[Closed] How to get back to fitness after a bad year ?

Gradually. I know that's a short, and probably a bit glib, answer, but it's the truth, at least for the physical side of things.

As for motivation, set some easy targets to meet, then keep gradually raising the bar. Ultimately though the motivation has to come from you.

Oh and good luck with it. It's worth the effort.

No reason to delete that post, it’s a good question with a good reason behind it.

How much fitness are you after?

Unless it is loads, I can't help feeling that you're overthinking it at this stage.

Ride your bike this weekend, ride it again next week. Repeat a few times et voila.

I hear you! Working on getting back to fitness myself after 6 months of long covid. And like you, the motivation bit is harder than previous. I don't know if it's a residual effect of long covid, but for the first time in my life, getting up early for a quick hour on the bike is really hard.

One thing I am finding good though, and I guess this is building blocks to recovery, is the Fit4Racing follow along strength building workouts on YouTube.

I guess the other thing to say is be gentle to yourself, I know I've had to recalibrate my expectations quite a bit for this winter.

Good luck 👍

Walk. Eat better. Ride. Every day, even if for half an hour from the door. Especially.

Don’t say no.

I find a good thing is to make it easy to start an activity, ie do you have a trainer or could you get one. I find that when I get home from work, especially in the winter months, it can be a chore to get ready and get out for a ride, something I can easily talk myself out of. It is far easier to convince myself to put on some shorts and sit in front of zwift and at least start a workout and see how it goes.

Another thing is at first just go for half an hours walk at the times you plan to exercise, throw on some headphones listen to some music or an audiobook while you take a stroll. engrain the habit that is your time to exercise so that when you can do more you already have a routine.

Start in the kitchen eat clean and portion control.

Make getting over the threshold for 20 minutes every day minimum. Make that the habit not the activity.

Baby steps

Walk skip run cycle swim ....anything

Getting into a routine is the key I think, or else you start putting things off, and then 'I'll go for a ride tomorrow, it's too cold today' turns into a week later, then 2 weeks...

I'm also trying to get back into riding, probably not starting from as low as level as you but I'm finding the structure a zwift training plan gives is working so far - knowing I need to do this workout by X day gives me something to plan and some structure.

Doesn't have to be a zwift plan, anything that gets you out regularly will do the job.

Have you got / can you afford a smart trainer? It's not all racing in Zwift - something like Systm (which I use and much prefer) is a solitary activity, and 100% adapted to your level of fitness. (You do a test, do the best you can, then it adapts all the workouts to your fitness). It also has plans - choose one, and follow it. Seeing that workout on the calendar is usually a decent motivation.

I think you should do that BUT the problem I have with that is that just at weekends isn't very often, and if you miss a week, it'll feel ages, and be demoralising. So I'd say train, bit of variety, little , and often. Is it possible to get in a short ride, say 40 minutes mid week? Then add a couple of short, half hour runs, couple of days of yoga (some of the 10 minutes online sessions) plus some core , and bingo, half an hour a day or so, pretty often, should get you heading in the right direction.

What thegeneralist said.
I had a forced layoff of over nine months due to a broken bone not healing.
Still can't ride as much as I'd like to but Getty there slowly.

First ride back was ****ing terrible. Struggled to even ride up a fireroad.
Just rode as much as I could each week and it started coming back.
Fitness is fine now but still struggling a little to ride how I want due to ongoing nurve damage from the op.
Just ride when you can and try not to get frustrated.👍

As sort of said above - little and often!

I came back from lower back surgery by starting with 45 minute easy road rides, and just built up from there.

Had a rubbish few months so am effectively rebuilding again as of now, and the little and often mantra is golden, my rides at the moment are so short and easy that the hardest is usually just persuading myself to get out the door despite various aches, pains, coughs and colds.

Have to admit that a turbo trainer or rollers really helps, an hour in the garage at 6am with my personal stereo and SAD lamp is so much more likely to happen during a working week than trying to squeeze something worthwhile in during lunch hour...

Something I find really helpful is to eliminate pre-training faff, by which I mean the “faffing” is done well before the training. So prepare what you need for training the day before (I usually sort kit for training when I’ve got in from training).

If you can, a good turbo trainer can be a superb investment, makes it very easy to grab a session regardless of weather. Even if it’s just 30 minutes it’s worth doing.

