Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bicycling, bike, biking, commuting, slump, transportation
If you’ve read my last couple of posts you probably realized that I felt like I really blew myself out on my ride home last Tuesday night. It was the first time I’ve ridden that late at night (midnight) and I was also really tired from the events of the day. What suprised me most was how much that challenging ride negatively affected my desire to ride. I was going to ride to work on Friday, but I bailed out at the last minute and went back to bed for a little more sleep. I was in a slump and had to figure a way out…
So, yesterday (Father’s Day) I realized I needed to make a run to Home Depot and the grocery store, and I decided to ride my bike. This was a pretty major challenge mentally, because the start of that route is a pretty steep uphill climb, and then the rest of the route is a mild uphill. I decided to go for it, as much to prove that I could do it as to just get a good ride in. The beginning of the ride was tough, but not as tough as I expected it to be. I got my shopping done, and then enjoyed the benefits of a downhill ride all the way home. Awesome! I was out of my slump!
This morning’s ride into work carried on the good vibes that I had stirred up yesterday, and I even shaved a few minutes off my standard ride time. Woo hoo! I’ve got another evening meeting tonight, which means another nighttime ride home. Hopefully I can keep the good vibes flowing for that ride tonight.
Is this slump thing normal? Have you experienced a kind of ebb and flow in your joy of riding?
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bicycling, bike, commuting, slump, tired, transportation
Well, today is the first day that I backed out of bicycling to work after I had planned and prepared to ride. I packed and had everything ready to go last night, but I was really tired when I woke up this morning, and I made the mistake of not getting up right away when the alarm went off. Instead, I stayed in bed and pondered how tired I was and how tired I had been on my last ride. For me, once I start thinking about getting up, instead of just doing it, I’m pretty much not going to do it. So, I rolled over and took advantage of an extra hour of sleep since I wasn’t riding. I will say that the extra sleep was nice, but I think I woke up feeling more tired than when my alarm went off, so I don’t think that extra hour helped much.
I really do want to go riding though, so I will try to get a ride in this weekend. I was really, really tired after my late night ride on Tuesday, and I think I kind of blew myself out. It has been good to take a few days off from riding to work, but I need to get back at it.
I assume that most people go through times like this when they struggle with getting back to bike commuting. Have you had times like this? How do you deal with them and crawl out of your “slump”?
Drive My Bike 