bainbridge wrote:I stare at my front wheel and comfort myself by remembering that so long as it is turning, I'll get there.
This really helps on steep hills when the front wheel is practically under your nose and the speedo drops to a single figure, then a low single figure.
When this happens I used to fall into a trap of my own design; I'd see I was maintaining 6mph or whatever going up a big hill and start extrapolating, thinking that at this rate it's going to take me 7 hours to cover the remaining 40 miles, but of course this is nonsense because the whole journey will average out much faster.
So when I start feeling demoralised I just focus on keeping the front wheel turning and just so long as it is going round everything will turn out ok.
Around the North Downs area near here, there are a few challenging hills and to keep going upwards, I mentally say to myself 'Need chalk!' and try to run over a small piece of chalk on the road to make a mark on the front tyre as evidence that the wheels are turning, moving steadliy onward and upward. Works for me!