I think knowing your own psychology is critical here. What kind of situations motivate you, and what kinds of situations discourage you?

SOme people are seriously motivated by "going out and getting dropped." They get determined and scrabble their way into the mix. For other folks, that gets 'em going back home and staying there. And, of course, sometimes you have *some* control over that. I try to figure out what I'm going to do to keep from getting discouraged if X or Y happens, ahead of time. However, when it comes to bicycling... I was used to having to work twice as hard to get half as good, and so getting pretty good just working as hard as everybody else had me ecstatic and still surprises me (honest, *that's* why we were going so much faster than the advertised speed Monday... I couldn't believe I was going that fast... ) But for heaven's sake... it's just bicycle riding, not the Great Judgemetn Day )