I am not having problem training. I am having problem training with any particular focus. Most of the time I just skip biking. I have zero interest in biking on a trainer for performance when I can swim, run and XC ski doing real sport (sitting on a trainer is exercise not sport). As weather gets better, I'll bike more outdoors and do plenty and do a lot of rides for transport. I am training 18ish hrs per week. But if I was training for racing, I would be biking for performance already and I would also be running for performance. Right now I just run for the sake of running and I swim in a performance oriented mode even though I have no swim races to train for, and I XC skied for performance (did some virtual racing that felt like real racing in TT mode).

But often its just easy to say, "why bother doing this I don't feel like it, I will do something else". Yesterday, I did a short 30 min run and I had a swim slot right afterwards. It was windy as hell and I was leaning towards taking car to pool, but decided to actually get on my bike for the first time in a week because it was it was warm enough, but I was questioning the ride to the pool. If I had a race, I would not even question it. There would be no option to take car....bike regardless of weather. But I actually got my butt on the bike and got an extra 60 min of biking done and was glad I did it. If I had a performance goal, it would not be a question. and most of the times, I just skipped out, did a longer run and drove to pool to swim. Or run to pool and back but not bike at all.

I’m in the same boat. I used to not even blink at doing a 100 mile ride on Saturday and same on Sunday and bike commuting to from work every day, adding up to about 250-350 mile weeks. I was totaling 12000-15000 miles a year.
In 2019 I decided to sign up for Race Across America (RAAM) as part of a 2 man team with my friend Mark to race in 2020. Mark and my best friend Paul had raced in 4 person RAAM in 2016 and won, Mark raced RAAM solo in 2017. Paul and Mark raced in race across the west in 2019 as 2 person team and won age group.

I Started training in September 2019, I had signed up for the 12 hour world time trial championships in Borrego Springs in November. Trained like crazy for the race. I ended up winning age group and overall and set a new age group course record of 253 miles in 11 hours 53 minutes beating Mark, who had previously set the age group course record by 3 minutes I had never won a race before. I was on cloud nine for a while.

I continued training and after Covid hit in March and we were told to work from home, i stopped biking to work. i lost interest in training. I was secretly hoping RAAM would get canceled. In mid May RAAM was cancelled, which was a huge relief so we rolled our registration over to 2021.
Instead Paul, Mark, our friend Shane and I rode from San Francisco to LA in 3 days at the end of may, Paul and I Everested in June. Mark, Paul, Shane and I and decided to race in race across Oregon in July, Hoodoo 500 in august and silver state 508 in September as a 4 person team. We won all 3 races and set new course records on all three. We had fun doing it. But before the 2nd and 3rd race I was losing motivation and didn’t really want to race, but didn’t want to disappoint my friends/teammates.
Mark, My RAAM teammate and I discussed it during the last 2 races. He sensed that I was losing interest. He told me that if my heart wasn’t in it then, that it wouldn’t be in it come race time. He gave me a couple of months to think it through.

After our last race in September I was burned out from riding. I thought I would take a month off and just ride a bit on weekends with Paul. Paul and I were signed up to race in the 24 Hour World Time Trial Championships in November as a 2 person relay team. That got cancelled too. In November I told Mark that I was out of RAAM, I just didn’t have the motivation to train, he understood,
After that I pretty much stopped riding. So far this year I’ve ridden 450 miles total. I get anxious just thinking about getting on the bike. Even thinking about getting on zwift makes me anxious. My fitness has gone to hell. An 18 mile loop by my house that I used to do in just under an hour now takes me an hour and 15 and I’ve gained 20lbs. I’d rather sit at home at my desk and work than go for a ride. I put in 10-12 hours a day where before Covid I was a 9 to 5er, and every waking moment was devoted to riding my bike.
My wife keeps telling me it’s ok to take a break, I had been going hard for 12 years she reminds me.
Like you, biking has been my identity, I was known by my friends as the crazy cyclist who rode all the time. Paul and I used to ride together all the time on weekends and do crazy long rides. He continues to ride, he slows down so that I can keep up with him but I feel bad because I am holding him back. Meanwhile, He’s training to race in Race across the west solo against Mark in June.

All this to say that I think you are not the only one to feel the way you do. I’m hoping to get my mojo back soon. As it gets warmer, and hopefully when our office reopens at some point this year, I’ll be able to get back on the bike and resume my biking habit.

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Thanks! I appreciate both responses so far!

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Death is easy....peaceful. Life is harder.

The trick, I find, is to have a series of interconnected goals for both the Short/medium/long term. This way, when there's a setback for one of the goal horizons, you can still draw on the other two.

I'll give you an example from my own experience:
-Short term: this week's/month's training plan and key workouts
-Medium term: this do well season's races
-Long term (3-5 years): qualify for Kona.

