How to Schedule Your Cycling Workouts: 5 Amazing Tips to Help Make Sure You Get on the Bike!

How many times have you said to yourself, “I want to ride today, but I just don’t think I have the time?” 

I honestly have said this more times that I can count.  

Sometimes I have said it to myself, other times I have said it out loud.  

The struggle to fit in your workouts is REAL, my friends.  

I know this.  I hear you.  I feel  you! 

In a perfect world without any obligations we would have beautiful, glorious weather, and be riding our bikes every single day!  

Well, to be fair, I would also need a unicorn bike seat and unicorn bike shorts that prevented any and all sit-bone and soft tissue pain, but I digress…

I can honestly say that during the month of September I always really struggle with fitting in my bike rides.  I am a teacher, and it is the month that I return to school.  

Even though I have always worked through the summer (I run an enrichment program), the change in schedule and the stress has kept me off my bike in September literally every year since I started cycling.  

STRAVA shows me this HUGE drop in my mileage and number of rides every single September.  

If I am not careful, then that drop continues into October, November, and then the holidays.  Before I know it January 1 rolls around, I haven’t been prioritizing myself for literal months, and I feel like I have to START ALL OVER AGAIN.  

It’s truly an awful feeling, and I find that I can allow myself to spiral on it and dig myself into a pretty big hole where I am just not being active, and not making my health and well-being a priority. 

In this article, I am going to share my tips for fitting in your cycling workouts.  I do NOT want what happened to me to happen to you!  

This year I was able to really hold my September Slump (as I have so aptly named it), to the month of September, and keep my rear in gear and my behind on my bike.  

I think I have now cracked the code to my cycling scheduling pitfalls, and am very hopeful that next September there will be no September Slump, and it will just be a gorgeous month on the bike like any other. 

Here are my five amazing tips on how to schedule your cycling workouts.  This is how I did it, and how you can do it too! 

 

Tip #1: Put Each Ride into Your Calendar at the Beginning of the Week 

This tip is number one for a REASON.  If you go into your week with a vague idea of wanting to ride your bike as much as possible, it will just as vaguely happen or not happen.  

I mean, imagine if we took this approach to our job?  If we went into our work week thinking, “I would really like to show up for work most days this week, but I am just not really sure if I have the time.” 

Chances are we wouldn’t have a job to go to for very long! 

I want you to put a similar level of importance into riding your bike.  Why?  Because this is something that you are doing for you.  I know you have heard me say this before, but I can’t say it enough.  

If you don’t show up for yourself first, and take care of yourself first, you aren’t going to have enough to give to everyone else.  

I am going to say this one more time, because it is THAT important.  

 

If you don’t show up for yourself first, and take care of yourself first, you aren’t going to have enough to give to everyone else.  

 

Putting yourself first is NOT selfish.  It is actually very selfless.  You want to be your best mentally and physically so that you can be a great mom, a great wife, a great friend, a great worker, a great sister, a great daughter.  

Every Sunday or Monday morning I sit down with my calendar and plan out my WHOLE WEEK. 

Well…not my whole week.  I know that every morning I will wake up and get ready for work and my husband and I will work together to get us out the door.  That routine is set in stone and doesn’t need to be written down.  But the rest of it? 

If it’s not in my calendar there is no guarantee that it will happen.  

So now I put everything that is questionable, everything that would go on a to do list, right into my calendar.

I write a quick list when I make my calendar, throw everything into my calendar, and then THROW THE LIST AWAY.  I now have the confidence of knowing that what goes into my calendar gets done (though I do admittedly miss the satisfaction of checking things off).  

Also, I no longer get overwhelmed.

Have you ever sat in front of a to do list you made, looked at it, and then gotten so overwhelmed you did none of it?  

That was me.  Every. Single. Day.  

Until I started using my calendar.  I use a digital one (Google Calendar) so that I can easily move things around.  If you are a pen and paper girl, that’s fine!  Just write it all down somewhere my friend! 

 

Tip #2: Let Everyone In Your Life Know When You Have Scheduled Your Rides 

This one is important too.  Not only does saying out loud what you are planning to do mean that you are more likely to do it, but this will also let people know you are BUSY during those times!

This is really important if you have small children at home that someone else will have to care for.  My husband and I both ride, so we have to take turns riding.  Usually he will go out first thing in the morning, and I will go out either right after, or during our son’s nap.  

There have been occasions where we both want to ride at the same time, so we have instituted help from family members. 

This way we can both get our rides in, and also our son gets super fun time with grandparents/great grandparents!  Everybody wins! 

