How to Stay Motivated During the Cycling Season

How to Stay Motivated During the Cycling Season…

article by Pav Bryan

Doing exercise of any kind is important to maintaining health. We all have our favorite workout routine, but most of us feel the lack of motivation for doing so. Exercise is hard especially if you have the main purpose for doing so such as weight loss. We all need to keep motivated to be able to manage regular exercise.

If you’re reading this, it’s probably because you know that one of the exercises which requires continuous motivation is cycling. You know that cycling has good benefits for our body and it is one of the easiest exercises to perform in everyday life.

The importance of motivation for sports

The definition of motivation is an individual’s inner dedication and will to achieve their set goal. It is very important factor in the high level of any sport. For athletes, the motivation to be the best is essential or else they will fall short of the goals. However, most of us usually only need motivation just to be able to get out every morning cycling.

What are common excuses for not cycling

We all have tons of ridiculous excuses for not pedaling, here are some common ones which as a coach I’ve heard:

• Bad weather – unless it’s dangerous this is poor, if you really hate it buy a turbo trainer!
• Too busy – sit down and map out your work week, what can you do to condense your time down to ride more, most people can find at least half hour a day if they organize their day a little better
• Too hard – yes, of course it is! No pain, no gain!
• Too tired – is this regular? Maybe there’s an underlying problem here, nutrition, lack of sleep, it’s not natural to always be tired.Don’t feel like it – we all have moments like this – see the next list for how to overcome it!

How to keep motivated for cycling

Gather your buddies – you’re less likely to not ride if you set a day & time to do so with your friends. Club rides are a great tool to keep you motivated.

Ride for charity – ride events to raise money for charity. Knowing that your ride will benefit other people in a good way certainly makes the riding worth your time. You are not only motivated to get healthy by cycling but also doing something good for other people.

Sign up for something – you can sign up for a sportive, race or event. Doing this will give you more of a reason to get on your bike. You can find out more about this kind of challenge via your local cycling club, British Cycling or Cycling Time Trials websites.

Focus on goals – I get clients to put pictures in places where they’ll see it. If I have a client who doesn’t focus enough on eating right, I get them to stick a picture of me pointing at them on their fridge!

Positive Affirmations – tell yourself you can do it. Every morning you can go through a list of things that will mean you have a good day. Use this again before training. Tell yourself something like “I will smash this session” or “I can do this” really works!

Remember why you are training – keep your eyes on the prize!

Pav Bryan