Out-and-back or circuit?

[Pebble]

Circuits, and try never to be on the same road twice in the same week. unless I'm daisy chaining them.

Try and get as good a spread as pos in evry calendar month (although the same road can be rode more than once in the same month)

Why? I like to see as much countryside as pos, and as wierd as it may sound, my cycling has little to do with cycling or fitness, it's just a great way of being out there - also I'm probably a little mad

this month so far

[Oldjohnw]

Circuits, and try never to be on the same road twice in the same week. unless I'm daisy chaining them.

Try and get as good a spread as pos in evry calendar month (although the same road can be rode more than once in the same month)

Why? I like to see as much countryside as pos, and as wierd as it may sound, my cycling has little to do with cycling or fitness, it's just a great way of being out there - also I'm probably a little mad

this month so far

I've visited most of these in the last couple of months!

[De Sisti]

Circuits. Why? Because I prefer them.

[Mick F]

Getting bored with it all.

Done every out and back imaginable, and done all the circuits .............. endlessly.
Done all the bridges over the River Tamar. 23 of them.
Done all the bridges over the A30 from Exeter to Land's End. 79 of them.
Almost completed every parish church in Cornwall. 226 of them and only 14 left to do.
Done JOGLE, LEJOG and Back, JOGLE on a Raleigh Chopper, done a Grand Tour of Scotland, Wales and England plus been up and down UK a few times.
Almost ridden every single road in Cornwall (within reason). Last of the parish churches will almost complete it.

It's been suggested that I ride to all the railway stations in Cornwall. All of them, past and present.
I may get my bum in gear and do it.
Meanwhile, that's even more of the "all the roads in Cornwall" complete.

[al_yrpal]

I have 8 different circuits starting from home. The one I did today has 7 hills 4 of them 1 in 4s. Some of them were from cycle.travel. i like riding familiar routes and like seeing how gardens and the countryside change with the seasons. After a year here my mind map of the lanes out in the hinterland is joining up and making sense. Even on long distance rides I try to come back by a different route, the result being a loop of sorts.

Al

[whoof]

Getting bored with it all.

Done every out and back imaginable, and done all the circuits .............. endlessly.
Done all the bridges over the River Tamar. 23 of them.
Done all the bridges over the A30 from Exeter to Land's End. 79 of them.
Almost completed every parish church in Cornwall. 226 of them and only 14 left to do.
Done JOGLE, LEJOG and Back, JOGLE on a Raleigh Chopper, done a Grand Tour of Scotland, Wales and England plus been up and down UK a few times.
Almost ridden every single road in Cornwall (within reason). Last of the parish churches will almost complete it.

It's been suggested that I ride to all the railway stations in Cornwall. All of them, past and present.
I may get my bum in gear and do it.
Meanwhile, thaWt's even more of the "all the roads in Cornwall" complete.

If you truly are getting bored with it all then pack it in. Life is too short for doing things that bore you. It's bad enough to do a boring job because you need the money but to go out of your way to do a boring hobby makes no sense.

[Mick F]

Pack it in?

Honestly thought about it.
My cycling life started riding the school and back, then after joining the RN I stopped riding until we got married and I commuted to work and back by bike.
Years went by, and I carried on cycle-commuting when I could. Just a few miles each way, then later ten miles each way and latterly 17miles each way - every day (ish). Did some long rides abroad as I took it with me on the ships.

After leaving the RN, I put my bike away and there it stayed for five or six years until 2004.
I got it out and was bitten by the bug of cycling again.

The rest is history!

Trouble is, I need to regenerate the excitement of riding now. I get pleasure from it, and it clears my brain and gets me nice and tired ........ but the excitement and interest seems to have gone. Mileages are down, days riding are fewer, and I need to get off my bum and ride ............... but it's difficult to get me out nowadays on the bike(s) as I seem to have other things to do.

22miles today.
14miles a couple of days ago.
A week previous I did 32miles.

In the past, I'd be doing 50mile rides three times a week and think nothing of doing a ton.

[Ben@Forest]

Circuits. I see it both ways because l'll likely have done it or will do it t'other way round. Today l did a loop which l have done 8, 10? times before and have done in in precisely reverse order 8 or 10 times. I've done variants both ways too.