It really, truly helps that he rides too and totally gets the feeling of needing to fit in a ride.  If your family and friends don’t really understand that can certainly be hard, but they will quickly realize how important this is if you are firm with your plans. 

 

Tip #3: Consider Potential Obstacles in advance and Brainstorm How You Will Deal With These Obstacles 

What I mentioned in tip #2 kind of leads right into this issue of obstacles.  Not that I would ever consider my family an obstacle, but the fact of the matter is that these things have to be taken into consideration. 

It is way too easy to say “oh I can’t go for my ride today, only one of us has time to ride” if you haven’t planned your rides in advance.  

And for you it might be something else!  Like you unexpectedly have to work late.  Or all of a sudden it’s raining.  

If you brainstorm how to deal with these situations in advance, then you will be set up for success.  

For instance, if you have to work late, maybe you can fit your ride in a little later that day.  Or get some time in on the trainer in the evening if it’s dark out!

If it’s going to rain and you don’t ride in the rain (I absolutely do not, I am barely coordinated enough to keep my bike up on dry ground) then plan to take that ride indoors.  

In fact, I actually check the weather before I put my cycling schedule together for the week.  That way I have an idea of which rides will be indoors, which rides will be outdoors, and can plan accordingly.  

Another thing that’s important to mention is that YOU can at times be an obstacle.  Sometimes even when we have something scheduled and have the time to do it, we sabotage ourselves. 

If you are struggling with cycling motivation, check out this article that contains tips that I use to motivate myself to complete those cycling workouts when I just don’t really feel like it! 

 

Tip #4: Get Your Riding Stuff Together In Advance

If I know that I am going to be doing an indoor ride the day after an outdoor day, I will often put my bike on the trainer right when I get home from my previous ride.  That way there is one less obstacle in the way of me and my next ride.  

I have a little secret…I am AWFUL at getting my bike on and off the trainer.  It doesn’t seem to matter how many times I do it, I always get covered in bike grease and am struggling with the thing.  And I have a really easy trainer to get a bike on and off of.  It’s not the trainer, it’s me! 

Because of this I can use the situation as an excuse not to ride.  “Oh, I don’t have time to put my bike on the trainer right now.” 

Well, if it’s already on there, then no excuses!

If you are flush with cash, by the way, you can just completely avoid this problem by buying another bike. 

Or two. 

That way you always have one that’s on the trainer.  I jest…sort of. I know many people, including Chris, that have a bike that is pretty much on the trainer perpetually because they have plenty of others.  

This may be my dream.  I am not afraid to admit it!   

If you are wondering what kind of trainer I use, or what kind of equipment you need to get yourself set up for indoor cycling, check out my Girl’s Guide to Indoor Cycling Equipment!

One last tip about getting your stuff together in advance!  If you are going to be doing a morning outdoor ride, you can get all your cycling stuff ready the night before.  Fill up your water bottles and put them in the fridge!  One less thing to do in the morning, AND they will be cold! 

And, don’t forget to check out my road cycling checklist if you haven’t done so already!  This is a great way to make sure that you don’t forget anything you need when you go out for a ride!

 

Tip #5: If you Miss a Ride, All is NOT Lost!

It’s OK.  It has happened to all of us.  Sometimes life just gets in the way.  I think we all know the feeling of having the best laid plans, and then having your whole day fall apart.  

This actually happened to me last week.  I had a day where I ended up having to squeeze in a ride at a bad time, and it was not the ride I wanted to be. 

I started it later than I wanted, and had to end it earlier than I wanted.  I was distracted and couldn’t focus because I had other things going on at the time.  It was pretty disappointing. 

Instead of beating myself up over it or getting angry over it, I just kind of shrugged and told myself tomorrow is another day, and another chance to ride.  It’s another opportunity to schedule something that will work for me.  

Maybe I can move some things around on my schedule to get the kind of ride in that I want and need.  There!  Problem solved!  

We should always ask ourselves what worked, what didn’t, and leave the door open to changing our calendar/schedule up the next time around. 

I almost always have a “secondary” time slot in my day to fit my ride in when the original doesn’t work out. 

 

Maybe that means riding late after our son goes to bed.  Is that ideal?  No!  Not for me!  I am a morning person.  But does it mean that I at least get a ride in?  Yes.  And that’s what makes it worth it.  

 

So, what are YOUR tips for fitting in your cycling workouts?  How do you make sure that you get that much needed time on the bike?  Leave me a comment below, or reach out to me at stacy@sascy.com.  This community is everything to me, and I would love to hear from you!  

 

You can also join the new Sascy Cycling Community on Facebook!  We are a community of supportive women who love to ride our bikes, and strive to love our bodies for what they are and what they can do.  Come see what we are all about!