Training & Nutrition - What should I do?

There is a lot of text here.
Before the meat of the question:
I like being light. I like climbing hills. I like pushing myself. I like overcoming limits.
I started off this year with the goal of "Getting good." My definition of good, to me, simply meant being able to climb fast and deal with wind at the same time. I live in a windy, hilly area, so there's never really "break time" on some days.
I started off this year with 20 miles split between 10 mile commutes to work, and upped it relatively quickly to 30 miles, then 45 miles. Longest I've done is 60. What I've been focusing on mostly is climbing, mainly riding ~ 10 or so miles and ~1000 feet elevation to the base of a road called Snowbowl, then climbing its 7 miles, ~2500 elevation gain, then ending it with sprints at the top. Earlier this year, I did this ride 5 days in a row. Earlier this year I could do it twice if I wanted to. I felt like I used to own this mountain.
Now I just feel tired. My legs literally have no "go" left. I cant go all out like I used to, and when I do its extremely painful. My breathing and heart rate and all that feels non responsive; it feels like its hiding in a closet and is afraid to come out or something like that, thats the best way I can describe it.
My legs just feel dead. There isn't any improvement. I tried taking a week or so off, followed by a week or so of just easy rides. This week I climbed the thing twice and I feel the same as before the rest. I just feel weak and slow. I do not feel healthy. I really wanted to get better so I could at least feel comfortable trying to race, etc.
So, wise wizards of bike forums, what the **** do I do? I have a new bike on the way for november and I'd really like to feel healthy enough to ride it. Should I just quit cold turkey? I'm pissed off at myself for feeling weaker and weaker, despite a rest week and an easy week.....

This is classic overtraining, not just a little overreaching. There are a couple of good things you can do. Go up to a little cabin in the woods with your favorite person and hang out for a couple of weeks. Take short walks and read Serious Modern Fiction. That's my fave. Another thing is to take a long backpack trip, at least 10 days without resupply, but only hike about 5 miles per day. That'll feel good, too.

Yeah, quit. Oh, you could ride for 1/2 hour once in a while, but no HR over 100. Use some whey protein. Get lots of sleep. Have a massage. Go to movies. Rent DVDs. Stay away from it.

What should I expect to happen to my fitness (or lack thereof) levels?
I'm really afraid of whats going to happen to me if I stop. I've been relying on this for so much....

Yeah, your fitness is headed for the toilet. OTOH, if you take care of yourself and get yourself rested enough, you can start over and build it back for next season. This season is over. The main thing you should so is learn from this. This is just like any other injury. It's a season ender, and you did it to yourself. It's a glandular thing. You wore them out. They're gone. You have to let them rest completely for a good while before their normal function is restored. You may have to find some inner resources.

If you can afford it, go out and buy a recording HRM that will download to your computer. Then you can keep track of "time in zone" for the week, and adjust these times in zone to a pyramid, limiting the amount of time spent in the top zone. I use a Polar. Their software is pretty good.

Good luck and have a nice winter gradually putting some base back on.

Is weightlifting okay?
AAarrrrgh. Yeah, I did this too myself. Frustrating as hell.
Thanks for being awesome and basically teaching me what to do, Carbonfiber. Appreciate it lots.

I'm not sure I'd call this overtraining yet. There's not enough informatiion.

How much riding per week (hours if you know it, otherwise miles) did you do? Did you ride every day, or take days off, or do recovery days? What did you do last year? How old are you? Have you been athletic before?

It's possible that you did too much too fast and dug yourself into a hole, but it's also possible that you have something else going on, like being anemic.

Eric's right. Best to see a doc, get a blood test. But I bet it's just plain old having too much fun. Way too much time at the high end of the scale, not enough time at the low end. About that time in zone business - I limit my time in zone 5 (over LT) to about 20 minutes/week if combined with a limit on zone 4 (LT and subthreshold) of about 1.5 hrs., or a total exertion on Polar's scale of 600. That's inside a mileage envelope of 150-200/week. YMMV.

I wouldn't weight lift, either. I find weightlifting puts a heck of a training stress on me. I wouldn't do anything that raised my HR particularly, except, you know, what you gotta do.

