Not sure what going on here, but ever since I did the Rapha 500 km challenge at Christmas I have totally lost my mojo for cycling outside. I haven’t ridden since New Years eve. I did a one hour turbo ride during the week and I must say that I enjoyed that. It was warm and I could go hard Z4/Z5 which made a nice change from the low zone stuff I have been doing.. Conscious of forthcoming trip I decided I needed to get back out and get some hours under my belt. So I went out today for 3.5 hours. Snails pace as usual average 12.8mph (which is very depressing) as during the summer I can average 17mph and I’ll be honest. It was cold, very boring and I feel really depressed whilst riding (no interest) and I get home and feel really flat, tired and just as depressed.

For me, I have been doing a lot of cycling these last 3 months and feel sick and tired of the cold weather and what feels like one big slog.

Go and do something else for a few weeks.

Rest and limit riding to half hour easy ones on turbo for a bit (try zwift) or just go for a walk instead..Are you eating enough to fuel yourself in this cold weather ? Sounds like your overtrained…And were riding with someone else outside, company always helps …

Sounds a familiar tale. Perhaps these two tales might resonate

http://www.blog.scotroutes.com/2014/03/scunnered.html

http://www.blog.scotroutes.com/2014/04/count-me-out.html

Why do you ride so slow when it’s cold? Deliberately for a training regime? Or do you have a super-heavy winter bike?

Do you usually ride as much as the Festive 500? Maybe you’ve ground yourself to a standstill?

Anyway, I agree, have a break before you get ill.

do you suffer from / have a history of depression? Or is your self diagnosis there really just ‘I went for a long slow bike ride today and didn’t enjoy it very much’

Because the ‘treatment’ would imho be quite different for them.

If it’s genuinely depression, go and see someone; while I find it hard sometimes getting the enthusiasm up to go for a ride once I have got out it’s one of the things that raises my mood.

If the latter, and you’re ‘just’ a bit bored and fed up; do you have to do these long slow miles? Why, are you training for something? If it’s just for fun then do something more fun, whether that be a short intervals ride, a MTB ride, another turbo session, whatever. Or just do something else entirely and wait for the love affair to start again (or not).

If it’s not essential (whatever your definition is of that) – then if it ain’t fun don’t do it.

I was at work all day. I’d have swapped with you.

Do something else then?

It’s supposed to be fun.

I don’t go to the gym because it’s fun I do it to try and reduce my fat gut and reduce my odds of dying young as well as helping me get fitter while time poor. It has particular goals so it’s doable.

I ride my bike because I love riding it. If that feeling stopped then I’d try something else.

If you are proper depressed then there’s better advice above.

If you live in the UK you need to make peace with the weather. Just try and have a ride pretty much whatever attitude and accept it’s cold, wet and dark for 6 months of the year. Maybe you need to have a break.. Or holiday or a new bike.

I haven’t ridden since New Years eve.

2 weeks is really not worth worrying about, chill it’s only riding a bike, forcing yourself to do something you don’t want to do will make you hate it more. I find it difficult motivating myself after it’s been hard and frosty such a disappointment going back to mudsville but I try not to knock myself if I don’t bother, lifes too short.

Go and do something else for a few weeks.

Very tempting, but worried about losing fitness.[/quote]

Rest and limit riding to half hour easy ones on turbo for a bit (try zwift) or just go for a walk instead..Are you eating enough to fuel yourself in this cold weather ? Sounds like your overtrained…And were riding with someone else outside, company always helps …

Always ride solo. Not sure that helps during the winter months though as it does get frigging lonely out there. I have tried to ignore the ‘overtrained’ as it basically means cancelling my forthcoming tour. I have been really stressing over my training and I suspect that hasn’t helped at all.

Mediocre riding doesn’t induce fitness.

If your just going through the motions it’s likely your not doing your fitness much good anyway.

As someone who beat myself up earlier for not going out this afternoon after finally fitting my spare rotors to the fat wheels this morning, but then using the wind; traffic; fading light as excuses not to go out, why not change things up a bit? Swap the endurance rides for a warm-up and then do a sprint circuit.

what tour? when?

