Motivate me please!

[mrbadexample]

And next time you have a weekend of excess, do the big rides before-hand. Make the excess the reward for good miles put in already, rather than the pleasure before the guilt. In that way, you are avoiding the regrets completely.

That's a damn fine idea. I just need to get 1000 miles in before my birthday on Saturday then.

 

[Paul H]

Perhaps all of us newbies should set a 'Best improver' challenge or something - keep our efforts visible and provide some friendly, competitive motivation.

Sounds like a good idea...no idea how we could implement it though

 

[Nigelnaturist]

Sounds like a good idea...no idea how we could implement it though

A couple of ways, join my cycling log there is a cycle chat group on there, or if you wanted to create one for new cyclist you can, if you record your trips by gps ( I know not everyone does), you can post on strava or endomondo ect... and follow people. Just a few thoughts.

 

[Eribiste]

Unfortunately that load of food is more like 70 miles! (I'm assuming that you have not included the free popadoms and pickles, nor the mint that you get with the bill - they still count as calories, even though the are free!) There is no direct correlation between how tired you feel and how many calories burnt. Still, you are on the way.
I'd suggest taking a few measurements. Waist and leg diameter are a couple of good starters, as is weight. Put those measurements away. Then, in a few months time when you are struggling with the cold, wet days, tempted by another curry blow-out, then get out those figures and measure yourself again. And then see how much difference you have made to yourself so far as a motivation to keep going.

Well, my weight's gone down from 14st + to a little over 11st, my waist is smaller by a good 2", and the bike has got faster somehow. As for my legs though, my thighs are like those of a 1970's East German lady shot putter! Doesn't seem to be much I can do about that.

 

[BrumJim]

Good strong thighs are good. I'd expect them to expand if they were previously thin, or just harden up if they were previously fat.

 

[Longshot]

Sounds like a good idea...no idea how we could implement it though

Well, Nigel's suggestions would work but you could also do something simple like pick a distance and each person who wants to enter the comp states their first time for a route that conforms to that distance. It would be sensible to suggest that a level-ish route was used by all but it doesn't matter hugely. Everyone could then post whenever they beat their time over their set route. We then work out the percentage improvement.

Obviously this relies on honesty but people would only be kidding themselves and there's no fortune attached to it.

This is similar to something we do on a golf forum which worked pretty well.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

Well, Nigel's suggestions would work but you could also do something simple like pick a distance and each person who wants to enter the comp states their first time for a route that conforms to that distance. It would be sensible to suggest that a level-ish route was used by all but it doesn't matter hugely. Everyone could then post whenever they beat their time over their set route. We then work out the percentage improvement.

Obviously this relies on honesty but people would only be kidding themselves and there's no fortune attached to it.

This is similar to something we do on a golf forum which worked pretty well.

For me its got to be this dam hill on the last KM I keep needing to beat, especial after 25-30 miles

 

[Nigelnaturist]

If you join the cycle chat group you can have a signature that shows how far you have done this year and what your target is. Like below, its updated regularly though its not instant. Mine shows 1537 I have done 1562 as of 20:30 when I posted this.

 

[mrbadexample]

These sites like mycyclinglog.com - do they all require GPS input?

All I have is the odometer. Is there a site that will let me manually update how far I've been?

 

[mrbadexample]

I'm thinking about cycling to my darts match tomorrow. The trouble is, I only know the car route. Google maps gives me a good looking route that is mostly cycle path, but my memory is crap and sense of direction is worse. It'll also be dark and scary when I come home.

Should I wait until I have time to do a daylight recce? The route could be an absolute minefield of broken bottles, nails and chavs for all I know.

 

[Paul H]

A couple of ways, join my cycling log there is a cycle chat group on there, or if you wanted to create one for new cyclist you can, if you record your trips by gps ( I know not everyone does), you can post on strava or endomondo ect... and follow people. Just a few thoughts.

Right done the mycyclinglog thing, just waiting for it to update on my profile

I'm up for this, think it would be good fun to track our progress against each other

Forgive me for being a bit thick...I use a Garmin GPS, am I able to allow people to follow
me on there as well as using mycyclinglog?

 

[Paul H]

These sites like mycyclinglog.com - do they all require GPS input?

All I have is the odometer. Is there a site that will let me manually update how far I've been?

You do update manually on mycyclinglog so no worries there

 

[Nigelnaturist]

I'm thinking about cycling to my darts match tomorrow. The trouble is, I only know the car route. Google maps gives me a good looking route that is mostly cycle path, but my memory is crap and sense of direction is worse. It'll also be dark and scary when I come home.

Should I wait until I have time to do a daylight recce? The route could be an absolute minefield of broken bottles, nails and chavs for all I know.

I just stay on the roads.
My cycling log is just purely a log of what you have done, basic input is distance and time, you can put other info in if you have but it's not compulsory ( i.e. max sp, cadence calories, elevation weight ect..) pretty much the same as you could keep on a spreadsheet.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

Right done the mycyclinglog thing, just waiting for it to update on my profile

I'm up for this, think it would be good fun to track our progress against each other

Forgive me for being a bit thick...I use a Garmin GPS, am I able to allow people to follow
me on there as well as using mycyclinglog?

I am sure you can I have a garmin account though I have a bryton, if I import a tcx file some data is wrong
you can make friends and teams on endomondo as away of tracking, and on strava, endomondo will take just data if thats all you have, so its good if like me you sometimes forget to set the recorder going correctly (as happened yesterday, missed the first 10 miles) though I have as back up another comp.

 

[mrbadexample]

Need the password to join the CC group please?