I have been a TR user for about 2 years now.
I have just recently in the past 2 months maybe experienced some major de motivation and for the past week or two have been unable to finish what I think should be pretty straight forward workouts.
I have was only riding 5-7 hr weekly and have cut back to 3-4, this hasn’t seem to help any. I am also sleepy more than usual and have tried to get more sleep at night. I run a pretty full schedule like most people these days. 5 kids, full work load, etc. any help is appreciated thanks
Hey there!
I just took a look at your TR Calendar to get an idea of what might be up.
I noticed you have a lot of Zwift races on there. Zwift races can be good training, but they can also impact the rest of your interval sessions in your overall plan.
If you’re getting too fatigued from those Zwift races, you may have trouble recovering enough – even for workouts that seem like they should be straightforward.
Ideally, we’d recommend capping your intensity days to 3x/week. I noticed a few of the weeks on your TR Calendar had more than 3 intense days of riding per week, which can have a noticeable impact on your recovery.
Trying to get more sleep sounds like a great plan here. Consider how your nutrition has been lately as well – making sure you’re appropriately fueled and hydrated for your workouts will make a big difference.
All that said, if you’ve been feeling demotivated for about 2 months now, there’s no shame in taking a break. In fact, if you’ve been feeling like this for 2 months, I’d even recommend taking a break – even if just for a week. It would probably help you rest up physically and mentally, which would help you get back to it feeling fresh again. Around this time of the year as we transition from spring into summer in the Northern Hemisphere is about the time that many athletes take a mid-season break to refresh for the rest of the season – it might be worth considering a mid-season break in your case as well.
Hope this helps – feel free to let me know if you have any additional questions!
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Thanks again for the advice. So after a week off I completed a workout this morning. I coded it as hard I feel like mainly because I’ve been off for a week. You had commented on a zwift race. I typically do a group zwift race early Thursday mornings. I usually incorporate this into my weekly TR road plan. Which consists of 2 hard works outs plus the zwift race for 3 hard workouts plus an easy day.
I want to fill the “off” days in my week w easy Z1 or Z2 riding. I think the volume is helpful and benefits for the gravel events I have planned a little later. What are your thoughts on this?
And when doing an hour long workout what kind of fueling would you recommend, I have recently starting taking
a drink mix vs just straight water. Do I need more?
No problem! Happy to help. 
2 hard workouts plus the Zwift race sounds like a good plan.
If you’re feeling more recovered and motivated, adding in some extra Z1/2 riding could be helpful! I think it would still be good to keep at least one day per week truly “off.” If you start to feel run down by the extra Z1/2 rides, you could always cut back on them too.
Drink mix will probably help you during your training sessions – especially if they’re earlier in the morning before breakfast. I’ve done a lot of early morning training sessions in the past, and I always felt like it helped me to get some carbs in my bottle that I could sip on while getting ready for my workout and then during the workout as well. It can definitely be tougher to get through some workouts if you’re not taking in carbs – even more so if you haven’t eaten since the night before. I don’t think you should need much more than that drink mix – a meal or recovery shake for after your workouts might be a good call though if you’re not already doing that.
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Hi Scotty - I’m not a coach, but just sharing my own personal experience, there can be times when 3 hard workouts a week is tough to keep up. Especially when one of them is a race. Racing on Zwift is intense!
You mentioned wanting to add Z2 workouts to help you prep for your gravel races. If you end up starting to feel like you’re burning out again, my recommendation is to drop one of the hard workouts instead of the Z2 work. Try to get in at least one longer Z2 ride per week if you can. I know it seems counterintuitive, but I actually find myself getting stronger by reducing intensity and adding volume because I can keep it up for long periods without needing to take time off to recover from burnout. This is what people mean when they say consistency is the most important thing. In the long term, your fitness will be higher from consistently training than from hammering too much, burning out, taking a week off, hammering, burning out, taking 2 weeks off, etc.
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I personally like to replenish my workouts with as much carbohydrates as possible (e.g. I would consume 100 g carbohydrates when burning 400 calories). This can be done more easily (or your nutrition can be less strict carbohydrate-percentage-wise) when doing lower intensity workouts (as more calories are coming from your fat storage).
Another way would be to follow this guideline:
Source: Rethinking the 60% Carbohydrates Rule (trainingpeaks.com)
Sometimes, I even like to intentionally do some active recovery (Z1) a couple hours after an intense workout (or 15–45m after having a big evening meal e.g. to prevent reactive hypoglycemia) in order to be able to consume more carbohydrates without per se gaining weight (or having to be less strict carbohydrate-ratio-wise in my daily meal plannings). Usually, that would be at 45% of my FTP (~125 W) for 30m, which burns ~200 calories = 50 g of extra carbs (which hopefully helps with feeling better, recovery, etc).
Filling your off days with Z1/2 coupled with more carbohydrate intake could perhaps aid in recovery, feeling better, etc. (as long as you keep their durations, to start with and test the waters, short enough as well e.g. start with something that’s relatively short for you and see how you feel).
I personally like to do my recovery days/week somewhere at maintenance volume as well as low intensity (rather than completely off) to keep as much fitness as possible while allowing fatigue to drop. I tend to feel a lot better on my first hard workout after my active recovery days/week.
