Hello everybody,
this topic is about motivation. I totally burned out. I try my best to follow the plans as good as humanly possible. There is my girlfriend, my job and yes life. This year started tough. First I crashed during a training ride, then after I got back into training, I got sick with a flu then stomach flu. Again I fought myself back into training and with each FTP test I lost a little bit, of course. This was hard to see, because training is super hard, you make compromises with your girl and with friends.
I found myself into Base phase for about 14 weeks because I repeated some weeks after sickness. I ended up my last FTP test with a little gain but with a suggestion to visit Base Phase, this came up with the comments in FTP Test, I was close to getting crazy.
Actually, I planned starting with General Base Mid Vol. but now I’m just thinking throwing everything away. My FTP stagnate anyway for the last 1 1/2 years I was never be able to go over 4.2 w/kg and to be honest for me it is a super hard effort to reach that level again.
I’m not really Zwift user but there you see people gaining super watts in 3 weeks and racing with a FTP around 5.3 w/kg min sometimes. I’m not getting it.
I know that was a lot of mimimi but I think a topic like Mental toughness should be discussed because I think this is the key for training and racing!!!
Hey Chris! Everybody has got their lives stacked up with training, kids, significant other, pets, home restorations and whatnot. A key part in this is to not stress about it.
You need to find your happyplace where training fits your life. I’m sure there is a way to get back into training and also fit the rest of your life in this gigantic puzzle. The most important part is not to give up because in your case you can’t reach above 4.2W/kg. How about not setting a goal of that sort but just say that you aim to complete the GBLV-plan with an outdoor ride to spice things up and not leaving you all weirded out when racing season starts and you see tarmac for the first time? And go from there.
I’d suggest ditching a training plan. Forget about the numbers. Do something either on or off the bike you enjoy. Rediscover the joy of riding a bike. Go outside, try Zwift, don’t ride at all. At some point when you fall back in love with riding, ride for the pleasure of it😊
Hey everyone,
thanks a lot for responding to that post Everybody is right with what she or he’s responding. I think key is you have to figure out what works for you to keep going.
And yeah I did a lot of BMX back in the days so usually I’m used to crashing but you know there a good days and bad days. On one day you say, I don’t care on the the other day nothing seems to be right @martinheadon the video is absolutely perfect, In fact this vegan cyclist guy has a lot of good videos which can help.
The Vlogs from Willie Smit sometimes are good too: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCo0UOSxyniSvtBFjLaF97aA
I agree, but I don’t think the point is to not stress about these things. The point is you have to design your life so that training fits in in a minimally stress inducing way. You will never be able to focus if have a conflict with wives, kids, job in relation to your training. You have to deconflict your life as it relates to training. For example, I chose to train at 4 am rather than 5:30 am so that I can help get my son up and off to day care every morning. My wife doesn’t care that I’m up at 4am because I am doing my job as a dad and partner. I’m not saying you have to do what I did, but you have to make it so you aren’t worried about the other aspects of your life while you are on the trainer. They take too much energy.
Totally agree with everything that was said. You need to enjoy it and find / exist in your happyplace. I burned out a while back and it took me 12 years to get back into it (it being swimming, biking, running as individual activities, longer to get back into triathlon).
If the training is a grind and the reward of the race isn’t tempting, then, yeah, you need to find what will keep you going. Maybe it’s taking a year off so you don’t take a decade off. Maybe it’s doing events for fun and adventure rather than digging deep and competition.
I couldn’t agree more! All too often we lose sight of what matters. In this journey, it is not the destination that should be the focus, but rather the journey itself. As they say, moving quickly on holy ground is pointless, when the lesson comes from the journey!
Don’t lose the fact that you genuinely enjoy riding your bike in the first place. It’s not all about watts (And we are guilty of focusing only on numbers here). Take a week, enjoy some rides on your favorite routes - put the bike computer in your pocket and look at the data after the week is over. I’ll bet you’ll find renewed vigor to start training again!
old enough to have suffered burn out many times, in different areas on my life - school, work, skiing, cycling, walking the dog, you name it. What works for me - first step is to decompress by getting away from it, then set some crazy goal and go for it!
