Based on some information I recently learned in a webinar on women and running, getting your period could be related to feeling tired during and after the ride. If you are interested, the webinar is posted here: http://www.humankinetics.com/...ow-running-for-women

I will note that some of the other RRCA coaches who listened to the webinar found the presenter to be slight misogynist in his comments at times but I was multi-tasking and didn't have the same opinion. He does take some time to explain how women are different athletes than men and if you can get through that, he does make some valid points about how our cycles effect our training and how we can best coordinate the two.

And beside for "girl" reasons, you could just be tired or it could be nutrition related. Does your training plan schedule in recovery weeks?

Not every workout is going to be a good one. You will have bad days that have no real explanation. Just take it as an experience and learn from it.

Hi there,
I see you already posted the same thing on the main Triathlon forum, just suggesting that since several people have responded there, we keep the conversation going on the other forum.
Thanks.
BrokenSpoke

Thank you so much for your reply!

I will have a look at the webinar later on.

I should definitely schedule in recovery weeks. Maybe it should be this week. =P

And the horrible thing is my period week will be the same week as my race week... =(

Sorry. I did post the same post in the main forum.

But I did not include the period thing in that one. As a newbie, I am not sure whether it is appropriate to post such info on the main forum.

I would recommend recovery weeks. I know some folks don't use them but I find they help keep me (and the athletes I coach) happy and healthy. The typical training cycle is 3-4 weeks build followed by a 1 week recovery. The recovery week can have a volume that is 50-70% less than the last build week.

The symptoms you describe fit my wife's experience with exercise and her period so I do think that could be the culprit. You are not weak - you are strong!

There are so many variables which could account for your post-ride fatigue- training (over-, too much too soon, insufficient variation, etc), fueling/ nutrition issues, recent sleep patterns, life stressors (work, relationships), etc. etc. etc.. Thus, there is probably little chance of pinpointing the exact cause here.

If this fatigue continues and/or a pattern develops, you might consider taking a deeper look at the above-mentioned variables to see if you can identify possible sources.
Of course, physiology is constantly in flux and you may have simply had a bad day. Nothing more.

Examine your nutrition and the possibility of over training. Are you getting enough calories in the day (consistently)? After your rides, runs, etc, what is your recovery nutrition? Are you replenishing your muscle glycogen? All of that can lead to poor training sessions. Since you said you were new, unsure if you meant new to the forum or new to triathlon, you may need to scale your training back a bit for a week or two and lead back into things.