What's new

Breaking bad habits

Edogawakikkoman

Maximum Pace
Jan 14, 2007
2,550
253
Haven't raced in 3 years.
Haven't been able to ride weekends in 18 months.
Haven't been going to night training because I can't keep up on the warm-up laps.

Have put on a heap of weight. Everybody I run into lately likes to point this out to me... :eek::warau:

My 'new' bike is now over 2 years old and hasn't had a crash or a scratch or a puncture. (changed the tyres once).

I got to break out of this.... I guess a new job may help.

Saw a road racer looking super fit as I drove home from work yesterday, (public holiday) and I yelled out very loudly like a crazed mad man to myself.... F@CKING WORK, F@CK F@CK,F@CK , !

End of rant!

:abduct:

I get a lot of time off over the next 6 weeks...so have to RIDE!!!!!!!!!!
 
Don't fret! My 'bad habits' lasted about 22yrs. There's always time to dig in.
 
how about you quit moaning and just get out on the bike and ride?

Also comparing yourself and your current situation to 3/4 years ago isn't going to help you here.

Follow these 3 simple steps:

Remove bike from storage
Get on bike
Ride

BTW - the break will have done you good actually and many riders that are forced to take a break often come back a lot stronger - although you will have to put the effort in.
 
Does it matter that you cannot keep up on the warmup laps? Just make hanging on your first goal and ride alone in the wind until the day you make it again. At least you will have regular training sessions. Gambare!
 
When you don't have the time, it's tough to keep up with the cycling, especially as you can lose form and then that's just another reason not to do it... hope the work calms down for a bit.

Let me know if you're heading downstream on the Tone in the next few weeks, I need the kms too.
 
Does it matter that you cannot keep up on the warmup laps? Just make hanging on your first goal and ride alone in the wind until the day you make it again. At least you will have regular training sessions. Gambare!

Yeah this is so true. Stop comparing yourself to others including the fast version of yourself. Find the fun and ride for that reason, it should be enough. Setting little goals ( riding 200 kms this month) might help. I am kinda in the same boat but nothing builds inertia like moving.

Having written that I am now forced to get in some exercise this afternoon.
 
Yeah this is so true. Stop comparing yourself to others including the fast version of yourself. Find the fun and ride for that reason, it should be enough. Setting little goals ( riding 200 kms this month) might help. I am kinda in the same boat but nothing builds inertia like moving.

Having written that I am now forced to get in some exercise this afternoon.

This advice FTW! :thumb:
 
I apologize in advance if I am overstepping my bounds here, but you did post your situation publicly for feedback, so here it goes. You may be a workaholic, and being a workaholic is just not sustainable over the long haul. It's important to learn how to turn off the "work" switch, and bring some balance to your life. It sounds like the primary issue is you are not setting clear boundaries with your job, and you are not distinctly making time for yourself. IMHO, these are two things that everone needs to maintain they're physical health and mental sanity. By taking better care of yourself, you'll be a better husband and father, and will almost certainly be more productive at work.

Now, get out there and get on your bike!! Apologies again, if I have misread the situation!
 
Thanks for all the replies. Have had a few big work changes over the last two years. Plus 2 boys about to go into Uni next year has highlighted the need to work a bit more and play a little less. Cycling is a time consuming sport and can be expensive. My commuting rides have been effected by having to get from point A to B to C with sometimes heavy items and little time. More driving. I even have to drive other people from D to E twice a week to help the company out.

Have lots of time off from next week till mid Oct so can make a lot of time for myself.... Which I will do.

Phil will try and do a ride to Choshi soon... Or even half way.

My wife is a workaholic too, so me having too much time off can rub her up the wrong way as well. :warau:
 
Same here.
 
Maybe we should start a support group. "Hi, I'm Pete Reynolds, and I'm the husband of a workaholic wife."

Group responds, "Hi Pete." :D

My wife's office is about 400m from home, so no commute time. She starts at 7a.m, an hour before the rest of her team, and works till 8:30 or 9p.m. Crazy.
She was doing a Saturday shift as well, but her boss told her to stop working on Saturdays... (Good on him). I wish he'd tell her to go home earlier everyday.
Doing the workload of three. They recently made her a full timer...took them 5 years to do that.

