My husband is a beginner in cycling and needs some motivation My husband is 40 now. He used to ride a bicycle till he was 15. But now he wants to start cycling. We bought a mountain bike and he started cycling. First day he just managed to ride 4 Kilometers. Some part of the road was sloping too. He was having trouble while climbing slopes.

Do you think 4 Kms distance is good for beginner at this age. How to motivate him to continue even if it is a small distance is covered? Is it normal for beginner to feel tired for the first day?

Update : My Husband has managed to travel 6 Kms to his office in the morning without any rest, but slowly, and returned 6 Kms back in the evening. Thank you all for your motivation.
I had the same "motivation" thingy when I tried to keep my wife motivated in joining me during weekend rides.

First we did a really short and slow trip around the city (about 4 or 5 km at such a slow pace that my legs were hurting).

Then I tried to combine cycling with other activities we both liked. Being both foodies, I tried to find, in every outing, a convenient place for this. So for example once we stopped by to visit some wine makers, some other times we stopped for lunch break to a farm where we bought honey, fresh baked bread and local made cheese and had them for lunch, and so on.

These small rewards for going out with the bike helped her in overcoming the struggle of the learning curve.

You can try the same with your husband (assuming he has some passion which can be easily squeezed in a bike ride), and always try to balance the push to go a bit further with the awareness of what he can do without overdoing.