New bike . New shoes. New trainer .
Or all 3.
Same for me, unfortunately my A-race was this past weekend, yikes! I just had no motivation going into race weekend, woke up that morning feeling sick to my stomach, and performed horribly on a technical XC course.
I decided the only time I’ll touch my bike this week is to do some suspension maintenance, maybe an easy ride with my wife Saturday. Hopefully the motivation returns soon because there’s still 2 races left in our Spring XCO series and I have a shot at winning the overall.
I’d go outside and ride a few times, to enjoy my excellent fitness. But, I do that every week already 
Let me know how it goes. If you continue to struggle, please let me know!
Pernie
I’d say this isn’t really about training. It sounds much more like life stress and mental fatigue showing up in your riding.
You’re only doing 3–4 hours a week, so it’s very unlikely to be physical overtraining. But you’ve come off a pretty dense block (build, racing, straight back into base), and racing is mentally taxing. Layer that on top of high non-cycling stress and it’s not surprising you’ve run out of “spoons” for hard efforts.
A few things I’d consider:
1. Create space first, not just change training
Before tweaking workouts, look at overall load. If life stress is high, your capacity for intensity drops.
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A week of easier riding (not full time off) can help
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Keep riding enjoyable ie remove pressure to “perform”, get outdoors or ride indoors with other people
2. Get a meaningful goal
“Fitness for the sake of fitness” only carries you so far.
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Pick something longer-term and a bit challenging
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Use that to broaden your focus (strength, nutrition, setup, etc.)
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It makes the hard sessions feel like they’re part of the solution and for something
3. Be more deliberate with racing
A 6-week race block is a lot mentally.
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Racing is not just “another workout”
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Be more selective about when and why you race
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Allow proper recovery afterwards
4. Dial in recovery basics (this is huge)
When life stress is high, these matter even more:
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Sleep quality and consistency
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Fueling properly (especially around harder sessions)
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Undereating = low motivation and poor tolerance for intensity ( see TR’s energy availability model)
5. Adjust how you approach sessions
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Easy rides - make them easy and enjoyable (music, Netflix, etc.)
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Hard rides - don’t expect to “dig deep” every time
- Some days you complete, not conquer
Bottom line
I wouldn’t take multiple weeks off - you still enjoy riding.
But I also wouldn’t try to “power through.”
A short reset (easy week), clearer goal, and better alignment with life stress will likely bring the motivation back without losing fitness.
Sounds like a block of burnout which can happen when you spend a lot of time ‘training’ hard during the winter months…an old coach of mine called it ‘january hero’/‘july zero’ and it once cost me a season because I developed mono and lost 8 weeks of training.
Perhaps ride just for pleasure…no monitoring devices…look at where you ride for enjoyment of being outside…do something else like walk, hike, etc. to give your brain and body a break from the regimen of training…make sure you are eating correctly, sleeping well, etc. as these things can dramatically affect how you feel especially when you are in a hard training session.
Perhaps some group rides where you enjoy the company of others rather than the tracking of training metrics.