During the pandemic, simply by necessity due to family/work commitments, as well as COVID 19 safety protocols, I've embraced the short, solo ride. The longer, group rides which I had depended on for so long to add volume to my training and perhaps more importantly were the crux of my social interaction outdoors with friends participating in a sport that was a huge part of my identity, simply wasn't an option any more. I had to ride by myself.
For a self-professed social cyclist who enjoys chatting with friends and looks forward to the cafe ride on the weekend, this was going to be a difficult thing. Sure, I enjoyed riding by myself occasionally, either just to get a ride in without tons of organization, to be alone in my thoughts while on two wheels, to get a productive workout in, or to fit in the odd lunch ride at work, but to do ride after ride solo? By myself? All season? The thought of such solitary monotony was daunting. How would I keep myself motivated?
I suppose the idea of these short, sometime sharp, rides were instilled in me from two direct influences: the ethos of my local club in Oakville, Morning Glory Cycling Club, and the concept that many a #timecrunchedcyclist has adopted with indoor training. If you create a repeatable, structured or unstructured schedule of short rides, you can achieve similar fitness to riders who focus on tons of volume with long, slow distance.
The rides couldn't be big, but they needed to have a bang for my buck, as it were. That's where my familiarity with club rides and indoor trainer rides would pay off.
Morning Glory CC, one of Canada's largest cycling clubs, focuses on the #getupandgo philosophy, by rising early and getting on your bike prior to work or whatever your day may hold. Groups tend to meet just prior to sunrise and you ride around circuits in town with fellow, like-minded individuals, and come back invigorated and ready to take on the day.
In the past, when my kids were younger, this idea of getting up before they did suited my family well. If I tried to ride after the kids had woken and attempted to met up with a group at say 8 or 9 am (which felt insanely late to me), it would be far less likely that I would get a ride in, so my ever-supportive wife would tell me to set my alarm for some ungodly hour, get some coffee in my veins, and just go. Less traffic, cooler temperatures: it was a no-brainer.
With the pandemic, I've re-evaluated a number of things, as many of us have. This summer, I've enjoyed waking up later and being with the kids in the morning, feeding them breakfast and hanging out, while my wife had the opportunity to sleep in. Having some extra quality time with the family could only be a good thing after all of us had been trapped in the hellscape edu-torture that was online learning during a global pandemic. We all needed a serious recharge.
As a result, I wanted to keep my rides shorter and closer to home. Sure, I wasn't going to set any distance records with my own ride history, but I could certainly keep in shape and perhaps even improve my fitness as the summer wore on. I was experienced with interval training, both indoors and out, having been a long time user of TrainerRoad, but I didn't even want to follow a structured outdoor training plan in the summer. I wanted to break free.
I'm supremely lucky to have a number of rural roads that don't have a lot of traffic around the Bonnechere Valley. I vowed to myself to find Interesting roads and routes, even in an area I already knew pretty well. Despite my 1.5 hour time limit most mornings, I still managed to find a different route to ride five days a week. Longer rides could happen on the weekend where I could venture further, but I needed repeatable routes that I could ride and be home to be a good father and husband.
I had a gravel route that I could get my vitamin G from and could add loops to if I had extra time. There was a TT loop where I could open up and work on my threshold efforts. I even had road options that lead past farmland and had rolling terrain so I could work on sustained efforts.
On these rides, whether it was pushing myself to my FTP and beyond, or just taking it easy on a tempo ride, I made sure to look around. I didn't take any pictures (which was a big shift for me). The phone stayed in the jersey pocket. I wanted to see the landscape around me with my own eyes rather than through the lens of my smartphone camera. And to take away a part of the competitive nature that I have, I stopped posting to Strava. Before I was always concerned with ride titles, how far and how fast I went, making a big map that was never out and back, and always being I had a good photo to show off the beauty of the region. All of those external pressures faded and I just rode my bike for the sake of riding my bike. It was refreshing.
As someone who is driven by structured training, motivated by friends' rides on Strava, inspired by cycling images on Instagram, and likes analyzing metrics, this was a huge shift for me. Did I sneak a peak every now and then? Sure I did, but I didn't spend the time after a ride scrolling, editing, and filtering. I rode, I changed, I showered. I was a Dad again. I didn't even shave my legs this year.
The funny thing was that when I did look at Strava, it made me sad, so I deleted it off my phone entirely. I felt like I was missing out and felt jealous of all the group rides, long rides, and adventures that people were doing. FOMO is real. Deleting Strava set me free. I wanted to rekindle my love for the spirit of riding when I first started. No worries about speed, distance or elevation. Just. Ride.
So here are my take aways from this whole experience, which could be helpful to you if you are new to cycling, if you are going to be riding by yourself more often, or if you need to reevaluate your priorities due to the pandemic:
1) It doesn't matter how far the ride is; make it memorable for yourself - a long or short ride is all relative. It's hard to have a bad day on a bike. Any bike, any distance. A bad day on the golf course? Don't get me started. What I'm saying is, no matter how short or long your ride is, enjoy the breeze in your hair, waving to locals as you pass, watching the sun come up, or listening to a birdsong as you spin by. Soak it all in.
2) Metrics cannot measure joy - So you lost five points off your FTP (Function Threshold Power), you weigh five pounds more, and your sprint is still terrible? Who cares? As much as we may dream, we aren't looking for a UCI Pro Tour contract. We ride as amateurs, for pleasure, for the joy of it. So enjoy it. Forget distance. Forget average speed. Forget TSS (Training Stress Score). Measure your own RES (Ride Enjoyment Score) by the smile on your face.
3) If it isn't on Strava, it in fact still happened - Despite what some may think, you can do a ride and NOT post it on your cycling platform of choice. Reframe your thinking so that you do your rides for yourself instead of thinking of your social media feed. Just set your profile to private for a ride or two. You don't have to go off of it cold turkey. Just try it and see what happens. You might feel a sense of relief and freedom.
4) Take the head unit off your bike - ride without any data in front of you, go by feel. Don't pull a Chris Froome and look down at your head unit or phone when you are in beautiful places. Sit up, look around, and just go.
5) Explore new roads and routes - even if they are roads you are familiar with, why not try a new direction and or connect to other roads that you don't usually take? I know that I am a creature of habit and I tend to stick to my tried and true routes. But when I decide to venture off the well-worn path, I can find some unexpected gems. Have you ever asked yourself, "where does that road go to?" Have an adventure, even if it leads to a misadventure. Some of my most memorable rides have been when I had to double back because the road turned into a marsh or the map said that there was a road there which wasn't really a road. Embrace your adventurous side.
6) Just ride - It doesn't matter how far or fast you go, the act of riding a bike is only going to be a good thing. Ride your bike to the local bakery or store. Ride the paths near your home. It doesn't have to be a big ride in full kit. Just. Ride. You'll be happier and all the better for it.
