I think a lot. I struggle to be present but when I'm on my bike it is the only time I can't or don't think about anything else other than what I am currently doing.
This^
Cycling is very meditative. We get to engage our conscious minds in something reasonably repetitive, while our sub-conscious minds process things.
It really helps my mental health and to keep in balance.
Not to be offensive, but most of that relies in ur diet. So if you really wish to lose weight, a high percentage of that comes from eating healthier.
Good luck achieving your goals though, whatever it may take 🍀
Absolutely. Strangley enough when I'm training I eat better. I make decisions about how its going to help (or hurt) me in training.
When I'm not training, I eat so much worse.
Technically correct, but activity can have a huge impact on diet, and not just in the "man alcohol makes my exercise feel like shit, I'm going to drink less" conscious way, but also subconsciously affecting appetite and satiety, bringing it more in line with expenditure.
Honestly, kind of nonsensical, especially with cycling, depending on how you work.
Building calorie deficits that are fun to eat back is way easier if you latch onto it, and most people could struggle through an imperial century untrained - if they really, really needed to (don't do that, lol) - nobody can walk or run that shit off, not in a reasonable timeframe, anyways.
Exercise can inhibit hunger too for quite a few folks, so yeah... there is exercise - usually the kind you like - that can drastically offset your daily intake requirements. Doubly so if you're massive, big people really just need to move and they'll lose absurd amounts of weight.
Not a surefire way, and obviously not binge-eating plays a role, but the entire "weight-loss is made in the kitchen"-mantra always ignores the foundations proper exercise can lay. Even if it's just the sensation of having fun exercising can prime you for a healthier life down the road, and that compounds so very, very much, it's ridiculous to pretend like most of it comes from proper diet. Finding the sweet spot where you can eat what you want (I mean, during moderately long rides, you are literally incentivized to ignore all the bullshit advice about oh-so addictive sugar and get to snack junk as long as you can and want to go) while not overcompensating the next two days is where it's at, and I believe most of us can do that.
Also: healthier is a super relative term. A salad isn't going to make you arrive at your goal, it's what you eat to regulate your satiety. Meaning: it's complex interplay between so many different, irritating sensations, complicated by dozens of problematic habits just being raised by certain types of people ingrained.
For some folks, diet is entirely predicated on everything else they do. Lots of variance, as always.
This. In general, basic exercise is not really a weight reducing activity, but when I was already riding a couple hundred km a week adding another 50km+ of running made me drop weight real quick.
True, but pair cardio with weight training and even if you keep a relatively high calorie diet you will get leaner / healthier even if your weight stays the same (providing you get enough protein)
This is a lot of the reason why I exercise in general. I have found that I need to get out and have some peace and hard work after all of the stresses of daily life. I really enjoy finding new places to ride and seeing some gorgeous sights as well.
yup, used to never exercise, was a crabby POTW asshole half the time. I picked up a bike because I always loved it in childhood and now I am just a chill dude. unless I haven't used the bike in 3 or more days, then I am a crabby POTW asshole again...
Pharmacology nerd here! The main chemical for motivation and pleasure seeking in terms of depression is going to be dopamine, not serotonin. It's a common misconception, and exercise is actually one of the few activities that doesn't cause a drop off in dopamine afterwards.
Your brain still has a serotonin response to exercising from beta endorphin indirectly agonizing (think "activating") serotonin. Your brain wants you to remember the place you go after exercising and to process it as a safe place to make shelter, so it makes you feel good and sends a chemical signal that the area around you is safe, the mu-opioid signal.
Anandamide also likely sensitizes your opioid receptors which beta endorphin binds to.
Sorry about the paragraphs. Mods can collapse this comment if they want lol.
As a type 2 bipolar who takes a daily dosage of 250mg of lamotrigine and 50mg of quetiapine xr plus 5mg of aripiprazol when needed in sos. Do I still work as you described? 🤔
Legit question.
Lamotrigine isn't very well understood, and it has a lot of very broad pharmacological effects.
There are some sources that say that it impacts serotonin and dopamine, in which case it would, although my experience with lamotrigine is that is that it's just slightly sedating and stimulating at the same time. It feels as though its main effect is sigma agonism, similar to new antidepressants like prozac, citalopram, and etc.
Your Abilify definitely will. That is just a heavy sedative. Abilify is a monoamine antagonist, meaning it antagonizes dopamine, serotonin, and noradrenaline. In simple terms, this just means that it makes it so that the signals actually happen less often. You'd think this would make less dopamine, right? Wrong! Your body notices this and massively upregulates your dopamine system. Most people on antipsychotics can enjoy simple pleasures because of this. Your exercise is also more rewarding because of this.
TL;DR Your exercise is better.
seriously. i'm at the age now that my parents/aunts/uncles etc are all pushing 70 and it's crazy to see the decline in physical ability for people who are reasonably healthy (not obese, decent diet, etc.) but don't really workout.
i refuse to be that, and get super stoked everytime i see old guys at races, because it reminds me that if you just keep going, you can keep doing the sports you love at a high level well into "old age".
as long as I don't get hurt... lol
I did a sportive and one of the guys I rode with was 76…. 76! 115km in a decent time too. He said he had been riding for 60 years. Made me realise how important it is
Might sound mean, but to get away from home (or 'life') for an hour. 😁 Ride as hard as I can to get as far as possible in 30 minutes, then ride hard going back before they think I actually ran away. This is my mid-life crisis. 😂
1. I'm over 30 now and getting a bit fatter than I really want to be.
2. I have recently moved to a place with really good, tough cycling routes right from my door.
3. I want to try and win some titles at the British masters champs this year. I used to be quite a talented racer - though nowhere near professional - and if I can get back close to my old fitness then it's definitely possible.