When COVID hit, it knocked out the medium term goals, but since I still had long term one in place and I knew I needed to keep going if I was going to eventually get there, it gave me the ability to keep going and to do the things necessary to hit the long term goal, even if there were no races on the calendar.

The converse is also true, getting injured knocks out the short term goals, but you keep going (as you can with the injury) since the longer and medium term goals are still in place.

Or maybe you just need a break to find your mojo. That's fine too.

similar boat - races keep getting cancelled, and - more to the point, in my case - other life stuff makes consistent training impossible. having the kids at home, getting sick, constantly shifting work schedules, etc. my health and fitness have been a mess, and it wouldn't really be worth signing up for a 'big' race for a while yet.

one thought: a 'shorter' goal isn't necessarily a smaller one. a lot of people want to, for instance, run a decent marathon or race an ironman, but not necessarily to go PB the 5k. a really bonkers training block to target your 5k run, for example, would feature plenty of intensity and hopefully a nice feeling of satisfaction at the end, but overall faaaar less volume and drudgery than ultra-distance training would.

maybe that's worth a shot. i mean, i say all this and i'm a hypocrite - my training is shithouse lately and so is my motivation...

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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

Seems to me you know the answer. Go back to what you did last summer and add some challenging/scenic longer bikes and runs as goals. You don't need to be training for an IM to be an endurance athlete.

I’m in a similar situation. I’m signed up for Augusta 70.3 in Sept 2021, but asked if I could defer to 2022 without any luck.

So it looks like I’ll be racing then. I was in really good shape early 2020 and when Covid hit, my training overall declined and time spent in gyms declined.

Also, I originally wanted to race 2020 Augusta to have a shot at St. George, but now 2021 Augusta only offers slots to 2022 Taupo, which I’m not interested in.

I have been dealing with anxiety, which limits my training significantly.

I’m thinking of a DNS, but would probably just race it ‘casually’ over taking a DNS, but it’s not really in my DNA to do anything casually, so might try to just get in shape and do my best if this opportunity is just waiting for me.

I feel pretty out of shape now, but miss being in super good triathlon shape, so might try to get there again.

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https://www.strava.com/...tes/zachary_mckinney

The way I see it is you either love the lifestyle or you don't. Everyone needs a break every now and then, but if you truly love it then it doesn't feel like work. Maybe dial down the intensity or volume. There's no reason it can't be fun. Perhaps set some personal goals. It can be as simple as raising your FTP,losing 5 pounds or improving your swim.

Yup.
r/b/s should be part of your daily routine. Going a day or 2 without training should feel shit. If you find even low-moderate training a struggle (with no races in sight) then do something else.

That said no way should you be training hard as though you have a race just round the corner, you will burn out. Do whatever you feel like doing on the day, it doesn't matter if it's 100% bike or 50% swim 50% run, just tick along, enjoy your training, have a few beers. When races are locked in, you won't be fit, but you will have some base fitness that means you are 4 - 6 weeks off an OK level of fitness and most importantly you will be mentally fresh and motivated.

I just had a significant amount of time open up last month, so I **should** be training a lot. I think I'll get back to 15 - 25hr weeks the months leading up to my September 70.3.

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https://www.strava.com/...tes/zachary_mckinney

Yah. Definitely a personal preference. I stopped running for four months (injury and then boredom) and almost exclusively rode on the trainer all winter (more snow/ice this yr than previous 3 combined made for sketchy road riding). Swimming: too many closures, etc for indoor pool use.

WRT riding a trainer: there's real-world money to be had, and real-life contracts to be scored by riding a trainer. So there's that.

Zwift: if you don't know, you don't know. But to answer the OP — excellent stick/carrot for personal gain/advancement. Acknowledged: 0% gain on technique, skills, feel, finesse, etc.

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no sponsors | no races | nothing to see here

When I was younger I could have done music for a living. (I play violin.) But I decided not to since I loved playing music a lot and didn't want to convert it into a "job".

Unless you're making your living doing triathlon, don't make your training into "work". Remember what got you into the sport. Do your workouts remembering what inspired you to start doing the triathlons, and let the workouts "come to you". That should make it more fun again. Then after a while the desire for doing the hard workouts should come back naturally. And it sounds like you have years ahead of you where you can compete, with each individual year an opportunity.

I'm currently having a little trouble with inspiration too. I 'm 64 1/2 and trying to come back after about 20 years and 6 kids (now 7-20 years old), and after gaining about a cinder block of weight. (I'm finally back under 170 lbs. at 5'5".)

So the wonderful feeling of floating when I run isn't there and I need to lose weight before I can pedal without hitting my gut (along with the fact that I was hit head-on by a car during a race in 1994 which has made me nervous about a lot of outdoor bike rides.) (We won't talk about the swim as I was always a "land-based" triathlete.)

