Five Ways to Stay Motivated for Cycling
My last several posts have been about self-discipline, losing weight, and new cyclists quitting the sport. You can go a long way towards improvement within those three areas if you apply a little motivation.
What is motivation?
Motivation is a condition that activates or stimulates behavior and gives it direction. It energizes and directs goal-oriented behavior. It can have many forms and is usually based on the desire to achieve an end result – losing weight, riding a century, etc.
Five Ways To Stay Motivated For Cycling
- Set goals. You know what you want (lose 40 pounds or ride a 100 miles) but it’s meaningless unless you set those goals down in stone. Let others know about those goals so there’s some accountability. Here’s a good article about setting S.M.A.R.T. goals.
- Sign up for a ride. Knowing you’ve signed up for, and paid money for, an event is a great motivator to gut it out and keep riding so you’re prepared to ride. Just make sure you give yourself plenty of time to train. This is what I did last year when I decided it was time to get serious about my weight loss by riding my first century (although bicycle problems kept me from participating).
- Do a fundraiser. There are many opportunities available for cyclists to sign up for and raise money for worthy causes. Some of the bigger ones are Livestrong, MS-150, and Tour de Cure. Knowing your raising money for a worthy cause is great motivation.
- Keep some small clothes in the closet. Still have those jeans you wore in college and want to get back into them? They would make great motivation. Don’t keep them hidden though. Leave’em out so they’re a constant reminder.
- Challenge a friend Friendly rivalries can be great motivators. Whether it’s pounds lost or miles ridden you’ll be pushing each other hard.
What’s your motivation?
I’ve started the list with five. I know there are more and want to hear about them. What worked for you in the past or what are you using for motivation right now?
Read MoreImage courtesy of mikelo (CC BY-SA 2.0).
Cycling for the heart
I’ve been doing some thinking lately about trying to get involved in some type of charity ride to help raise money for a worthy cause. I’m sure you can think of several of these types of rides off the top of your head such as the MS-150 for Multiple Sclerosis, The Tour de Cure for Diabetes and the Livestrong Challenge for cancer research. These are all big events with many rides throughout the country.
If I did one of these rides I would want it to be a ride that supported fund raising for a disease that directly impacted my family. The Tour de Cure would work since I do have members in my family that are diabetic (I’m not). After thinking about it a little more I thought that riding for something related to heart disease might be a little more appropriate since that’s what I lost my dad to six months ago. My families history of heart problems (and me heading down that path) is the main reason I started this blog so it seems a natural cause to ride for. So I set out trying to find a charity ride/event/group that centered on the heart.
I’ve come up with almost nothing. I did some searching on the Internet and sought advice via Twitter with almost no luck. There’s a ride here or there that raises money for heart disease or stroke awareness but I could find nothing on the level of the MS-150 or the Tour de Cure. I was really surprised to find so little on the American Heart Association’s website. They have specific fund raising activities/events but none of them involve cycling even though they list cycling both as an exercise to fight heart disease and to help those recovering from heart surgery. I found that really amazing.
So, my question is, do any of my readers know of any event out there that benefits the American Heart Association, or heart disease in general, and involves cycling?
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