Can you have too much of a good thing? Right now, I would say, emphatically, yes.
I’ve spent a huge amount of this summer riding, maybe about 20-25 hours per week. It’s a fair amount in isolation, but combined with a day job that involves hiking, sawing, lifting, and breaking, it’s a huge amount of physical activity. At first, my hubris won out and I convinced myself that I was pretty good, and I could handle the high temperatures, the long days, and the the weekend races.
Well, not anymore.
Something happened to me this week that’s never happened before. In the middle of a hard workout in near 100 degree temps, I had a sudden realization that has– honestly– never happened to me before during a ride.
You know what? I really don’t want to do this right now. I really, really, really do not want to be on my bike.
The following day I tried to go for an easy spin and couldn’t even do that. My legs felt hollow. My body felt weak. But, scariest of all, I just didn’t want to be on my bike. Not even a little. Even the beautiful Mission Peninsula didn’t inspire me.
I think this is something more than overtraining. I think this is a case of too much of a good thing. Too much time on the saddle; too much focusing on where to, how long, how fast; too much poring over the minutiae of training data.
What I’m most excited for next year, when I’ll be coaching y’all, isn’t really training per se. Rather, I’m most excited to just spend time with a group of people who are as stoked as I am for getting out on the road. Excitement is contagious. I might be helping you all out when it comes to designing workouts, but you’ll be reminding me every day of why I love this sport so much.
In the meantime, I’m going to spend a few days off the bike and on the mend. Life’s too short to spend your days doing stuff that you don’t love.