Motivation Essentials

Last evening I mentioned to Lori that I really didn’t want to ride Thursday morning.  The forecast was for cold and damp.  I’m tired.  I went to a Chiropractor and my back is a little sore.  You know how it goes, any excuse comes to mind, especially if the exercise/riding routine has been sporadic recently.  Her response to me was that she needed to exercise in the morning and if I didn’t get up, she might not either.  And so it was decided.  I rode only because if I didn’t, she wouldn’t be spending her time on the treadmill, and that would be cheating her.

When the alarm went off this morning, I first checked the weather and noted that there was no active precipitation.  I resigned myself to having no valid excuses left, and so got up and prepared to ride.

Evidently, others had made the decision to stay in bed with the overnight forecast of possible snow.  There were very few of us out on the ride.

Four of us pushed off from the Rusty Bridge with a very chilly north wind pushing us down the trail.  Dan joined us at the Ranger Station.  Dennis left us at Truckhouse.  Dave and Marcus cut it short.  That left Dan and I for most of the ride and that was fine with me.  We chatted, reflected on Ravi’s flat yesterday morning and spoke of our plans for Flatbread on Saturday.  When we turned around at the end of the trail we had that brisk northerly wind in our faces for the last half of the ride, but neither of us seemed to mind.  It is what it is and all the grumbling doesn’t change the impact of that wind for the better.

I did cut the ride short.  My sciatica was being aggravated by the ride and I still didn’t have a ton of motivation.  When I arrived home, Lori was cooling down from her time on the treadmill and both of us had contributed to our partner’s fitness.

Motivation often requires that kind of accountability.

This Ride: 19.4 miles
Month: 111.3 miles
2012: 5,086.7 miles
Total since 1/1/2010: 18,940.3 miles