Commuting. Motivation. Just MTFU?

I start work at 7am and it’s a 18 mile ride. I need to be out of the house at 5.40. An hours ride and 20 mins shower and faff at the other end and I’m at my desk. Leave at 4pm, home just after 5.

I guess its a reasonably long commute but even if I committed to twice a week for now I’d be happy!!

I’ve a shower and a locker at work so it doesn’t take much organising. I don’t have many excuses :-/

Having A 6 month old doesn’t help but in reality she doesn’t affect my morning ritual when I drive in.
Riding in just means I lose 25 mins sleep. Yes sleep is precious at the moment but I can live without 25 mins!

Do I just need to MTFU? Think of the savings on diesal! Get my gear sorted and commit to it?

I used to suffer a similar lack of motivation so I sold my car..

problem solved

Don’t want to be blunt but yes!

And take a shorter shower. Cut it to 5 minutes and that’s 15 minutes more sleep

Get your wife to hide the car keys twice a week?

Depends if the commutes enjoyable or a chore for me to decide if you need to MTFU…..I did a country route commute of identical distance for a few years, sometimes I would get tired but on the whole as it was countryside it was relaxing and pleasant…..the similar distance ride straight through Coventry City from Nuneaton to Leek Wootton was less enjoyable by far!

Don’t want to be blunt but yes!

And take a shorter shower. Cut it to 5 minutes and that’s 15 minutes more sleep

The 20 mins includes locking up the bike, getting to locker then to the shower block etc so I need that 20 mins!

Don’t have the luxury of the bike to work option anyway so rarely had to make that decision.
The only motivation I remember applying is reminding myself how good it feels once I get to work having done a ride + completely black out the potential conditions on the ride home besause I won’t have a choice at that point!!!!!

Depends if the commutes enjoyable or a chore

Enjoyable really. The trip in is more of a head down get on with it but I love having the homeward trip to look forward to.

Your lucky you have a shower. I have baby wipes and lynx. I love cycling to work. Route one on the way in, 15 miles and the back roads on the way back, 18-30 miles. I have to be in and ready for 9am and tbh if I had to leave the house at 5:40 it would be completely different.

I don’t know how people find the motivation to sit in a car/bus/train

I don’t know how people find the motivation to sit in a car/bus/train

It’s easy done for me at 5.30am with an 18 mile ride ahead of me!

If I worked a lot closer I’d like to think I’d cycle it every day but right now I dont

OP

You just have to persist until it becomes a habit .
People at work still do the shocked look when I tell them about my commute ,but I have almost forgotten what it’s like not to do it. The tricky part is getting it tuned in with all the other stuff you have in your life, but if you can make it work (IMO),it will be worth it.

Depends if you enjoy it, surely? I don’t think I’ve ever really regretted going for a bike ride. Sometimes the motivation and initial movement is hard, but once I’m out I love it.

With commuting though, I’m not a slave to it. If it’s wet / cold / my bike’s not working then I’ll maybe drive for a day, then enjoy the next day all the more. 18 miles is a long time to spend busting your gut if you’re not enjoying it, not sure I could do that.

Agree with fasthaggis .. ‘You just have to persist until it becomes a habit’ .. I have a 14 mile commute starting at 5.45 for a 7am start (I like to be early, more fool me!) .. 12hr shift then the commute home, so a looong day/night. Initially it was a real chore, but now find myself pissed off with the days/nights I have to drive.
I also find I have more energy & arrive home in a better mood if i’ve cycled rather than driven!

I found getting your self ready for it the night before helped.

Pack your work clothes in the bag ready to go, lay out only your biking clothes so when you wake up you don’t give yourself the choice of acht i’ll just put on my work clothes now and hop in the car.

You’ll feel better for the extra miles and eventually not miss the little bit of sleep. Lethargy breeds lethargy.

Jump out of bed as soon as your alarm goes off & resist the temptation to hit snooze.

Mines not too different from yours OP:

16 miles each way, twice a week (three times if schedules allow) for me, with a decent shower and facilities at work…

But My employers are pretty flexible on start/finish times (So long as hours are kept and the Work is done), I’m generally in for 7:00 – 7:30, sat at my desk before 8:00 when I ride and I’ll Leave about 17:00 to get home for 18:00

This time of year it gets tougher as sunrise times are creeping later a minute a day so you have to force yourself out of bed and be on the road in the dark more and more…

Is the Early start down to your Bosses, the nature of your work or the requirements of Home life?

Get my gear sorted

for me it’s this. A few minutes trying to find a bag/ shirt/ jacket can be enough to put me off and looking for the car keys.

I lay out all the kit i will wear (and some times a cool/ warm option – eg. arm warmers/ base layer), make lunch, pack my bag. put my phone, wallet, keys, garmin out.

5:40am is an early start but the secret to making a commitment to any commute is to be organised the night be before, have as much as possible at work so you don’t need to carry much, and make it the way you go to work.

I love my commute and hate the days I need to drive.

Could you perhaps drive to work in the morning then ride home in the evening leaving the car at work? Then the next morning you have to ride, no excuses. Then you drive home that night.

This is what I do as the evening ride is much less daunting than the morning one and it gets me on the bike more easily.

Is there anywhere you can leave clothes at work?

I leave clothing and shower kit at the office on Monday and take home the dirty stuff on Friday…

Not having to lug clothes makes a massive difference, I see people their commute riding with huge bastard rucksacks sometimes and just wouldn’t fancy it…

I have a 40 mile commute and the best way for me is to drive 30 miles (avoiding traffic) with my bike in the back of the car and then cycle the rest of the way. It works for me although I’d love to not have to drive at all.

