Burnout and Overtraining

I'm kind of sick of biking. I'm also sick of blogging, and frankly, I'm sick of your face. I skipped my regular group rides this week; I just didn't feel like going. The weather is absolutely beautiful out as I write this, but I kind of just feel like locking myself in my room and sleeping all day. I'm pretty grumpy, too.

Maybe it's over-training, maybe it's burnout. I don't know, but I guess I'm going to have to take it easy for a couple weeks. It's unfortunate timing, with the Working Man's Stage Race coming up in less than two weeks, I won't be on form. We'll see how it goes though. Whatever happens, I will never lose my ability to sprint, I do know that much.

The essential problem is a highly detailed but unfocused training plan which was left on the wayside several months ago--now I just do what I feel like. That's not to say that I only ride what I like; I do hill-work and stuff that I absolutely hate, too. Because I work nights, my free-time during the day lets me train way, way more than should be expected of someone of my modest experience. This lends itself to overtraining. I don't feel overtrained though. I didn't mention it here, but I was definitely going in to overtraining mode back in April; I was sick for several weeks. I physically feel fine now, just very unmotivated.

Then there's burnout. Mental, not physical. Lack of motivation. Boredom and a feeling of drudgery when getting on the bike. That sounds about right. It's no wonder, when my schedule allows me to bike about three times as much as I should. The suggested solution, according to Joe Friel's Cyclist's Training Bible is "rest, rest, rest," and 5-10 days off the bike. Blah. Whatever. Fine.

In other news, I've registered for the Working Man's Stage Race, a three-day race in Amesbury, on Tues/Wed/Thurs the 12-14 of this month. Should be fun.