Motivation or Something Like It

I've had two rough trainer sessions this week. They were both two hours but I can say I am less sore after my ride last night than I was after Tuesdays ride. Thankfully I had Taylor Swift and my friends over at The Big Bang Theory, The Office and Park's and Rec to keep me company last night.

Even with the best company I still find it hard to drum up motivation, which is obviously clear if you look at my workout log the past few months. Just looking at stats for the past few months shows a clear pattern...when I am motivated for something I train harder.

 

I guess this is a pretty simple concept and I touched on it in my last post when I mentioned I need a new goal to work towards. Truth is I am craving a goal to work towards. I joked with Erik that I can't really make a new PR goal for a race because the only race I did my goal was to finish. My time was not so great, but I could ride that course today and beat my time with my eyes closed. Of course that's hypothetically speaking because I have yet to master the whole cycling with my eyes blindfolded technique. Hmm...maybe that should be my new goal?

I could make my goal to beat my previous century ride time but I can think of one reason why that wouldn't be a far challange - hills.

My first century we climbed over 3000 feet with one especially killer hill. This century will feature about 800 feet of climbing with the biggest "hill" being that of a bridge over a highway. Yup.

So, even if I beat my previous century time I will still feel like I cheated abit with such a easy course. Of course now that I say this I will probably end up in tears somewhere along the course or something crazy. The biggest issues that I could potentially see causing me to want to quit the ride are:

• The weather. It's Central New York and we've been known to have snow on the ground by Halloween. Right now the forecast is predicting low 50's with chance of rain. Cold and rain don't seem like the best time on a bike...that's why I bought a bike trainer after all.
• Boredom. The course is three 33 mile loops with a extra mile added on at the end. The fact that I can sit on my bike trainer for 2 hours at a time and not want to ride my bike through the window speaks volumes, but still I worry about the mind numbing silence that often occurs on long rides in the middle of nowhere. Plus, Erik always seems to ride just enough a head of me to not be able to hear me complain.
• Getting sick. Ever since I had a training ride where I got sick about 20-30 miles in I always have this fear that I will get sick again during a ride. Nutrition is a tricky subject for me currently and during the century I basically survived on gels and GU like it was my job. My stomach made it quite clear that day that solid food was not allowed but I am hoping that was because my body already hates itself when it's hot.

Of course I suppose there are a few positives to look forward to:

• The weather. I know, how can this be both good and bad? Well, I thrive in colder weather, seriously it's my jam. I don't get overheated and nasous and that's pretty awesome.
• It's one last chance to ride outside until April/May. Sure I don't mind my trainer now, but I'm guessing after I spend the next 5-6 months solely riding on that I may want to throw it out of the window.

So to recap in case you got bored and skipped to the bottom, I know we all do it sometimes: I still have no goals, I'll be eating alot of GU next weekend and will attempt to not get sick.