For me, it’s about riding outdoors. Sometimes I get used to riding indoors, and I think, I don’t need to go outdoors, what’s the big deal? Then, when I do it, it’s soooo amazing and it gets me motivated to attack the training. However, one change I’ve done versus past years is do low volume training so that I can still have off days (newborn, work, etc.) if I need it without feeling overly stressed about missing a workout. Then, on the weeks I day have the extra time, I can go outside on a weekend, or do something on Zwift (much easier to do an hour high intensity workout for me on there just riding around versus structured on TrainerRoad).
This. If you’re not motivated to ride, you don’t have to. When hobbies create this type of stress it’s probably a good time to set them down or at least readjust expectations.
Last year I was sick often, traveled a ton for work, and had a bunch of life stress. I peaked in January, and spent the year trying to make it back. I had no planned events to motivate me, was blindly following plans, not having great outdoor rides (2nd rainiest year on record), and because I was time crunched, neglected rest, strength training, mobility work, and just fun rides. The year ended with a 2 weeks illness over the winter break, where I had plans for lots of training.
I closed that chapter and started again. Dedicated to consistency, planning around my life, and finding joy. Rides with friends/family, early morning training before kids wake up, listening to my body - choosing rest and off-bike training to feed my body. Bought a new bike (NEW BIKE DAY!) and signed up for some motivating events. I also spent a few weeks just doing TR workouts I liked - I get pumped on VO2 max work. So I did those - indoor and outdoor. I also figured out temp control, low lights, and the right music for indoor rides. And decided I can’t watch anything on TV while riding. Need to find a zone.
I also bought travel hand sanitizer and use the f*ck out of it to avoid getting sick. ha. Plus eating right, etc.
Fast forward through SSB1 and 2 - and I am back at my top FTP, getting lots of PRs inside/outside. And feeling great.
I will probably get sick/hurt tomorrow, but I wanted to share – try shaking some things up and commit to joy.
Good thread and read, no doubt many of us felt and feel same, yet only few come out and seek for advice. Well done, hope the inspiration returns to you soon.
Not long ago I was same, lost and unmotivated. Couldn’t conmplete workouts, but still tried to not to drop it completely and follow the plan. First races this year somehow helped to regain the focus.
I wouldn’t worry much about seeing people on Zwift with high w/kg values. It’s not uncommon for people to under-report weight, trainers or power meters to be mis-calibrated, or virtual power to be way off actual power. And they all look the same when riding next to you up some hill.
I find that if I’m feeling unmotivated, I’ll take some time off, and then later when the motivation returns, and I start up again, I then I’ll wish I hadn’t taken the time off, as I’ll have to re-work through all that progress I lost. Sometimes I can channel that feeling when I want to want to ride, but I’m not particularly feeling it on a given day.
And sometimes I’ll put structured training on pause, and just do what looks enjoyable for a while. This is easier to do when weather is nice. Right now a lot of us are still waiting for weather to improve before we can get outside again. But even just switching up from the types of workouts you’ve been doing to something new can help.
Motivation wise, I have a spring race I’m doing again that I’m looking forward to. That’s been my carrot for getting on the bike all winter so far. I want to be in better shape this year for that race than I have for the last few years. So having a race to train for keeps some motivation up, and the desire to improve on what I did previously keeps some motivation up.
Discipline over motivation as previously mentioned by other members. Works for me.
I had my first road race last weekend and got spat out in crosswinds as did a lot of others that day. I’m back there racing this coming weekend and I will not allow that to happen again. If I’m hurting on the trainer I will revert to that experience in my memory and hopefully that should be enough. If I wasn’t racing I’m not sure I’d be hurting myself on the trainer every day. Everyone needs a goal.
Try and remember what brought you to trainer road in the first place.
Oh and forget the 5.2w/kg bs. I ride most people off my wheel on club rides and group stuff on the road. The same people that race at +5w/kg. I am 4.5w/kg. Work that one out. PS. Weight doping is real
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