Habit is the key in my opinion, the more specific the better.
So not “I will exercise three times per week”, instead “I will run every Tuesday and Thursday and will cycle every Sunday”.
Once the habit is set, then add goals. They can be either time, “my runs will be 30 mins, my rides 90 mins” or distance “I’ll run for 4 miles, I’ll ride for 25 miles”.
Set these in stone, tell the family they’re non-negotiable and that, for the first month or 2 at least, you’ll need their help to do it.
Once you’re into the habit then you’re flying.

Edit, the post above about faff is bang on as well.
I get my kit ready in a pile by the door in the order I’ll put it on. I have to walk over it to leave the room. Make it easy for yourself.

Another +1 for a turbo, I don't do proper training on mine, too much like hard work- I just stick a TV program on, get the headphones, and pedal my way to the end of it. Makes it feel less like "doing exercise" and also gets a nice extra motivation to do the next session and see the next episode.

But really I just rode my bike quite a bit. I figured out a good, short route from my door that I could thrash out in an hour, with some variations to keep it more interesting or add a few miles, so it didn't eat much time and it was short enough to go pretty hard. It was nice to see speeds getting better too. Lockdown was a help for this since I had nowhere to go!

After I had cancer in 2015 I was in a really bad way - was down to around 61kg (at my fittest I was 69kg). When I got the all clear I was obviously in terrible shape - think my ftp was around 155w (had been around 315 before I got sick). I got back into it by going on a bike tour around southern Spain with two non cycling friends. Riding 3-4 hours a day, eating and drinking more than was advisable and having a laugh. After 10 days or so of that the body was getting used to a bit of work again. Although I’ve never got back to the level I had I managed the highland trail 550 and a few other things since then, and even done a won a couple of local xc races. Just try and forget about how crap you are and enjoy the process of riding a bike. And if you don’t enjoy it any more, then don’t bother - life’s too short.

Been there too.

I fractured my pelvis in early 2000's MTBing. Air ambulance, the works.
It took AGES to get back to where I was (2nd cat road / Expert MTB racing) and what got me there was a complete mental reset to accept that I was RUBBISH and any attempt at trying to be good was going to be a massive disappointment.

It's the mental thing and the thought of forcing yourself out knowing that you'll suffer and possibly look like a pillock doing so. I remember riding up the hill to my house on my top end road bike and being overtaken by someone on a shopping bike. A hill I could previously do in the big ring, I was in absolute granny gear, my hip was twinging and I could barely put the power through.

Eventually I took to doing local loops on my full sus which gave a bit more comfort and I just had to accept that I was in pootle mode.

Good advice above about making sure you just get out, even if it's "just" a short one.

Ride you bike. Don't look at numbers. It will feel horrible but it will get better fairly quickly.

Is possible so more MTB and less road so that the lack of fitness is less obvious.

Consistency and peer pressure.

Clubs and classes and chums.

Join a club and go out on a session or two a week with them.
And
Find local fitness classes (weights? Circuits? CrossFit? Anything tbh) and sign up for a couple of them twice a week so you get to be a familiar face there.
And
Put a call out on SM for people to take you out for a spin/swim/walk/run/pole dancing session a couple of times a week.

That should get you 6-7 sessions a week where people are expecting to see you turn up.

Show up, and stay to the end, even if at first you're doing two reps when everyone else is doing ten. In fact, I'd *encourage* you to slack off at will in class, because if you know you can ease off if you feel like it, *you will still turn up every week* and that's the important thing.

Keep going, complain as much as you want, and you'll be a new man in a few months.
Once you start seeing progress you'll feel so muchore confident and motivated and it will be a virtuous circle from then on.

I was going to say what stripey's said. Do something with your mates or a club or whatever. Make it fun and the motivation bit becomes much easier.
Ride with your mates tomorrow (committed now see because they will be waiting for you so you can't wimp out)
Try a new sport with them, go and play squash or go surfing or chuck a Frisbee about or anything, always more fun in a group and you will be much less likely to back out if you have arranged something with someone else.

We're all different. I don't give a stuff about 'peer pressure' for example. I copped long covid dating back from March 2020 and didn't ride a bike for around 15 months. Yesterday, to my amazement, I did a 150km road ride to finish the Festive 500 thing.

Stuff that helped me - apart from being starved of the chance to be outdoors doing anything more than a 10-minute walk - included the realisation that a lifetime of training adaptation does not vanish overnight, even if you're totally inactive. I got fit again far faster than I imagined was possible.

I also stopped thinking of riding or walking or running as striving for 'fitness' and just enjoyed being out. Try reframing activity by just doing stuff that puts a smile on your face, with or without other people. Ride your mountain bike rather than on the road maybe. Or vice versa, don't stress over what makes you fit or not.

