It’s race week. Saturday/Sunday races. Had a good winter of training and ready to go mentally. Had a nice recovery week last week of Z2 with some short Zwift races on Saturday as my last hard ride (Zwift Tiny Series). Had an easy day yesterday and legs felt terrible. Was planning some short intensity today; 30sec @120% then 5min at threshold, 4 fast cadence 30/30s at 130%, then 2x1 minute at 115%. Nothing crazy. But I failed. Like, no energy. Got through 2 minutes of the Threshold section, did the 30/30s fine, and got through 1 of the 1-minute intervals. Now I’m in my head thinking I’m overcooked for the race. Do I just stay off the bike Wed/Thurs and maybe some easy openers Friday? Anything recovery wise I can do besides taking it easy?
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I’d just get out and do whatever feels good. If that’s an easy spin, all good. If you can handle a few hard efforts, good as well. The fitness you’ve built is still there. In my experience, legs usually show up for race day even when they have felt like crap during the week(s) leading in. My body seems to know when it’s time to go. I’m sure it varies by individual, but that’s my experience and I always have to fight off bad thoughts in my mind because I never feel great when I’m tapering into a race.
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My only advice is stick to your plan that you had. Don’t change anything that you haven’t already vetted. Keep with your process and control what you can - your nutrition and recovery. Work into your pre race rides and let the feels guide you. You’ll come good hopefully, enjoy your race and best of luck
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That could be just be your body being in recovery mode. I’d give it another day of an easyish ride with a few non structured efforts just to open up a bit and see how you feel. Just go by feel and maybe attempt some openers the following day. Mo matter what you just need to be ready for the weekend. The hay is in the barn so just stay positive and execute the races like you normally would.
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If struggling like that seems to have been a one-off incident rather than a pattern, I wouldn’t worry too much about it – especially since you mentioned you had a good winter of training.
How was your sleep/nutrition/hydration going into that opener workout? Do you think there is anything that could be improved on the recovery front?
We’d agree with @2DollarLegs that, if in doubt, sticking with whatever plan you had set up is likely the best way to go – though if you feel the need for an extra day of rest, it probably wouldn’t hurt. Just remember that you don’t want to go into your races too rested and therefore flat.
Finally, if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, keep in mind that it’s only February, so I’m sure many of the other riders will be feeling just like you are! It should be an “even playing field” in that sense. Hopefully, it also means that you have a long season of riding/racing ahead of you, so don’t feel too pressured to put “everything” into these couple of races.
As other athletes said, rest assured that the fitness is there – try to stay positive going into the weekend and have some fun once you pin the number on and get rolling! 
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I learned yesterday that I think my body needs “openers” after a rest period now (or I need to rethink my rest periods).
After doing a very easy week, I attempted an FTP test, and only got a few minutes in before making an excuse to quit. Followed up the next day feeling slightly better, but still a weak attempt (I normally find FTP work “easy”). Yesterday I tried my first workout after the rest week (couple days away from the FTP test), and felt like garbage 30 seconds into a 4 minute VO2, after feeling like garbage on the warm up. Switched to doing a 30/15 Rønnestad style workout before giving up entirely, and my body responded fine.
Maybe your body requires something like that?
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What do you do? You smesh on the day of the race, of course!
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It tends to happen to me as well, especially when its a B race and my taper is not that pronounced. It happened to me a couple of weeks ago right before an XCO race.
I followed the plan, which included less intensity repetitions, shorter workouts and to be honest on occasions I cut the workout short, when I felt pushing would/could be detrimental.
IME this feeling also means I need to be extra careful with race prep: a more active effort of sleeping well, a more active effort of eating more carbs, drink a lot of water and electrolytes, and in my case I need to be extra cautious, leaving enough time to digest the last meal before the race.
My guess is you will not feel confident on the start line, but you will get into the zone during the race, since you preped properly.
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Hannah Otto has some good wisdom on this at minute 14 
How did it go?
Not the greatest. I don’t know if I had already caught a bug and just starting to feel it, or caught something during the race, but Monday I woke up like I got hit by a freight train. Races didn’t go well. Dropped off the back in both and solo’d to the finish. Just never really felt right. But it’s early still. Got some pack riding in. Next race isn’t until middle of April so I’m feeling better now and hitting my training.
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Get’em next time … next time.
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