Not my best day (I just need to whine).

[Fredwina]

Y
Do you generally have issues with negative self-talk? I had a riding partner who really struggled with self-esteem and negativity, and this reminded me a lot of her. .....

A lot of times, you really have to know when to let the "good girl" stuff in one ear and out the other. and yeah, it's hard.
In short, I don't get paid to ride, so I why should have to torture myself?

[aly]

I don't think my problem is so much a lack of self-esteem, but is actually more of an expectation that I be great at everything. I'm a little bit of an overachiever and expect myself to be able to do it all well and do it all fast. Part of the reason it got me so down, was that I am usually a really positive person and was not happy to turn so negative. I just think I was really tired and moody and got a little hard on myself. I enjoy riding and generally I don't mind moving along at my own pace. Sunday was just hot and messy and I turned into 10 year-old me.

My plan from now on is to stop pushing myself so much each and every weekend. I'm going to find a ride to gauge my riding. I plan to ride that one route for a couple of weeks, and then, when it's improved, I'll step it up to a longer route. In addition, I'll throw in lots of spinning classes and an occassional longer endurance ride.

Geonz- Darn, I checked the tires and they were fine. It would've been so nice if that would have been the issue...

[aly]

I rode both days this weekend, and feel like I'm ok again. This week, I went to a couple of spin classes and I think they helped (at least psychologically). Instead of pushing myself too hard on a new route, I stuck to ones I've done before. Yesterday's ride was a quick 20, and I rode about a mile per hour faster than my usual speed. Today, I did 35 in the Santa Monica Mountains with wind and still did much better speed-wise than usual on the same route. The wind was really slowing me down, too, so I'm pretty happy. I kind if embarrassed to say that it also helped that I passed someone on a road bike on Sat during a climb- my ego really needed that.

So, all's good. at least next time I have a bad riding day, I can remind myself that that's all it is. In retrospect, I really do think I was pushing myself too hard. I had been jumping my distance at least 20% each week and increasing my climbing significantly. Now I see why that isn't a good idea, especially when you don't get to ride much in between! Maybe I should have followed more of the advice I had already read on here on other posts...

Thanks again for all the support and suggestions! It helps so much to whine a little (especially to people who know what you need to hear ).

[DirtDiva]

Also, it does take quite a bit of time to learn to pace yourself, especially over an unfamiliar ride. I completely suck at it. Would much rather just give 100% and then stop for tea and cakes to recover for a bit.

[sundial]

Aly, I noticed that I get emotional and have sleep problems when I've overtrained. I also noticed that when I laid off cycling for a whole week, my performance improved. You build strength through rest and recovery.