If you can't do that, ie you're still very performance focussed, try remembering that there's no point in focussing on the top rung of the ladder when you're at the bottom. Just concentrate on the next step and the rest will take care of itself. Think about the process, not the result.

For context, the first time I tried riding a normal bike back in July, I genuinely thought that the rear brake was binding or the tyre was flat, it felt that hard. I can remember being chuffed that I managed to cycle 5km along a flat trail to the caff and back again. Six months later, while I'm not 100%, I'm getting there and you will too.

I had 5 years off my bike due to injury, just try to enjoy riding your bike again. Go out and ride and try to enjoy it. It's hard to do that when one hill destroys your legs but it's the only way. Don't train, ride because it's great riding. Sort your bike out, push it out the door and do it...its great.

It's hard to know how fit you are now or want to be

But I once dug myself out of a hole by saying I'd never do less than walking round the block, which is 1 mile, every day

Riding wise I think it can help to look at pulse and try and stay below threshold while you adapt.

Swimming can be a good option if the back is still an issue

But maybe your beyond these ideas already

Walowiz:

Please read the Cambridge article in full with regards to your possible COVID impact. And the science explanation more fullynthr ncbi link (vitamin B complex and vitamin d)

https://www.cambridgeindependent.co.uk/news/long-covid-patient-in-cambridge-tells-how-simple-treatment-t-9203620/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7428453/

You are also describing quite typical depression symptoms.

What I didn't know is how bliddy important vitamins are and how that impacts depression. Vitamin D and vitamin B12 hugely important to tackle it (please Google it). Low levels can cause lead to depression and fatigue symptoms).

net net: have your bloods tested (Nuffield and many others do blood tests privately if you have the funds), speak to your GP.

Disclaimer:

But I once dug myself out of a hole by saying I’d never do less than walking round the block, which is 1 mile, every day

I was going to say something similar. If motivation is your issue I would say 30min run 45min cycle whatever is setting yourself up for failure.

Pick something so easy that you can't just not doing it and do it everyday. So your mantra can become "I can do whatever I want today but I must achieve the minimum." Something like a walk round the block, walk to a point. If you want to go a run instead that's fine, same with a cycle but when you don't you always do your minimum.

That'll form a good habit. And when that feels natural you'll probably start to want to do more either carry on walking further or standing at the door thinking "I'm going to go out anyway so I might aswell run."

It's really important to always consider anything you do a success though. If you have a shocking ride, it doesn't matter you still went out. If you do your minimum walk or whatever that is absolute success. The only cop out is doing nothing.

thanks guys, apologies for not replying sooner.

There's a lot above to digest.
Its posible I am over thinking it, out of frustration. I've got a smart turbo and was on a systm plan 2-3 weeks before xmas, but the strenuous sessions were really tough to complete and after 2-3 weeks I was going backwards TBH. Struggled even on low impact sessions, really rough after the harder sessions.

I've always maintained that consistency and routine (nutrition too) are key to making progress in sport and fitness . could be combo of age (53) and the after affects of covid have just made the road back to fitness a shed load harder than I'd realised.

Mentally my head just isn't in the right space and the motivation is harder than previously, whilst I say I acknowledge I'm rubbish right now, unfit, overweight, unhealthy and still getting over a bad case of covid - as I feel ok now I don't really think I am acknowledging it and think I can just get on and get back to fitness as easily as I could before. But that's not the case and clearly my approach isn't bloody working.

My physio thinks I need to actually do a 6-8 week recover phase, before I get back to a training plan. She could be right. I'm not used to fitness, biking, sport being this hard, not even after back surgery.

As to how much fitness am I after - to get back to where I was beginning of last year, last good ride I flew round. Enough to not be fazed by some hills and have a good few hours out enjoying my mtb.

Maybe it is enough to recalibrate, go with the flow, get outside, cross train and get into a routine. And take it slowly. And remove all faffing 🙂

@swedishmatt interesting article and you're probably on the money - I'm finding it hard and it is depressing. Been on a covid support pgm from Nuffield and all signs are ok, apart from lungs and lung capacity - message every time is it just takes time and good luck if you want to rush things.

She could be right.

She is right. I'm finding that retraining from even a shortish layoff is a lot harder (at 52), than when I was in my 40s. The more I think about it, the more I suspect I had mild covid last winter, as I wasn't right all last year in terms of lung capacity.