You manged 500km in a week between xmas and new year, you’ve clearly got plenty of capacity. I bet you can manage this tour already, and if it’s close then actually the rest and recuperation might be as important as doing more miles.

Eddie Izzard ran goodness knows marathons on the back of comparatively little training – he ran himself fit. You’re already well above that level.

Go harder. Go shorter. Go for cake.

Mediocre riding doesn’t induce fitness.

If your just going through the motions it’s likely your not doing your fitness much good anyway.Z2 riding for hours and hours is required for bikepacking tours. Well that is what I understand.

what tour? when?

NZ North to South in a months time.

You manged 500km in a week between xmas and new year, you’ve clearly got plenty of capacity. I bet you can manage this tour already, and if it’s close then actually the rest and recuperation might be as important as doing more miles.

Eddie Izzard ran goodness knows marathons on the back of comparatively little training – he ran himself fit. You’re already well above that level. Riding yourself fit on longer tours has been mentioned to me before, but for some daft reason I am struggling to grasp it and am in panic mode. That explains the reason for feeling obliged to get out and ride for hours on end.

profiled you a bit. This? http://www.touraotearoa.nz/p/rules.html

You’re already sorted I’d argue – if you have in the past been managing at 13mph, your distances are ‘only’ 5 hours a day riding. Kick back, take your time, watch the world, you have 18 hours per day allowed riding time. You’ll ride that last bit of fitness into your legs in no time.

So between now and then – just ride for fun, so you get to the start line looking forward to it.

I’d say what your doing has more danger of ruining your tour than not riding at all…

The to misquote someone else and the title of an old thread I posted on here

I’d rather turn up 50% undertrained for a ride than 1% overtrained.

Peter Shilton, one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time was a workaholic. He’d spend hours after training working on position, angles, handling, trying to make himself even better.

So when Clough took Forest away to a ‘training camp’ prior to the European Cup final, Shilton was dismayed to find the only space they had to work on was some hard tennis courts, with nowhere to dive about. He found a bit of grass on the middle of a roundabout but that was all. He couldn’t train in the days leading up to the final, so that by the time the game started he was just so pleased to be out there that there was bugger all chance that the ball was going past him today.

Get to the start line like that, just looking forward to riding the bike.

You’re already sorted I’d argue – if you have in the past been managing at 13mph, your distances are ‘only’ 5 hours a day riding. Kick back, take your time, watch the world, you have 18 hours per day allowed riding time. You’ll ride that last bit of fitness into your legs in no time.

So between now and then – just ride for fun, so you get to the start line looking forward to it. I totally agree. I have 30 days and that is an average of 66 miles/day.

I’d say what your doing has more danger of ruining your tour than not riding at all…

The way I am feeling recently, I’d would totally agree with you. Never in 30 years of cycling have I felt like this. Not pleasant.

I’d rather turn up 50% undertrained for a ride than 1% overtrained

Yes. I couldn’t imagine having to start a long cycle tour tomorrow, so my only option is to stop riding.

Riding bikes for me has always been ‘fun’ and the hit and buzz of riding has always pushed me out the front door in search of it even in the winter months,and that in turn leads to being fitter and stronger.Im a MTB’er though and not concerned with drowning in a sea of self deprecation and numbers like my roadie buddies.Only you know what your doing wrong,but it sounds like you’ve made a fun pastime into a chore to me.

Just rest up for the next month. Do a few rides if/when you fancy, of the type you fancy.

You’ll be well rested and gagging for the tour.

You are more than fit enough now, and you won’t improve fitness by much in the next few weeks.

I’ll happily take your place if you like, and I’ve only ridden 6 times since September because I’ve been doing lots of running for a change, and had Christmas and new year off doing any exercise.

Thanks fellas. Feel stupid posting about all of this as deep down any sensible adult will realise that the only viable option is to stop riding the bike until you feel ready to ride it again.

Reflecting on the comments regarding not gaining any fitness between now and going does reinforce the point that curtailing the long back to back rides and instead hitting the turbo / gym as and when I feel like it makes much more sense.

good man. Looking forward to reading about it when you’re back

How about riding trail centres?
Not everyone’s cup of tea I know, but they’re usually involving enough to stave off boredom.

you mention rapha festive 500, so are you talking about road riding or offroad? because if it’s the former there’s your reason. Go and get some decent natural XC riding in. Weekend break to the lakes? or Torridon if in scotland.

