RecoveryDIAGNOSIS

WHY AM I ALWAYS TIRED FROM CYCLING?

You finish rides more tired than you should be. Easy rides feel hard. You're not sleeping well. Your motivation is draining. Everything feels like it takes more effort than it used to.

THE SHORT ANSWER

Most often, this is because functional overreaching crossing into non-functional overreaching — too much intensity, too little recovery. The fix: check energy availability — screen for under-fuelling with the ea calculator.

WHY THIS HAPPENS

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Functional overreaching crossing into non-functional overreaching — too much intensity, too little recovery

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Sleep quality below 7 hours, or fragmented — destroys adaptation

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Under-fuelling — chronic energy deficit drives RED-S symptoms in both men and women

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Life stress stacking with training stress — the body doesn't distinguish between them

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Iron deficiency (especially in women) — standard blood markers miss it

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Zone drift — most training is actually zone 3 not zone 2, driving accumulated fatigue

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Missing deload weeks — 3 weeks hard, 1 week easy is not optional

WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT

Check energy availability

Screen for under-fuelling with the EA calculator

Audit your recovery

HRV, RHR, sleep, mood — track the right metrics

Schedule a deload

One easy week now saves six weeks of overtraining recovery

Get blood work done

Ferritin, vitamin D, testosterone (men) — the standard training bloods

FREE DIAGNOSTIC

Check your energy availability

Or apply for coaching →

WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY

Dan LorangHead of Performance, Red Bull–Bora–Hansgrohe; coach to Jan Frodeno

Lorang manages elite riders by watching the balance between load and recovery, not just the training itself. Chronic tiredness is rarely one thing — it's intensity, sleep, fuelling and life stress stacking faster than the body can absorb. The intervention is almost always to pull intensity back and let a recovery block do its job before adding work again.

Hear it: 13 Years Of Coaching Pros: What Amateurs Don't Know