Its not like I have made some kind of breakthrough in the field of psychological research by saying that your perception of a distance, or more accurately, how long it seems to cover that distance, is affected by your state of mind before you set out but this has become more and more apparent to me as I have increased my training distances. At the start of the year 20 km seemed a slog to me but now if I set out on a ride expecting to do 70 km the 20 km mark comes and goes in a proverbial blink – you see where I am going with this? I haven’t articulated the concept very well but what I am trying to say is that covering long distances successfully is really all in your head; getting over the psychological barrier of a particular distance is as much about a mind shift as it is about physical training.
Now I just need to convince my mind that the ride is 3000km and the 1500 mark should arrive unannounced and way before anything fails?! Wait wait…maybe if I trick my little brain into believing that I am riding a unicycle in a clown suit then my BMX will feel like a Ducati?! No?
Check out my last training ride below – I had to get home from the end (another 20 km; the total of 70km I spoke about).