Bad Day(s) On The Bike? Understanding Why They Happen

Sometimes you head out for a ride and it just doesn’t happen. You feel as though you’re pedaling squares, your breathing feels tight and labored, your heart rate and perceived effort relative to the watts you’re putting out are way off, your thoughts are negative and unhelpful and your mates are disappearing up the road or trail. We often put this down to “just being one of those days” but, more often than not, there’s a reason or reasons for the mysterious drop in performance.

Under-recovery

Have a look at your Fitness/Freshness Graph, have you been piling on the intensity, volume, or both and digging yourself into a hole of accumulated fatigue? When was your last recovery week and have you been following the simple but effective rule of a hard day followed by an easy day? When was the last time you checked your FTP? Might it have dropped but you’re stubbornly sticking to the old number for your pacing/interval levels or maybe you’re working on an over-inflated number from a short-effort protocol or an estimate? 

RELATED: How to Use Strava’s Fitness & Freshness Tool

Badly executed taper 

If you’re unfortunately experiencing a bad day at a target event, have a look at your taper. Again, your Fitness/Freshness Graph can be an invaluable source of information but it’s worth bearing in mind that all riders respond to tapers differently and sometimes you need to experiment to find a protocol that works for you.

The most common taper no-no is squeezing in “one more big training ride” too close to the event. The reality is, once you’re about two weeks out, you’re not going to gain any fitness and are only going to add fatigue. Trust the training you’ve done and, if it hasn’t been enough, learn from that for your next event, and don’t be tempted to panic train. It’s always preferable to be underprepared but fresh than over-prepared and exhausted. 

RELATED: Recovery Do’s and Don’ts for Cyclists

Conversely, for some riders, being too well rested can result in stale/heavy feeling legs on event day. This can especially be the case if you’ve had a long journey to it. The simple solution to this is an easy spin the day before of 30-60 minutes with some 10-15-second high cadence but low load “leg-opener” efforts thrown in. If this isn’t an option then a decent warm-up protocol before rolling off or, if it’s a non-competitive sportive or Gran Fondo, riding yourself in easily for the first 5-10km will do the job. 

Poor fueling/hydration

Not just on the bike but think about how, what and when you’ve eaten and drunk in the 24 hours before your ride. 

A classic example of this can be the evening workout. You’ve had lunch at work, maybe a snack mid-afternoon but, by the time you’ve got home, done domestic/family chores, and got onto the bike, it can easily have been 5-6 hours since you last ate. This isn’t going to be conducive to a great ride! Have a banana or pop a gel before you head out but just make sure your body has some fuel. 

For a longer weekend ride, club, or a sportive, what did you eat the night before? Did you eat enough for breakfast and allow enough time for it to digest? Did you eat little, often, and right from the start of the ride or did you make the rookie error of waiting until you’re hungry?

RELATED: Build Back Stronger with a Cycling Overload Block

Poor pacing

Are you simply trying to ride too fast for your current fitness? This can easily happen if you’re riding with mates who are faster than you or, if you’ve just come back from injury or illness, mates who you used to be faster than! 

If bad days tend to happen at events and not on training rides, are you pushing harder than the levels you trained at? It’s amazing the number of riders who only cramp up on events and blame it on a lack of hydration, the weather, just about everything apart from the fact they completely ignored the pacing zones they’d trained to!

As with the advice on Under-recovery, if you’re using a power meter to pace, is your FTP up to date/accurate and are you sticking to the zones. If you’re not sure how to do this or not convinced of the benefits of a power meter, check out my series of blogs of the topic. 

Mindset

To quote the Pixies track “where is my mind?”. If, for whatever reason, you’re struggling to motivate yourself, not enjoying your cycling, quitting/skipping rides or they feel like a massive chore - ask yourself why. 

RELATED: Power Meter Guide: The Watts, Whys and Hows of Functional Threshold Power (FTP)

Are you under-recovered or have you got other stuff going on in your life that’s impacting your riding?

Unless you’re a professional, cycling is supposed to be a pleasure that you do for enjoyment and voluntarily, and, if it’s not, something is up and you need to work out what that thing is. Maybe you need a break, dig out that mountain bike that’s gathering dust, and just go for a fun ride or even just chill on the sofa. 

If you’re really struggling in this regard, talking to a therapist should be as normal as talking to a doctor or a physio, and, don’t forget, most top riders employ the services of a Sports Psychologist. 

Extrinsic factors

It’s always worth giving your bike a quick over if you’re having a bad day - you wouldn’t be the first rider to find you’ve got a rubbing disc rotor or a stiff bottom bracket.

You might have picked up a bug and, although asymptomatic, your body is expending valuable resources battling it. The same applies to low-level infections and, during my time at British Cycling, the team was put on a strict dental check-up and care routine as the impact of infection on recovery was noticed. 

RELATED: How to Use Strava to Optimize Your Training

The weather might not suit you. Some riders thrive in the heat and some love the rain. Also, if you only gauge your progress on average speed (not a good idea - get a power meter!), wind strength/direction and air pressure can easily make you feel as though you’re having a shocker. 

Get a coach

The reality is that bad days on the bike do happen - as do those rare but blissful float days when it feels as though you’re riding without a chain! Often a bit of post-ride objectivity, honesty, and analysis can unearth the reason but it can occasionally be a genuine mystery. If however these unexplainable bad days are occurring reasonably frequently, it’s probably worth employing the services of a coach to have a deep dive into your training/riding routine. 

In my next blog, I take adherents of “The Rules” to task and suggest ten “Real Rules” that’ll definitely make you a better rider and less of an a***hole!