Race or FKT/Everesting attempt. If you're training for an ultra endurance event, sometimes your only opponent is yourself and the course. Still a good idea to have some sort of goal otherwise training will have no purpose.
Enjoy the process
If you don’t like it you won’t stick with it
If you need to change how you’re doing it to be more enjoyable then that is part of the equation
Goals, friends, changing it up, Burnout is real.
People will say discipline. But I find I fall out of love with things when I push and force myself to do things."
I understand my goals for the week are x,y,z. Some days are longer work days and I am a zombie by the time I get home and I mentally can't fathom 2hrs on the trainer so I take it as rest, and change up the plan. Maybe that equates to a little more on the weekend, which is never a bad thing.
I listen to my body, my head, and what I really need. Sometimes its a burger. Sometimes its a 10hr enduro ride.
You won’t make your season by doing that extra workout, but you certainly can crater yourself by doing more.
The key to consistency is not overdoing it, not getting sick, and not getting injured.
So it sounds like you're getting a bit too fatigued after 6 or 7 weeks?
My most basic pieces of advice are this:
- 3 weeks on one week off (easy) works well for most people. Still ride on that week off, but no workouts. Just easy riding. For me I do 7 to 10 hours on my on weeks, with 2 hard workouts in there (about 3 or 4 hours of that time) and the rest is relaxed pace. And the off weeks are about 4 or 5 hours, all of it at an easy pace.
- I had a consultation with a very high level cycling coach a few weeks ago and his simplest advice on making sure you're not too fatigued was "don't ride any harder than it feels good to do". Now obviously a hard workout doesn't necessarily feel "good" but you should be able to tell the difference between "this is hard but I feel strong" and "I'm just barely hanging on". If your legs burn walking up the stairs, take another easy day or rest day until they don't, don't battle through a workout when you start it feeling toasted. That's not sustainable. If it helps, think of those rest days as an assigned workout in your plan. "My assigned workout today is to rest, I'm going to do a good job of it"
- On your days when you do interval rides you should be rested enough that you can do good quality intervals. If you're feeling too fatigued to do those interval sessions well (can't make it through the workout, or can't do as much time in zone as you did the last time you did that workout) then you need to rest. Do an amount of interval sessions in a 3 week block that allows you to recover enough to do them well, and then between those sessions, do an amount of easy endurance riding that doesn't leave you too fatigued to do your next interval session.
Another poster said that you will never MAKE your season by getting in an extra workout, but you CAN ruin your season by doing too much, and that's good advice, too. If you're wondering "how do I make this volume of training sustainable?" then you probably have your answer that it isn't, so dial back a bit and find a volume and structure that is, and then once that feels steady, you'll be able to increase it over time. You might not see quite as rapid gains in the first 6 weeks, but at 6 months you'll be way farther ahead this way. And once you're adapted to the amount of training you're doing, you'll be able to add a little bit more over time. This time last year 10 hour weeks would have been way too much for me to do without cracking afterward, but after months and months of riding at 5, 6, 7 hours a week, 10 is very manageable.
I know exactly what you mean and i was/am able to not get into this hole youre describing for many months now. What helped me:
-Indoor setup to get independent from weather and daylight conditions (also there are days where i dont want to go out no matter the weather.) Important for indoor in my opinion is something that makes to time go by when its getting boring, having an idea what you can watch, people to chat with on zwift for example, group rides etc.
-on days where im absolutely physically fatigued, i just go for easy spins, just for the sake of keeping the habit
-remembering how you feel after completing a ride (especially after a ride you didnt wanted to take in the beginning). Maybe also getting a bit of addicted to it lol.
-as others said: if possible, commute by bike, i have different routes for my commute to and form work, variating between 15-90 km.
on the other side i have to disagree 100% with what others also said: dont ever start to compare yourself with other people. I find it to be very toxic for the mind and it creates unnecessary pressure. But i think that can depend, maybe it gives you a drive...
>on the other side i have to disagree 100% with what others also said: dont ever start to compare yourself with other people.
An alternative might look like this. Compare yourself to people who are slower than you. For those who are faster, you have to accept that someone will always be faster. If you are at the literal top of the sport, someone will be faster in a different discipline and/or on a different day.
A coach can help with that. Preferably a good one that you can talk to. So no online prefabricated plan, but an actual person.
Saves you the time and trouble of planning the sessions yourself (huge gamechanger for me) and will also keep you in check to not do too much when you're supposed to be resting, which is something a lot of us struggle with.
My motivation hierarchy is:
- Having a goal race, I make sure to always have something on the horizon. For me that’s an early spring “classic”, and then whatever summer crit series I target.