Getting from bed to bike is the hardest bit so +1 on doing whatever you can to make that as easy and quick as possible. I sometimes struggle to be out the door for 7.30am never mind 5.40! If I’m lacking motivation I have to remind myself of the £11 trainfare I’m saving, of all the pastries I’ll be able eat when I get to work, and the fact that door to desk the ride only takes about 10-15 mins longer than driving or getting the train so there really is no excuse. And no matter how much I can’t be arsed when I’m lying in bed at 6.30am with the alarm going off, those feelings always disappear the minute I’m on the bike.

Is the Early start down to your Bosses, the nature of your work or the requirements of Home life?

Nature of the job and it suits me better (with a car commute) doing 7×4 as it keeps me out of the main rush hour traffic.

MisterP – not a bad idea but it doesn’t really appeal. It’s more useful to me having the car at home on an evening.

Cookeaa – I have a locker so I’m ok in that respect .. I don’t need to lug anything in with me.

Sounds like I do need to get organised and just commit to it!!!!

fasthaggis +1

Before we moved my commute was also 18 miles each way, it took a few weeks but eventually I got settled into it and managed a regular 3 times a week, sometimes 4 in the summer. I found I missed it when I didn’t ride.

We’ve moved a little closer since, and I just have a 12 mile each way commute so plan on doing it daily, however so far everything seems to be conspiring against me and I haven’t managed much at all. I also need a dose of MTFU.

If you think its hard now, just wait another month when you have to spend an extra 20 mins layering up before each ride! I have a 6 month old baby and still commute every day, although only half the distance and I keep it steady enough to not need a shower (I have that in the gym at lunch instead).

For me the key is to keep on doing it until you habituate to it. To change anything we need to break a cycle of habits. These can be both good and bad. We habituate to bad habits too and sometimes it’s easier not to do something than it is (eg, not riding to work) and that becomes a bad habit.

All the stuff about organisation is so true. I do the same as cookeaa but take home dirty shirts and underwear during the week so that Friday’s bag isn’t too heavy and spoils the ride.

Top tip from me if you have mega early starts is to make sure you’re going to bed early too

Sleep in your lycra? 🙂

the hardest bit of a early morning commute is the path between the bed and the bike, after that its plain sailing.

You need to form a habit and that takes a few times. Start with doing it twice a week and MTFU. 18 miles each way is a pretty tough commute for every day, especially with winter coming, so start gradually then add in another day. Congratulate yourself when you’ve done 2 times a week, be positive, then do a third in a week when you feel better. Positivity will help.

Things that motivate me:

1) Tailwinds
2) Beating roadies up hills
3) The 2 bagels waiting for me at the office
4) Bewildering the “normals”
5) Obtaining a high level of fitness without training

The thing that motivates me is knowing when I get to work I am not working the first hour just to pay for the fuel for getting to the office.

HTFU sunshine.

Perhaps give yourself a bit of leeway on the early start/finish on cycling days, just half an hour or so, you’ll be on a bike so traffic isn’t quite the same problem TBH but applying too much time pressure will suck some of the fun out of it… there will be bad days where you set off later than you’d like, the weather is against you and then you get a flat, it’s inevitable TBH…

The less you have to carry the less you faff in the morning and the more comfortable you are without a rucksack.

on the organisation front:

Check latest forecasts online the night before, make sure you have appropriate kit ready.

I have all my kit by the back door the night before, ready to change into in the morning, when it’s cold shoes/socks/gloves/base layer often get hung on the radiator so I’m setting off as warm as can possibly be.

The bike is ready by the back door with bottle in cage, lights charged, tools/spare tubes/pump all already on it, so I can just grab it and go…

As well as leaving work clothes/shower kit in the office I also tend to leave a spare basic set cycling shorts, some dry socks and a cheapy waterproof jacket for emergencies, if you don’t get the kit dry after a wet ride in that morning, setting off in wet shorts and socks can make the ride home horrible IME…

Consider your route, I have an option that is a mile shorter using major roads but with all the stop/start and filtering due to traffic lights and cars it doesn’t save me much actual time over the quieter, slightly longer rural route I prefer to take…

Track your commutes: Log set off/arrival times on a spreadsheet or use Strava/Endomondo/mapmyride/etc but the better you know your “Typical” commute times and any potential bottlenecks the better you can plan and adapt…

Get through this winter cycling to work regularly and come spring/summer it will seem a relative doddle, you’ll have saved a bit of petrol money/wear ‘n’ tear on the car and hopefully be fitter for it…

In April I moved house & went from a 9 mile each way commute to 18 miles each way & I found the decent weather this year helped massively. I started only cycling it on nice sunny days then, sooner than expected, it became habit – now I only avoid the really shitty weather & usually average 3 days per week.

Planning ahead is key – especially if you’re starting out early – decide on a couple of days when the weather looks dry & try to stick to that, few times I really could not be arsed when I got out of bed & then half an hour later sitting in the car, stuck in a traffic jam with the sun starting to appear I was cursing myself!

As mentioned previously – if you make a start at this time of year & persevere, come the spring you’ll be out the door like a greased whippet every morning… and think of all the extra calories you’ll need – there’s plenty in beer i’m assured.

Thanks for the replies … Thoroughly enjoyed reading them.

I’m renaming Stoptober (I don’t smoke!) Startober!..

Going to get organised and go for 2 commutes next week with an aim to carry it on through October.
I’m off the last week of October so I only have 3 weeks to do .. Hopefully that will help with routine

I have a daily 10.5 mile (21 miles a day)commute luckily a lots cyclepath so no brainer.

I don’t think I’d want a daily commute of 18 tbh but I have been known to drive a bit closer and ride so you could do a more manageable amount, without busting a gut it’s surprising how it gradually drains you during the week and that can impact on your weekend fun rides.

You’ve gotta really enjoy it to do it all the time..