Don't know what she does with her salary. She bought a new bike about 2 years ago but hasn't used it more than 3 times. :cool: She was racing with me at one stage and was keeping up in 40phh+ training rides....

All of a sudden she gave it up. :( (about the same time she started this job).

And because we are working so much, we have to make time for the dogs and housework...The house looks like 3/11 Kessennuma most of the time... :eek:

First priority when I get up in the morning and home at night is making sure the dogs get enough time to keep them happy and healthy.... after work & dog time, I'm usually beat.

Take the dogs up to Hakuba every summer, so looking forward to that soon.
2 dogs, MTB and road bike and nobody else...
 
No advice to give, as I am an utter nightmare when it comes to things like this (taking more from this thread than giving, certainly!).

Only thing I can perhaps say, is that riding little niblets (like 5-10km after work, or whatever) helped me a lot when I was at my lowest ebb, a few months back, and sorted me out a lot.

It is easy to get demotivated when you spend time reading of other people's massive daily adventures, and you feel like all you do is work (speaking from experience), but if you just do a tiny bit, and even then don't worry about then you will probably feel better.

Again, I am a nightmare for stuff like this, so pretty much just feeling your pain.
 
A friend of mine runs marathons and he likes to tell me that the most difficult part for your first marathon is not the last part before the finish line, but the first step out of the door to start training.

If you can't find time to go for rides on the weekend, take the bike for shopping rides. I get a lot of 5-7 km rides during the week that way, that may not amount to much exercise, but I'd miss them if I didn't have them.

Who cares about whether you can keep up with other guys. For you it should be only about you and your bike, not anyone else. If you're not ready to compete, learn to enjoy the non-competitive side of cycling.
 
I would have renamed the thread "wow, life got in the way...again"

As others have mentioned, this stuff happens and I feel that unless your paid to play then the drudgery of real life takes control now and again. I personally have been injured and out of any sport for months, had all my gear stolen and out for several months, got obsessed with work and out for years.

Life is like anything else, it has high points and what can seem like a never ending run of low one's too but we all pull through it.

The best advice was already given in the thread, in my opinion, make a commitment to yourself to spend a little time on the bike every few days or so and don't loose touch with your passion - this is why you and your wife ended up together in the first place and I assume that your kids will look up to you some day for that.

:bike:
 
I'm officially on semi-summer vacation now. Been psyching myself up for the necessary changes.... And thanks again for the positive advice.

Only have 6 official days of work from now till Sep 3 and 16 days of work till the beginning of October...
So, I plan to do a lot of catch- up exercise. At least an hour a day.
Going to set-up my commute bike on the rollers and put it in front of a screen to watch my favorite TDF DVDs or some Spinervals sessions... Go easy go easy...For when it's too hot outside or raining hard.

Will get 14 days of riding in up at Hakuba...a week before and a week after Obon. May invite some of you up if the planets line up. Got beds and BBQ ready.

The home gym will be put into action...it's serving as a desk for junk ATM.
Will hit that tonight. My inner thigh/ hip joint seems to be suffering from an old torn groin injury...I think there is some old scar tissue that keeps spliting open because my leg strength to support it has deteriated. Leg strength over unnecessary surgery to fix that. I don't think there is surgery that can repair this...??? :eek:

Have to play some golf...but that's work!

May even put the rollers up for the last 20km of theTDF tonight...and have a heart attack!:eek:
 
...
Plus 2 boys about to go into Uni next year has highlighted the need to work a bit more and play a little less.
...

Our second (of two) started this past April (over there in TCC-land), and we're now empty-nesters. (but there's still a nice little dachs with us!)

Yes, a lot of stress up to and thru the testing/results, but given that they make it, once they get slotted in, moved, and all the billing gets set up (housing, utilities, tuition, etc.), you'll be wondering what to do with all the time you have.
 
Back
Top Bottom