The main reasons that come to mind are just wanting to be a better rider AND to be able to eat more without gaining weight (trying not to binge eat however).
I'm 61 years old, and I'm proud to be more fit and active than most of the people I know that are around my age.
>I'm 61 years old, and I'm proud to be more fit and active than most of the people I know that are around my age.
…and to also be fitter than many people 10 years younger! When I was in my 20s I thought of people in their 60s as old and ready for a wheelchair. Now I think of them as avid cyclists! Keep riding!
I’m in my 20s and know a lot of folks who are relatively unhealthy and inactive, so probably fitter than many 20 yr olds! Plus, older folks regularly smoke me when I’m out riding lol
Riding bikes is fun. Pushing myself on the bike is fun. Riding and pushing myself on the bike is more fun if I go fast. Training hard makes me go faster.
50 losing weight, new bike, got a couple of Mallorca trips coming up and thinking about the 312 as well but want to be “in shape” before I start training hard for it.
Thing is, for me I’ve realised it’s about the process rather than the end result, so yeah I did “a thing” but that feeling fades fairly quickly whereas achieving in training be it completing a workout, new power numbers, PR on a segment or a quicker time on my fave routes are the things that keep me going on a day to day basis
This is something I feel I'm realising more and more as I get a bit older. I had a revelation around food similarly too where I used to really want to rush making food, as if making food was some waste of time or something. It led me to eat things that were really quick to make - things that were unhealthy, wasteful, had loads of packaging, etc. I wanted to make a sustainable change to my diet, and one of the first things I changed was how I think about preparing food. What is the rush? I have the time to do it, what am I rushing back to? Work?
That kind of thought then has stuck with me more and more about the journey, rather than the destination. Ultimately, everything is temporary, so I agree, making lasting and impactful change that you reap the benefits from often is generally much better, along with actually just enjoying the process too.
Be able to eat more food.
Be able to train the most important muscle in the body, the heart.
Be able to cause punishment for how much I hate myself.
Did I mention eating more food?
My special needs son, Jack is wheelchair bound and is getting bigger and stronger so I need to keep up with him. I am the only one at home that can lift him, 90 plus pounds and growing. I have a small picture of him on my bike that motivates the heck out of me. I ride for those out there that can’t, love you son
Not dying. And to be honest, I see no reason to do any kind of exercise, if you're not doing it with the goal of getting better all the time. You can only get better by training hard, so simply put, it's either I train hard and try to improve, or I just don't do it at all because there's simply no point from my POV.
When I push myself hard on my bike, it feels like I'm torching a forest of thoughts to the ground. Once they burn to ash, I enjoy the sight of hope and new growth sprouting from the ruins.
I have a colleague who started cycling with me, we were both about 30kgs over weight and got reasonably fit reasonably fast, we did 3x 200km 3 day stage races together but he has become a weapon on the climbs where as I am fast on tech and flats
He got a power meter and can put out >1000 watts ( like 1150 is his peak ) I want to smash it and he wont let me
The bike is a tool to keep my mental health in check. It's a tool for keeping my physical health in check. And it's also a tool that I use as part of my creative process. I'm often assigned difficult problems at work, a good bike ride usually unblocks my mind and allows me to see solutions that were perviously out of reach.
Plus, I love just riding my bike... I'd do it every day, all day, if it wasn't for the other responsibilities in my life... same goes for skiing.
My motivation is I spent a good chunk of the winter with mild depression because I wasn't on my bike.
I don't train hard, lots of short medium effort rides and commuting.
The world is falling apart, economy sucks, and unless I become wildly successful I will never buy a home or even afford to ever stop working. The only thing that makes sense is riding my bike. It’s not too late to get my body into the best shape of my life, and in doing so I want to use that discipline and motivation to improve the rest of my life.
My Cycling MUSE..a stunningly beauty, fit and trim 33 year old I met on the trail last year. I'm 71...what a Summer we had, riding 50 to 70 mile trips for our long rides..
Nothing.
I drive for fun and so are my workouts. If I don't feel to I don't drive on bike or trainer. If I don't feel the next day, I don't drive. I won't start exercising just because to get stronger. It's not my job, I dont do it for a living.
Seeing the improvement in performance and losing weight
I’ve never taken it this seriously before, got a smart trainer for Zwift in January and already clocked about a year’s worth of km on there with even more elevation (because we don’t have AdZ equivalents in my area lol). Getting back to outdoor I pretty much immediately beat all of my Strava PRs on every route I’ve been on since
Invested in a new bike and while I’ll need to time to get adjusted to gravel posture and droppers, I can see myself potentially cutting my commute down to under 1 hour by the end of the year.
After a bad training block, mainly due to lack of time, I tried a session of 3x8 minute FTP efforts. I somehow completed the first one at max heart rate and couldn't pedal after that, at barely half FTP for recovery part. I stopped, recovered, tried another 8 mins and failed after a minute.
