Switching from road to gravel

It was sometime in 2019 when I decided to stop riding road and solely focus on gravel. After 5ish? years of road riding, I was burnt out and had ultimately lost the joy from it. I was over-exercising, under-fuelling, and training for all the wrong reasons. In all honesty, my general relationship with all exercise wasn’t great. I decided to take a 8-month break from cycling to re-evaluate my relationship with it. This was the period when I started my movement platform and app @afewfunmoves . This distance helped remind me of why I started in the first place: to get outside, get moving, have fun, and push myself at a pace that worked for me.

Eventually, I started getting back out there on my gravel bike. It became the time in my life when I’d find the calm, usually alone in the forest, with no cars or people around. It began to feel less about the metrics, data, and speed, and more about the sense of adventure and being in nature. I now gauge my progress by being able to ride certain parts of trails I used to walk, as opposed to how fast I could go on pavement or how much my FTP is increasing. I don’t ride with a power meter anymore, and probably won’t go back. I still fall all the time (I fell 2 times trying to ride up a trail this week lol) and get off to push my bike on sections I’m scared to ride (which is frequent), but I’m pretty proud of how far I’ve come.

All of this is to say that there are so many different ways for you to get moving within your sport, hobby, or activity. Fast or slow. Long or short. Wear stretchy things, or wear jean shorts. Who cares? As long as you’re doing it in a way that works for you and your body, then keep going.

While I do think it can be important to have people in our lives who inspire us to push ourselves or do cool things, we shouldn’t let them dictate how we think we need to do it. Find your way, stick to it, and get moving for you :)