Riding Empty

Last week I had a great 4 days of training. I could feel the soreness in my legs that we all love when you know you are pushing through new growth.

On Saturday I did a 2hr workout on Zwift and hit some big numbers for long 30 minute intervals. I was stoked!

For Sunday, I had another workout. I organized a Zwift Meetup with some of the athletes that I coach. It was another tough one with a challenging first hour. 20min steps where you have to focus on controlling the power through your Medium Zones (CINCH training zones).

At 40 minutes I was really struggling and still had another step up!

These were numbers that I've held in the past, so it should have just been warm up time or practicing my zones. (Think practicing scales on the piano.)

But no, I was really struggling. I pulled the plug on the last 20min interval and told my athletes I wasn't going to complete the full workout or 3hrs today. I needed to ease up, I thought "I'm getting sick or overtraining". But nope - I was UNDER FUELED!

This is so common in cycling. Producing watts takes a lot of energy from our body. When you aren't properly fueled you will feel like "I just can't...". And yesterday I just couldn't.

As a coach, it's easy to spot this in my athletes power files. I've attached mine, you can see I don't have control of the zones. My power drops and then I over compensate to push it back up. This is a CLASSIC under fueled power file.

Even seasoned athletes will make mistakes. I knew I had a huge week and needed to fuel properly Saturday after my ride and at night in order to do the Sunday effort, but I didn't. 

Keep on top of your nutrition through the week. Adjust when you know you are going to have easy days or hard days in advance. Then fuel with Strate Superfuel to keep your energy systems at maximum performance!