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@6pt
Seriously, fuck strava. Do riding for yourself.
I stopped riding due to injury and being so comfortable with things in other aspects of my life that I felt I didn't need riding. That hole had been filled by other things. I was working from home, too, so I didn't have the 'it'll be all right, I have my commute to fall back on' mindset.
Put on a bit of weight over Christmas (well, the 'new clothes time' culmination of a few months of weight gain), which I wasn't comfortable with, and the only way I know how to shed it is to ride, so I grudgingly got back on the bike again.
And it was horrible. Slow, unfit, cold, wet.
But it didn't matter, because time on the bike meant I was burning calories, and thus getting where I wanted to be. It was important for me, as someone who was used to being fit and fast and it all being easy, that I didn't focus on 'strava' this and 'speed' that, because no matter how you do, of course you're going to be be better on that ride you did at the end of that summer two years ago when you'd been riding non-stop and the sun was always shining. And of course that person who rides all the sodding time in all the interesting places is going to be going further and faster. But so what? Just get some time on the bike, get where you want to be.
And it's horrible and wet and rubbish, but you're getting there, so it's all good (repeat until you get home or the hail passes over).
And then the sun comes out, and mojo has returned. Huzzah.
Weird rambley pseudo-rant with a sort of undefined positive message there somewhere. Apologies.