But I'm motivated to get to a stage where I can enjoy the pleasure of running and biking again, and this keeps me going. And maybe even swimming...?

I hope that you can again find the joy of doing the sport, and find a mindset where most days are a pleasure. (We can hope for all, but we have to be reasonable.)

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Tri or tri not; this is no du. (--- with apologies to Yoda.) Slow triathlete who survived Huntsville, Lelystadt, Colmar, Fontanil, and
Szekesfehervar/Lake Velence. Arbor hydration specialist in a kid's park in Monterrey 4 times in the 1990s (and in the pits in 1994).

Outdoor riding makes me really anxious as well. It is very dangerous where I live. I haven't had a bad crash, just some close calls and minor crashes due to cars and pedestrians.

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https://www.strava.com/...tes/zachary_mckinney

Yes, true for me. Before COVID I was training for my first full marathon in March 2020, and hoping to get into triathlon in the year. I signed up a Channel swim in 2021 as a fun thing to do in a working holiday when no one else in my country had swum the Channel yet. Also I was training for a 21 km swimming race in August and also orienteering world ranking races as well.

Then, In February 2020, COVID spread in Korea and my race was announced to be cancelled. I lost all my motivation in running and no longer run afterwards. Pools were closed. In the beginning I still kept swimming in the sea, but as COVID spread around the world, I started to lose motivation as well as I started to doubt if the 21 km swimming race would be held on time. Finally when the race was announced to be postponed to August 2021, I also stopped my training and reduced my swimming to just once per week over the summer.

As the whole orienteering racing season was cancelled, I didn't have a chance to race in the real world as well. Initially I was still doing online games, but in the latter half of the year, as I didn't see a chance of any racing coming back locally nor any chance of travelling to international world ranking races, I even stopped doing them.

I was not happy at all during summer 2020 because I couldn't travel to Europe to race. Locally it was too hot to do any swim / bike / run / whatever in the summer. I had nothing interesting to do. In the same season, UK announced an emigration route for BNO citizens (which I am), and my friend swum the Channel successfully (he decided to swim it after he got COVID - this is a real insult to me - if I need to quarantine for 28 days as a result of getting COVID like him, I will give up my Channel swim immediately), becoming the first Hongkonger to do so. Therefore my original motivations to swim the Channel were lost.

I restarted my training for swimming in November as I had signed up for a Channel swim (I paid the deposit in the month before COVID spread all over the world), but one month later everything was closed again under a new wave of infections that I couldn't follow my Channel training plan, and my Channel slot can't be postponed. The problem of not being able to do my training as planned made me anxious and stressed, recently to the extent affecting my mood and sleep every day, that I visited a psychologist. Afterwards I stopped thinking about it. Luckily there was a local race, which I did last year already, held in February so I worked on it. However, after that race, as I still couldn't to get back into a pool, my stress level was even higher than before.

I got back to the pool yesterday although it was no longer cold enough for me to do any training I planned to do. I got 2 minutes faster for 1500 m than pre-COVID. I have decided to give up all my missed training for the Channel and do only acclimation after I get to the UK.


My identity of being an endurance athlete has only been obtained recently and I'm ready to lose it. I just need an acceptable reason for me to give up. (My other identities are a software developer and an elite orienteer which I don't ever want to lose) As my Channel slot can't be postponed to 2022 under my will, I really hope that there will be a reason to prevent the 2021 season from taking place, and force it to 2022. There are two reasons for me to keep going: 1. I have already arranged my work and travel in the whole year of 2021 around my Channel swim, and if I want to do in a later year instead, I will need to restart my training from 0 swim fitness and it will be much more costly for me to arrange half a year off work and a move to a location suitable for training. 2. Compared to the situation in the UK, my situation is not bad enough to justify giving up my Channel swim at this point.

Though, there is nothing worse than not being able to train for something which I want to do as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I have to do it without enough training.

Oh well...the number one thing that was motivating me for training was swimming. Back into lockdown and no pools for at least a month. Its too cold around here for open water. Ice still on parts of open water.

Gotta make some motivation for running as primary activity rather than filler around swim or XC ski focus. I think I need to work the next 4-6 weeks on my 5000m track time (not like it is a real track time, its more like laboured fast jogging, but it is what I have).

Better biking weather will come in 4 weeks and I'll ramp outdoor riding. In the mean time, sit on the rollers several times per week to get ready for that.

Go race a 5k and then you will remember what intensity is.

At the end: Either -

1) Man that hurt, my time sucked, better get my a$$ in gear, but racing is AWESOME.

Or

2) This is no fun, I want to get back on the couch.

Race season started today and I'm in bucket 1 after 13 months of no racing and almost 2 years of no multisport.

