Hi there! I have been injured during 2022 season for 7 months and experienced the “no bike” life. Truth is, we are incredibly efficient with wasting time. I haven’t been with the family much more. I anyway try to fit cycling around family activities. Saying that I clock 6-10 hours weekly and I can’t imagine doing more for long periods of time. So maybe switch focus to non competitive cycling or only one A event per year which should give you 8 months of easier pace.
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This. And not something you need to crowd source an answer. Do what you love.
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Im assuming your B group ride must be very fast. Riding for 12, 10 or even 8 hours a week is a fair amount of time to get fast with structured training. I ride with several people who have W/Kg that are more than 4 and some that are 5 that ride that much. Obviously, genetics play a role, but not entirely.
Likely, time to evaluate what you are doing outside riding the bike to become faster mainly diet and rest if you not able to get faster this way.
Also like many have said maybe you need a break or need to re-evaluate your goals. Being fast on the group ride is “cool,” but at the end of the day it is a group ride.
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Do you enjoy what you’re good at? If so, why not go back?
I’m marginal at running, but I enjoy it. I’m pretty good at MTB, but I hate the culture so I just do it on my own. You just have to enjoy what you’re doing.
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Why did you begin cycling in the first place?
I always go back to that. My answer is I’ve always enjoyed exploring and riding bikes. Plus I needed a way to stay in shape along with lifting. Suddenly it turned into an obsession, where I love structure and following a plan. At the end of the day if I start feeling down because I’m not at a certain fitness level compared to others. I go back to why I started in the first place, I’m in shape and I get to explore new areas or have a reason to travel somewhere.
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It’s easy to end up with a narrow view of what cycling means from a personal perspective.
A few years ago I burnt myself out by becoming too focused on data, PB’s, average speed etc and forgot to look up and away from my Garmin and take in the sights, smells and sounds of the countryside I was riding through.
Another aspect here is taking a course which could be a permanent outcome to a temporary problem and as the OP’s children grow up the chance to build a love of cycling in the children is a fantastic goal in itself.
I’m still a data nerd but I am more balanced in my outlook with my short, middle and longer term goals.
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I’m going through something similar myself. After this past season (during it really), I really started to question why I was putting “champion” level efforts in training but only getting decent results. This offseason, I took time off some voluntary, some forced and assesed why I needed to push myself so hard. I came to a realization that having been an athlete all my life, I didnt really know how to do much else. For me, I realized there’s other things that I had sarificed to try and be really good at triathlon. I also realized, at 36, no one is counting on me to be really fast for races so there’s no reason to do the most volume I can to try and get results. If i scale back my expectations of myself and volume of training, I can still race and ride and still do other things that I hadn’t been able to.
Sure it was fun being able to push myself as hard as I could for a time. But now, its nice to not be pigeonholed. Sounds like that just might be where you are too. At the end of the day, do what you want. It’s freeing to realize that no one else really cares how fast you are.
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@ZeroGravity At some point I realized that I was really only racing against myself and that helped. I don’t podium either but I do feel like racing helps me to set goals. I am still trying to find the right balance with event selection and have tried to just keep things local for the most part.
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Are you eating wind all the time or what?
The vast majority of my rides are solo. Much easier to find enjoyment out of something when you don’t have to rely on somebody else. YMMV.
Also FWIW, the guys I know who never rode solo all quit about 10 years ago. They claimed they couldn’t find the time, but the real problem was that they could never sync up their schedules.
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Thanks for all your replies.
Did some hard thinking and decided to give up competitive cycling. I enjoy being in the group, the tactics, and pushing hard, but it’s the whole 80/20 rule. I spend 80% of my free time trying to get better at cycling and only see a 20% improvement, the ROI just isn’t there.
On the flip-side, I can put in 20% of my free time in lifting and kickboxing, and see 80% gains. I don’t enjoy them as much as cycling, but my body’s built for high impact and high intensity sports, so if I do end up wanting to compete it’s less of a hassle than cycling.
I won’t give up on cycling completely, I’ll still be using it for endurance training and casual group rides.
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After cycling being my primary sport for about 10 years, I picked up tennis again a year and a half ago after 20 years of not playing. I tried to keep up TR mid volume plan and play tennis 4+ days a week, but eventually went down to the low volume plan and that is working great. Being on low volume is giving me good aerobic base with stable/fine FTP, and now I have time to lift weights and work on agility every other day. I’d neglected so much of my body by over focusing on cycling. As much as I love cycling, tennis really suits my personality better - I enjoy playing ball games more than races. Plus, it can be played into old age and it has the reported highest contribution to life expectancy of 9.7 yrs compared to 3.7 years for cycling. It helped that I hit a cycling performance plateau for the amount of time that I could put into it. I still enjoy rides outside. But I say do the thing that is fun and that you are drawn to, and sometimes just doing a new thing and figuring out all of its challenges is great for your mind and spirit.
Sounds like someone needs to try triathlon 
In at the deep end 
OP, you’re confusing cycling with racing (or competitive group riding).
Not every ride or rider needs to be that. Arguably, unless you aspire to race professionally, it shouldn’t be that.
Pick up a more relaxed bike like a gravel-ish bike or flat bar tourer, pack a jetboil and a coffee plunger, some snacks and sandwiches, and go explore some trails.
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Yes but this is why I like cycling, being in the mix with a group and being competitive about it. I don’t think there’s anything wrong to say that this is what cycling means to me, just as to others cycling may mean going on a long gravel ride in the wilderness; both are equally valid. It just so happens that my body type and time limitations mean I’m suited for short, fast, and flat crits…of which there are none near me 
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This is pretty timely as I have had some but out issues lately. Although none stem from some lower back issues that I’ve been chasing for quite some time(on the road bike). I think it’s become maybe a little too much of my identity at times and I feel it’s easy to let that happen. I am taking some time off to let my body heal and hopefully come back stronger but if not I’ll just stick with the mtb. More comfortable. Sounds like you figured it out though. The competitiveness can wear on you.
Some feel their validation as a person is related to how good they are (or feel they are) at something. Thus they can find it hard when (in their own eyes or objectively) they find they are not as good as they once were or thought they were.
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I resemble that comment!
Joe
Yes, consider quitting bikes.
and close the thread.
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