I think it’s all over…. What’s next?

You’ve wrung your hands and wailed at the sky about this for a while now.

Seems to me like you’ve tied your mtb identity to the competitive side, but you really don’t need to. Cut yourself some slack because it is what it is.

You choose your pathway on what you want and what you can do. There are no other rules other than those you make for yourself, so readjust those myopic racing glasses and relise you’re still perfectly capable of getting out for a ride.

There is no spoon, man.

Bikepacking. Still a challenge, but one you can take at your own pace.

pretty much the same as MSP here, ive not tried to push myself for a couple of years one hard ride can mean a week of terrible sleep and impacts family and work.

i have been on the odd ride but very careful not to burn any matches as they say they are just for fun

Ive returned to painting models like i did as a kid. with the added twist of 3d printing

oh and loads and loads of DIY still. starting to thing a self build would have been easier than a reno…

i cant say im particularly happy about giving up proper riding and getting slower and fatter but overall im a much nicer to my family when i get sleep ans im not in loads of pain so that takes priority

If you can’t go fast, go long.

Or stop giving a shit. I race once a year (Hamsterley Trail Bike DH), and love it. I imagine it’s the same for the 2 or 3 folk who finish behind me.

Thanks for all the tips and experiences, it’s very easy to get wrapped up in the racing and ignore the rest.    Going long isn’t a bad idea and is my forte actually, I’ve never been full of power but am good at endurance.   This might also limit me to 2 or 3 events a year, as I’m long past travelling for half of a long weekend just to race.

Actually right now I’m just thinking I’ll ride as back of pack Indy whenever Jnr races MTB, bearing in mind that’s infrequent and mainly May-July and I’ll be at the event anyway.   So my 2025 may look like a weekend road or MTB ride, with a couple of trainer road sessions mid week (I’m not one for constant surfing) as and when my work schedule allows – all of that being flexible/as and when I feel I want to to pop out e.g. a summer evening ride with a pub at the end may occur….

Did you ever get any decent answer out of your coach(es) as to where they thought you were at with fatigue?

It’s easy to be a coach when things are going well .  Not so much when the wheels get wonky on the wagon. It’s good to see you looking for a way forward to get satisfaction from training without banging your head on a wall

Threads like this make me think we as a community need to do more ‘boys/girls days out’ get people out enjoying the riding again without performance pressure etc.

I would love to organise something like that in the Lakes or Peak…

Have a crack at something different. I’ll recommend karate, cos it’s what I’ve done. But literally anything, basket weaving, mud wresting, body modification, owt, spice it up a bit!

One of those weird bikes without a saddle. Just spend your time developing advanced riding skills. It’s full body exercise.

So a year of struggling with “power” and the ups and downs of chronic fatigue have got to me, I think I’m done with competitive cycling.

Quite a few years ago now (mid 2000’s maybe), I finished a National Series MTB XC race at some absolute mudfest venue, much the same as the other half dozen mudfest venues I’d been to that year. Think I might have scraped top 20 – ironic really, the conditions were so bad that the main reason I got top 20 was because so many other people pulled out!

Packed the car with a jetwashed bike, a muddy tent, a bag full of muddy kit and drove the 200 or so miles back home on a Sunday night, arriving at 10pm or so. And I just thought – why? I could have had 3x the riding for 1/10th the price locally. I could have been home 4hrs ago without a quietly rusting bike or a load of filthy camping kit.

And that was it. It was the kick I needed to say that I was never going to get any better, could honestly not really afford such trips, the training (what with actually having a proper job rather than being a carefree student) wasn’t getting any easier and the week of post-race logistics of cleaning everything, fixing the bike etc wasn’t fun either.

After that I did some occasional road, circuit and CX/gravel races as well as 24hr and endurance MTB but it was much more selective, none of the need to chase series points or do every round and so on.

I actually did a lot more riding – more miles, more places and a lot less cost! And it was a lot more fun. It did need a mental reset but, almost counter-intuitively, it made the occasional races I did do a lot more fun as well, allowed me to focus on that and think “ooh, this is a bit special” rather than thinking “oh FFS, I need to drive another 250 miles next weekend, camp in a field, ride around for 3hrs and then drive home again”.

You can still stay fit. Not racing doesn’t have to equal “splodging on sofa drinking beer”. You can still ride in nice places. You can still have fun doing it. Just take a year or so to reset the mind. Good luck and enjoy the riding – even the slow rides!

One of those weird bikes without a saddle. Just spend your time developing advanced riding skills. It’s full body exercise.

Ie trials riding. I fear may be looked down upon, not taken seriously, just dicking around being a nuisance on the streets, trying to be a show off, or the opposite, it’s too difficult, too unachievable, takes too long to learn.

It’s very difficult for sure, very challenging, and all that may be part of the mental game of it…. I’d love to convince someone who rides like you to take this up instead. When I took it up, it felt like an alien concept to not be constantly pedalling, to not be constantly moving, to not be in constant transition between places, to repeatedly attempt to ride over a single obstacle, potentially limiting a ride to a very small area. That’s part of the mental game too, as well as battling with yourself that you’re not good enough to ride trials, you’re not getting better at it, etc. There’s also the problem solving element, how do you do that, how do you ride over that, how are you limiting your view of what you can ride your bike on? You’re not too old, you’re fit, you race mountain bikes, that’s a good fitness and skill base to start from.

Did you ever get any decent answer out of your coach(es) as to where they thought you were at with fatigue?

Yep, we can spot all the signs now and manage my plan for prevention.  F’rinstance I have a bad cold now, and will be at away trade show for three days next week.   Hence, all my training has been postponed until we review again next Friday so I can have a restful/recovery week and see this cold through.    If I can I’ll do some stretching and bodyweight exercises in my hotel room mid week, but thats it.   This is to avoid triggering the EBV and avoid chronic fatigue.

The problem I now have of course is that I have greater breaks for illness / more interruptions to training than the average person.  Watching my CTL & TSS build up to a decent level but then watching it shrink again before it meets its pick is a bit disheartening, alluding to the through I’m wasting my time anyway.

It’s good to see you looking for a way forward to get satisfaction

I thinks its been forced upon me by “life” TBH.   I remember being distraught many years ago when I had to stop Rugby which is extra hard because you don’t just leave the game, you leave a whole community behind and it can be very lonely – luckily this is not quite the same scenario.