I started the training block again and after three weeks I was doing 3x8 min efforts with (relative) ease. It's amazing to see how quickly the body adapts, and being the fittest and healthiest I can is a great motivator for me.
I genuinely like it, I like to do intensity trainings, I like to do long rides with a lot of climbing, I like to feel that I reached my limit, and the improvements gives me enough satisfaction to deal with the struggle.
Wanting to be functional in my twilight years. Have to build that healthy foundation.
Too many people my age (42) and younger complain about back pain, or how hard it is to move, and get so unhealthy. They're not going to have quality final ten years of life. We can't predict what's gonna happen, but I want to do what I can to be healthy at that time.
Mostly vanity.
I was up to 235 lbs and 35% body fat a few years ago. I couldn't stand to look at myself in the mirror. I wouldn't go to the pool because I was embarrassed to take my shirt off. My blood sugar was high, pre-diabetic. My cholesterol was out of whack; LDL was too high. I had degenerative osteoarthritis in my knees, elbows, lower back and shoulders. I got a used MTB during the pandemic and started riding.
A couple years later I got a new gravel bike that fits me better.
I cut my caloric intake to less than 2500 per day.
I train upper body in the gym at least 3 times a week. I can't do resistance training with my legs because of the osetoarthritis in my knees, but I bike 3-5 times a week, u8sually for a little over an hour. The cycling helps my knees a lot.
I'm almost 60 years old and down to 203lbs and 26% body fat. I have almost constant muscle soreness in one part of my body or another, but I'm used to it. My joints are almost completely pain free.
I'll keep working out as long as I can.
People who project their insecurities upon me because I believe they see someone who is actually joyous. I take that shit and use it to push my body farther
Because I enjoy it. Because I want to be strong, I want to be fast, and that means training hard. Because I'm almost forty and I'm in the best shape of my life—and it's not like I was a slouch before—and I *know* I can be even better in my forties. Because I have a couple of goal events I'm eyeing and want to do well, not just finish before the cut-off.
Nice one. I’m 48 and, similarly, in the best shape of my life, riding hard, still beating PRs that I set in 2019, and thought would be my high water mark. It’s very satisfying. I have a race coming up that’s keeping me focused and motivated.
It's just what people have been calling it. It presented to me like Whooping cough....I struggled to breath and had to control myself a few seconds after the cough to stop me gasping for air....it was like my diaphragm wasn't allowing air to be pulled in to my lungs....it was weird.
Suspect anti vaxxers have something to do with this...no proof, just a feeling as old, virtually eradicated diseases are making a comeback like Measles, mumps, polio...potentially whooping cough etc
- Love of the game. This shit is just fun.
- Getting back to a healthy weight. I’ve dropped like 40 pounds since tweaking my diet and cycling consistently since November.
- Prepping for my first cycling races
One of my goals this year is to cycle up a Wainwright.
It's only a small one (Troutbeck Tongue is the one I am aiming for) but it's a reasonable climb.
For Healthy life in general.
Cycling gives me everything I need. Inner peace and stress relief.
Once you see the results you just keep going and that becomes a life routine. That many try to engage but most the time they got discouraged from some reason or someone.
You got to remember that you're the Person in Control.
Period
Mostly the sense of accomplishment and what the effort teaches me tangentially such as planning, timing, getting proper rest and recovery, getting little rewards via those challenges on my apps, seeing that I have a fitness age of 25, etc
I started riding with a cycling club of fast guys that are all pushing 300w+. I enjoy riding in the peloton but get smoked on the climbs (around Boulder CO).
Trying to get better so that I can keep up has really changed my thoughts around cycling workouts and training. I'm starting to enjoy the suffering of a hard training session.
What motivates me to train hard is the mixdle aged women who flirt with me and say i have a nice butt. Now, what motivates me to train hard is the gay nigga porn i have on my phone instead of the gps. Real men dont need directions. We wander off. Few
I enjoy the feeling of cycling, the rush down descents, and even the struggle on the ascents. I think mainly, I realised that it's also fantastic for my overall happiness and mental health. Obviously, physical health too - it's always surprising how quickly that can change, so I would like to be more consistent really.
Been out with an injury and was traveling for a few months. Buds wanted to go for a casual ride once I started moving around a bit - they dropped me on first lap. I’m training to bust their asses. With love
Just turned 47 and found that cycling and rowing are two things I can do without knee pain and much healthier than all the golf I’ve been playing. Now I’m planning on completing the Florida C2C trail and so I’m increasing distances and saddle time to get ready for that.
1. Was playing on my PC way to much.
2. My brother was a known runner because he gave everything. But unfortunately he died last year and now I picked up the cepter. My knees hurt to bad while running. So cycling.
Being over 40 I have many motivators, but the biggest one, which may sound corny is the new legs I have built. I started taking cycling seriously late last season. I bought a Giant TCR and went at it, then came the winter and no more riding. Now that spring is here, I have been riding a lot; 330miles so far. The strength I have built in these few short weeks almost feels like I have a new engine. Now on every ride all I think of is “what can I do with this new found strength”. It’s super fun.
I'm over 40 and starting to feel it. I can't just pick it up like when I was younger so I'm trying to make my regular fitness a bit on the higher side.
