Lousy ride today...does everyone experience this?

[ibcycling]

Saturday's ride was like that. It started out fine but I quickly hit a point where I just wanted to be back home. For me I think it was a combo of pushing to hard the past couple weeks and not eating well lately. You doubled your mileage last week so you're probably just recovering and a little tired. Chip seal sucks too! Take a nice ride on a smooth road and see how you feel.

Lora

[GraysonKelly]

Hi Deb!
I'm pretty new here and pretty new to riding, but I hope you don't mind my telling you to hang in there. I have lots of days like that and I'm sure everyone else does too. There are all kind of physiological reasons that your body sometimes reverts to what I call "teenager mode" where it basically folds it's arms over it's chest, sets its jaw and absolutely refuses to do what you ask it to do. Just hang in there. Try your best to eat right, drink enough, get the right amount of sleep and make sure that you ride when the alignment of the moon and stars are perfect...and even with all that you'll still have days like that. Sometimes I get so wrapped up in thinking about training and weight loss and hydration and miles and speed and cadence and all of that other stuff that I literally have to stop, get off the bike, stretch a little and remind myself that I'm doing something I love to do. I remind myself to relax and forget about everything but the rhythms around me and the wind in my face. And it gets a little easier.
Hang in there and keep riding.
Gray
(corny, i know but I love riding and it's making me healthy all the way around)

[redrhodie]

I have those rides, and I've come to realize it's usually not me, but an outside influence, like the wind (this may be a trick to make the hard rides better ). If I'm really slow, it's either a headwind, or my brake is rubbing.

How you feel on hills is a better gauge to how you're really progressing. You're feeling better on the hills, you're getting stronger for sure!