I went through a similar experience toward the end of winter this year. I’ve been riding in the woods since I was 7 or 8 (now 47) but only started any kind of real structured training in Oct of 2019. I made a few mistakes in regard to FTP & plan choice which culminated in me hitting the proverbial wall during SusPB this March. Like OP, I got to the point where I was just giving up & did not want to be anywhere near my trainer. Thankfully, as winter turned to spring in the northeast US, I was able to get outside & back on my favorite trails.
I worked out of it by dropping my TR plan to low volue but after a few more weeks, scaled back to just 2 TR workouts per week -usually VO2max/Threshold or VO2max/Sprint in short power build. I also started doing longer VO2 work outside. Outside ride time is infinitely more valuable to me that hitting targets on the trainer. After a short while, I was able to get my ability to suffer back & I’m definitely still getting faster. I did run into another wall last night in the form of Kaweah -1, though. I haven’t done a threshold workout in a long time & the last 2 intervals required a backpedal or two to keep the train on the tracks!
It’s funny how things affect different people, differently? It’s looking likely that my remaining uncancelled events will be pulled or I’ll not be prepared to travel to them based upon the situation here. I was searching the forum yesterday as to whether it was essential to take an off season!
I think it’s because Training is very “old normal”. Working remotely, I’ve been able to be really consistent, which I’m enjoying (I’m process driven anyway I think).
I still can’t do the ramp test though, and have been adjusting on feel.
I’m the same way. I have been consistent and even think that I have gotten stronger. I just can’t seem to make myself suffer enough to get an accurate FTP from a ramp test.
I think this is true, but I also think we are going through phases. I felt the same as you for 6 months and then I didn’t. It’s hard to understand fully how normal training is affected by seasonality and when you layer covid on top I think we all sometimes just need to be thankful for continued good health and not be too hard on ourselves when our motivation suffers temporarily.