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WHAT DO I DO WHEN TRAINING FEELS LIKE A CHORE?

By Anthony WalshRoadman CyclingUpdated 26 May 2026

WHO THIS IS FOR

IS THIS YOU?

The structured rider who's lost the joy

You've been following a plan diligently and somewhere along the way every session turned into an obligation you tick off.

The rider deciding whether to push through or back off

Riding feels flat and you can't tell whether you need to harden up or whether your body and head are asking for a rest.

THE ROADMAN VIEW

The Roadman podcast has a whole episode on making cycling suck less, and it exists because this is so common. You started riding because you loved it — the freedom, the coffee stops, the feeling of being fast. Then you got serious, structured it, started measuring everything, and at some point the love quietly turned into a duty. That's not a sign you're soft. It's a sign the structure has crowded out the reason you're doing this in the first place.

The first job is to tell fatigue from staleness, because they feel identical and need opposite fixes. If you're genuinely tired — heavy legs, poor sleep, declining numbers — the answer is rest, and pushing through makes it worse. If you're physically fine but mentally flat, the answer is variety and a reconnection to why you ride, and resting won't fix it. Erin Ayala's framing is useful here: motivation follows action, but only when the action still feels like something you'd choose. Restore the choice and the motivation tends to come back.

The practical move is to deliberately put some unstructured, purposeless riding back in. Ride somewhere new with no computer. Do the café ride you keep skipping because it's 'not training'. Ride with people whose company you enjoy regardless of the pace. The Roadman ethos isn't grinding yourself into the ground — it's still being out there next year, and the next, because you kept it something you actually want to do. The chore feeling is the bike asking you to remember that.

EXPERT EVIDENCE

WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY

Erin AyalaSport psychologist specialising in endurance athlete motivation
When training becomes a chore, the underlying issue is usually a shift from intrinsic motivation — riding because you enjoy it — to controlled motivation, where the behaviour is driven by obligation and external metrics. Reintroducing autonomy and enjoyment, rather than applying more discipline, is what restores sustainable drive.
Hear it: How To increase Your Motivation | Erin Ayala
Laurens ten DamProfessional cyclist, 16 World Tour seasons; now gravel racer and advocate for riding for enjoyment
Even at the highest level, the riders who sustain long careers are the ones who protect the enjoyment of riding rather than treating every hour as pure work. When the bike starts feeling like only a job, backing off the structure and rediscovering why you ride is what prevents the slide into full burnout.
Hear it: Laurens ten Dam on Overtraining & Gravel | Roadman Cycling

PRACTICAL APPLICATION

DO THIS WEEK

Diagnose fatigue versus staleness before you act
Check the physical markers first: sleep, resting heart rate, recent training load, leg heaviness. If they point to fatigue, take rest. If you're physically fresh but mentally flat, it's staleness — and the fix is variety, not rest. Getting this diagnosis right is the whole game, because the two need opposite responses.
Put purposeless riding back in
Schedule one ride a week with no plan, no targets, and ideally no head unit. Ride somewhere you like, at whatever pace feels good. For riders who've over-structured, this protected, enjoyable riding is what rebuilds the relationship with the sport that the training plan eroded.
Change the stimulus you're bored of
If it's the same indoor intervals or the same loops killing your motivation, change them. New terrain, a hard group ride instead of a solo session, a different discipline for a few weeks, riding with people you enjoy. Novelty re-engages the mind that repetition has flattened.
Reconnect with why you started
Write down what made you fall for riding in the first place — and check whether your current training still contains any of it. If your plan has squeezed out every part of what you loved, that's the problem. Build at least some of it back in, even at the cost of a little structure.

COMMON MISTAKES

WHAT CYCLISTS GET WRONG

MISTAKEAssuming the chore feeling means you need more discipline.
FIXIt usually means the opposite. Diagnose fatigue or staleness and respond accordingly — rest or variety — rather than gritting your teeth and grinding through.
MISTAKEConfusing fatigue with boredom and applying the wrong fix.
FIXCheck the physical markers first. Resting a bored rider does nothing; pushing a fatigued one digs the hole deeper. The diagnosis determines the cure.
MISTAKECutting out all unstructured, enjoyable riding in the name of training.
FIXProtect some purposeless riding. The café ride and the no-data wander aren't wasted training — they're what keeps you in the sport long enough for the training to matter.

FAQ

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Is it normal for cycling to feel like a chore sometimes?

Completely normal — every serious rider goes through flat patches where the bike feels like an obligation. It becomes a problem only when it's persistent and you push through it without addressing the cause. Treated as a signal to adjust rather than a flaw to override, it usually passes quickly.

How do I know if I'm tired or just bored?

Check the physical evidence. Genuine fatigue comes with heavy legs, disrupted sleep, declining numbers, and a need to rest that an easy ride won't satisfy. Boredom leaves you physically fresh but mentally uninterested — and a change of scenery or company lifts it where rest doesn't. The two feel similar but the markers separate them.

Should I push through when training feels like a chore?

Not blindly. If it's fatigue, pushing through makes things worse and risks burnout. If it's staleness, pushing through a boring plan just deepens the aversion. Either way, the better move is to diagnose the cause and adjust — rest or variety — rather than treating it as a test of willpower.

Will taking a break make me lose fitness?

A short break — a few days to a couple of weeks — costs very little fitness and is easily regained, especially against the alternative of grinding into burnout. For a stale or fatigued rider, a planned break almost always returns more than it costs by restoring both freshness and the desire to ride.

How do I make cycling fun again?

Reintroduce the parts of riding you fell for and the structure squeezed out — unstructured rides, good company, new routes, the café stop, a discipline you find playful. Strip back the data for a while. Fun is rarely found in more discipline; it comes back when riding stops being only about the numbers.

Could a coach help if training feels like a chore?

Often, yes — a good coach can diagnose whether you're fatigued or stale, redesign a plan that's gone monotonous, and take the mental load of programming off you, which is itself a common source of the chore feeling. They can also build in the variety and rest that a self-directed rider tends to skip.

RELATED EPISODES

HEAR THE CONVERSATIONS

How To increase Your Motivation | Erin Ayala

Laurens ten Dam on Overtraining & Gravel | Roadman Cycling

5 Tips to Make Cycling Suck Less | Roadman Cycling