Do you have days...
 

When you feel fine when you first get on your bike... and 5 to 10 miles into the ride and you realize you just don't have it? That happened to me today. I felt flat the whole time on the bike and about half way into the ride I gave up trying to improve from my last ride. I was eight minutes slower today than I was on Sunday when I took this route...

The only thing I can think of that I can partially blame it on is that I might not have had enough to eat beforehand..

I tend to have "bad days" pretty much every few days........ I am getting to old for this sport at a serious level.

You body is going to respond differently from day to day and even the top pro's have bad leg days, so I would say your experience is universal.

Same thing happened to me. I took off two days and got back on yesterday and i rode out this morning. I felt strong 30 minutes into the ride. But i felt weak after awhile. But i kept pushing and luckily this group of four train pass me and i caught up with them. It pushed me and i loosened my muscles up and i felt great the rest of the ride.

I feel like that all the time. I find that if I can get 20 miles in, my legs come back and then it's hammer time.

definitely have had a bad day...today was it, chalked it up to 8 hours of sleep the past 4 days, and 60 miles, last night a hard hammer fest...probably not the smartest thing to try riding this morning.

Chad

That was this morning for me. I don't usually get to ride on Wednesdays, and my body seemed to know it. I still did the planned ride, but was ready to accept a much slower average speed.

"Bad days" are not the same for me, though. Those are the days where you don't feel up to the task before you even get on the bike. A coach I had once tried to get me to turn bad days into good days (sports psychology).

I had to do the Battle Fitness Test last Thursday night. It's a 13 km forced march in full gear, a 55 lb load. You have 2:26:20 to do it in; I did it in 2:12:46.

Because I wanted to be fresh for it (it is a test) I skipped the Tuesday night group ride and didn't ride Wed nor Thurs as well.

As usual, the march ripped my soft tender girlie feet to shreds, so I was off the bike a few more days while the blisters under my toenails drained and the blisters on my heels scabbed up.

Monday night I go out on a solo ride, and I'm friggin' Superman. I wind up doing a whole bunch of sprints just because I can, and I'm doing long solo stretches 40-42 km/h.

Tuesday night group ride turns into a hammerfest, and I win the midpoint sprint and finish in the lead group, and was barely breathing hard.

Tonight... no legs at all. Felt like riding through molasses. Could barely hold 33 km/h. To the point where I stopped halfway through to see if I had a low tire, a dragging brake, or some other mechanical problem (bike is fine).

*shrug* I guess some days you get the bear; some days the bear gets you.

DG

If i wake up not well hydrated & decide to go for a ride, i'll probably bonk in less than 10 miles & get painful headaches.

How could you bonk in less than 10 miles?

I have been off my bike since the group ride on Saturday, due to what I think was some sort of flu. I plan to ride in the morning. Thurs. morning is usually 35 to 40 miles for me, I doubt I'll have the energy for that, but even a bad ride is better than no ride.........

Yeah, yeah, I know how that feels. Like how I felt some chest pain this past Sunday as I started to climb toward the Hollywood Sign, here in Los Angeles. Pushed on through the pain, guessing it was an agina attack, and not a heart attck.

I found someone on the ride who i knew carried nitro tabs, and popped one. Finished the ascent under full power. No pain, so I knew it was my heart acting up.

Headed to the hospital after getting back from the ride. Monday afternoon two stents were placed in one of my coronary arteries - the left one, the "Widow Maker," where I had at least 80% blockage.

I'll be back on my bike in a few days, and I can't wait to see how much faster and harder I'm going to be able to ride now that my heart is operating at full strength.

Yeah, I've had those days.....

I only have the bad days if the air quality is really bad, like high humidity and ozone levels. When I lived in Maryland, boy did I have a few when I thought I was going to puke I felt so bad. It has never happened since I moved away from that hell hole.

Often arises from profligate onanism

The good lord was on your side...

One of the important lessons I learned recently is to listen to my body...if Im tired, or 'not feeling it', I rest. Makes me feel stronger overall.

I'm usually just the opposite...the first 5-10 miles suck. Heavy legs, knees not happy, wondering what the hell compelled me to get on a bike in the first place. Then things start to lube and warm up and all is well with the world again.

If I'm just not feeling it...I mean after giving my body plenty of time to warm up and get with the program, then I'll dial things back a bit. I figure at least I'm moving my legs, getting the HR outta sofa mode and I'm on my bike. That usually makes me happy, or at least, less pissed off.

Had one of "those days" a couple weeks ago. Temperature was 106 when I headed out the door for the Tue/Thu 38 mile evening group ride. My normal hydration process got derailed by other events and I started out the door. About 12 miles into the ride, I realized things were not going well, at all. Discretion being the better part of valor, I bailed and limped home. It doesn't happen often but it does happen.

i had one of those "bad days" today, i felt like garbage after riding 7 or 8 miles, and decided after 16 miles to just stop riding because i just didn't care about the ride anymore. honestly, today is the first time that i've ever felt that way, but it was a solo ride so it wasn't really that big of a deal. it actually started to make me wonder what causes something like that to happen though, because last week i felt much better doing the same exact ride, but i guess sometimes that just happens...

I had a terrible morning before school a couple of day's ago, could barely hold 35km/h with my training partner who I'm much fitter then. However, the morning before I'd hammered on a hill-training route, and hadn't eaten the morning of my bad ride; I'm hoping that was it.

+1.

Andy Schleck, stage 17 in the Tour a few weeks ago. He seemed to be struggling early on. But then it came back to him and when it did he hammered the rest of the field. the only guys who could stay with him were his brother and Contador.

If it works for those guys...

I'm usually the opposite... feel lousy and sluggish the first 30-45 min and then start to come around.

Listen to your body, when it does'nt feel right its a good chance you should'nt even get on the bike.

Rather if you have an indoor bike, use that instead and work out your muscle for when you go back out again.

Yup, bonked out twice yesterday. Had a busy day and was going for a night ride with my shop. All I had to eat that day was a nutri-grain bar and a muffin 6 hours before the ride, and a power bar 2 hours before the ride. So I bonked out pretty quick, friend gave me a gel which only worked for about 20 minutes, then bonked again at the end of the ride but pushed on until we got back.

I wouldn't have bonked so easily had I eaten a proper lunch and some real food before the ride. Eh, it happens.

It happens. When I am having an "off" day, I accept it and ride slower, just putting in the miles type of riding. No shame in that. You can't hammer every day.