I am also on the mid volume. For now, I replaced the Thursday interval workout with a similar time endurance ride, and I’ve been adding a morning petite or something easy 5 days a week. It helps that I have a video game I’ve really been enjoying right now, so I’m just sort of doing what I want while still hitting the Tuesday and Saturday hard workouts.
I feel the stress too. Riding for me is a de-stresser so I’m just going to do some easy endurance riding when I can and forget about training plans and intervals. I’m staying off the road and riding low key trails on my gravel bike.
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Am possibly an outlier, but I enjoy the training journey and getting stronger more than working toward a race or event. Don’t get me wrong, enjoy standing on a podium or getting a trophy as much as the next guy, but seeing my fitness increase is a bigger reward.
With Covid am work from home and finding it more stressful and “on” time actually increased compared to structured “in office” days. Also fatigue from video conferences and staring at computer monitors. That makes riding the bike consistently and continuing to lift weights even more important to me.
Have just completed a nice block of SST MV Base type work and in adaptation period. Was first long block with high compliance (100%) in a couple years. Today programmed in my next 12 weeks to TR calendar and looking forward to drilling it.
Covid will pass and we’ll be back outside competing soon enough.
Cheers,
Mark
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I say, only do easy rides, no high intensity ones. I don’t race, and that’s my plan
Agree with most of the posts. After doing some good base training and early training camp, then arriving it at one of my better fit years only to see all wiped away with no races or events postponed/canceled. I’ve relaxed a lot in terms of training and motivation. While it would be nice to come back ready to “rip some legs off”, honestly I don’t think folks will be motivated or even less there will be enough folks out there racing/riding given the situation. I will be spending more time again with family & friends to appreciate these precious times and in case this outbreak starts again. I’ve already ridden/raced most of my bucket list items early in years/career. We will be riding still but moreso in terms of enjoyment and health! Be safe, stay healthy and enjoy life while you can. Cheers!
It’s time like this that I’m glad I train to ride rather than to race.
Turns out I like training more than I like racing and I seem to also enjoy just exploring on my bike more than racing.
So it’s been pretty exciting to not have to worry about feeling pressured to drive to events and just getting out the door and doing some fun rides!
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Last weekend, I laid out a training plan for my A race in early August. I know there is a decent chance that it may not happen, but I’m hoping for the best.
Even after taking it easy the last couple weeks with zero structure, I really didn’t feel ready or motivated to start training again on Tuesday. I almost talked myself out of it a couple times, but I ultimately jumped on the bike and knocked out a 90 minute SS Base workout. I felt so much better afterwards. Just a feeling of calm and total stress relief. Similar results the last couple nights with additional SS sessions.
I’ve got a couple months of SS base planned and I am going to try really hard to stick to it. I don’t think I could talk myself into V02 work right now, but SS is my uncomfortable happy place. Getting on the bike and burning some stress and calories can only be a good thing right now.
I’m in the same boat. I train because I enjoy it in and of itself. I made compromises to my training plan this year to accommodate racing and am taking this as an opportunity to reset and do what I have been pursuing since last year: trying to see how strong I can get (raise FTP and extend TTE.).
I’m doing an experiment and will do as many 3-week blocks of progressively higher volume z2 as I can before having to go back to on-site to work and then jump back into SSBII and SPB and hopefully be smashing it. It sucks, but I’m trying to put a polish on this turd.
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Ok… took a couple days and did unstructured rides. Rode my mtn bike a couple times instead of the road bike. Then I did 50 miles on the road bike yesterday. Feeling better now lol, back to the schedule tomorrow. I’m going to set some PRs this season even if it isn’t during a race.
I haven’t done crap for weeks. Work has been crazy busy. I am mentally drained by the end of the day. I’m not scheduling time to train because who cares? And secondly with everything going on, I don’t really feel in the mood to beat the hell out of myself.