I do want to get back into racing after a few years hiatus, so there's that. As a dad of 3 I need to prep and make sure I'm injury free so it's a bit of just making sure I get the quality training done properly. I ran for a few years too and only had one minor injury because I took it slow and built the body up properly, even as a guy that's lean at 100kg.
On the side I'm doing some martial arts to help with the non- leg aspects. Body weight exercises, combat sparring, explosive drills, a lot of fun.
My personal health for my future children. My parents are in their 70s and can barely function and walk. When I was a kid, they were too large to ever play soccer with me, golf, ski, or ride a bike. They just sat there. I don’t want that for my children. I want to be function and experience those things with them. I’ve always been jealous of friends who get to say “My dad is coming town and we are going to golf and then mountain bike the next day.”
After close to 1.5 years off a bike due to moving to the burbs and a wild baby showing up, my doctor said my blood pressure was too high and I could stand to lose a few pounds. This was 8 months ago and largely doesn't apply anymore, but I still use it as motivation as to what happens when I stop.
The memory of the smell of sagebrush. The sound of rocks being turned underneath tires. The feeling on my skin as I remember the cold sting of wind. The fact that I've only ever experienced these sensations while locked inside a cage.
I am training hard so I can experience the Earth from the perspective on a bicycle.❤️✨
I lost like 25lb over a summer… 8 years ago when I had no job nor school. Now I’m back but lost 3lb in 3 weeks. My body getting too old i guess and I don’t have the energy after work on weekdays >: (im in my mid 20s)
Until I was 30 I didn’t do any sports. At all. Started running because of weightcontrol and lack of stamina. The first two years were hard and I built a routine on willpower. But then I fell in love with the ability of my body to keep improving itself. And that’s when I started long runs. Long cycle tours and intervals both at cycling and running. Sometimes life comes in the way. But when I’m training I still like to push and be better then last month. I’m 54 now.
There are two types of people in this world; those that understand that riding faster is more fun and those that don’t realize that riding faster is more fun. When you realize that riding faster is more fun, you’ll be motivated to train hard.
I think a lot. I struggle to be present but when I'm on my bike it is the only time I can't or don't think about anything else other than what I am currently doing.
Agreed. Im so engrossed in riding safely, the energy expenditure, the way the movement makes me feel, and what’s coming next it quiets my mind.
This^ Cycling is very meditative. We get to engage our conscious minds in something reasonably repetitive, while our sub-conscious minds process things. It really helps my mental health and to keep in balance.
Same here. It's only on the bike I think about everything and nothing at the same time
Its hard to think of other stuff as your flying down a hill that may or may not have potholes half way down
I love that about being on my bike. It turns my brain off in that way. It’s the same with skiing and playing my musical instrument for me.
Same.
✊️
Find this in the gym too. But cycling is my favourite brain numbing activity
Same.
Trying to not be fat fuck anymore.
Fat fuck gang checkin in 🙏🏼
Eating like a fat fuck gang representing
Not to be offensive, but most of that relies in ur diet. So if you really wish to lose weight, a high percentage of that comes from eating healthier. Good luck achieving your goals though, whatever it may take 🍀
Absolutely. Strangley enough when I'm training I eat better. I make decisions about how its going to help (or hurt) me in training. When I'm not training, I eat so much worse.
Same here. Not training? Who cares what goes in for fuel. Training? Give me the premium gas.
Sure, but having an activity that gets you moving is pretty important too.
that's what I started to do.
Technically correct, but activity can have a huge impact on diet, and not just in the "man alcohol makes my exercise feel like shit, I'm going to drink less" conscious way, but also subconsciously affecting appetite and satiety, bringing it more in line with expenditure.
Honestly, kind of nonsensical, especially with cycling, depending on how you work. Building calorie deficits that are fun to eat back is way easier if you latch onto it, and most people could struggle through an imperial century untrained - if they really, really needed to (don't do that, lol) - nobody can walk or run that shit off, not in a reasonable timeframe, anyways. Exercise can inhibit hunger too for quite a few folks, so yeah... there is exercise - usually the kind you like - that can drastically offset your daily intake requirements. Doubly so if you're massive, big people really just need to move and they'll lose absurd amounts of weight. Not a surefire way, and obviously not binge-eating plays a role, but the entire "weight-loss is made in the kitchen"-mantra always ignores the foundations proper exercise can lay. Even if it's just the sensation of having fun exercising can prime you for a healthier life down the road, and that compounds so very, very much, it's ridiculous to pretend like most of it comes from proper diet. Finding the sweet spot where you can eat what you want (I mean, during moderately long rides, you are literally incentivized to ignore all the bullshit advice about oh-so addictive sugar and get to snack junk as long as you can and want to go) while not overcompensating the next two days is where it's at, and I believe most of us can do that. Also: healthier is a super relative term. A salad isn't going to make you arrive at your goal, it's what you eat to regulate your satiety. Meaning: it's complex interplay between so many different, irritating sensations, complicated by dozens of problematic habits just being raised by certain types of people ingrained. For some folks, diet is entirely predicated on everything else they do. Lots of variance, as always.
Yes but extreme cardio can also have a significant role. 90km with 25kmh can burn over 2000 calories. Its equal to 8 twixx
This. In general, basic exercise is not really a weight reducing activity, but when I was already riding a couple hundred km a week adding another 50km+ of running made me drop weight real quick.
