Anyone else have Fall responsibilities that keep you off the bike???

[C40_guy]

SKO.

A two month sprint that mostly ended on Friday...got the last session recorded for our virtual SKO. I don't know whether live or virtual is more work.

Now back to planning Q1 revenue generation...

[peanutgallery]

Says the guy married to an inflatable doll

Originally Posted by bronk

Any more excuses? Get up earlier, ride later, make time for it somehow if you want but don't blog about it as if it's outside your control. Give me a break.

[paredown]

Originally Posted by AngryScientist

Man, I hear you!

It has seemingly been a fantastic fall for riding, but I have had zero time on the bike this year. We just bought a house and the list of stuff we needed to do to get in and get our other house ready to list was overwhelming, and yes - the leave situation is out of control. ..

Congrats on the new house--and yes, it is a helluva lot of work to get a house ready for sale--plus the moving, and the stuff for the new house. I hope you get out tomorrow!

Originally Posted by oliver1850

I was busy with harvest until Thanksgiving. There were lots of off days especially in October but I'm not much for riding in the rain at 40-50 degrees. Since then it's been getting machinery ready for winter, moving hay bales and working on firewood. Had a couple of days last week around 60 degrees and I told myself I would go for a ride but couldn't get away for one. The only riding I've done all fall is 3-5 mile trips between farms.

After I wrote my 'complaint', the thought crossed my mind--running a farm would be harder than managing a couple of acres in the 'burbs, and I thought of you. Seems I was not wrong... it is hard to get ready for winter!

Any more excuses? Get up earlier, ride later, make time for it somehow if you want but don't blog about it as if it's outside your control. Give me a break.

One of the surprising things about getting older is that you seem to have less energy--it's like the energy economy is more constrained. Do a hard push on something one day--wake up the next day tired.

We were also finishing up our Habitat build this fall (trying to get our family in before Christmas) so we were working three days a week--Tues, Thurs, Saturday. The running joke (since our crew's average age is north of 60)--the week breaks out to one day on, one day to recoup--and a bonus day for deep recovery. Throw in a few of your own projects--and yes, not much energy for hopping on a bike.

A friend who is my age was telling me on Thanksgiving about redoing the upstairs bedroom floor with his 30 yr old son--and he made the mistake of leaving his saw in the basement. A day of up and down stairs, and he was knackered for two days--his son was fine (of course).

And for better or worse, our family always chose work before fun--and it is a hard habit to shake...

[robin3mj]

Bless you for your help on Habitat. I have spent many a day nailing Sheetrock but I only ever felt like I was busy work for the people doing the real lifting.

[tkbike]

Originally Posted by bronk

Any more excuses? Get up earlier, ride later, make time for it somehow if you want but don't blog about it as if it's outside your control. Give me a break.

Totally agree with you! I'm sure someone will bring up the age excuse as to why they can't! I'm well into my sixties and would never use age as an excuse...pitiful!
Will finish the year with 9K miles combined between riding, running and backpacking.

[joosttx]

Travel basketball is a b*tch.

[tkbike]

Originally Posted by joosttx

Travel basketball is a b*tch.

Totally agree with you there!
I remember those days with my son and daughter...add in travel volleyball for my daughter and it was even worse!

[robin3mj]

Originally Posted by tkbike

Totally agree with you! I'm sure someone will bring up the age excuse as to why they can't! I'm well into my sixties and would never use age as an excuse...pitiful!
Will finish the year with 9K miles combined between riding, running and backpacking.

Must be nice.

[tkbike]

Originally Posted by robin3mj

Must be nice.

It is, not sure how much longer the body will hold up but will go as long as I can(too many lower extremity surgeries)!
My order of importance for continuing;

1 Backpacking
2 Running
3 Riding

[mlc]

First semester on campus at university has been busy as expected, but somehow I've ridden more for it as I've found some amazing community on the bike. Despite that, the more I ride the more I realize that I am nowhere near riding as much as I can/want to–150 miles went from "this is my biggest weekly mileage ever" to "why the hell did I only get 9 hours in the saddle this week" way too quickly. Sadly, grades do matter and the rigor is (unsurprisingly but often annoyingly) real. So glad I got to experience fall in the Northeast for the first time though, and even more glad that I was experiencing it on two wheels, even if I didn't hit each and every epic ride I downloaded onto my Garmin before flying out here in August!

[bronk]

Originally Posted by peanutgallery

Says the guy married to an inflatable doll

True but even she can see the irony of people with thousands of posts complaining about being too busy to ride.

[R3awak3n]

Leaves are always a chore, I got about an acre or so that I have to get cleaned up and its an every weekend thing or they just accumulate too much for mulching. Up here my trees have been naked for a few months now though but this year for the last of it (which is usually the worst), a crazy wind came through and when I got up in the morning there was not 2 leaf left in the yard lol. It was amazing.

[CNY rider]

There are two things you can do in life that will ensure you are never bored, or stuck with excess free time:
Buy a house.
Have children.

[accordvsick]

I have 2 little ones and my riding schedule is now between 5am and 7am. Kinda brutal, but that's really the only way I can find time to get out these days. Also a great way to start the day.

[GregL]

Most of the fall responsibilities have been covered here. I typically lose ~2-3 fall weekends performing pre-winter chores. I'll add a few more "benefits" that come from living in the snowiest major city in the country.

- Snow prep in the fall (and storage of all snow prep items in the spring). Driveway has to be staked out, posts/markers installed along the road (both to keep lawn from being torn up during winter snow removal). The snowblower needs to be tuned annually and every ~5 years needs some form of more significant maintenance.

- All seasonal internal combustion engines (lawn mowers and summer cars, in my case) need to be stored for winter.

- Snow tires/wheels need to be installed on all family cars. And when installing/removing the snow tires/wheels, the brakes need to be inspected, cleaned, and lubed. Failure to perform preventative maintenance on the brakes will lead to vastly accelerated wear as slide pins bind and brake pads freeze up in their mounting frames. Road salt sucks! Pro tip: even on new cars, remove the caliper mounting bolts and slide pins and coat the threads with anti-seize. Failure to do so will lead to corroded, frozen fasteners in very short order...

There is an upside to all the winter prep: once it's done, you have ~3-4 months with no outside chores other than snow removal. If the roads aren't icy and the weather is "warm" (30F+), the winter bike is on the road. If the trails are snow covered, it's nordic skiing time. And the long, dark evenings are a great time to catch up on bike maintenance and trainer rides. Come spring, I'm very enthusiastic to ride!

Greg