About 6-7 weeks ago i got what I thought was a bad sinus infection and it knocked me on my butt for a weekend. Figured it would just run it’s course. I think i let it linger too long. Literally too busy with work to go get it checked out. If I had to guess, it got to my chest and maybe I have acute bronchitis, no fever or anything, but it just feels like I’m breathing through a filter 24/7 and I’m getting like 70-75% air when I breathe and the rest is blocked. And the last place I want to stroll into right now is a doctor’s office.
I’m working from home now and my trainer is in the office so at good positive times I’ve got this mental picture of me getting outside at the end and just flying up climbs and setting an awesome pace.
But tbh some days only going from bedroom to kitchen to office all day kills my desire but I’m learning to not sweat it. I want to be fast but right now we need to learn to accept some days doing nothing is fine.
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In the most recent FasCat podcast they talked about modifying training plans and training strategies for intrinsically vs extrinsically motivated athletes. It might be worth a listen.
It sounded like for intrinsically motivated athletes they could give them workouts and they would get done, for extrinsically motivated athletes they sometimes would go with a race-into-shape approach or using Strava KOMs or other methods to motivate training. Maybe it is a matter of looking within to understand ‘your’ source of motivation and then find a way to use that to drive your training. So maybe that is you’ll go out and aim for a particular KOM every other week and that motivates your training. Maybe you pick a weekly zwift race or series on the weekend and use that to motivate your training during the week. Maybe periodically you aim to take the Epic KOM jersey and that motivates training and diet compliance.
If you understand your source of motivation and you can sort of reverse engineer a ‘thing’ to serve as that source of motivation, plan your training, and then use that ‘thing’ to motivate training plan compliance.
Not exactly the same thing, but I am not good at really digging deep for FTP tests. I’m fine with training plan compliance but have difficulty really smashing myself for a test. I generally don’t have issues smashing myself in zwift races, although sometimes tactical pacing decisions interfere with a true max 20min effort. Eventually I tried a TT and now use 11 mile TTs for my tests. To tie it back together, I knew what I needed to do for the test (max 20 min effort) and reverse engineered the ‘thing’ that motivates me to do it.
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Not super motivated as well.
I think that the next month or 2 should be low intensity high volume and fun solo rides.
Races this fall will be pretty wild lol. All power, no bike handling skills…
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Yeah, with all events going poof through 2020 (IMO), the motivation has fizzled. I’m still getting in plenty of time and good work, but it just feels more aimless. Usually, I can recall my last 4-5 workouts in clear detail; now it’s more like 2. I say I’m going to sit down and recalibrate my program… but it’s still waiting.
OTOH, the weather has been fantastic here and the roads are just absolutely dead, so just getting outside and exploring back roads has been awesome. I’ll take more of that.
Where I’m located construction is considered essential. Well with the stress of trying to finish a hospital ward and the rest of life my motivation has just up and left. No races no swimming can ride outside by feel that with having to work and being exposed to idiots there I could be putting others at risk so I don’t exercise outside.
How is everyone keeping their motivation up.
Changed my plan to traditional base lv for the last 3 weeks with lifting and running on non cycling days.
Maybe today I just hit the wall
Dude. You sound stressed. BTW - it’s OK not to train too. A lower FTP is not going to make you any less of a person. Maybe you need some time to concentrate on things that truly matter in your life.
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I’m all about this. 
I was demotivated when everything fell out - school/daycare closure, work from home, everything canceled, and all the stress that came with it. I failed an anaerobic ride, which was the first time in 6 months I had failed a ride. In general, motivation was poor and riding tough.
Fast forwards 3 weeks later, and I feel a ton better. I’ve thrown in a Zwift race, couple group Zwift rides, and two races on RGT that my local cycling organization put on. There is another one coming this weekend, and it makes me excited to race again. I’m still following the TR plan, but have switched to reproducing the workouts in Zwift for a change of pace. And if all goes well, Friday I will have a short outside ride! So stick with it but don’t be afraid to adjust for motivation. Riding while not following a plan is still better than not riding 
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