Originally Posted by
Richard Cranium
Keeping my focus on incremental goals, such as an "hour by hour" inventory of my performance, or split times for 25-mile segments, or making a certain town or fuel stop at a certain time are all ways of occupying the "mental needs" of a ride.
This is an excellent approach, and what helped me out going from 200k up to 200 miles. I don't look at the overall distance, I just break it down into chunks of "the next 25 miles" or if it's a really tough segment "the next 10 miles". It's much easier for me to tell myself "only 10 more miles 'til these hills are done" or "20 more miles to the next stop" than to look at the cue sheet and see that there's still 70 miles left to go.
Heck, on my commute home I have a 2.25 mile long hill and sometimes I'm hauling 30 or more pounds of groceries. I break that one down into micro-goals: OK, just around the next corner. Not so bad... Now I just need to make this steep section. Not so bad...