The way I see it: All exercise is contibuting towards the performance on Sunday being longer / easier / faster and more enjoyable

Thus, there is no such thing as junk milage, or exercinging for the sake of it, so long as you can absorb the training you are doing do as much as your body and lifestye allow!

Nobody really exercises ‘for the sake of it’ though, do they?

Everybody gets something out of it, whether it be increase in fitness/weight loss/enjoyment/ whatever. Even the people doing it for vanity, ‘to get the perfect body’ have an aim in mind, are working towards an end.

OP, you need to realise you don’t want to exercise for exercise’s sake, just that your aim isn’t enjoyment any more.

Commuting and a reasonable urge* to go out riding my bike at weekends means I don’t often need to “exercise” but I do go running occasionally. I pretty much hate running there’s nothing much fun about it, it’s just a way to abuse your body, kinda like road riding. I do it mainly to help boost cycle fitness and expend a lot of calories in a short amount of time when I haven’t got the time to do a full on mtb ride.

Also I get cranky after a few days if I don’t do some exercise, normally go for a couple of runs when I’m on holiday and a lot of lengths of the pool. If I’m injured and can’t ride or run then I’ll just take whatever exercise I can. Did my ankle in a few years ago and I was doing sit ups, press ups, that stupid legs in the air spinning imaginary pedals thing, anything to expend some energy as I got proper nowty.

I guess it ‘s just a habit i’ve got into last five-ten years or so, there’s been periods in my life when I’ve been a right lazy sod. Having a monster appetite kinda inspires me to exercise aswell, as if I didn’t exercise I could pile on the pounds very easy I reckon.

*bad weather can put me off esp if I’ve already done a load of commuting.

I used to commute daily between 10 and 30 miles, 5 days a week. Now my commute is 2 flights of stairs

Anything to stop you leaving home at your “old” time and doing a 10-30 mile ride before getting back in to start work ?

when you hit that zone where every fibre of your being is coursing with endorphins, testosterone and adrenaline and the pain melts into the background and all you have left is tunnel vision and harmonious power, it’s like free drugs

Has to be said that ^^^ is pretty cool too 🙂

Anything to stop you leaving home at your “old” time and doing a 10-30 mile ride before getting back in to start work ?

The theory is nice, however, having tried it:-

The distance was spread over at least 2 journeys (office & return), sometimes 4 or 6 depending on how many places I needed to be.

Getting up at 0545, to leave the house for 0630 on a cold nasty winter morning? To go for a ride up on the moors in the pitch black for no discernible reason? Nah. Never going to happen.

I’m already up at 0600 a minimum of twice a week when I’m in the office, and those days usually have late finishes too, so I’m no desperate to add on more earlys.

The sheer faff of going for a 1/2 hour or an hour “proper” ride just never seems worth it. I’ve not been night riding in about 2 years because I just can’t be arsed with the whole bike & kit cleaning shenanigans afterwards. (And no, SS isn’t the answer – I have proper hills to deal with, and they still need cleaning). Even a lunchtime road ride, there’s 20 minutes of faffing before hand, then 10 or 15 minutes of fannying when I get back.

I suspect a large part of the problem is that I’m a billy-no-mates and always ride on my own (and frankly prefer it that way), so there’s nobody else to let down when I try and pussy out, and nobody else I’m trying to outperform.

Sounds just like me again, havent been on a mtb night ride for two years, infact havent ridden my mtb for two years due to the faff and time it takes.

but judging by your earlier post, sounds liek your “work/life” balance is a bit out of whack anyway. Not surprised you can’t be arsed riding.

If I was paying a load of money for the TP tour, I would definitely want to be in decent physical condition so I could enjoy rather than endure it. 1500m climbing days in that part of the world are tough and if you are killing yourself on the climbs you will miss the beautiful landscape and not be able to enjoy the descents as much.

You just need to develop a routine, the first few days will be hard but it will gradually get easier.