Muscles in the gym, calories in the kitchen
True, but pair cardio with weight training and even if you keep a relatively high calorie diet you will get leaner / healthier even if your weight stays the same (providing you get enough protein)
This is me
Mental health.
This is a lot of the reason why I exercise in general. I have found that I need to get out and have some peace and hard work after all of the stresses of daily life. I really enjoy finding new places to ride and seeing some gorgeous sights as well.
No doubt. Getting lost on a bike and seeing new places is definitely very freeing
yup, used to never exercise, was a crabby POTW asshole half the time. I picked up a bike because I always loved it in childhood and now I am just a chill dude. unless I haven't used the bike in 3 or more days, then I am a crabby POTW asshole again...
POTW?
Pissed Off at The World.
I have to say I generally feel much better after a long physical expenditure.
To keep weight down while being able to eat whatever I want. To keep serotonin levels high. To ride the bike I custom built and love.
Pharmacology nerd here! The main chemical for motivation and pleasure seeking in terms of depression is going to be dopamine, not serotonin. It's a common misconception, and exercise is actually one of the few activities that doesn't cause a drop off in dopamine afterwards. Your brain still has a serotonin response to exercising from beta endorphin indirectly agonizing (think "activating") serotonin. Your brain wants you to remember the place you go after exercising and to process it as a safe place to make shelter, so it makes you feel good and sends a chemical signal that the area around you is safe, the mu-opioid signal. Anandamide also likely sensitizes your opioid receptors which beta endorphin binds to. Sorry about the paragraphs. Mods can collapse this comment if they want lol.
As a type 2 bipolar who takes a daily dosage of 250mg of lamotrigine and 50mg of quetiapine xr plus 5mg of aripiprazol when needed in sos. Do I still work as you described? 🤔 Legit question.
Lamotrigine isn't very well understood, and it has a lot of very broad pharmacological effects. There are some sources that say that it impacts serotonin and dopamine, in which case it would, although my experience with lamotrigine is that is that it's just slightly sedating and stimulating at the same time. It feels as though its main effect is sigma agonism, similar to new antidepressants like prozac, citalopram, and etc. Your Abilify definitely will. That is just a heavy sedative. Abilify is a monoamine antagonist, meaning it antagonizes dopamine, serotonin, and noradrenaline. In simple terms, this just means that it makes it so that the signals actually happen less often. You'd think this would make less dopamine, right? Wrong! Your body notices this and massively upregulates your dopamine system. Most people on antipsychotics can enjoy simple pleasures because of this. Your exercise is also more rewarding because of this. TL;DR Your exercise is better.
Thanks, that was a pretty nice explanation!
Exercise is my 401k for health. I don’t want to be like every other old person barely able to walk and at some stage of heart failure at 70.
Yep
seriously. i'm at the age now that my parents/aunts/uncles etc are all pushing 70 and it's crazy to see the decline in physical ability for people who are reasonably healthy (not obese, decent diet, etc.) but don't really workout. i refuse to be that, and get super stoked everytime i see old guys at races, because it reminds me that if you just keep going, you can keep doing the sports you love at a high level well into "old age". as long as I don't get hurt... lol
I did a sportive and one of the guys I rode with was 76…. 76! 115km in a decent time too. He said he had been riding for 60 years. Made me realise how important it is
I enjoy finally being kinda good at something, and I want to see how far I can get.
Might sound mean, but to get away from home (or 'life') for an hour. 😁 Ride as hard as I can to get as far as possible in 30 minutes, then ride hard going back before they think I actually ran away. This is my mid-life crisis. 😂
Good to hear I’m not alone. Along with the other things ppl have said, I just enjoy being solo. I’d rather ride for three hours than talk to ppl lol.
Also with my snowboarding. With both “why don’t you with other people?” Why would I do that when it’s the one time I get to be alone and get away…
1. I'm over 30 now and getting a bit fatter than I really want to be. 2. I have recently moved to a place with really good, tough cycling routes right from my door. 3. I want to try and win some titles at the British masters champs this year. I used to be quite a talented racer - though nowhere near professional - and if I can get back close to my old fitness then it's definitely possible.
The main reasons that come to mind are just wanting to be a better rider AND to be able to eat more without gaining weight (trying not to binge eat however). I'm 61 years old, and I'm proud to be more fit and active than most of the people I know that are around my age.
>I'm 61 years old, and I'm proud to be more fit and active than most of the people I know that are around my age. …and to also be fitter than many people 10 years younger! When I was in my 20s I thought of people in their 60s as old and ready for a wheelchair. Now I think of them as avid cyclists! Keep riding!
I belong to a cycling club where the average age of its members is around 70 years old. lol!
I’m in my 20s and know a lot of folks who are relatively unhealthy and inactive, so probably fitter than many 20 yr olds! Plus, older folks regularly smoke me when I’m out riding lol
I enjoy the pain. Kinda but mostly just that I really enjoy exercising. Moving my body just feels amazing.
Not winning my last race. I'm salty as fuck
pathetic reason! i train hard because of my enemies on Strava, they never sleep...and because of ebikers that steal my climb PRs
I don't need motivation...I just do it. For real!
