More Tired w Clipless Pedals

Never hugely sold on them but I got them on my road bike 3 years ago as my fitness was growing and I was keeping up with A groups. They did make a difference unfortunately I blew up overtraining and the rest is history having to take time off.

The last few years I’ve been doing various fun things and training regularly but can’t go as much or hard as I used to and haven’t spent a lot of time on the road bike. All my other rigs are flat pedals.

The thing is that when going hard I would feel a bit more consistent and strong there was a difference but those days are behind me. I can’t seem to do as much as I used to so kept it real with my hybrid, mountain bikes or single speed commuting and getting into adventures always with flats. For my current purposes I like the simplicity, safety and not falling.

Last few weeks because my fitness is rising and I want to hang out w old friends but looking at marginal gains have been riding clipped in a bit but it doesn’t feel like a boost a higher power outputs like before. As I said I’m not as strong as I used to be. But holding 250-300 watts lately for 10 minutes on flats seems fairly easy and doable. Clipped in past 6-8 minutes is exhausting. This shouldn’t be.

Yes my bike fitment is spot on. Has professional fitments on all my bikes and that’s good. Before at higher output I felt like it was an upgrade albeit not a huge one but definitely easier going harder for longer despite not using them that often even a few years ago. This is not the case anymore and my expects weren’t met. What’s else could be the problem?