BobbyG

For me, the great thing about bike commuting is how it kills 3 birds with one stone.

Obviously it's my daily fitness.

Then there's the gumption factor. Unlike with stationary exercise equipment, I must finish my "workout" otherwise I will not have arrived at work, or back home.

And thirdly, I don't have to pick a destination, just a route.

When I take my weekend rides I have to pick a destination and a route...but I often make an errand out of it. I'll pick up some small item I could buy from a store closer in, but this helps me make it to my destination. Or I'll pick an establishment to stop and have coffee and/or a bite before turning around.

Having a task helps me complete my rides, it's just how my mind works. Just Sunday, I was going to ride down to my stepdaughter's to pick up something for my wife. I got a few blocks away when my wife called and said my stepdaughter wasn't feeling 100% (an ongoing medical issue). Instead of riding down there anyway, I picked a different, closer target, which then became another closer one. Eventually, I rode the equivalent of my commute to work, 9 miles, versus the 24 mile round trip to my step-daughters.

And now with Covid-19, not only am I mostly working from home, but when I do have to go into the office (which is empty, save for me), I have to carry equipment I can't ferry on my bike. (We are worried about break-ins during these unusual times and have decided not to leave the essentials there.).)

I am hoping my two fail-safes will kick in:

1) If I don't ride for three days my sinuses become inflamed and I develop headaches. I know this is the opposite of most people, but elevated physical activity opens my sinuses and helps them drain.

2) I get grouchy and irritable after 2-3 days off the bike.

When people post asking where motivation to ride can be found, I often respond that that motivation will be found "out there" on the ride.

I hope I can heed my own advice...although just typing it made my "bikey senses" tingle. So I may be okay after all.

I don't need to be in the office till 1pm today. I have one chore to accomplish, here at the house this morning.

I'm already running through possible destinations to bike to, although I think I will avoid stopping at any destinations due to social distancing.

I think I will be okay...

I'll keep you all posted.

Darth Lefty 

My wife is making sure I take enough bike rides to prevent grouchy irritableness (and she's spending a similar amount of time in the garage with her stained glass) so that part is ok. I am definitely rapidly losing fitness, though. I had been planning on a pretty hard event this May. I don't think it's officially been canceled but even so I don't think I'm up for it. I was also going to try the local Weds night springtime MTB races but they were an early victim.

We're still employed. I just hope we're managing to save some money.

BobbyG

...and I did it! I rode down to my Step-daughter's and was rewarded with the sight of my wife's car. I texted her and got waves from them both. Then I headed back home, uphill, but with a tailwind! I also used the ride as an excuse to link two routes I hadn't formerly linked. Doing so saved me 2 miles!

The computer said I did approximately 21 miles over 88 minutes with an average speed of 13.6 which is above my commute average of 12.5.

I feel invigorated, accomplished and ready for my afternoon shift at the office!

PollyS8

What about fitness- it's now getting worse with the pandemic. Really missng my bike (

Archwhorides 

I'm in the same boat - my commute was my daily organizer, fitness, gumption fix, and mental health break. I need a whole new discipline now.

wsgts

Same

showlow

My routine before the plague was 4+ days a week on Zwift and a fun 40-60 mile ride on Saturday or Sunday.

Currently the wife is home all day and I'm working way more at the restaurant to keep up with delivery demand. We're SUPER lucky to be ok financially. Not complaining at all there. But, I thought I would actually be getting more riding in during this quarantine. Instead I've been totally demotivated. I feel bad for the wife who's having no contact outside of me and our little kids. I'm gone all night from 5-midnight or so, and waking up late. Last thing I want to do is go bail on her for another 4 hours to take a decent ride. Gaining weight. Fitness is nosediving.

Hope to get the mojo back soon.

​

squirtdad

I am trying to keep a routine for WFH, up same time, shower, (no shave....proving yet again I can't grow a beard), morning bodyweight workout, ride or walk at lunch.

am not doing perfect on this and the MUP are so full of people, am thinking I will get up do a pseudo commute (out and back ride)

Miele Man

I often find that my get-up-and-go has got-up-and-left. Whenever I'm able to force myself to go for a ride out into the country (only about ten minutes from home) I'll ride for about 6 kilometers and then I find that my get-up-and-go has returned and I'll ride for a long time sometimes many hours.

A lot of times I'll motivate myself by saying I'll stop for a coffee on my way out. The Tim Horton's in my area is at a gas bar and is still open to pedestrian and bicyclists who walk inside the gas bar/variety/Tim Horton's store.

Cheers

noisebeam

I also need a purpose or others to chase to get me out riding. Just heading out solo for no reason and no real route just doesn't work for me.

So I've been riding half-way to work and back home most mornings. Sometimes I get the same evening 'commute' in as well.

Group rides are cancelled and even if not I wouldn't join. So weekends have been hiking with family now.