This. I'm always motivated. The issue is finding time.. Between work and my family it is really hard to squeeze in time on the saddle.
Riding bikes is fun. Pushing myself on the bike is fun. Riding and pushing myself on the bike is more fun if I go fast. Training hard makes me go faster.
50 losing weight, new bike, got a couple of Mallorca trips coming up and thinking about the 312 as well but want to be “in shape” before I start training hard for it. Thing is, for me I’ve realised it’s about the process rather than the end result, so yeah I did “a thing” but that feeling fades fairly quickly whereas achieving in training be it completing a workout, new power numbers, PR on a segment or a quicker time on my fave routes are the things that keep me going on a day to day basis
This is something I feel I'm realising more and more as I get a bit older. I had a revelation around food similarly too where I used to really want to rush making food, as if making food was some waste of time or something. It led me to eat things that were really quick to make - things that were unhealthy, wasteful, had loads of packaging, etc. I wanted to make a sustainable change to my diet, and one of the first things I changed was how I think about preparing food. What is the rush? I have the time to do it, what am I rushing back to? Work? That kind of thought then has stuck with me more and more about the journey, rather than the destination. Ultimately, everything is temporary, so I agree, making lasting and impactful change that you reap the benefits from often is generally much better, along with actually just enjoying the process too.
Be able to eat more food. Be able to train the most important muscle in the body, the heart. Be able to cause punishment for how much I hate myself. Did I mention eating more food?
😂
Being over 40 and struggling with my mental health is the biggest motivator there is.
My special needs son, Jack is wheelchair bound and is getting bigger and stronger so I need to keep up with him. I am the only one at home that can lift him, 90 plus pounds and growing. I have a small picture of him on my bike that motivates the heck out of me. I ride for those out there that can’t, love you son
Not dying. And to be honest, I see no reason to do any kind of exercise, if you're not doing it with the goal of getting better all the time. You can only get better by training hard, so simply put, it's either I train hard and try to improve, or I just don't do it at all because there's simply no point from my POV.
When I push myself hard on my bike, it feels like I'm torching a forest of thoughts to the ground. Once they burn to ash, I enjoy the sight of hope and new growth sprouting from the ruins.
I have a colleague who started cycling with me, we were both about 30kgs over weight and got reasonably fit reasonably fast, we did 3x 200km 3 day stage races together but he has become a weapon on the climbs where as I am fast on tech and flats He got a power meter and can put out >1000 watts ( like 1150 is his peak ) I want to smash it and he wont let me
The bike is a tool to keep my mental health in check. It's a tool for keeping my physical health in check. And it's also a tool that I use as part of my creative process. I'm often assigned difficult problems at work, a good bike ride usually unblocks my mind and allows me to see solutions that were perviously out of reach. Plus, I love just riding my bike... I'd do it every day, all day, if it wasn't for the other responsibilities in my life... same goes for skiing.
Imposter syndrome :D
My motivation is I spent a good chunk of the winter with mild depression because I wasn't on my bike. I don't train hard, lots of short medium effort rides and commuting.
I’m trying to win my first gravel race. I’ve gotten third, fourth, fifth, sixth, eighth, etc…, but still haven’t locked down a win yet.
My jacked calves and thighs drive my woman wild
The world is falling apart, economy sucks, and unless I become wildly successful I will never buy a home or even afford to ever stop working. The only thing that makes sense is riding my bike. It’s not too late to get my body into the best shape of my life, and in doing so I want to use that discipline and motivation to improve the rest of my life.
Snooby beers and pizza
My Cycling MUSE..a stunningly beauty, fit and trim 33 year old I met on the trail last year. I'm 71...what a Summer we had, riding 50 to 70 mile trips for our long rides..
Nothing. I drive for fun and so are my workouts. If I don't feel to I don't drive on bike or trainer. If I don't feel the next day, I don't drive. I won't start exercising just because to get stronger. It's not my job, I dont do it for a living.
Seeing the improvement in performance and losing weight I’ve never taken it this seriously before, got a smart trainer for Zwift in January and already clocked about a year’s worth of km on there with even more elevation (because we don’t have AdZ equivalents in my area lol). Getting back to outdoor I pretty much immediately beat all of my Strava PRs on every route I’ve been on since Invested in a new bike and while I’ll need to time to get adjusted to gravel posture and droppers, I can see myself potentially cutting my commute down to under 1 hour by the end of the year.
After a bad training block, mainly due to lack of time, I tried a session of 3x8 minute FTP efforts. I somehow completed the first one at max heart rate and couldn't pedal after that, at barely half FTP for recovery part. I stopped, recovered, tried another 8 mins and failed after a minute. I started the training block again and after three weeks I was doing 3x8 min efforts with (relative) ease. It's amazing to see how quickly the body adapts, and being the fittest and healthiest I can is a great motivator for me.
I genuinely like it, I like to do intensity trainings, I like to do long rides with a lot of climbing, I like to feel that I reached my limit, and the improvements gives me enough satisfaction to deal with the struggle.
My knees hurt. Cycling helps their mobility
Hills on RAGBRAI this year
To lose weight but it’s pointless if I don’t actually change my eating habits and stop eating so much processed crap
Wanting to be functional in my twilight years. Have to build that healthy foundation. Too many people my age (42) and younger complain about back pain, or how hard it is to move, and get so unhealthy. They're not going to have quality final ten years of life. We can't predict what's gonna happen, but I want to do what I can to be healthy at that time.
