Legs just kind of feel flat week 2 and feel hard to hit power targets in MV build 1 short power. I have race season starting in 1 week basically. Today for example, I quit whiteface after the warm-up since I knew it would just be a 70 cadence slug fest. I’m typing this while doing an endurance ride which feels fine.
My heart rate (rhr and working) are fine.
How should I handle this?
I would go down to low volume. It sounds like it’s too much too soon.
Think it would be a bad idea to just ditch the structure for a month since it’s getting warm where I’m at and just doing group rides and out door rides?
Eating enough?
Yes. If your outdoor “unstructured” rides are anything like mine, you’re likely to heap on a lot of unproductive stress instead of focusing on productive workouts that can get you gains. If anything, I’d keep the two hard week day workouts and do one hard ride on the weekend, whether that’s a group ride or a race or a structured workout, and see how you feel.
FWIW, I had the exact thing happen my first build plan. Too much volume (on MV) and not enough recovery. It was a death spiral. So, my approach is reducing volume first.
Eat more
I had the same thing happen two weeks ago. Instead of trying to kill myself and finish workouts and ride out the block. I just moved up the recovery week. I didn’t really do any sort of work but my body needed another recovery week. Z2 only, lower volume no intensity. I felt like crap during the recovery week. But when I got back to work this week I’ve been feeling great.
I had a lot of stress outside of the bike life, maybe you did too? Who knows. All I know is that with this indoor training and high structure sometimes one week of recovery isn’t enough. But, I do know that adequate recovery now will ensure that your race season is going to be better since you won’t be burning out before we get to the real good racing later in the season.