Back at work now and no energy/motivation to push hard on the bike. Long rides at the weekend are fine but no energy to push much above zone 3.

What’s everyone’s experience of doing a few 1 hour turbo sessions in zone 2 or 3? Worth doing or a waste of time? Basically I’m looking at lots of base, but not much top end on the bike for a few months. Trying to get into running home after work (5k ish) if my knees get better but just walking at the moment. I did a few runs but knees are too weak.

Fairly easy to do 10mins or an hour on a turbo depending on how you feel. Usually find after I’m warmed I’m more enthusiastic. Getting the leg over the saddle is the biggest issue.

@mjsmke not sure of your situation, but i struggled to get back to running/fit after getting an ACL reconstruction. My physio gave me lots of kneehabilitation stuff to do that really worked well to build up the knee and surrounding muscles etc to get bounce and stability back. Happy to share that info if it might be useful.

Also found that a mix of 60 mins Z2/3 on the turbo and some 30ish min tabata sessions built my fitness and motivation back, and were good for the knees as well.

I can do a few hour sessions no problem at all. The point is not having the energy to push hard like I have been most the year. Aiming to do lower intensity stuff but not sure if it will maintain the fitness I’ve built up over the last 18 months.

Definitely not a waste
Set realistic targets and do what you are comfortable with
Consider joining some Zwift groups if you need company or for a change once the initial appeal starts to wane

I’m struggling to do more than a few minutes at what was my FTP ~6 months ago, a number of setbacks since late Feb, including bad side effects from the Covid vaccine jabs and recently another respiratory infection.

For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been trying to do at least three ~2 hour steady rides per week. Leaving me quite knackered.

My last proper 20min+ effort is way overdue, been ~10 weeks, but I’ve not felt up to one. I expect to have lost 10-20%. Doubt it will fall much more until I feel up to training properly again, because steady ~7 hours riding a week will keep some fitness, the top end will come back gradually when I start doing vo2 max intervals again.

I’m struggling to do a few mins at FTP too. Got a few PB’s a few months ago and increased my overall time and distance so know my fitness has improved. Can do much longer rides with less food too. Just don’t want to lose it now I’m back at work so looking to maintain as much as possible.

I was struggling at the back end June into July. Absolutely no motivation to try and feel the hurt, when I did I could not sustain it.
I spent the remainder of July and most of August just riding, either out on the mtb or ticking off zwift routes. I’m now focused on a goal and happily training and hurting myself again.
Sometimes a mental break from training helps.

It’ll be hard. The thing that annoys me about teacher holiday patterns is increasing fitness Easter to June being fit July August then struggling. We went back two weeks ago I got new bike end of last week and in those two weeks I’ve ridden 20km I’ve had turbo ready to go three times but I’m mentally beat.
Tonight hopefully.

It’ll be hard. The thing that annoys me about teacher holiday patterns is increasing fitness Easter to June being fit July August then struggling. We went back two weeks ago I got new bike end of last week and in those two weeks I’ve ridden 20km I’ve had turbo ready to go three times but I’m mentally beat.
Tonight hopefully.

That’s exactly where I’m at. Been back at the college for a week and struggling to get out on the bike. Might try the turbo tonight too but only an hour of zone 2 or 3.

no energy/motivation to push hard on the bike.

Just don’t do it until you feel ready, otherwise you’ll just screw up any future motivation / energy levels as you’re clearly either mentally or physically (or both) tired. Give it a rest until you want to do it again.

/\ this. If you’re tired, rest.

I appear to be time-crunched as well, which doesn’t help with the motivation, but having seen a few very recent photos of myself, I’m needing to shift weight so I’m thinking 2 or 3 half hour Zone 2 sessions a week (during lunch) will help burn off some more calories whilst also keeping my legs a bit more cycle-ready.

I’ve got absolutely no speed for climbing, but rest seems to be reasonable, so I’m thinking if I can shift a bit of weight and get the legs loosened a bit, it might help get me up the climbs a wee bit quicker.

As someone else above has said, hardest bit seems to be throwing the leg over the bike.

Lots of us in the same boat guys.

I tend to peak in the early spring, then as the good weather comes, I do less ‘training’ (zwift, basically), ride a fair bit over summer but also a lot more drinking, eating, lazy days etc when partner has her long teachers holiday. Weight has peaked recently!

I’ve just refreshed my zwift sub recently and although I havent done a test yet, I know my FTP is way down. I’m just spending a couple of weeks getting back into, short little spins every other morning mixed around my real rides. It does loosen your legs up, and i’m sure i’ll get back into it soon.

Whatever you do, just start.

I always used to have an energy slump at the start of term and would just take it really easy for a few weeks. I don’t know whether going for a short easy ride has much physiological benefit for fitness but an hour (or even half) moving my legs on my own terms is always good for my mental health.

Riding for training is fun, but doing it all year (particularly when other life stress happens) stops being fun.

No exercise is a waste of time- that idea mostly comes from when you’re replacing more productive exercise/training with less productive, but it doesn’t sound like that applies here. Understandably articles and opinions tend to be skewed towards TRAIN PROPERLY but that shouldn’t be the enemy of “just do what you can”

I don’t really train, but, when I wanted to regain some fitness last year I got into a pretty good routine of just sitting on the turbo, watching box sets. No high intensity intervals, no major efforts, just 40-60 minutes judged so that by the end I’d be ready to stop, but not absolutely buried. Fitted easily into my life, didn’t need much motivation, didn’t make me feel too tired, never once stopped me from riding or doing other fun stuff properly. And I managed to tie it into watching my way through series I wanted to watch, so it became sort of effortlessly motivated, I wasn’t going “must go on the turbo”, I was thinking “Oh man, did Prentice’s dad die? That’s horrible. I wonder how he’ll react” Badly, btw.

No it’s not going to make me a top racer and it wouldn’t fit into the routine of anyone doing real focused training but that’s not the point.