Hard ride today... I contemplated giving up (Page 2)

The idea is not to stuff your belly full of food before a long hard ride.  You'll just end up wearing your breakfast on your shoes.  The idea is to eat a meal high in carbs 2 hours prior to a hard ride then sip on a sport drink until you begin.  Then throughout the ride slam PowerGels or GU, or a calorie dense drink.  Unless you're doing family friendly neighborhood bike tours you'll never be stopping to rest or to eat.  You're going to have to find what works for you while you're on the saddle.  One thing I suggest is to cut up a PowerBar or Clif Bar into small pieces.  Place it in a small zip-loc baggie and tape it to your top tube.  You can easily reach down and grab a bite without making any major movements.  There are also several different types of supplement drinks you can use that are very calorie dense.

I'm willing to bet that if you nail your pre-ride nutrition you'll be amazed at how strong you feel.

I am not picking on you but I've never undertand why people tape food to the top tub of the pedal when it is so easy to stack gels or power bars on your jersey back pockets? Just wondering?

All the nutrition comments are right on mark.

 My comment is to find people that will ride with you no matter what.  Unless I am alone, I ride with some close friends (a husband and wife).  They are reasonably matched until it comes to the hills.  He has big pistons for legs and powers on up (after powering down) and tends to leave her behind.  This is a bone of contention for them and I hear about it later because she is my running partner (when I am not running alone).

I tri to take the lead as much as I can so I can hold the pace in her comfort zone and help bring her up the hills instead of waiting for her at the top.

Sorry.....bla bla bla....my point again:

Ride with people that will be there to support you and help you through the tough parts.

Good on you for sticking it out. Getting dropped and suffering your way home doubting yourself is one of the things that's going to make you a better cyclist. If you just cruised all your rides feeling froggy, you wouldn't be working hard enough.

 "To be a cyclist is to be a student of pain....at cycling's core lies pain, hard and bitter as the pit inside a juicy peach. It doesn't matter if you're sprinting for an Olympic medal, a town sign, a trailhead, or the rest stop with the homemade brownies. If you never confront pain, you're missing the essence of the sport. Without pain, there's no adversity. Without adversity, no challenge. Without challenge, no improvement. No improvement, no sense of accomplishment and no deep-down joy. Might as well be playing Tiddly-Winks." -- Scott Martin

So, now you have to "get back on the horse" keep pushing yourself (rest appropriately of course). You are better off for having suffered than if you had not. To me, all training, tri's, education, spiritual growth, all of it, is about stepping outside your self and the "limits" you have placed upon yourself. You slammed through your limits on this ride. Congratulations.

Well no wonder you wanted to quit - you were trying to overcome physical hurdles AND mental hurdles. I sometime suffer from self-defeating thoughts, too, and I've gotten better at ridding myself of negative thoughts.

Change your internal dialogue. Instead of "I suck" try "Yeah, this is hard but it's a reflection of where I am in my training. Or "I'm doing the best I can; nobody said it would be easy." Or "I can do this. It's gonna be hard, but I CAN do this." Oh, and "Find your Happy Zone!" keeps me feeling loose and in a groove.

Seriously, telling yourself you suck will suck the joy and energy out of anything you do. So stop doing it! You don't suck - you're just experiencing the pain and struggle that comes with good, hard work.

Everyone trains at a different level and pace.  I thought of you as I was reading something on Gordo Byrne's website.  He NEVER rides in bike groups for this reason.   The bike groups want to HAMMER and it is not within his tri training plan.  So he rides on his own to do his own thing.  We're talking about an Ironman champion here - refusing to bike with groups because he can't or won't participte in their "hammer time".   

Seriously - you should not feel bad.  Stop beating yourself up.  Not only do I not have the physical endurance to keep up with a bike group (and I've been training for about 2 years now), I don't have the courage to go out there and even try!  I'd probably fall off my bike causing a Three Stooges like domino effect on all bike riders.