I do a 30 mile XC/Trail ride each week and quite a hard turbo session mid week with additional rides when i’m off work. After work i’m just far too tired to do any more riding but do manage a routine of yoga and body weight excersizes 4 times a week. Any other free time is spent gardening or general DIY around the house.

The last few weeks i’ve just been so tired and lethargic and i’m relying on more coffee to get through the day. I’m wondering if i just need a few evenings off to rest or a change of routine.

Diet and sleep hasn’t changed so don’t think its that and i have no health problems that i know of. How important is time off all excersize and how often do you do it? If at all.

Most folk will manage 2 hard and 2 easy workouts and 3 days ‘off’ (not really off because they are spent gardening or general DIY around the house).
The more exercise you want to do, the more seriously you need to take your rest.

If you are really pushing yourself, you probably want to take an easy week once a month too.

Yeah give it a rest for a short while is probably your best option initially. Take the week off and rest, you will hopefully come back fresh and stronger

Besides mixing up the frequency and intensity of your rides to not over-train, the earlier sunrise now could be affecting the quality of your sleep from ~0530.

Having yesterday done my longest and fastest ride this year so far, I’ve no intention of doing an intensive ride until at least Wednesday, but I’ll still commute by bike in the meantime.

I rest every fourth week. Just gentle commuting and a circuit race or two. No long rides. I normally feel rubbish that week!

You MUST factor in recovery and rest.

+1 for taking a breather.

Sometimes it’s good to fight fatigue – so long as it is not disguising itself as anything more sinister. Most of the time it’s better to accept it’s time to rest up.

Are you eating enough and getting the right balance of nutrients?

If your very active diet is as important, if not more so than rest.

If you don’t refuel post exercise you’ll be playing catchup and running on half empty all week.

I’m confident my diet is ok (plenty of veg, fruit, meats, and fats). I have a bit of a feast post long ride. Usually a veg omelette or big sandwich.

I only have one late night at work this week (parents evening) and planning on doing nothing in the evenings until the weekend. Thanks for the advice!

Try laying off/cutting down on the coffee?

The problem is that most people don’t rest regularly enough or well enough. Unless you really are pushing yourself so hard that you feel like throwing up the the typical perceived exertion of a ride is likely to be 6 or 7 out of ten. Going for a ride at a perceived exertion of 4 or 5 is not resting, it’s only just below your training level.

As one of the top climbers from the 1980s said to me once: “on rest days I don’t even get a hard on”!

stress and anxiety can have a massive affect on the body. Everything good?

Try laying off/cutting down on the coffee?

I have 3 coffees a day at work and only 1 at weekends so that could be part of my recent tiredness. I’ve been thinking about quitting that so might give that a go starting today.

You should definitely do a low load week every 4th week or so. Doesn’t have to be complete rest just lower load ie a 15 mile ride, no intervals and stretching instead of exercises.

If you don’t give your body time to recover you won’t make the gains your training deserves.

If you give up coffee expect to feel really shit for a couple of weeks – headaches etc.