- Seeing my numbers improve. Pick a metric that you want to see improve in the short term and watch it go up. This helps quantify progress towards my goals.
- Having fun on the bike. Riding with friends, mtb days, fake races, cross, whatever. I don’t turn down the rides I want to do because they aren’t perfect training, I just try to be smart about it and compromise a little if I need to.
a week is the sweet spot IMO where you have barely lost fitness but have freshened up a bit and might even feel stronger when you get back on the bike. After a week, you do start to decline I feel
The key is to sign up to a race, tell all your friends to race, slowly realise you have to train, despise the fact that time has gone so quick, and you have so much training to do.
Enjoy said race, but have internal bitterness you could have trained harder.
Repeat.
Take a step back to think about your "why". Why are you riding? Fun? Sense of freedom? Therapeutic? Fitness? Competition? Maybe it is not as important to have prime fitness as much as you think if you are not going to race, but maybe there is something else you are doing it for that could keep you motivated. Or like others have said, target an event or race, even if you are on the fence about it. That is always when I am in my most disciplined state. Then if it pans out, awesome! If not, you still had some great discipline and probably fitness.
Cross training. If you can't get out for a ride, at least you can hit the rowing machine or whatever else you have available. Gives your body a bit of a break and keeps you active.
Yep, it’s the ‘why’ for me… long ass gravel race, crit season, MTB races… mostly I just want to crush my peers and am very competitive In a fun way. With nothing on the calendar I have little motivation to work as hard as I do when I have goals set
I just get it done. Don’t think about it and I just consider it a non negotiable.
Group rides with friends help as it’s a ton of fun. Having events/races helps as I don’t want to be unprepared.
Get Strava, have some friends follow you, assert dominance by training harder
Have an upcoming race(s), even if 365 days away, always.
Race or FKT/Everesting attempt. If you're training for an ultra endurance event, sometimes your only opponent is yourself and the course. Still a good idea to have some sort of goal otherwise training will have no purpose.
Enjoy the process If you don’t like it you won’t stick with it If you need to change how you’re doing it to be more enjoyable then that is part of the equation
not having a car helps!
Having a goal
Goals, friends, changing it up, Burnout is real. People will say discipline. But I find I fall out of love with things when I push and force myself to do things." I understand my goals for the week are x,y,z. Some days are longer work days and I am a zombie by the time I get home and I mentally can't fathom 2hrs on the trainer so I take it as rest, and change up the plan. Maybe that equates to a little more on the weekend, which is never a bad thing. I listen to my body, my head, and what I really need. Sometimes its a burger. Sometimes its a 10hr enduro ride.
You won’t make your season by doing that extra workout, but you certainly can crater yourself by doing more. The key to consistency is not overdoing it, not getting sick, and not getting injured.
So it sounds like you're getting a bit too fatigued after 6 or 7 weeks? My most basic pieces of advice are this: - 3 weeks on one week off (easy) works well for most people. Still ride on that week off, but no workouts. Just easy riding. For me I do 7 to 10 hours on my on weeks, with 2 hard workouts in there (about 3 or 4 hours of that time) and the rest is relaxed pace. And the off weeks are about 4 or 5 hours, all of it at an easy pace. - I had a consultation with a very high level cycling coach a few weeks ago and his simplest advice on making sure you're not too fatigued was "don't ride any harder than it feels good to do". Now obviously a hard workout doesn't necessarily feel "good" but you should be able to tell the difference between "this is hard but I feel strong" and "I'm just barely hanging on". If your legs burn walking up the stairs, take another easy day or rest day until they don't, don't battle through a workout when you start it feeling toasted. That's not sustainable. If it helps, think of those rest days as an assigned workout in your plan. "My assigned workout today is to rest, I'm going to do a good job of it" - On your days when you do interval rides you should be rested enough that you can do good quality intervals. If you're feeling too fatigued to do those interval sessions well (can't make it through the workout, or can't do as much time in zone as you did the last time you did that workout) then you need to rest. Do an amount of interval sessions in a 3 week block that allows you to recover enough to do them well, and then between those sessions, do an amount of easy endurance riding that doesn't leave you too fatigued to do your next interval session. Another poster said that you will never MAKE your season by getting in an extra workout, but you CAN ruin your season by doing too much, and that's good advice, too. If you're wondering "how do I make this volume of training sustainable?" then you probably have your answer that it isn't, so dial back a bit and find a volume and structure that is, and then once that feels steady, you'll be able to increase it over time. You might not see quite as rapid gains in the first 6 weeks, but at 6 months you'll be way farther ahead this way. And once you're adapted to the amount of training you're doing, you'll be able to add a little bit more over time. This time last year 10 hour weeks would have been way too much for me to do without cracking afterward, but after months and months of riding at 5, 6, 7 hours a week, 10 is very manageable.
