---- Please don't listen to music while you're riding on open roads unless you WANT to get into an accident! ----
I do centuries about twice a week to get in my endurance miles, and a great deal of them are solo ones. I end up letting my mind drift, I visualize about all sorts of things, I make reflections on my life, and think about my future.
Sometimes my mind gets so lost that I find myself SNAP back to reality after having forgotten what I was doing for a long time -- although I will just naturally be following the route of the ride, and perforiming all of the necessary cycle related functions simply out of instinct.
You'll get good at this with time. When I'm on the trainer indoors, I can close my mind and enter a meditative state while I'm spinning my legs at an aerobic pace, and SNAP out of it about an hour later. It makes those three hour trainer sessions more tollerable.
I always end these long solo sessions with my mind very collected -- it's kind of nice.
- Maurizio