I'm focusing on very small increments at the moment - cleaning half the tech on my local nasty climb, when before I'd be beating myself up if I didn't clean it all. And building a lot more rest into my schedule.

My lungs and lung capacity (and fatigue) were my main long covid issues (after a year I am finally feeling a lot better). I got in contact with a really excellent PT I’ve worked with in the past. Not the drop and give me 10 type PT, but one that really cares about health and recovery. He has ever so slowly built me up with a gym program that means my cycling has improved and become more enjoyable too. Honestly though in the first instance I was just riding round the block for 15 mins in my jeans. That was enough and it was enough to bring a smile on my face. Don’t underestimate what your body has been through (the lactic acid build up in my muscles for months was awful due to the bad oxygen exchange) and if you can afford it - I only paid my guy £40 every 8 weeks - it’s worth it to get some guidance as you aren’t just unfit.

I’m Leeds based, but if you aren’t local he does zoom PT so can pass on his details if you want.

My suggestion, based on what I've done since my ~3.5 week flu in October, is try to ride little and often in z1 and throw in the one or maybe two short races/z4+ workouts each week.

I've ridden everyday since 2nd Nov '21, typically ~60mins, sometimes a bit more and some days just 30mins. After a relapse following my Covid booster, I'm now seeing my best fitness numbers since before my flu.

I've not been following it anything like religiously, but I've been enrolled on https://whatsonzwift.com/workouts/back-to-fitness since Nov on the 12 week schedule iirc, two workouts a week.

Last Spring, I was feeling pretty poorly and low. I'd finished radiotherapy and was in the middle of chemotherapy when these 'Ride 300 miles in a month' challenge things started popping up on my Facebook feed.

With the state I was in at the time, 300 miles was not possible, but I thought about it and decided to challenge myself to ride 300km, on Zwift, in the month of March. I then setup a Just Giving page and let my mates and colleagues know what I was doing.

The support I got, and the motivation to actually push myself to do the challenge was phenomenal. Admittedly, I think I had bitten off way more than I could chew. It was really hard and I didn't feel like I was getting any fitter, (Didn't know it at the time, but the chemo had riddled both my lungs with embolisms!), but my mental health improved massively and I was enjoying being back on the bike again, even if it was just my roadie bike in the garage. I managed the final few km's just before the end of the month, raised £3000 for Bowel Cancer UK and found myself in a much better place. Even though it murdered me at the time, my surgeon remarked on how quickly I recovered from both rounds of the surgery that finally got rid of Trevor, my unwelcome lodger, so maybe the challenge did actually help me physically as well.

Sorry for rambling, but as a motivational tool for getting back onto the bike and towards fitness, that worked for me! Oh, and if you do go down that route, let me know and I'll pop a few quid in your tin.

Beagy xx

Its interesting that you said you were involved in triathlon and coaching triathlon.

I did Ironman triathlon for about 5 years and I was probably the fittest I have ever been. I knocked it on the head about 3 years ago as it was just taking too much time and I also realised that I didn't actually like the stress of race prep. I loved it once I was in the water and off, but the stress of making sure everything was right before a race that cost a lot of money and had a lot of training invested was just not enjoyable.

Since then I have really struggled as everything is exercise rather than training. When I was training I knew what I was trying to achieve so I was able to understand what I wanted from each session. Now when I go for a run I think what am I trying to get out of this today and I struggle. I still do it but I don't think I get as much benefit out of it.

So my way of dealing with this is to set goals that can be measured, stuff like get my 5KM time down to a certain level. However I still find it hard to work out what to do.

But my bit of advice is if you were coaching someone else and they had this issue, what would you say to them? Start coaching yourself.

Well for me what works is forgetting about the numbers, and getting back to what got me into mountain bikes in the first place: riding nice trails and the feeling of freedom and escape.

For motivation on dark rainy nights I watch youtube vids, read magazine articles, look at pictures, anything that will make me think 'I want to go out and ride my bike!'.

Then I'll visualise a climb, or descent, or route that I fancy riding, go out and do it, and come back feeling good.

Gradually I find that fitness returns naturally, and then I might start putting something more structured in place – or not, if I don't feel like it.

I found going out with other people really helped. Find a beginner and go out with them and you can show them the skills and your fitness doesn't matter. Your skills should still be there so pass it on. You will feel good about seeing their progress. Alternatively join a volunteer bike workshop to fix other people's bikes. You have loads of other cycling related skills. Give something back. Then you'll get your mojo back and you can start to push yourself. Worked for me!

