Once I realized that I did not enjoy riding in the winter, I kept doing it. Instead of making it easier and optimizing riding in the winter, I just tried to keep struggling through it. My mental block was that I was saying, "Well, you've ridden before and you've ridden races with this gear, you should be able to ride everyday."
I know in the last post, I said that was bad, but it was also good. I was growing my mental capacity. This tolerance for perceived pain is important.
Growing my mental capacity for a situation is good. However, there is a middle way. There is a larger picture. There is my life. And if I am spending everyday battling with myself and the pain of biking with inadequate warmth in the winter, well, I need proper training or that will take up my whole life. Bring it back down to something simple before making it hard and doing it over and over and failing. Ask yourself, what is your goal? To embrace the suck? Or have a pleasant ride home? Challenge yourself or give yourself some rest? Either one can be a good goal, but the thing you are doing should function to solve that goal.
I think a person that is used to doing things in a more difficult way has an advantage. He or she can do it the hard way or the easy way. The person who only knows how to do it the easy way, does not have those options. A bike ride can only be a grueling challenge or a pleasant ride, they do not have the options for both. They usually take the car and miss out on some good bike rides. Other people do not have a car, only take bikes, and so they have some limits on all the other stuff they have to do.