Hard ride today... I contemplated giving up

Sister, I hear ya, loud and clear.  On my way to my ride I ran into a couple training friends.  they are heads and shoulders above me, like 5 hour 1/2 IM finishers.  They said come along and do our loop.  I expect to get dropped, and I do, but it does suck to watch people disappear into the distance.

32 mile loop, somewhere in the 14-15 mph range.  And when the hills hit (which aren't even hills to these guys, just bumps int eh road.... fuggedaboutit) I also suffer from shin splints and slow running.

But what REALLY sucks is the 50# tandem mountain bike - with a friggin 10 YEAR OLD on the back -- come whizzing by me.  I can't even catch them on the hill......  How demoralizing

At times I just said wat the hell am I doing this for.  I suck at running.  I suck at biking.  what's the friggin point? 

But I bet if we just get out there and keep doing it, we'll get better at it.....At least I hope.....  And you know what?   you thought about giving up.  Many people would have.  But you didn't .

Hang in there

Well said and ditto for me.  I run alone and I bike alone.  Although I do like to go on bike tours, but there you get families and other individuals who are not concerned about riding fast so there is usually always someone around.  As far as I am concerned, this is an individual sport for me and the only one I am competing against is myself to improve my own fitness.

I think you did great on the ride.  I would love to be able to average over 15mph for 42 miles with hills.  Heck, I have a hard time doing that on my short flat 'round the block rides.  LOL!

Want to feel better? Look at my ride yesterday - very hilly, very windy too.  We all have those thoughts - questioning your ability, your motivation.... Pay this no mind - focus on the here and now and remember - triathlon, although a race against others, is also a race against yourself.

Later the sense of accomplishment will come and you'll feel much better.

One of my bike goals for the year is to not get dropped on a certain ride. I've done it a couple times and was amazed how much I improved by keeping at it.

Your 42 miles is awesome and next time it will be a lot easier.

A lot of triathlon is mental and doing something hard for the first time for me sends my head into doubt and worry. After I do something once the next time I have more confidence which lets me do better. One of my season goals this year is to adjust my mental attitude and enjoy the moment of what I'm doing and not to judge myself because if I do, I don't do my best and it isn't fun. Sounds a bit like what happened on the road for you today.

If you really want to go with the group find someone who will ride your pace with you and enjoy the day together. The last time I did the group ride there was a guy who was about my speed and we had a great time riding.

I've been last out of the water more times than I'd prefer, I bet you swim well.....working on what is difficult for you will make you improve and get stronger.

I tri it for the same reasons you do challenge myself. I normally come in the bottom 5% of everyone...it can get demoralizing, but for me it is huge improvement from where I used to be...fat, lazy on the couch doing nothing athletic.

42 miles is awesome!

Did you follow a drinking/eating plan while riding? Do you think you just pushed harder than you should? Did you ride a course with lot of hills? Those would be my guesses as to why you had a rough time today, however making a better job with nutrition, pacing and improving your climbing skills should help a lot. But of course there is nothing as riding LOTS to become a better/faster cyclist. Keep it up, it is hard but that’s the fun!

I think we all make the mistake from time to time of letting a rough day or bad experience put us in a negative mental state of mind.  When this happens to me (as it often does) I try to focus only on the positive aspects of my training.  I am quite possibly the slowest triathlete on the planet (your 15+ mph average puts me to shame), but I have still come from not being able to run around the block to running a half marathon.  I used to want to quit biking after an hour and now I can go 4 hours without praying for death.  And then there's swimming.  When I first started, I coudn't swim 1 lap across my (small) pool without gasping for air.  I can now swim more than an hour non-stop. 

 To make a short story long, don't let this one day get you down.  Think about how long of a ride you were able to finish with a great time.  I would kill to average that speed on such a long ride!  Group rides are always tough, too, as there are no doubt people at higher fitness and endurance levels than you.  It doesn't mean you suck, it just means that others have been at it longer than you. 

Considering there was wind and you were tackling hills, it sounds to me like you did had an awesome ride. 

I'm surprised it took so long in this thread to bring up this point.

#6 in the list of your complaints was Hunger.  How well does your car drive down the interstate with an empty tank?  It doesn't!  And your body responded in the exact same way.  It shut down.......ran out of gas. 

#1 most important component of any physical training is nutrition (before, during, after).  If you don't get this element right then the other elements of physical training will never work.

I'm willing to bet that had you properly fueled yourself for this ride you would have stayed with the group.

Anyone with me on this?

KSH - next ride just have a plan, eat/drink often and go out at your own pace. It is natural to feel discourage when we have a bad ride but those are the ones we can use to learn about our strengths and weaknesses. Plus you have to test yourself at some point if you want to ride faster. It is very easy to fall in the trap of riding comfortable all the time, but then we wonder why we haven't improve much. Having a bad day is not fun at all, but next week you’ll be ready to ride a bit stronger and smarter. Unlike with the run we can push ourselves harder on the bike more often. So go out there, have fun and push a bit hard each time... you'll be riding better in no time (Search for Rich Strauss article about biking on the articles section)