Why do I feel stale and knackered just from commuting?

[Gandalf]

I was looking forward to the weekend and doing a proper ride, as opposed to commuting on the warpig.  Yesterday I went on the Garmin site, downloaded a route and set off for what was supposed to be about 50 miles.  Things started badly as my Edge 705 kept sending me back to where the route started from, I even tried restarting the route from the exact location, but I digress.  Gave me the right ache though.

To cut a long story short, I felt so drained and tired that I couldn't cope with even a slight incline and I bailed after only 13 miles.

This can't be right can it?  My commute is only a 15 mile round trip each day and I've been doing it since October.  Surely by now I should be finding it a piece of cake and comparatively fresh as a daisy for my weekend rides.

On the commute I have been trying to go faster of late and making an effort to push a higher gear, big ringing it up the hills (insofar as a Mountain bike has a 'big' ring).

Has anyone else had this?  I'm finding it quite disheartening TBH.

[inc]

Your body is good at letting you know when it has had enough. Although your commute is quite short the recent harder efforts may just be a bit too much for you temporarily you will be back to normal next week

[Ham]

Some days you eat the cake, some the cake eats you.

Wouldn't get disheartened, maybe it was the thought of all those miles in front that was getting to you? break it down in your mind into small chunks that go quickly.

[mike]

Could be many things:
- are you sleeping OK?
- hangover?
- try just pootling to work and back next Friday (or even Thursday and Friday) so you're fresh for the weekend?
- did you set off too fast?
- anything else distracting you? Worrying about work always affects me.

Don't throw the bike away yet...  
 

[hellymedic]

Are you having 24-48 hours off the bike every week?
If not, why not?
Do you carb up after every ride?
Are you surprised you are stale?

[Gandalf]

Thanks for the replies. To answer the questions.

- Sleeping..not too bad but the urban foxes are winding my dogs up several times per night, so sleep is never uninterrupted.

- hangover? Nope, on a Friday I always have one beer and no more.  I don't drink at all in the week and on a Saturday I have a bit of a binge on one beer and two glasses of red wine.

- setting off too fast?  no, too preoccupied with Garmin faffage and if I am attempting a long one I always take it easy.

- Getting 24 hrs off the bike...sometimes but not always, rarely 48.

- Carb up after every ride?  I don't make an effort to do this as I'm trying to lose weight

I will try and take things in a more mellow fashion and see what happens.

[Tewdric]

- Carb up after every ride?  I don't make an effort to do this as I'm trying to lose weight

I prescribe eating pies and getting pissed once in a while.

[Zoidburg]

 Surely by now I should be finding it a piece of cake and comparatively fresh as a daisy for my weekend rides.

The answer may well indeed be a piece of cake.

I used to experience this at times, I fixed it by eating a snack and taking on sport drink before and during rides, even shorter ones, being rather lean I find I need it to avoid a calory deficit that makes me feel like crap.

No imediately burnable sugar laden fuel to kickstart things means I don't function that well.

[itsbruce]

- Sleeping..not too bad but the urban foxes are winding my dogs up several times per night, so sleep is never uninterrupted.

- Getting 24 hrs off the bike...sometimes but not always, rarely 48.

- Carb up after every ride?  I don't make an effort to do this as I'm trying to lose weight

Sounds like you're trying a little too hard and exhausting yourself.  I do strength training and the same thing often happens to people who try to lose weight while still adding pounds to the bar each time.  If you're going to try this,

• Get plenty of rest.  Sleep is very important to recovery if you're cutting.
• Have at least one rest day, preferably two; if you do some heavy cycling at the weekend, take the train/bus/car into work one day.  If you don't, you will exhaust yourself.
  
• Look at how many calories you have cut out of your diet.  Consider eating a little more, so that the deficit is smaller.  If you're being active, you don't need a big calorie deficit.

The worst thing about exhausting yourself while trying to diet is that it usually completely frustrates the attempt at weight loss; exhaustion disrupts your metabolism in bad ways.  If you don't change something about your current diet and exercise, you'll only knacker yourself and maybe end up fatter than before.

[vorsprung]

To cut a long story short, I felt so drained and tired that I couldn't cope with even a slight incline ....
On the commute I have been trying to go faster of late and making an effort to push a higher gear, big ringing it

When I fit high intensity training into my commute it effects what I can do at the weekend

Going berserk on wednesday seems to be ok but if I was to do it mon/tues/weds/thu/fri doing anything else might be a bit much

[Palinurus]

Throw in some embarrassingly slow commutes. Put it in a really easy gear and leave five minutes early.

[hellymedic]

My experience of attempting to lose weight whilst packing in the miles was that I felt like stale shit.

Carbing up after a ride does help with the stale feeling but won't help the weight loss.

Rest well and ride a tad more slowly.

CAKE at Grandma on a Thursday afternoon powered my Audax and commuting.

[Frenchie]

It happens. I had a tough two weeks at work (lot of travel) & was overall pretty tired, though I didn't feel, at first, too bad. Saturday's 45 Mi was difficult. I was simply tired and had no humpf.

[Domestique]

Are you drinking enough water during the day?

[citoyen]

Throw in some embarrassingly slow commutes. Put it in a really easy gear and leave five minutes early.

This is what I do to overcome the same problem. Except for putting it in a really easy gear cos I mostly ride fixed. But on those days when I don't feel so fresh, I just accept that the commute will take 10-15% longer than usual and enjoy going a bit slower. No biggie.

d.

[Gandalf]

Are you drinking enough water during the day?

Almost certainly not.  I have a mug of water when I get to work and another when I'm getting changed to come home.  Unless it is particularly warm that's probably about it, though I will sometimes have a black coffee during the day.

I only like water when it has hops in it