I was chatting to a good cycling friend, Andy Sherwood a few weeks ago. He had a good season in 2007, new PB at 10 miles. entered the 24 hour Time trial Championship; and came fourth in a 2up time trial with myself. However, after 2 months off the bike over winter, he had lost a lot of motivation for cycling and was talking about not doing much cycling this year. Anyway I encouraged him to come out for a ride, we did about 45 miles at a reasonable pace. After this ride, Andy found his enthusiasm for cycling came back.
I relate this experience, because I think it is something that most cyclists can relate to. When we take a break from cycling, either due to injury or other reason, there is often a psychological barrier to making a ‘comeback’. The longer we have off the bike, the less appealing it can appear (especially in an English winter) However, once we can get back on the bike for 2 or 3 rides, we suddenly find that we regain our lost motivation and enthusiasm. If we keep cycling for a few weeks, the old ‘cycling bug’ comes back with a vengeance.
To some extent this was my experience over the winter. I had a 3 week break in the Dominican Republic. There, the roads were so bad and the driving so dangerous there was no chance of any cycling. When I came back to the English weather it was hard to motivate myself to do any cycling. However, in recent weeks, helped by some excellent weather, I have got back into the routine of cycling 5 times a week. Each day I look forward to cycling; the more miles I have in my legs, the more I seem to want to cycle.
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