Any tips for loss of motivation?
I would normally ride 3-4 times a week and have been pretty consistent since the start of the year bar a couple of weeks in February when I was sick.
Have been struggling to find the motivation to train the last 2-3 weeks. I completed my main event for the year at start of August and have been lazy since, only 6 rides this month and haven’t touched the bike in over a week.
FTP has dropped from 291 to 281
I would try to focus on what made me want to train in the first place. I would do old routes and see the improvements.
Last night I went on a ride with a group. Fun times, and much more enjoyable when you are at the sharp end somewhat effortlessly. Those gains aren’t easily made but come with the effort you have put in so far. Those are some things that motivate me.
I felt the same way after my last big event in early August! There’s that feeling of “what next?” after you finish.
It never hurts to take a break or just ride for a bit, rather than focusing on “training”. A 10W drop in FTP is nothing to worry about since it’ll come back.
In years gone by I’ve had the same challenges - when my a race is done I take a short break that becomes a big break (months). Then at the start of the season I have to start all over again.
The best way for me to stay motivated is to find a future event and book it.
I work better when I have a target (ie same race next year) and to cross train in the gym.
Maybe just over reached a bit for your main event. Used to get this quite a lot when building to one big main season event like an Ironman or something equally epic. The training and other sacrifices (e.g. cutting back social life to ensure I was eating clean and getting enough sleep) plus the mental and physical fatigue of the event itself just meant I nearly always seemed to need a month or so of doing not much training before the motivation came back. I’ve made a deliberate decision to try and avoid big peaks and tapers since then and instead just stay pretty consistently fit for most of the year and always have another event to look forward to.
I would get back into things by doing whatever training you enjoy most. For me that’s unstructured riding with mates with a coffee during and/or beer afterward. Never have a motivation issue for doing those rides, especially in summer when weather is good, and they’re often the rides that can get put aside when you’re building for an event and it’s all about structure. Just getting back in the habit of riding 3-4 times a week is the hard bit, once you’re doing that I imagine the desire to start doing proper training again will come back sooner or later
Forget training; just go ride!
This is pretty common after your A event…we are getting close to the end of the season (at least in the northern hemisphere), so if you have no other events planned, just ride for enjoyment. You don’t have to “train” 365 days a year. Riding is training…just not structured.
Ride when you feel like it, as hard or as easy as you want. The motivation will come back.
Press the reset button, for the moment forget about FTP, training and your lack of motivation.
Use “smiles per mile” as a datum, sometimes we lose focus why we first started riding, independence and the pure joy.
Capture that again and you’ll start to appreciate what you’ve attained in terms of fitness and how easy the miles pass by with relatively little effort.
When your ready, you’ll have your mojo back and looking forward to next Spring and surprising your riding buddies after a strong winter of training.
This is the way.
Ditch Strava and training, slow down and remember why you like cycling. Stop the focus on power output, HR, KOM, segments and PBs and feel the wind, look at the scenery.
All of the above.
And maybe switch up disciplines. If you’ve been riding gravel, maybe try mountain bike/trail bike for a while. If you’ve been riding MTB, maybe go to the road.
Find a couple of exploration rides rather than training rides. Maybe something like backpacking?
Take advantage of not needing structure to try out a few different things…
I use that type of period (post race season) to go on rides that I’ve wanted to do but don’t serve any particular training function on the weekends. During the week focusing more on other activities (yoga, climbing, paddleboarding, running [not all at once] ).
As other people have mentioned, slowing down after a main event isn’t uncommon.
Thanks so much for all the replies, some really helpful advice.
I think I realised yesterday I needed to do something and posting here was a start. In the meantime i have registered for an event in September so at least I’ve something on the calendar now.
It’s a strange situation to go from always wishing you had extra time to get out on the bike to having time to go out and just not feeling it.
I’m going to do a short spin today to get going again and have one with the club planned for tomorrow evening. Hopefully this will kickstart it for me again.
Sign up for the next event. 
Take a couple of weeks off the bike first though.
For me it has been sign of overreaching, happens after 2-3 6wk loading cycles. Usually during outdoor seasons when doing lot of additional Z2. Physically recovered ok but I guess central nervous system took some hidden hit.
This year switched to 4wk loading cycles, seems have helped. Also, switched from power based Z2 (IF 0.65) to HR that lowered IF ~0.60-0.62.
Stop training , and go ride for pleasure with no bike gps or computer.