TiRed – Member
Go harder. Go shorter. Go for cake.

This x 1000

Hill reps is what I do when it’s winter, having said that I’ve not been riding for 4 months..

As per the other thread, the festive 500 has most likely tipped you well into overtrained – its not an easy thing to do, especially if you were already pushing your ability to recover.

The most important thing is to get your mojo back, and the nice thing about all the base riding you have been doing is it takes a long time to errode.

If you’ve had 2 weeks off, and still lacking enthusiasm (not easy in January at the best of times), then i’d recommend moving into a 2 week block of riding how you feel like when you feel like it. Just try not to go more than 3 days without some sort of ride.

Take a break for sure, do not touch bike or turbo for a week,and see if you are getting excited to ride by hte end of the week, the long endurance stuff doesn’t fade quickly (if I remember rightly). For a tour like that surely you should be tapering for a good three weeks anyway?

Go head off-road. The awful weather gives me an added dimension of satisfaction and when it gets slippy there’s a huge element of fun added.

Road riding is there for two reasons: fitness and from getting from A to B. There’s limited fun to be had in Baltic conditions with drivers constantly endangering you, and equally miserable road cyclists who refuse to say hello because I wear ALDI gear or ride an old bike quicker than them.

I’ve recently done a fair bit of walking which can be done in whatever weather, is good for you and is good fitness, particularly in the hills.

Whatever you do, hope you rediscover the mojo!

Try some off the bike training
https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/knowledge/training/off-the-bike

https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/knowledge/training-plans/article/izn20131002-First-Class-0

eg dance, zumba etc

Strength and conditioning helps mental health as well as physical
http://dailyburn.com/life/fitness/mental-benefits-of-strength-training-exercises/

http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2015/11/27/strength-training-brain-health.aspx

http://www.lemondfitness.com/training/gregs-training-tips

Or try what someone like Steve Peat does in the winter
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAiA-nbRtBI[/video]

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUF9DVc-kFA[/video]

Just try not to go more than 3 days without some sort of ride.

whys that then ?

I think we all go through periods like this. It seems to me you’re putting a lot of pressure on yourself for this up and coming tour to the point the training has become a chore. Get in the Gym on a spin bike, mix things up a bit. Get in the pool do a few lengths etc. Spring is round the corner, longer days warmer weather. When it’s cold like this I head for the hills and just climb climb and climb for maybe 45 mins to an hour then just drop back down. Feet and hands get too cold in this weather for anything more than a couple of hours.

Go out with some mates, somewhere new and do some exploring. Not training, just messing about and having a laugh. Dont take a GPS, dont strava it. Just ride for a laugh.

I’d agree with doing something new or different for fun, but that doesn’t mean you cannot record it on Strava, since finding this app works on my Nexus tablet in late September 2016 it has helped motivate me by giving me a digital record of when I have gone for a ride.

After beating myself up for not going out yesterday on a day off, I’m feeling pretty good right now, after going for my first semi-decent ride after work in years (after commuting on the bus). 🙂
To mix things up a bit, I threw on the fat wheels for the first time since late September, which made the off-road section through Old Cutbush Lane down to Riverside easier, as it was a bit boggy in places after the rain/sleet/snow on Thursday. But my god, the climb up Chessel Avenue felt tough, but surprisingly my fastest time of 2017 so far! 😆
https://www.strava.com/activities/831701661

Try mountain biking!

Get off the road, less obsession about speed, fitness and “zones”, just get muddy, enjoy the countryside, away from roads and traffic, great views, and have fun.

Very much an antidepressant for me in all weather.

Agree!

What are you training for? If it is just to keep fit it’ll be soul destroying. Got to look forward to something you’ll enjoy for motivation.

If you don’t race pack in the training and just ride your bike how you want and where you want. Burning out is no fun and what you are doing is pretty pointless…

Not only off-road but single speed. SS on and off-road in the Winter months makes it interesting and good fitness-wise. Most importantly less time spent cleaning the mud off in the **** cold.