caloso

You know, I never thought of it that way, but that makes a lot sense to me.

Ygduf

Stress is known to affect willpower and a lot of racing is the will to wring yourself out for for something that is relatively meaningless. Stress also affects your sleep/recovery, your physical hormone levels, your time management decision making, your financial decision making... Everything. For most of us we need a lot of things to align to allow for (relative) good performance.

mike868y

I also find that emotional energy plays a big party of hitting numbers for more intense efforts (z5+). Much like there's a physical well of energy which can be depleted and needs rest and recovery to replenish, i find the same thing to be true for mental energy.

canuckbelle

I mostly only hit the big numbers in races. But after really hard days (like today), I'm emotionally raw and worn down. ...and yes, I cry on hard days sometimes

TheKillerPenguin

I am similar, when I am lifestressed I produce sad trombone watts during intervals.

hubcyclist

60mins tonight, 2x15 @ 100%, sorta kind wondering if I'm ready to bump it to 260w, but I haven't really done anything to prove it to myself, whereas 255 has been proven to be doable for an hour.

aaronmcd

For me lack of emotional energy just makes me not wanna wake up at 5 to train. But hey, I never want to wake up at 5 anyway! Once I'm riding I'm not thinking about real life crap anyway. Just how many minutes are left in the interval, and how long that is in human years.

UmneyDurak

Yet you made it to CAT2.


Hmm, I should try that. Usually that comes after as I cry over a pint of ice cream because I missed power numbers.

UmneyDurak

Good point on emotional energy and being stressed out. Last couple of months have been very stressful, and it's not getting much better.

tetonrider

there are many coaches out there who fail to realize this and give the athlete the feedback. sounds like you are very in tune with your performance, but i know you've mentioned you are coached, so i bring this up.

not always easy to be so self-aware in those moments.

canuckbelle

Thanks. I've been very lucky that I was put in a high performance stream when I was 12-13 (for badminton...it's a thing in Canada, ok?! ). Starting at 15 I was able to work with some really good sports psychologists. And I suppose it's been an interest of mine ever since. I've been with a coach since I was 10...and I think that has helped immensely as a cyclist (with a coach). It helps *so* much with communication. I also think my mental game is one of my strengths in races (it helps me be very patient, for example). I have, but haven't yet read, the Chimp Paradox by Steve Peters. I suspect that it's along similar lines of mindfulness etc.

topflightpro

At this point in the year, it could also be burn out. I know I just get tired of training and need to take time off the bike or just back off from training. Especially when it's a billion degrees outside.

grolby

It's important to remember that the mind is part of the body, so mental energy is every bit as real as your glycogen stores. It's a super-hard time of the year to train. Not only are a lot of us fighting mental and physical fatigue after a full season of racing, the heat of late summer makes the hard interval work necessary to stay sharp that much more uncomfortable. I'm going through this right now in my cyclocross training, and despite having pulled back from road racing at the end of July, I can totally understand right now why so many 'cross specialists really try to limit their race participation in the summer. Doing the kind of explosive and anaerobic work necessary to race well on a 'cross track when it's 80-90 degrees and humid is just brutal, especially when you're specific about doing it on your 'cross bike off-road and therefore don't have the cooling effect of higher speeds.

In general I've had a harder time this summer of staying focused and disciplined than I did last year, not just in my on-the-bike work but in the rest of my life as well. Everyone feels like a million dollars in June, and when things start cooling off again in mid-late September, but mid-August is a tough point of the season no matter whether you're starting to think about the late road season or gearing up to race 'cross bikes. I don't think I've ever had an August on the bike that I didn't just want to get through.

hack

That was right about when I started to shut it down mentally. That was a season goal and it came earlier than expected. So, motivation to train quickly waned.

canuckbelle

This is partly why I have many different goals, and I have 'stretch goals.'

Stretch goals are the ones that are a bit of a stretch, when made at the beginning of the season. But they're the ones that, if the season goes amazingly, leave me something to reach for after I've met all of my other goals.

For example, this year, my two big goals were to get to Cat 1 and to win the GC at Crossroads Classic. I did both of those things. But I had a stretch goal left over to podium during Gateway Cup. So I still have something to suffer for.

hack

I had a couple other goals and a stretch goal (or two). I just fizzled mentally and couldn't bring myself to stay focused in training.

aaronmcd

5x4 at 353, then one at 390, and out of time.

TheKillerPenguin

2 sets of 2x7 @ lotsawatts with 2min recoveries between reps and like 10-15min between sets. Woo party...

Ygduf

dear lord.

185lbs, 16:54 OLH, 393AP.

At least it wasn't over 17. But still, long ways to go.

hack

I need to go climb that again. I've only been there once and I did a casual paced 25 min @ 275 watts.

Ygduf

I haven't been climbing much at all in the last 2 years, but especially this year. I wanted to face my fears and see how bad it is, and I'm still pretty disappointed in that time. It's like 30 seconds off mediocre-for-me climbing.

wktmeow

Smh @ your 'mediocre' time

My best up it was borrowing a friend's 303 tubulars, and with him pacing me up the first half. Came in at 19:17 @ 304w and hurting

I may be able to put down an extra 20-25 watts this season, but I'm a good 7-8 lbs heavier, so I'm guessing it'd be a similar time.

scheibo

LMK the next time you do this - I think we're probably pretty close and maybe the competition would help. You still have like 6 weeks until Montelbello...

dz_nuzz

I was supposed to do an hour of Z2 today. Angry watts from two "So close, but yet so far" races ended up making it like Z3 watts...Atleast average. Actually did half the work in Z3 and the other half in Z4. And my legs are still sore from the weekend.

scheibo

Did 2x20' and was pleasantly surprised to have perfectly hit the exact same average and normalized power for both intervals. Much better than yesterday where I wanted to do VO2 work and bailed after the first interval (which I think happens ~50% of the time I try anything above threshold). Both days my legs felt pretty decent, I think its just that much harder to commit to VO2s because you know it will start hurting like a minute into the interval vs. at like maybe the 10-15 minute mark in a 2x20'.

I'm trying to figure out how to get a higher success rate on harder stuff. I think maybe being very careful with the pacing such that I deliberately go out easier on the first repeat might be prudent, but I'm not sure if there's any magic to being more successful than just hardening up...