 10 seconds check to see if you missed anything.
I don’t understand your comment about not being able to pre-arrange everything before you go to work so that it’s all organized and ready to go as soon as you get home. Why does what time you work impact this?
I crawl out of bed at 5:10 am, I am on the road to work no later than 5:22. I don’t eat before a ride ever. If it is a demanding ride I will either stop somewhere, or eat a snack bar on the ride*. Everything is pre positioned and ready to go long before I need it.
*I recently finished “first” at a 100+ mile gran fondo (not really a race) and this is exactly what I did.
Kit laid out, bottles mixed and in fridge, all gear on bike, workout pre-loaded on Garmin, breakfast and coffee pre-staged. I get up, put on kit, check tires, and roll out… 10 minutes if I skip breakfast, 45 minutes if I take time to enjoy a cup of coffee and yogurt/bar/whatever before I go.
Maybe I’m not quite getting your schedule but even if you have 24 hour shifts you should be able to do a lot of this stuff before you go to work if you know you want to ride as soon as you get off work, right? Particularly the setting out of gear in an organized easy to find place and putting computer/lights on the bike. Honestly I personally wouldn’t even be worried about my drink mix sitting in my fridge for 24 hours + either?
In an ideal world you’d be able to get off work, put your kit on, grab your bottles out of the fridge (a lot of time I just stick gels or whatever other food I’m bringing next to my bottles in the fridge too), pump up your tires, hop on the bike and off you go.
Edit to add: someone mentioned overnight oats and that’s a great breakfast option, which you could totally bring with you to work if you have a fridge available. My wife does shift work as well and whenever she has overnight shifts overnight oats are her go to. And we’ll usually make a few at a time and they’re perfectly fine in the fridge for 2-3 days before they maybe get a touch on the mushy side.
If you are riding frequently, I recommend prepping the next days ride after you finish the current day. If it’s a trainer ride, I immediately fill bottles and put in the fridge, lay out fresh towels and bibs right after I get off the trainer when I am motivated.
If it’s an outdoor ride, same thing just check the weather then I just have to maybe make some tweaks last minute.
Make Breakfast
Overnight oats the night before in summer or hot oatmeal/porridge goes in the microwave as soon as I wake up so it has time to cool to just the right temperature while I’m getting dressed.
Clothing:
Getting in dressed in winter, is what I find takes the longest what with all the layers, overshoes are the worst. Ideal solution is move to somewhere you can ride in just shorts and jersey in the winter.
Eat breakfast and sort ride Nutrition:
Mix bottles, sugar, water, pinch of salt takes seconds, top up with water quick shake, anything that doesn’t dissolve straight away I can shake the bottle again while I’m riding I prefer ambient temperature drinks and don’t bother chilling the bottles in the fridge overnight unless its the middle of summer. Shove a banana and couple of snack bars in a jersey pocket. while I’m still in the kitchen. Bottles go in a musette so I don’t need 5 hand to carry them to the bike.
Additional items:
I would never ride outdoors with headphones, its a safety thing.
I keep a £20 note in my ride case at all times, My phone has an ICE screen, someone can find out who I am from that, I have applepay set up so don’t need a card.
Shoes, Gloves and Helmet
live in the porch I can grab these as I go out the door
Bike prep:
Check tire pressure, Its not a race I’m not going to use a pressure gauge, a quick thumb squeeze is enough, butyl tubes hold air for weeks.
Clip on computer, My Wahoo Bolt takes ages to boot up, so this gets turned on when I’m putting my phone in my ride case.
Clip on front and rear lights.
A big morning time saver for me was switching from drinking way too much coffee to taking a 200mg caffeine capsule (1 mug equivalent). This also removed all the hassle of having to get rid of those fluids while on the ride. It was a game changer in terms of efficiency, and probably health as my caffeine intake was dramatically reduced.
I think the OP said they were running tubeless but thats a good comment about it not being a race. IME a check of the tyres the night before is required with a few tyres if you haven’t used them for a few days as they lose a bit more air but anything more than that longterm the set up needs looked at IMO (sealant or rim tape have been the culprit for me). I have though had setups that lost a fair bit overnight initially but after the sealant get dispersed (a couple of rides) and perhaps a top up of it the tyres are fine and the overnight loss is minimal. As you say though its not a race and a quick thumb press in the morning is apt. A small drop in psi is negligible, tubeless tyres can be run at a lower pressure anyway and you benefit from more comfy and grippier ride anyway which is debatably faster on uneven roads.
I don’t skip b’fast (cereal or porridge) but I do everything else along those lines or similar and I’m out the door in a similar timescale, but I get an extra hour in bed on office days
Excellent practical advice above regarding “getting out the door for a ride faster”.
Alternative suggestions are:
Take up running, which has less scope for leaving-the-house faffing vs. bike riding as a sport. The relative simplicity makes for a refreshing contrast, even if you just run occasionally.
Retire from work, so you’ve more time to squander, and don’t begin your rides until late morning at the earliest to allow your pre-ride faffing to last for hours if need be… Marvel at how little you now accomplish in a day vs your former highly productive self.
One thing that helped my get ready time was a chair . . .
Putting a basic folding chair in my basement furnace/bike room changed everything. It started just to put my shoes on and of but once I had a dedicated spot for that all my kit moved into that room pretty quickly. Then I set up a charging station for all my electronics. Need to clean my glasses? There is glasses cleaner and a cloth. My bars and gels are in a plastic drawer thing. My bike, tools and spares were already in that room. At this point, I could literally walk in there in dress clothes, find a flat tire on my bike and a bent derailure hanger and emerge fully kitted up with repaired bike ready to ride without ever leaving that room (I would have to quickly swing through the laundry room next-door, where the sink is to fill my bottles which are stored along with my powders next to the sink.)
On further reflection, your issue sounds like it is much more mental than organizational. If you want to move from any other activity to actually starting a workout or ride, its takes a certain mindset. First off, you need to acknowledge that you need to move quickly and get going and you can’t linger over things. That can be tough for a number of reasons. Most notably, many people find the process of “getting ready” to be an enjoyable part of the ride/workout and something that they really don’t like to miss. Then there is the whole procrastinating because of some dreading what is coming that can come into play too.
Personally, while I can get out the door fast, I much prefer puttering around and taking my time. It can be fun, and therapeutic to spend an hour getting ready to ride. When I can, I build in some time (rarely an hour though) to get ready/mentally prep. Sometimes that means getting up earlier just so I’m not rushed. For some rides and workouts though that is not possible and I really have to focus in those instances on ignoring distractions and being Ok without my puttering time.
So, organize your stuff but also get your mental game on point too.
Edit - sports psychology gets lots of attention vis a vis race performance but getting your mind right so you can effectively handle all aspects of training, including getting out the door on time, is also a huge part of it.