Losing your mojo

@mk1mark and @ubergruber

Wednesday night for recreational jaunts in Edinburgh.

If you need any MDMA I can probably phone a pal.

picks up phone

I mostly run in the mud

I mostly run in the mud

I know who's doing the "Le Mans" style run at the start of Mountain Mayhem then.

Funny you say that - I only discovered there was a running start when we rocked up at the start only to find that i) everyone else on the team hated running and b) the chap starting for us had forgotten his lid. Apparently it was too late to get me on the start line instead tho

Since moving to London last April my bike's (roadie) has been mainly hanging on the wall unloved; bar the Dunwich Dynamo and few laps of regents park. So..

1) Bought @Sparky's big purple All City Big Block frame for a slow project (build thread coming maybe)
2) Free'd up my Saturday to join a ride out to Box Hill

Hopefully i won't find an excuse to bail this weekend. The Big Block has already sparked some fresh excitement in it all so feel positive.

This may be of some help to a few of you...

when I was a kid I used to go car racing every weekend with my Dad. He restores some really beautiful vintage Le Man cars, all of them privately owned. This one chap he did work for was a real perfectionist. The night before he went racing he'd wash the car, polish and wax it, every time without fail. He'd spend a long time getting everything absolutely perfect, obviously mechanical things like carb set up and tyre pressures, but he'd also place his racing kit out on the floor, check it was clean and wasn't damaged.

When he arrived at the races, he got there early. Swept the paddock garage himself before unloading his car.

Probably overly anal with somethings but I really admired this. His car was extremely reliable and he used to win over and over again. Obviously he was a quick driver but then again a chain is only as strong as the weakest link.

If I've got a long weekend of riding, I like to go through everything.

Here's what I'll do:

. clean workshop, put all tools away, sweep floor etc
. clean shoes, polish helmet giggles and lay the rest of my kit out for the next day
. take bike outside, hose down, wash with soapy water, dry and apply wax or speed detailer
. apply lube to drive chain, check tyre pressure and wear, adjust cables etc

The next day putting on a fresh, well maintained kit going into a clean garage with your bike just waiting to be ridden feels amazing. Also looking down at your bike and seeing how clean it is and that you've checked over every single component also gives you a lot of confidence for hammering down a hill or smashing up one.

/csb

I am very envious of all the time you appear to have. My bike is lucky if it gets cleaned once every 6 months.

I can usually do everything in 2 hours, not a huge amount of time :)

I only have my bath as a place to bike clean. Post ride I get first dibs in the tub tho

Last place I lived had a wetroom. Such clean bikes.

Off sick today with a virus. Haven't ridden to work for over a week, just can't be bothered even though I hate getting the tube home (enjoy reading/listening to music on the way in). Wanted to get back on it after Christmas, (weighed myself and 2 stone overweight. Fat git), but so far just haven't been motivated other than a on week of commuting and one long weekend ride to Cambridge.

Think its tied to general work/life stress and subsequent depression. Need to ride to lift a bit of depression. Cant be bothered to ride due to same bit of depression.

Sometimes you just need a break, y'know? Maybe go swimming or play squash or something-short intense exercise is sometimes easier to deal with than long days in the saddle. Or maybe just get yourself a turbo so you can listen to some tunes and spin away as long as you feel like it? Either way, beating yourself for not riding up won't make you fitter and it won't make you less stressed so probably best just giving yourself some slack whatever you decide to do-if you'd ripped a ligament you wouldn't be pressuring yourself to be on the bike and it shouldn't be any different if your mental health isn't great atm.

Thanks. Have signed up for a group ride to Oxford on Sunday with London Bike and Beer group. Haven't done new a group ride so thought I'd try something different. Giving the bike a good clean etc as @JamesNQ mentioned should help. Thunk it's more related to what's at the end if the ride than the ride itself. Ie. Stressful no fun job.

Sounds like a good shout, just be mindful not to over-extend yourself as coming back from a virus takes time and even more so if you're stressed. I've had a really tough year and was getting sick all the time/no motivation to ride and found that after taking a month or so off the bike and cutting out caffeine I'm feeling much better and enjoy getting out when I do.

cutting out caffeine

?!!,.;();?????

Thanks. Am going to see how it goes/ head home at st albans. Am planning to do just a couple if rides in per week and see how it goes. How did you cut down in caffeine? Tried before but kept getting headaches.

How did you cut down in caffeine? Tried before but kept getting headaches.

I just did cold turkey and put up with the headaches (and night sweats, crap sleep, etc) for a week. All done after that. Now just drink decaf coffee although it's not a problem to have one real coffee if I go somewhere that doesn't have decaf. Any more than one and I can feel the buzz and sometimes have trouble sleeping that night.

If you take painkillers to make the headaches less bad then make sure the pills aren't the "faster" or "express" versions as they often contain caffeine to boost the metabolism to get the analgesic into the blood and working faster.

Down to 63 cups a day at the moment though. Which is progress.

Yeah, you have to accept 3 days of headaches and feeling a bit out of sorts but I now sleep 1000% better and wake up feeling refreshed rather than lurching straight to the coffee pot like a zombie.

Basically, when you're stressed you produce a hormone called cortisol. Too much cortisol is bad. Caffeine keeps you in a vigilant state and stops your body processing it, along with other bad things I've learned about like if you drink coffee immediately after a meal, it helps flush out lots of the nutrients your body is trying to absorb. Exercise also produces cortisol, so if your cortisol levels are already high, instead of feeling better and de-stressed you feel like shit-almost like you're hungover like I did the day after a hard ride.

No coffee, one month off the bike, lots of snoozing=feeling much better for it and far less wired/intense on a day to day basis and after rides I don't get the hungover/totally fucked out feeling too so decaff only for me from now on!

Good info. I usually reach for coffee first thing or as a distraction. Are you off tea as well?

Went for that group ride this morning. Had 4 hrs sleep. Got to the meeting point at 8am. Organiser was an hour late. Everyone was weird. When we actually started riding out the group went through three red lights in a row. I was so hacked off I just went home. Spent the day eating crap and sitting on the sofa. And feel all the better for it.

I've completely given up, every year I fight the wind and rain up here in Edinburgh, this year, nada. its just miserable and grey, even my plants are dying.

Just as well I move to BCN in March, shame by the time is comes around I'll be a fat mess back at Sq1 of fitness.

But, the nicest rides I have now is where I can pootle along enjoying the ride without giving a flying fuck about fitness. Until I meet a hill. Take a break, go for a gentle spin when you want to. Ride for fun. Fitness is a bonus.