WrightVanCleve

I stop focusing and enjoy the ride. Pretty soon, I'm further than before and feeling good. Once I do that, I can repeat it. In my case, it is mental and usually that is my problem. Once I'm past, I can start to focus again. Anytime I really focus on numbers, I start to burn out because I'm not really enjoying things as much and the rest of the body starts to feel demotivated with the brain.

I stop at about the mid point of my ride because I've been doing out and back lately but my stops don't always happen midpoint. Ceaderville I need to ride a few extra miles to get 25 because that town isn't midway. Yellow Springs however is just shy over 25. If I do a loop, I'll usually stop about midway. I stop for around 30 to 45 minutes with a good 20 minutes of stretching and the last few weeks I've added in sit ups and push ups.

My rides have been 50 miles lately and I start to bonk about 20 miles into my ride(about an hour and 15 to 30 minutes.) Not a total bonk but I do need some kind of sugar for the brain. Midpoint for my rides lately has been a very nice shady spot with benches and a public restroom near by. The brain perks up once I get some sugar. I'll drink my Cliff drink which is a Polar bottle with 2 scoops of mix, and 1 or 2 Cliff shots. This usually gets me close enough to home when I start to bonk again.

This year I haven't had such a mental hump though. Could be my MP3 player. Haven't had music to listen to before this year and it keeps my brain nicely distracted when I'm focusing. I also stopped worrying so much about speed. I do check it at the end of the ride and I'm improving but I'm not so much of a rush to try and knock 50 miles out in 3 hours. I'll get there at some point but I'd like to drop about another 80 pounds before I think I'll start to try and push for that(I'm at 280 now.)