Mystery decline in cycling performance; clutching at straws……

I don’t mean to be a downer, but this really isn’t what your NHS GP is for.

I guess it depends on whether it's purely sports performance or it's otherwise life impacting, eg: post-viral fatigue, but yeah, that seems fair, though it's not alway easy to know exactly where the line falls.

At least with private blood tests, you'll get the lot checked, unlike via the GP as you have to ask, and there needs to be a reason.

@fossy but it'll cost you. Most places that offer blood testing (Nuffield springs to mind) will offer prices for individual tests, so if you're looking for a range, it can get expensive quickly. Hence decideing with your coach what to test for. Plus I don't know if they'll interpret them for you  but I'm guessing not beyond a simple traffic light or some other simple range parameter measurement and perhaps not even that.

I dunno, your GP might be happy to talk to you about this stuff in broad terms, but they won't be expert on what impact it may have on performance. But I presume your coach will know someone who does?

Thanks again.  Yes I recognise the need for rest etc and a year - or permanent - out of competition is on the cards and was discussed with my coach last November.  This year was very much about Can I / should I.     Interestingly while my coach is trawling through the data he’s asked me to self-facilitate a light week of based on feel.  I’ve done a 20 & 30 min Zwift TT Tuesday and Wednesday and both times matched my current 20min power and have no other symptoms than the usual fatigue.  I’ll be popping out for an hours easy MTB tonight then that’s it before the a race course recce on Saturday.    So weirdly it feels situation OK, but I know it’s not.

At least with private blood tests, you’ll get the lot checked

Speaking as a doctor, that's not always a good thing. False positives abound with private "tests".

Kramer is 100% right on that - and doctors like him end up picking up the pieces / explaining the false positives taking up unneeded appointments

and there needs to be a reason.

Seems logical!  Doing tests without reasons is daft.  False or irrelevant positives are a real thing.

FWIW I have been to my GP with similar issues to the OP.  Long.  they have a  "tired all the time" protocol which means you get the blood tests you need.  All checked and low Vit D was the only abnormal result.

One issue with medicine is its an inexact science and there are a lot of "known unknowns" and ~"unknown unknowns" Which means to some stuff there just is no answer.  You might be hitting this

Especially in issues around 'fatigue' or general 'feeling off'. The private tests will often flag up loads of random relatively normal findings just because they feel the need to show you something for your money.

I feel for you - i went through a period a few months ago of not feeling right.
I went to my GP and managed to get a full set of blood tests - luckily he was sporty so understood my issue.
How do you explain to someone normal that i get tired after 100km or after a parkrun i'm more tired than normal...

Anyway mine all came back fine! which is annoying and i'm putting it down to some cold / over training.

Sadly as i have paid for races this year - i'm not stopping training but i have tried to behave.. which is dull.

So - good luck. The idea of backing off is a hard pill to swallow.