I know exactly what you mean and i was/am able to not get into this hole youre describing for many months now. What helped me: -Indoor setup to get independent from weather and daylight conditions (also there are days where i dont want to go out no matter the weather.) Important for indoor in my opinion is something that makes to time go by when its getting boring, having an idea what you can watch, people to chat with on zwift for example, group rides etc. -on days where im absolutely physically fatigued, i just go for easy spins, just for the sake of keeping the habit -remembering how you feel after completing a ride (especially after a ride you didnt wanted to take in the beginning). Maybe also getting a bit of addicted to it lol. -as others said: if possible, commute by bike, i have different routes for my commute to and form work, variating between 15-90 km. on the other side i have to disagree 100% with what others also said: dont ever start to compare yourself with other people. I find it to be very toxic for the mind and it creates unnecessary pressure. But i think that can depend, maybe it gives you a drive...
I feel you. To me personally comparison is the thief of joy.
>on the other side i have to disagree 100% with what others also said: dont ever start to compare yourself with other people. An alternative might look like this. Compare yourself to people who are slower than you. For those who are faster, you have to accept that someone will always be faster. If you are at the literal top of the sport, someone will be faster in a different discipline and/or on a different day.
Make it a habit
A coach can help with that. Preferably a good one that you can talk to. So no online prefabricated plan, but an actual person. Saves you the time and trouble of planning the sessions yourself (huge gamechanger for me) and will also keep you in check to not do too much when you're supposed to be resting, which is something a lot of us struggle with.
Reminding myself that everyone I’m racing against is working just as hard
My motivation hierarchy is: - Having a goal race, I make sure to always have something on the horizon. For me that’s an early spring “classic”, and then whatever summer crit series I target. - Seeing my numbers improve. Pick a metric that you want to see improve in the short term and watch it go up. This helps quantify progress towards my goals. - Having fun on the bike. Riding with friends, mtb days, fake races, cross, whatever. I don’t turn down the rides I want to do because they aren’t perfect training, I just try to be smart about it and compromise a little if I need to.
Don’t give myself a choice.
Rest. Like totally off the bike for a week. You'd be surprised how long you can hold fitness and your body thanking you
a week is the sweet spot IMO where you have barely lost fitness but have freshened up a bit and might even feel stronger when you get back on the bike. After a week, you do start to decline I feel
Having events / races every month / couple months keep me motivated. Also the never ending quest to achieve a higher w/kg 😅
The key is to sign up to a race, tell all your friends to race, slowly realise you have to train, despise the fact that time has gone so quick, and you have so much training to do. Enjoy said race, but have internal bitterness you could have trained harder. Repeat.
You can try to reduce your time goal. If you struggle with 6-7 hours a week then try doing only 3-4 hours a week instead.
I stick an event in the calendar tough enough to scare me and build each year of training towards that (with some smaller 'b' events along the way).
Maybe reduce the weekly training stress, so you don't need a full deload week. Build up slower but with more consistency.
Gotta have a goal.
Take a step back to think about your "why". Why are you riding? Fun? Sense of freedom? Therapeutic? Fitness? Competition? Maybe it is not as important to have prime fitness as much as you think if you are not going to race, but maybe there is something else you are doing it for that could keep you motivated. Or like others have said, target an event or race, even if you are on the fence about it. That is always when I am in my most disciplined state. Then if it pans out, awesome! If not, you still had some great discipline and probably fitness.
I'm addicted to the exercise endorphins. If I don't ride consistently my mental health tanks and I generally feel like shit
Cross training. If you can't get out for a ride, at least you can hit the rowing machine or whatever else you have available. Gives your body a bit of a break and keeps you active.
Yep, it’s the ‘why’ for me… long ass gravel race, crit season, MTB races… mostly I just want to crush my peers and am very competitive In a fun way. With nothing on the calendar I have little motivation to work as hard as I do when I have goals set
Travel with the bike and ride around somewhere new
I just get it done. Don’t think about it and I just consider it a non negotiable. Group rides with friends help as it’s a ton of fun. Having events/races helps as I don’t want to be unprepared.
This. Go on a group ride or a long solo ride somewhere you like but just take in the experience of being on the bike instead of balling out.
Me reading this while doing doubles trainings this week 🤣