@bazzer Have you tried trail racing? It's a lot less faff than triathlon, and considerably cheaper. I find having a challenging race in my calendar is great motivation for getting out. And they don't require anything like the amount of time you need to train for an ironman.

@walowiz

I’ve got a smart turbo and was on a systm plan 2-3 weeks before xmas, but the strenuous sessions were really tough to complete and after 2-3 weeks I was going backwards TBH. Struggled even on low impact sessions, really rough after the harder sessions.

That's a bit odd - I assume you did their 4DP test thing first? IME once you've done the test the workouts afterwards are pretty well tailored to your fitness. It might be worth asking on their forums, they're a friendly place with decent advice and the head bods (Neil Henderson etc) definitely read it and post regularly.

I think it's a lot easier to get fit on a road bike than a mountain bike, especially if you ride with a group off road as there can be a lot of faffing around (and if you're less fit than others it can be pretty demotivating - you spend part the ride chasing from the back then the rest of it broken).

An hour on a road bike a few times a week, starting flat, then bringing in more hills works for me. If you've been fit before your body does seem to have a memory - it's a lot easier than it was getting fit in the first place.

You're going to grimace at this but what about a couple of Joe wicks type half hour basic body weight work outs a week, help get some core strength, balance etc back before launching too hard in to bike specific stuff?

An hour on a road bike a few times a week, starting flat, then bringing in more hills works for me. If you’ve been fit before your body does seem to have a memory – it’s a lot easier than it was getting fit in the first place.

I'm doing this, I forget hills are hills and got the fright of my life when I was at 95% max heart rate trying to spin up a 'gentle' hill the other day (20mph headwind notwithstanding). Back to the flat roads it is!

Personally I think you're looking at the big picture when you should be looking at nothing more than the first step. Simplify, maaaan. There's a fable about the guy who successfully builds a house is the guy who just starts laying a brick and not the guy who stands there imagining the whole completed house in his head.

I would just aim to ride your bike once or twice a week or whatever and don't think about anything more than that. I'm sure the rest will follow later on.

If you’ve been fit before your body does seem to have a memory – it’s a lot easier than it was getting fit in the first place.

This. I was wiped out with long covid for almost 18 months. I started riding a bike again in June. Last week I did a 150kmm road ride to finish off the Festive 500. Long term training adaptations do not vanish even over a relatively long period of inactivity, your body will re-train faster than you think.

And speaking of thinking, try to go back to first principles and find something you love doing. Road riding, mountain biking, gravel, running, walking, climbing, whatever and just do it for the pure joy without fixating on 'training'. Maybe your body needs a rest and is simply telling you that. Maybe lots of structured, objective training has simply killed your enthusiasm for structured training and you need to just not do that. Personally after 18 months I was desperate to be able to just be in high places and feel my body moving on and off the bike. But yeah, do something different and quit stressing about 'getting back to fitness' would be my advice, do stuff and it'll come. The top end is icing ime, but as a triathlete you won't have a top-end anyway 😉

CBA to read the rest.

I’ve seen the threads for 2022 and they’re great, but not going to cut it for me, as my fitness level is low and no motivation.

Find another hobby?

walowiz

Enough to not be fazed by some hills and have a good few hours out enjoying my mtb.

Maybe it is enough to recalibrate, go with the flow, get outside, cross train and get into a routine. And take it slowly. And remove all faffing 🙂

Don't forget this!

There's loads of talk here about training, sessions, schedules etc. I may be wrong but I think you may have forgotten that it's supposed to be fun. What do you enjoy? Go do what you did before, but on shorter routes, in nice weather, without a watch or hrm, or anything to benchmark yourself and just enjoy the sensations of moving your body.

When you remember the fun, you're likely to remember the motivation.

ianpv
Full Member
After I had cancer in 2015 I was in a really bad way – was down to around 61kg (at my fittest I was 69kg). When I got the all clear I was obviously in terrible shape – think my ftp was around 155w (had been around 315 before I got sick). I got back into it by going on a bike tour around southern Spain with two non cycling friends. Riding 3-4 hours a day, eating and drinking more than was advisable and having a laugh. After 10 days or so of that the body was getting used to a bit of work again. Although I’ve never got back to the level I had I managed the highland trail 550 and a few other things since then, and even done a won a couple of local xc races. Just try and forget about how crap you are and enjoy the process of riding a bike. And if you don’t enjoy it any more, then don’t bother – life’s too short.

Did anyone else read that as Lance Armstrong talking to Peter LaFleur? 😀
(Brilliant recovery by the way!)