36,500km in 365 days - Cycling Against Living Miserably

Definitely don't feel guilty, i should of looked into these earlier. Anything in the Pyrenees would be amazing. I'll sign up to the Transiberica Transpyrenees as it's in June and hopefully the weather will be good.

@cliveo yes i did, I should of tapered instead of having a solid 4 days off. I felt very odd this week physically, my hr has been all over the place and I've had a tight chest (not covid). This week coming I'll ride more but I'll still be flexible as I've got evening plans with friends.

I have missed riding my bike

It is brilliant that you still love riding your bike.I think that I would have given into the temptation to have a couple of lazy weeks.

hi @Norfolkbound, how are you doing?
Don't let us be in the dark about your new-life-after-the-challenge :)

Wouldn't begrudge a social media break too!
But ps, massive belated props to the unreal dedication and consistency to do this, already popped a bit over on Ascnd

Hi all, so I've had a bit of a break from cycling and social media . Throughout the challenge it's been so full on that a little bit of time for me has been welcome.

I'm getting back into training this week and it's not been the easiest actually. I thought I'd be excited to start pushing myself again but actually I'm just tired. Previously people have mentioned that i would feel lost once the challenge was over and they were right, the days that i have a plan are fine but the ones which I don't are pretty tough.

Also the amount of volume that I was doing has twisted my idea of cycling. I feel like a good week is a minimum of 15 hours

I think tired and goalless would be completely normal, it was an extraordinary amount of dedication to maintain, maybe you need a new goal but equally settling down is also okay

Way I see your past volume, isn't as a peak of your training/fitness but you having proved your mettle, finding and pushing your limits

Hey Joel, how u doing?

Hello from the community :)

Hey, thanks for checking in.

I'm definitely struggling without the daily goal and getting back into a riding routine is harder than i imagined. During the challenge i imagined i would come out of it excited to see the fitness gains i have made and what i could do but that's really not motivating me.

This challenge is my biggest achievement so the "what's next" is something that's hard to know. What I'm enjoying is riding with others though

without the daily goal

Make your daily goal: get through the day without thinking about riding a fucking bike.

Can be silly to hear but focus on a new challenge, maybe not bike related.
Run, table tennis, chess, climbing, whatever!!!
you proved that you can do whatever you are willing to do!
keep morale up!

Good advice up there.
Maybe Mountainbiking?
Instead of mile munching you could do skill training?

I've has some nice time like this with friends and family. I got drunk once, that was an experience as I haven't been hungover in a very long time.

I led a ride on Saturday for ASCND, where i brought together 16 riders from Norwich all for mental health. This was very rewarding actually, as there were some great conversations on the ride and everyone seemed to get a lot of enjoyment from it.

I think I saw that on Insta. Not that I've done any for years but group rides at social pace are good to take your mind off the pedaling bit.

I've got a decent ride planned this Saturday, a bit of an off road thing on 33mm tyres so lets see how hard it is. Essentially I need to stop feeling guilty about not training and find a rhythm with riding again as I still really enjoy it. I do beat myself up for not riding which is something I'm dealing with internally.

On the last week of this challenge, I got a big promotion at work which has taken a while to adjust to as it's very senior and I've now got a lot of responsibility

Nice. I was riding a lot of dirt last year. I'm now focused on climbing so it's mostly road again but now I've got my new dropper and the MTB is out and about I should actually ride the bloody thing.

Re: work I ditch riding to focus on work if it's worthwhile. A new role probably is so maybe sink some time into that now, while you're recovering from the year. For me, if it's dumb shit, I'll focus more on riding and just do the work around it. You still gotta pay the bills though, right? I normally move into new position and smash it for a bit to make myself lookr awesome then back off and hand bits over once they're sorted and look at other stuff. Kinda depends what your employer expects of you. I'm technical so not responsible for shit. If it breaks it was like that when I found it... :D

Re: work I ditch riding to focus on work if it's worthwhile. A new role probably is so maybe sink some time into that now, while you're recovering from the year. For me, if it's dumb shit, I'll focus more on riding and just do the work around it. You still gotta pay the bills though, right? I normally move into new position and smash it for a bit to make myself lookr awesome then back off and hand bits over once they're sorted and look at other stuff. Kinda depends what your employer expects of you. I'm technical so not responsible for shit. If it breaks it was like that when I found it... :D

Congratulations on the promotion. Pretty amazing to get it in spite of having a few other things going on in the background!

I can understand the feeling of finishing a big challenge and not feeling good about not doing much now. Have you got a next event lined up? Having a low after a big ride is a really common thing. The only known cure is to enter something else.

I find it hard to train unless I'm training for something. Actually that's a lie, I don't find it hard at all, I just don't do it, so it's quite easy, just makes me feel crap!

congrats on your promo!
I haven't doubt that someone who showed having this determination can't be progressing further work-wise!

The only known cure is to enter something else.

You're probably being a bit tongue in cheek, but if you're aware of the slump - and you and I definitely are because we seem addicted to this nonsense - then you can still channel your energy into something else. After the last big one of the year I typically get onto the piss (yeah, even more) for a bit but then find a work project or home project to put some energy into. Just something else to occupy that extra time, that's not riding. I then ride when I actually feel like it rather than as some kind of compulsion.

I did a big dirt ride yesterday, my skills off road are lacking so it's good to build this. I definitely lose speed off road compared to more experienced riders, this was apparent when i did Further East. The only issue is that swapping from road and off road on one bike takes a lot of bike maintenance...

The job thing is a lot of stress as i have a lot of responsibility now (i didn't say it for a boast but more of the tiredness of what's it has created)

@frank9755 I've got the transpyrenees in June which will be fun, a lot of climbing and big days in the saddle. It's 15 weeks away but I was able to up my volume over the last 2 weeks e.g around 15hours. I did a 10.5hour ride yesterday which was extremely fun

Thanks, it was an opportunity i couldn't turn down but my riding has suffered

I've got the transpyrenees in June

That's great - something to work towards and look forward to!

I tend to go off riding afterwards for a bit but haven't been successful at channeling my sudden increase of spare time into other things. But a couple of times after ultras, I've been really busy at work, and it has helped to ease back in.

But then I've only done a couple of these things IRL - mostly I just talk about them all the time and pretend to know what I am on about - when it comes to actually doing them, you are the expert!

Thanks, it was an opportunity i couldn't turn down but my riding has suffered

That's work summed up nicely in one sentence!

Cheque's in the post ;)

Problem is now, most events aren't interesting enough for me. But I STILL sit watching them with FOMO because riding anything is better than being sat at work.