Mystery decline in cycling performance; clutching at straws……

Or training like an aspiring pro doing 12–15 hours a week whilst presumably also having an actual job and being in your 40s/50s(?) has finally caught up with you

Sometimes I think Kryton is our very own Willy Loman.

You say that markspark and peoples “age” based comments whilst confidently forgetting there are thousands of people like me racing successfully every weekend.  The purpose of posting here is to broaden my experiences and to gain opinion from such people within my peer group who may have ideas or experience that could help me understand why I’m currently ailing and what to do about it.

I appreciate it may be a joke to some, but I’d quite like to learn from such experience and am humble enough to do so.

@monkeycmonkeydo

Pretty unpleasant comment to someone who has been open about their mental health issues, if I’m being honest.

well said Martin.

 I worry about taking a break, then being even worse for it as fitness drops…..

I get that, but what you’re doing now isn’t working. Your head might want to carry on racing, but your body’s saying no. It might be that you need to do nothing but maintenance, and while you may have a drop in performance, you may be in a better place physically to build back up again after some proper rest and recovery.

The purpose of posting here is to broaden my experiences and to gain opinion from such people within my peer group who may have ideas or experience that could help me understand why I’m currently ailing and what to do about it.

All of which is good, but you won’t get a definitive answer. Chances are that it’s a combination of stuff: maybe some post-viral / long covid-type physiological impact, maybe trying to maintain a training loads that’s too demanding, life stresses, inadequate recovery, sleep, whatever, maybe some sort of underlying issue in terms of a nutrient / vitamin / mineral / hormone deficiency (tests needed),maybe an element of ageing but most likely a combination of some or all of these, because they all interact.

You might not want to back off on your training load, but that, in combination maybe with looking at a way of measuring your general state of recovery – I find HRV combined with feels is useful but YMMV – seems like a reasonable way of moving forward. You might also, if you haven’t already, want to go to your GP and get some blood tests to rule out any obvious deficiencies.

It’s better to reset and build back than bludgeoning on fowards and potentially going further down the spiral. All imo / not a coach / not a sports scientist / medic etc

I’m going with post viral relapse – you’ve said covid had affected you.  You could possibly go to the GP for a full bloods checkup and get the results from them. You’d ideally be somewhere in the middle, but unless you are widely off the ‘scale’ you won’t be treated. E.g. vit D – you can at lease raise these level with OTC tablets. You’ll usually get ‘in range’ – ask them for a print out. Make sure Testosterone is done.

I’m a lot older than you, but very active/fit.

I had Covid in Sep 2022 and went from happy doing a couple of 5,000ft MTB rides plus a couple of lunch 1-2,000ft rides a week to struggling to do one 3,000ft ride.

So bought an eBike, a lightweight enduro one.

Meant I could still ride with my pals, just took the edge off, especially later in the ride.  But I also rode more ‘easy’ rides on my gravel/road bike.

Nearly 2 years later I’m fitter than I was; did a 300k / 3,500m Audax at the weekend after riding a few times during the previous week.

Still ride the eBike when out with pals, but also ride my FS, gravel & road.

I think you’re overtraining (and overthinking) – maybe take a year out from competitive riding?

One of the issues your GP etc won’t treat is sport performance. For an average person you are fit and healthy, OK not as quick as you’d like, but way better than an average joe.

I got told this many years ago after I was having on-going issues with a shoulder injury. The injury was causing problems whilst cycling, not so much day to day life, so they couldn’t really do much more.

You could possibly go to the GP for a full bloods checkup and get the results from them

Or you could discuss the tests you need with your coach, and then go privately to get these done. I don’t mean to be a downer, but this really isn’t what your NHS GP is for.

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.