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Performance Decline Every Fall
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Basically every fall that I can remember, starting in late August to early September, I see a serious decline in performance. It's like my legs just can't turn over. Run pace goes down, I can't push normal power on the bike and my swim speed declines as well. On the bike, for example, it's like my FTP declines by 20-30 watts for several months before starting to feel fine as we get deeper into winter and it doesn't seem to matter if I've trained a lot or a little over the spring/summer. This predictable decline is the primary reason why I've stopped racing cyclocross. The loss in performance is downright depressing.

Does anyone know what could possibly be causing this? I've been to the doctor a few times in the past for this and they're clueless. I also just took one of those genetic allergy tests to see if there's something weird that I'm allergic to, but I don't have any allergies that I'm aware of.
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Re: Performance Decline Every Fall [jhammond] [ In reply to ]
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Sounds like maybe you just overtrain all spring/summer, burnout with chronic fatigue, rejuvenate in the winter, and perpetuate the cycle the following year.

Or is that too simple of an examination?
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Re: Performance Decline Every Fall [wintershade] [ In reply to ]
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wintershade wrote:
Sounds like maybe you just overtrain all spring/summer, burnout with chronic fatigue, rejuvenate in the winter, and perpetuate the cycle the following year.

Or is that too simple of an examination?

So I was thinking this, but this year is different. Due to COVID and having my girls home with me for the last 6 months (single father), I have trained very little this year yet I'm still experiencing this "fatigue" (for lack of a better word).
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Re: Performance Decline Every Fall [jhammond] [ In reply to ]
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Heat stress?
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Re: Performance Decline Every Fall [wintershade] [ In reply to ]
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I agree with this, and perhaps you are implying this as part of overtraining but I would add that mental fatigue is a likely culprit as well.
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Re: Performance Decline Every Fall [jhammond] [ In reply to ]
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Interesting. I'm thinking, man... that sounds tough. I feel for you brother. I can't imagine single parenting multiple kids through COVID while trying to hold down a job.

The way I would think about this is more holistically. Stress is stress. Overtraining syndrome is an endocrine disorder at its core, essentially too many stress hormones elicited by too much training. I wonder if what you are going through this year is life stress burning out your endocrine system and what little training you're trying to do is just taking you over the edge. I've found that in times when my life just goes bonkers for one reason or another, I have to dial the training back or risk slipping into the red zone (at which point, my body dials it back for me).

And then there is your body's memory, and your psychology. Were you anticipating this slump? Every year you hit a wall around this time. So maybe there is an element of your body/mind just slipping into a sort of natural rhythm, nudged along by COVID life stress.

Either way, listen to your body and dial it back.
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Re: Performance Decline Every Fall [jhammond] [ In reply to ]
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Beer.

***
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Re: Performance Decline Every Fall [jhammond] [ In reply to ]
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While I can't get behind the "beer is your problem suggestion", because I like beer, it could be seasonal allergies. My fitness used to drop like a stone in late March every year and it turned out to be allergies. I found allergy shots to be a very successful remedy.
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Re: Performance Decline Every Fall [grumpier.mike] [ In reply to ]
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thanks for this post. I experience the same. we are just not meant to be year round athletes. I notice it has something to do with decreased daylight hours
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Re: Performance Decline Every Fall [jhammond] [ In reply to ]
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As others have stated, culprit could likely be due to cumulative stress on the body - workouts, work, Covid, raising kids, etc.

I have found that I need some sport specific down time. I typically take off 5-6 weeks in the fall from riding (really its more like dialing back 75% of riding time...I still get in an easy, short ride or two each week, but zero structure), from mid October to the end of December. The body and mind are tired from 10 months of focused training.

By December I'm chomping at the bit to get back at it and there's zero motivation issue to re-build bike fitness on the trainer over the winter.

Rest and active recovery are undervalued. My mindset is that I need to do more to get more fit. Most of the time that is true. But there are times where backing it down, WAY down, is the recipe for progress.

I hope you find the answer. AND way to go keeping those kids a top priority! That right there speaks to success!!


Tad

It took awhile, but I finally discovered that its not the destination that's important, but rather the journey.
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Re: Performance Decline Every Fall [jhammond] [ In reply to ]
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I rambled on about this last spring:

It seems that I can put 20 to 24 weeks together and then need some kind of break. A real break, something like 2 to 3 weeks of really easy stuff.

I have Garmin data all the way back to 2010. With that data I plotted the ups and downs with my race schedule and how I performed.

It gave some insight why, despite consistent training, I performed better at some races and under-performed at others. The years I had taken some downtime in June or July I had much better races in September, October, November.

It also showed when I was coached by Mike Plumb (2010 to 2013), how he made sure I wasn't overtrained.

If you are interested, I can get into more detail.
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