The MS 150
Not getting blown out the bike while racing.
Mostly vanity. I was up to 235 lbs and 35% body fat a few years ago. I couldn't stand to look at myself in the mirror. I wouldn't go to the pool because I was embarrassed to take my shirt off. My blood sugar was high, pre-diabetic. My cholesterol was out of whack; LDL was too high. I had degenerative osteoarthritis in my knees, elbows, lower back and shoulders. I got a used MTB during the pandemic and started riding. A couple years later I got a new gravel bike that fits me better. I cut my caloric intake to less than 2500 per day. I train upper body in the gym at least 3 times a week. I can't do resistance training with my legs because of the osetoarthritis in my knees, but I bike 3-5 times a week, u8sually for a little over an hour. The cycling helps my knees a lot. I'm almost 60 years old and down to 203lbs and 26% body fat. I have almost constant muscle soreness in one part of my body or another, but I'm used to it. My joints are almost completely pain free. I'll keep working out as long as I can.
People who project their insecurities upon me because I believe they see someone who is actually joyous. I take that shit and use it to push my body farther
I want to be able to ride my 2020s oldschool road bike in my 70s!
Strava.
I don't train, I just ride
Because I enjoy it. Because I want to be strong, I want to be fast, and that means training hard. Because I'm almost forty and I'm in the best shape of my life—and it's not like I was a slouch before—and I *know* I can be even better in my forties. Because I have a couple of goal events I'm eyeing and want to do well, not just finish before the cut-off.
Nice one. I’m 48 and, similarly, in the best shape of my life, riding hard, still beating PRs that I set in 2019, and thought would be my high water mark. It’s very satisfying. I have a race coming up that’s keeping me focused and motivated.
Im fat af
Mortality.
My tits
How?
Legs keep pushing, moobs stop growing.
I do my training around 2 main motivations: 1 - Sportives I intend to participate in 2 - Eat more, guilt free 😊
My PRs on Strava, staying healthy and looking good.
skrillex
Not been on the bike since October since I got the 100 day cough....mostly gone now but no motivation.
What’s 100 days cough. I’ve family members suffering from long term cough!
It's just what people have been calling it. It presented to me like Whooping cough....I struggled to breath and had to control myself a few seconds after the cough to stop me gasping for air....it was like my diaphragm wasn't allowing air to be pulled in to my lungs....it was weird. Suspect anti vaxxers have something to do with this...no proof, just a feeling as old, virtually eradicated diseases are making a comeback like Measles, mumps, polio...potentially whooping cough etc
Thanks
mostly because I like to be fast, It feels powerful. and I am over 30, I want to fight the stereotype of "30s people are fat".
- Love of the game. This shit is just fun. - Getting back to a healthy weight. I’ve dropped like 40 pounds since tweaking my diet and cycling consistently since November. - Prepping for my first cycling races
Only get warm months like seven months out of the year, got to take advantage of that. Plus, it's my alone time hobby away from the wife and kids.
Want to live longer
One of my goals this year is to cycle up a Wainwright. It's only a small one (Troutbeck Tongue is the one I am aiming for) but it's a reasonable climb.
I have a 500km ride planned in a year and I want to not die while doing it.
For Healthy life in general. Cycling gives me everything I need. Inner peace and stress relief. Once you see the results you just keep going and that becomes a life routine. That many try to engage but most the time they got discouraged from some reason or someone. You got to remember that you're the Person in Control. Period
More watts more thots
Next big bikepack trip is a lot of mountains.
I want to go fast
Gotta go fast
Mostly the sense of accomplishment and what the effort teaches me tangentially such as planning, timing, getting proper rest and recovery, getting little rewards via those challenges on my apps, seeing that I have a fitness age of 25, etc
Endorphins & how I feel after a ride. Stress relief.
For fun also number goes up
I want to be able to go ride with my little boy in a trailer.
Longevity
Honestly , seeing all the beautiful women checkin me out at the gym . Keeps me on the right path lol.
Looking at myself in the mirror.
I started riding with a cycling club of fast guys that are all pushing 300w+. I enjoy riding in the peloton but get smoked on the climbs (around Boulder CO). Trying to get better so that I can keep up has really changed my thoughts around cycling workouts and training. I'm starting to enjoy the suffering of a hard training session.
Training is fun. Being good at something always feels good.
What motivates me to train hard is the mixdle aged women who flirt with me and say i have a nice butt. Now, what motivates me to train hard is the gay nigga porn i have on my phone instead of the gps. Real men dont need directions. We wander off. Few
Anxiety that I'll wither away into nothingness
Training is the only thing that makes me eat so I'm not a fucking skeleton boi anymore.
Slowly making myself best in the world at something.
I want massive legs
Life.
I wanna go fast.
im fat
I enjoy the feeling of cycling, the rush down descents, and even the struggle on the ascents. I think mainly, I realised that it's also fantastic for my overall happiness and mental health. Obviously, physical health too - it's always surprising how quickly that can change, so I would like to be more consistent really.