Essentially I am an eating disordered person trying to find a life that works for me. Bicycling works for me, it makes me happy and satisfies a need to burn to calories and otherwise be active. I do not know if this is healthy or not.
I like bikes, I really do. I look at every bike I pass to know whether its a good bike or not, I know a lot about bikes that is completely useless knowledge in the long run (depending on what you're long run may or may not be), and I generally respect the joy bicycling gives a person. To be honest, a lot of the rides have not been fun, but more corrective (you must do this, as hard as you can, or you fail at life) sort of behavior.
I am essentially using bicycling as an excuse for bulimia and/or compulsive exercise, it seems.
And yes, I do hate myself for it.
Despite how I feel during the ride, after the ride I feel awesome, every time. That is why I keep training and riding. I generally like it. I feel free, even from all the negativity. I feel like nothing can touch me.
Then a car passes me and I feel like I have to haul.
I don't know what I'm doing and I don't have a life. Consider this my first drunk post/fail.
Base it is, I guess.

Rest for a couple weeks and change up your diet, humans are frugivores and unless you get massive fruit cals your gonna experience problems especially in such a demanding sport as cycling. Do alittle bit of reading on the 80/10/10 diet(80/10/10 being the macronutrient profile carbs/prot/fat), if you can't make such a radical change atleast pump up your fruit cals! :)

In vino veritas. But no alcohol in your case, dude. I know exactly what you are saying. I have a very dear friend who's similar. Demons ride you. You shake them off by riding. But please, no alcohol or bad drugs. They work, too, but they'll kill you. Take a vow.

OK, change of prescription. This is what she does in a similar situation: go ahead and ride. Keep it to about 3 hours. That's about the amount of time it takes to get the desired effect. Buy a HR monitor. Doesn't matter what, any kind of cheapie will work, you just want the number. Keep your HR generally under 120. You can let it get up to 135 on the climbs, but don't really climb. Ride mostly flats and rollers. This will seem slow, but 3 hours should be about right at this pace. You'll recover more slowly doing this, but at least you won't be self-destructive. After a couple months of this, you should be back to normal.

BTW, what's healthy is what works for you. This is healthy. Keep doing it and keep looking. Try to find a group ride you can go on once a week. You'll make friends and it'll help recharge your batteries. Google Pema Chodron. Buy her CDs. I don't know you well enough to recommend. Getting Unstuck might be good. Pure Meditation. Noble Heart. This may be the most important thing you ever did.

One other thing: food is fuel. You can't ride without it. Look at it that way. Make healthy food choices because you can't ride as well if you don't. My friend once had yams for dinner. Nothing else. Fuel. Chicken salad is another standby. Low calories but it works. Use a recovery drink after riding - about 3:1 or 4:1 carbs to protein. Fuel for tomorrow.

I'm not sure I'd call this overtraining yet. There's not enough informatiion.

How much riding per week (hours if you know it, otherwise miles) did you do? Did you ride every day, or take days off, or do recovery days? What did you do last year? How old are you? Have you been athletic before?

It's possible that you did too much too fast and dug yourself into a hole, but it's also possible that you have something else going on, like being anemic.

Tried taking iron for a couple weeks and no help. Hours per week had gotten up to 15-20, most all of it climbing. Tried riding, then resting, then riding, but I still wasn't recovering that well.
Last year I didn't really ride much. Just slamming it from home to work and vice versa, wearing myself out with that, etc. As far as athleticism, I've never really done endurance sports before ever in my life. Mainly it's just been martial arts, messing around with weights, and HIIT cardio. This is the first year I've ever ridden more than 20 miles in one go. Most of my training was done without a lot of sleep. Plus bouts of bulimia. Plus a whole bunch of other crap. I just cant force myself to do it anymore.

Carbon's right, I think. I just need to chill. Being burned out is being burned out is being burned out, and there is really only one way to get out of that. I haven't been able to feel like I can rest all year, I think now would be a good time to learn that skill before I get so bad my leg muscles melt off of the bone and I lose my ability to communicate with other people in a pleasant way entirely. Wa wa wa wa, whatever.

Lamp, +1000 on carbon. Eat better and don't push too hard.

Also big ups on your av - we're not worthy!! Love the Stone products :-)