Autumn Fatigue

When I was scuba diving every weekend I would often feel tired in the afternoon, after I got home. It’s due to the huge change in pressure, from 40m down in the lake to 300+m above sea level around the Léman. Yesterday I went for a ride, and today I went for a ride again. I feel fatigue. I feel tired and in need of time to recover.

I believe that it’s due to the Autumn conditions. The mornings are darker, we’re wearing more layers to keep warm, and the environment is cooler. I believe that all of these contribute to the body needing to make more effort to warm up, and then to keep warm. The irony is that we go for morning rides, when an afternoon ride could make more sense. In the afternoon the air has had time to warm up, as have the roads. Just as importantly humidity has had time to decrease.

When we ride in the morning we feel cooler because of the relative humidity being high. As we ride we’re being cooled by the environment. We’re cooled as we go through a road surrounded by trees. We cool every time we head downhill.

And Finally

It’s cold and Autumnal in the morning, but not in the afternoon. If we went for group rides in the afternoon we would be warm and comfortable. As I write this we have blue skies and a good view of the Alps. We could easily have a pleasant ride, if we took the time to wait for the afternoon sun. Having said this, a good reason to ride in the morning is traffic. The quieter the roads are, the safer a bike ride is.