I have been struggling with motivation and focus also. I am training approximately 10 hours per week, but with no consistent swimming in the last year. I look forward to getting back to the pool in a couple of weeks. I have a forced break from training each year for the last week of August and all of September due to work. I emerge from that in a state of deep fatigue.

My goal was to successfully campaign (for the first time) a full distance Ironman this June, and I realized last year that goal was not going to happen. I had two half distance Ironman races on the schedule for 2020, and I chose to withdraw prior to them being cancelled.

I didn't start running or swimming until just a few of years ago. I didn't start riding a bike for exercise until spring 2013, and I started out on a 1987 Schwinn Sierra mountain bike.

Last year, I saw somewhere (maybe read or heard) that all of the craziness in the world is analogous to a cell phone having multiple apps open in the background draining the battery. I didn't have the motivation for the volume or the intensity I wanted. I just mindfully kept moving because most activities considered "training" make me feel good. Things like, exercising, eating somewhat well, staying hydrated, stretching, trying to get the appropriate sleep, etcetera make me feel good. When I go two days without training, I force myself to go on a short run or bike as that improves my disposition. If not, I just get cranky!

I find that riding my steel Jamis with 35mm tires on gravel or mixed terrain for a bit helps clear my head. I wear my HR strap and my Garmin watch, but I don't look at any data until the ride is done. I ride most of my miles (including triathlons) on a Felt Fx1 set up with a 1x and 28mm tires.

I am a mixed sport endurance athlete (not performing at my potential), even though I do not have an Ironman or any organized events on the horizon. I am just in a prolonged base building phase!

Well, I do have an unsupported double century on the schedule for mid June, my first marathon (which will unsupported) mentally scheduled for late July or maybe early August, and a sprint distance triathlon mid August.

Move to short course. The best of both worlds. A fast oly and spot at worlds a good goal.

My struggle is seeing the small number of people participating in the tris which are being put on

I am just not pushing the training as hard thinking that even if I place in a race it was a very weakened files who showed up. Or at least a much lower number of racers

Stop complaining. If you have a race to go to, put your head down and hammer like it is the world championships. At least you have racing and not confined to your basement by your government komrades!!!

Bingo.

I can't get motivated. I even went to cheer a Sprint, Olympic and 70.3 Triathlon Saturday. I thought I'd get super motivated and wish I was racing, but I just wanted to go home and sit on the couch. Absolutely no desire to race or watch. I just don't understand what changed since Covid. We stayed because my wife loves the atmosphere but I just sat around bored. I use to be so competitive before Covid.

I told myself I was going to swim at 5am Monday Wednesday and Friday even if only 1000 yards, but then my supervisor called out this week (bereavement) so I have to open at 5:15am. My son has baseball games Monday Tuesday and Wednesday right after work this week so it seems finding time is just not in the cards for me.

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http://www.sfuelsgolonger.com

I’ve had trouble. It’s a long story but it’s worth telling so I’ll try and keep it short.

In 2019 I had a terrible training year. Worst I’d ever had. New job, move, relationship weight. It all just culminated together for a perfect fat and slow storm. Then in 2020 I saw Rev 3 in Webster holy shit a major race in my back yard! I called it the gift. Further more it was at the halfway point of the Olympics. So not only was a big race in my back yard but I could take the week before and after off/easy and actually have watching the Olympics HELP my season! Didn’t work out that way. But I trained my ass off and was losing weight and crushing Strava records.

However... Personal problems came crashing in through August. A custody battle crossing state lines, kid had appendicitis, wife’s cousin drowned while fishing. Needless to say I packed all that weight back on and then some, and trained like 3 times in 4 months.

Now I’m pretty much starting off like a newbie again. 15mph rides. Over 200lbs. It’s been tough. And not having racing to motivate me is making it harder. So you’re not alone in struggling.

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I still lapped everyone on the couch!

Thanks for all the replies!

There is definitely a lot of stress that comes with major life changes or life events (good and bad). And then add the pandemic. I think many of us are dealing with mild depression whether it's outright sadness or just a change of mindset towards many things we used to do, love and possibly take for granted. I think depression can even show up as loss of motivation, irritability, cynicism...at least that is me.

One thing I decided to do was hire a new Ironman coach at the end of last week. I had a great coach for 4 years of Ironmans but could no longer afford her monthly fee after we moved to a new home (very high, I don't want to disclose for her privacy). I found someone who I could afford and she is good with master female athletes going through those big changes (yup I'm an older lady but still want to be competitive). It turns out I wasn't ready to tackle Ironman #5 w/o a coach. Just doing this made me feel more motivated and a little less depressed. Not saying having a coach will help everyone. But it's a small step on my journey to my next Ironman.

Hopefully as we all get vaccinated and more races happen, things will look brighter for many of us

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Death is easy....peaceful. Life is harder.