Tuesday, 3 November 2009
Depressed by cycling ...
Cycling adds time on to my journey, not least because I have to shower and change when I get to work. I don't spend enough time at work, I don't spend enough time at home. Sometimes I worry that cycling is the only thing with any flexibility and I should stop, or decrease. Two hours a day... too much? Can anyone give me a pep talk?
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8 comments:
Chin up, KC... doesn't that daily cycle time contribute to your emotional and physical well-being? Which would mean that it adds value to your non-cycling life, no?
I know that if I go more than a couple days without saddle time, I lose focus at work and my wife tells me I'm not much fun to live with -- so at least in my grand equation, the quality of life I get from cycling offsets the lost time.
Maybe you need a shorter commute?
Hope this helps,
Jason, a.k.a. the guy behind The Cycle
Thanks Jason - good to hear a sane voice! I think I was feeling a bit low with a cold, had too much work pressure and quite a bit going on at home (decorators, visiting family from abroad, you know the kind of thing). I'm slowly regaining my mojo with some shorter rides to avoid too much exertion.
I think perhaps the trick might be too cut down the rides from, say, 5 two-way journeys per week, to say, 3. Might make me feel a bit less pressured.
And I totally take the point about the effects of not being in the saddle - you start getting edgy.
Thanks again - back in the saddle!
Hey KC. I was going to Heathrow a couple of weeks ago and therefore had to get the tube at rush hour for the first time in ages. That experience was enough to make me realise that time spent on the bike was no waste! It was horrendous: I was uncomfortably hot; I was surrounded by people lacking in manners; I was being chatted to by a sweet enough but clearly mentally unstable chap who kept suddenly breaking off our somewhat repetitive conversation to shout strange things out loud; when I finally got a seat - after about 20 minutes - I was sitting next to a charming man who snotted back into his throat every 10 seconds or so. Give me a couple of hours on the bike any day!
When a man is tired of cycling he is tired of life!
Thanks Natalie - good to be reminded about the horrors of the tube and I agree totally. Thinking about it, it's not really a question of stopping cycling - it's more about getting organised and spending the right amount of time on each part of your life. That's easier said than done, but the benefits of cycling mean it should not be tossed aside lightly.
And anon - a pithy but frankly all-too-true aphorism (is it one of those?) so thanks.
A couple of happy-go-lucky Germans from my hometown cycled round the world when the wall came down, exactly 20 years ago today. Having arrived home and gotten duly bored, they flew to Australia, and cycled from the east coast to the west. Boredom set in after that journey too, so they cycled to China, where they bought a junk boat and tried to sail it home to Germany. (The first boat sunk, so they went back and got another one, which made it)
If one thing should be obvious by now it's that Axl and Peter are keen cyclists. One of the things that they like best about cycling is the time it gives you to think about things, to philosophise. (sp?) Long-distance walkers will agree. The point of this post? If it wasn't for your cycling, you'd probably not have the chance to worry about how much time you spend commuting, or if you did, you'd begrudge it even more. We all have to go to work, and if you can do it in a way you enjoy then surely that's better than looking into somebody's armpit on the Circle Line? Quality over quantity.
Muppix - I like the way you think! The irony of it all is that cycling is so much fun and it pays to remember sometimes just how lucky us cycling commuters are - we keep fit, we arrive at work feeling exhilerated and we don't have to experience the horrors of the tube! I've now come out of my "black" period and I'm firmly in the ... pink? Green? Anyway, a happy colour.
The below timely + topical "33 Reasons to Cylcle" article on BikeRadar echos a lot of the above mentioned points and also adds a few:
http://www.bikeradar.com/fitness/article/fitness-33-reasons-to-cycle-23965
Cheers, Lex
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