Does training feel like a grind or are you happy to be doing it?
It’s a grind for me.
Do you have a short term goal?
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What part of it is a grind?
The time commitment? Doing hard intervals? Long or Short intervals?
Sometimes it can feel like a bit of a grind to do all the extra faff of getting bottles, food, and clothes together. Or when I have to just go up and down the same road to do some intervals. But overall it’s not a grind and I look forward to doing it.
But I do have pretty frequent races and goals coming up. In the past when it has started to feel like a grind, I find that either I’m over doing it (too much intensity or not enough food/recovery), I don’t have sufficient goals, or I feel like my training isn’t progressing my fitness toward my goals.
It varies. Right now, I’m into it. Earlier this year, about 4-5 months into a 7 month plan I just wanted out.
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I feel like life is a grind. It always feels like a struggle
Why put yourself through it?
Bills to pay. Projects to complete. It’s not just training. It’s owning a car, owning a home job you don’t love but need a house over someone’s head
I’m not upset about any of it. It’s what has to be done to get it done
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You’re not alone
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Training and the mindset for it is very seasonal for me…
From November to March, training is fun. I have big events planned and big goals for those events.
April to mid-August, training is an afterthought since I’m in the throes of events and either in recovery or about to do something.
August to October (now), training is difficult to do. I’m a bit burned out and need to take a break. Luckily, I can still ride for fun outside since this is actually when the weather is nicest. So I do lots of fun rides and don’t worry about training. I’ll resume all those hard intervals in November once I’ve started looking forward to the next year of events.
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I hope you have some joy and fun in there too.
And that there is more in your future.
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I mostly enjoy it, especially since doing a more polarised approach and not doing progressive overload in the intervals but mostly by adding z2. Being engaged with the workout by doing them outside or on rollers also helps
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Truths
Varies through the year and over the years. If the grind is an issue I’d suggest focusing on one aspect at a time. For example cadence. Spend some time focusing on cadence.
This can help shift the Focus and avoid the grind.
“The games are won on Friday nights. Championships are won at 6am in the off-season”. An old football quote.
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Love training, in many ways more than I enjoy racing. But I have my limit when it comes to intervals at threshold or higher (particularly v02max). I only have so many blocks of that stuff I can stand before they start to beat me down. It’s mental more than physical. But with my focus primarily on long events, I do pretty well without much intensity and just piling on the long rides and sweet spot work (which I love doing). And once my target races are done (typically by early August), I’ll put a couple races on the calendar in Oct/Nov that are pure fun with no expectations. I might “train” a little (good time to experiment) , but mainly I just ride my bike a bit and enjoy the races. And they are great motivation to prevent me from getting too fat and lazy in the off season. By December, I’m getting amped up about next year and eager to train again.
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After doing them for a few years I find TR plans can be a grind. Now days if I want to do 3ea. v02 in a week, I do that. Maybe the next week I’ll work on sweet spot progressions. It’s hard for me to follow the plans exactly.
I refuse to do z2 rides on the trainer. Now with it being over 100F in Texas I still have to do them outside.
Training has to be fun.
Same. I’m not training on the bike right now. I do a couple of strength workouts during the week, then my fun is my MTB ride on the weekend.
If you can keep the training up without it causing too much stress then it’s probably best to keep it going. But if there’s a way add a goal as others mentioned or add a fun spin on things, maybe that would help.
Cheers
After 3 1/2 decades I’ve found it’s only a grind when I’m overtrained.
Work, however, has always been a grind. Like every single day.
Joe
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Neither really. I’ve been weightlifting for 22 years with very few breaks, then running for around 7 and more recently, cycling.
I’ve never “liked” getting up at 5-5:30 am to run/bike. Honestly, I hate getting up. Usually don’t enjoy the activity itself a ton.
I do love what it does for me the rest of the day and just in general. I feel 1000x better the rest of the day, in a way I never experienced before doing intense regular cardio. I love seeing the progress I make. I love doing races, but I do very few considering how hard and regular I train. I made a goal to start doing more.
I know if I plan a workout and skip it or cut it back, I’ll feel 100x worse. That very very rarely happens. Maybe a couple times a year.
“You either suffer the pains of discipline or you suffer the pain of regret. One of them is temporary, the other is forever.”
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Biggest struggle is I have other stuff that matters more but I booked and event and can’t get out. I need a few months off the bike I think
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