You can maintain your fitness while doing less for a pretty long time according to this article:
In general populations, endurance performance can be maintained for up to 15 weeks when training frequency is reduced to as little as 2 sessions per week or when exercise volume is reduced by 33–66% (as low as 13–26 minutes per session), as long as exercise intensity (exercising heart rate) is maintained.
To maintain long-term endurance (i.e., maximal bouts of exercise lasting ∼1–3 hours) in general populations:
- The minimal exercise frequency is not known. Therefore, we conservatively recommend maintaining exercise frequency at or near the individual’s typical training level.
- Exercise volume can be reduced by 33% (as little as 26 minutes per session), as long as exercise frequency and intensity are maintained.
- Exercise intensity must be maintained as high as reasonably possible (at least as high as the individual’s typical training intensity).
The article (at the end) also mentions how to maintain maximal bouts of exercise lasting ∼4–8 minutes, V̇o2max, 1RM strength, etc.
The way I do it is by simply taking my CTL and multiplying it by roughly 0.66 (and distribute this TSS with as high frequency as possible (~6 days), with the last day before ramping again usually being an active recovery (Z1) only day).
Another option could be this guideline (Intensity- and Duration-Based Options to Regulate Endurance Training - PMC (nih.gov)):
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If I’m going to be riding 6 days a week then I’m going to be taking in some carbs on every ride.
How much would depend on a) intensity and b) how many kJ are being burned and c) how much the gut can comfortably handle.
I’d think less about individual rides and more about total (ie on and off bike) energy management across days and weeks
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Thanks so much,I’ve had a great week after taking a week off.
The info has been very helpful. One “mistake” I’ve notice is that I have been counting calories vs carbs. What brand, form, etc of carbs to you like. And what’s your strategy ie take a gel every 15 min. I think k I need to shoot for the 90-110 range of carbs/ hr.
And here’s the next thing. I think I need to change my training plan to focus more on sweet spot. Thoughts?
Scotty Kelly
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And one more thing. How is red light green light figured. Is it based on heart rate or power, or work compared to previous work load……
Thanks
Scotty Kelly
This article from TrainerRoad is a pretty nice one: How to Use Carbs for Maximum Performance - TrainerRoad Blog
Especially:
Glucose and fructose are interesting because they use different pathways in the body. In simple terms, glucose is sent directly into the bloodstream, and fructose is sent to the liver to be converted to glucose. Because these two simple sugars have different metabolic pathways, finding an optimal ratio has been at the center of seeing how many carbs per hour of cycling to consume.
The problem is that our GI system can only process a certain amount of carbohydrates at a given time. Once you exceed that limit, GI distress becomes an issue. For a long time, the standard advice has been 60-90 grams of carbs per hour using a 2:1 glucose to fructose ratio. However, research is emerging that shows that upwards of 140g/hr can be absorbed using a 1:1 ratio.
The cheapest form is table sugar (sucrose), which has a 1:1 ratio in glucose:fructose. The maximum concentration, while still being somewhat of a liquid, lies somewhere at 2 grams of table sugar per ml of water (although this will result in something very, very sweet), so I personally like to do 1 g of sucrose per ml within a flask I carry with me (a 300 ml flask with 150 g of sugar and 150 ml of water would be enough for ~1.5h in your case). And then you can add another bottle that’s more aimed at hydration (with 1 g of sugar per 3 or 4 ml of water i.e. a 500 ml bottle has roughly 100–125 g of carbohydrates).
Study: is table sugar the ideal fuel? : r/Velo (reddit.com)
In this study by Hearris et al. (https://journals.physiology.org/doi/abs/10.1152/japplphysiol.00091.2022), they have studied fit cyclists with different fueling strategies. Their conclusions are pretty interesting I believe: “We conclude 120 g·h-1 CHO (in a 1:0.8 ratio of maltodextrin or glucose:fructose) is a practically tolerable strategy to promote high CHO availability and oxidation during exercise.”
Table sugar happens to be almost perfect for this, since it provides a 1:1 glucose:fructose ratio. From just skimming the paper I am not sure if they do know if the 1:0.8 ratio is why they can also get up to 120g/hr, but it seems likely.
Does anyone have any experience with fueling like this?
Best way to dissolve the sugar quickly, would be to boil the water and mix it with the sugar.
Adding some sodium could be a good thing as well:
How Much Sodium Should You Consume? Bicycling.com
On the bike, a good rule of thumb is to consume between 500 and 700 milligrams per hour, which is about how much you can absorb within that time, Hinton says. Start with that amount and see how you tolerate it. If you feel sluggish or dizzy, or experience muscle cramps, you may need to increase it.
I would take small sips every now and then and spreading it over the hour to hit whatever carbs/hr your target is.
Consuming some carbohydrates pre-workout (somewhere within 15m before starting the workout to e.g. prevent reactive hypoglycemia or feeling bad[Pre-Workout Nutrition: Data-Driven Ways to Plan Meal Timing (Ask a Cycling Coach 327)]) might also help rather than trying to consume it all intra-workout to prevent e.g. gastrointestinal problems (especially more likely at higher intensities).