[tatanab]

If you truly are getting bored with it all then pack it in.

Or move house, if at all practical. About 25 years ago I virtually stopped riding other than commuting. Everything within about a 30 mile radius was just too familiar. I would think about going out, then think to myself "yes but that means going up there, round that horrid bit, etc" and so I just did not go out. I've overcome that, and where I live now (for the last 15 years) I don't have so many mental blocks although there are still some directions I cannot be bothered going.

[Cyril Haearn]

I used to get bored by the same rides but now I am older and more boring myself, glad to repeat rides, weather and colours are different each time
I suggest Mick F moves back home to Wales, maybe near Machynlleth or Meifod or The Valleys!

[lbomaak2]

Trouble is, I need to regenerate the excitement of riding now. I get pleasure from it, and it clears my brain and gets me nice and tired ........ but the excitement and interest seems to have gone. Mileages are down, days riding are fewer, and I need to get off my bum and ride ............... but it's difficult to get me out nowadays on the bike(s) as I seem to have other things to do.

22miles today.
14miles a couple of days ago.
A week previous I did 32miles.

In the past, I'd be doing 50mile rides three times a week and think nothing of doing a ton.

Don't feel guilty about doing less than you used to. I think I'm a few years younger than you, but 35 miles is a long ride for me now, and 50 is very rare.

I'm a runner more than a cyclist, and runners certainly get jaded. It's probably good to have a rest from it (running or cycling) now and then, and wait until you really feel that you want to get back on the bike.

Today after lunch I got out some maps to plan a bike ride (unusual in itself, I normally just get on the bike and go without a plan), but then suddenly decided that I wanted to go for a walk instead. I did 14 miles, all on paths that I have walked or run before, but it was great.

[al_yrpal]

Getting bored? I must admit being bored after more than 40 years with Oxfordshire but have now realised that Devon is much more boring in comparison. Part of my reason for moving was to throw the jigsaw in the air to see where the pieces landed. Perhaps that is what Mick needs to do.
I think the disruption caused by the Covid situation has caused many of us to rexamine everything. A lot of people I know are very depressed and wondering whats next...

Al

[Mick F]

Here's a little story about today .............

Car still in warranty and is booked in for a major service and MOT today at 9am.
When I booked it in .............. it's July for goodness sake .............. I intended bringing a bike with me like I have done in the past for other visits here.

Car is in Snows Toyota in Plympton and I intended a three hour ride in the South Hams ............. but the weather is horrendous!

So, here I am in the hospitality lounge using their WiFi on my computer that I brought with me instead of a bike. Sitting here maybe three or four hours, chucking it down and blowing a gale out there. Don't even want to go out for a walk!

It was a real opportunity to ride somewhere different for a change.

No courtesy car available because I didn't book one, expecting a bike ride instead. Even if there was a car available, it's 45mins each way to home and back, so it's just not worth it anyway as I'd only have an hour or so at home before needing to head back here.

[whoof]

Here's a little story about today .............

Car still in warranty and is booked in for a major service and MOT today at 9am.
When I booked it in .............. it's July for goodness sake .............. I intended bringing a bike with me like I have done in the past for other visits here.

Car is in Snows Toyota in Plympton and I intended a three hour ride in the South Hams ............. but the weather is horrendous!

So, here I am in the hospitality lounge using their WiFi on my computer that I brought with me instead of a bike. Sitting here maybe three or four hours, chucking it down and blowing a gale out there. Don't even want to go out for a walk!

It was a real opportunity to ride somewhere different for a change.

No courtesy car available because I didn't book one, expecting a bike ride instead. Even if there was a car available, it's 45mins each way to home and back, so it's just not worth it anyway as I'd only have an hour or so at home before needing to head back here.

Go and have a tea at The Chaddlewood, £1,55 they have large umbrellas over their tables in the garden so you can sit outside.

[Mick F]

Yes, I know the Chaddlewood. Been in there a couple of times.
Couple of hundred yards from here. You obviously know the area!

Blowing a hooligan out there with sideways rain, so I'd need full foul-wether gear on ....... the sort of kit one might wear on the upperdeck of a ship in a storm!