JayKay3000

What made me use my bike more was when I got panniers, a rack and a trailer. I can now pickup medium sized items from a store like a bike stand or a large amount of shopping.

The panniers can be used to move a smaller amount of shopping especially when combined with a backpack. You can also just put heavy things in the panniers to make you work harder with more weight on the bike.

The thing is to think what else you can use your bike for than just pleasure free time rides that way you get to ride it while also accomplishing a task, possibly even a task that you would have used the car for anyway.

Papa Tom

My commuting season was just about to begin when the township I work for released us all indefinitely. I'll need to take some of the advice on these forums to get MY mojo working again REALLY soon.

Darth Lefty 

Aside: when I decided to get a little more serious MTB about three years ago I demo'd a very premium Ibis Mojo HD4. It was a pretty cool bike and was responsible for modernizing my view of what a MTB should do.

Bizman

Today I came up with the idea that even though my life and work is shut down I will still commute to my work to see if it’s opened back up yet, yes loaded with everything I normally would take, this would be about 5 days a week. It’s 39.4 miles round trip. I have never rode my route just in and back, I normally have an intermission i.e. park, change clothes, go in to work, change clothes back and ride home hours later.

It took 122 minutes round trip, saw work was closed and came back home, never once got off the bike. I spend at least this much time commuting in and back if my work is open (usually longer coming home). I just have to adjust my time during a 24 hour time period to do it, normally I would go in at night. I have spent to many years getting in shape and making bicycling and commuting a lifestyle that I am not willing to give it up due to a change in life, at least for now.

GUMK

I’m working remotely until this whole thing blows over, just completed my first week of ‘substitute commutes’ (in the back garden with a turbo trainer for the same time I would normally commute).

It is nowhere near as enjoyable, and, using the motto ‘Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good’, I have been able to get into a new routine which is helping massively with adapting to my ‘new normal’.

I’m hearing stories of work colleagues really struggling to adapt to their new situation, and am thankful that I am a person who must have structure, which has helped me create a new routine quickly.

My commutes were excellent for my mental health, the substitutes are a poor imitation, but they help.

BobbyG

I had never heard that before...it's a great motto!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfec..._enemy_of_good

In my private life I have let the fear of imperfection keep me from many endeavors. And yet, professionally, I had embraced this concept without realizing it.

I've worked in retail advertising for 35 years, where deadlines are short, and most projects have short shelf-lives. Not 100% happy with a graphic, or an audio mix?...I'll get it sorted out for next month's ad.

I did have a long-time client who used to say, "Done is better than good."

I do have a few long-lived projects where I do sweat the details, but thanks to advertising and my 10-years in improvisational theater (improv) I have learned to not let "perfect be the enemy of good" more and more in my private life.

Which also reminds me of two of my personal mottos: "Any ride is better than no ride",

and, "If you are thinking a bout it, you are not pedalling hard enough"...which I shorten to "Pedal harder!"

Thanks @GUMK for helping me put that in perspective (seriously).

Miele Man

When it comes to riding my bicycle or even exercise in general, another great adage is: "Something beats nothing".

I also try to keep in mind the story of a guy in his 90s who rode across Canada. At the end of the ride a reporter was interviewing him.

Reporter: "How did you do that ride?"

Old Guy: "One pedal stroke at a time. One pedal stroke at a time."

Reporter: "You rode thousands of kilometers in all sorts of weather. What was the hardest part of your entire ride?"

Old Guy: "The hardest part of the entire ride?"

Reporter: "Yes. The hardest part."

Old Guy: "Well; I guess the very hardest part of that ride was..."

Reporter: "What?"

Old Guy: "Taking that very first pedal stroke!"

Archwhorides 

I got out at lunchtime today for a fast hour between rainy spells, I'm out of shape after 2 1/2 weeks, but it feels good.

Two benefits in this "new normal" (lots of negatives):

1. I don't need panniers on my current rides, so I can enjoy the speedy vintage Lemond Zurich that I've been renewing.
2. I can take any interesting local route I want, as long as it ends up as a closed loop.

Notso_fastLane

I have been working from home for going on a month now. I only took a few days off because I was waiting for parts to ride the velo, and it was too cold for the 2 wheel bent.

I just 'ride home' in the afternoons now. About the same time I'd be getting off work, I go out for a long-ish ride, almost never less than 18 miles. It's close enough to my old routine that it's not too hard to keep motivated. The weather is finally getting just nice enough that afternoon rides are sometimes on the bent, but still usually in the velo, which is just a little warmer in a wider range of conditions.

wphamilton

I've got a feeling that some of these changes we're experiencing now are going to be permanent. Since my work function has no real reason for an office, other than oversight, I doubt that I'll be going in again this year. Bicycle commuting is over until something drastic changes and I suspect that I'm probably more typical than not.

I had the same "failsafes" - clearing out the sinus and getting out of sorts when I miss a ride or two - but they haven't really kicked in for the motivation. I do get out for exercise though which maybe substitutes in that regard.