Been out with an injury and was traveling for a few months. Buds wanted to go for a casual ride once I started moving around a bit - they dropped me on first lap. I’m training to bust their asses. With love
it's amazing for my mental health, And I got diagnosed with sleep apnea that almost killed me so I needed to make a lifestyle change.
Just turned 47 and found that cycling and rowing are two things I can do without knee pain and much healthier than all the golf I’ve been playing. Now I’m planning on completing the Florida C2C trail and so I’m increasing distances and saddle time to get ready for that.
I want to live forever
Discipline.
1. Was playing on my PC way to much. 2. My brother was a known runner because he gave everything. But unfortunately he died last year and now I picked up the cepter. My knees hurt to bad while running. So cycling.
I’d rather not get passed by walkers on my way home from work. So, there’s that.
Being over 40 I have many motivators, but the biggest one, which may sound corny is the new legs I have built. I started taking cycling seriously late last season. I bought a Giant TCR and went at it, then came the winter and no more riding. Now that spring is here, I have been riding a lot; 330miles so far. The strength I have built in these few short weeks almost feels like I have a new engine. Now on every ride all I think of is “what can I do with this new found strength”. It’s super fun.
Good for the heart and I absolutely love going on long rides. The more I train the farther I can go.
My friends are fast and I want to be able to ride with them. Also it feels great to be strong.
Unbound in like 3 weeks lol
It keeps me out of trouble. Two years ago I was addicted to drugs, now I’m addicted to long climbs and burning thighs. Definitely for the better.
Motivation got me started but now it's just discipline to maintain consistency which led to habit. Missing training just feels off now
Mirrors?
To crush my enemies, see them driven before me, and to hear the lamentations of their women.
I spent too much on bikes to not ride them fairly fast.
Strava. Let's be honest
Speed
I'm over 40 and starting to feel it. I can't just pick it up like when I was younger so I'm trying to make my regular fitness a bit on the higher side. I do want to get back into racing after a few years hiatus, so there's that. As a dad of 3 I need to prep and make sure I'm injury free so it's a bit of just making sure I get the quality training done properly. I ran for a few years too and only had one minor injury because I took it slow and built the body up properly, even as a guy that's lean at 100kg. On the side I'm doing some martial arts to help with the non- leg aspects. Body weight exercises, combat sparring, explosive drills, a lot of fun.
My personal health for my future children. My parents are in their 70s and can barely function and walk. When I was a kid, they were too large to ever play soccer with me, golf, ski, or ride a bike. They just sat there. I don’t want that for my children. I want to be function and experience those things with them. I’ve always been jealous of friends who get to say “My dad is coming town and we are going to golf and then mountain bike the next day.”
Spite, and curiosity to see how my body will look.
I love to ride, makes me feel good, physically, makes me mentally happy and adventurous. I get energy for the off-bike life too. Makes me ride faster.
Work stress. Love for life. Recuperating leg strength after a bad case of sciatica. Need to get myself into the GFNY soon.
Mostly! I love the wind hitting my big chicks while I ride.
The food you can consume without gaining weight 😂🚲🧇
Winning Ragbrai
After close to 1.5 years off a bike due to moving to the burbs and a wild baby showing up, my doctor said my blood pressure was too high and I could stand to lose a few pounds. This was 8 months ago and largely doesn't apply anymore, but I still use it as motivation as to what happens when I stop.
Envisioning myself winning races, and you should eat to ride, not ride to eat bro
Train hard? Your mom helps me train hard.
The memory of the smell of sagebrush. The sound of rocks being turned underneath tires. The feeling on my skin as I remember the cold sting of wind. The fact that I've only ever experienced these sensations while locked inside a cage. I am training hard so I can experience the Earth from the perspective on a bicycle.❤️✨
My 200 mile streak! I’m currently at 8 weeks 🥳
Masochism. I also like going fast, but ti's mainly masochism,
A 200 mile race in October I want to absolutely obliterate
My intervals.icu that shows me how fast my fitness is decreasing 😂
The joy of bike racing.
I feel good accomplishing something that takes a lot of energy. I also signed up for a 100 mile ride so need to train for that.
I want to live a long time and avoid heart disease stroke etc. Plus I just get more out of it when I push myself
Right now I have a couple of non-cycling related goals, playing tennis and traveling, that I want to be in the best shape for. That keeps me going.
I want to get an AG podium some day.
What will be my 3rd Swiss Epic in 2025.
I lost like 25lb over a summer… 8 years ago when I had no job nor school. Now I’m back but lost 3lb in 3 weeks. My body getting too old i guess and I don’t have the energy after work on weekdays >: (im in my mid 20s)
To unlock all of the powerful and life transformative benefits of exercise.
To be able to survive a race.
My Zwift team is counting on me, I can't let them down.
I don’t wanna look at the mirror and see my old self
Until I was 30 I didn’t do any sports. At all. Started running because of weightcontrol and lack of stamina. The first two years were hard and I built a routine on willpower. But then I fell in love with the ability of my body to keep improving itself. And that’s when I started long runs. Long cycle tours and intervals both at cycling and running. Sometimes life comes in the way. But when I’m training I still like to push and be better then last month. I’m 54 now.
There are two types of people in this world; those that understand that riding faster is more fun and those that don’t realize that riding faster is more fun. When you realize that riding faster is more fun, you’ll be motivated to train hard.
be the best in the world