Confused...

Got out of the work more than an hour late yesterday. So instead of being at the trail head by 5:15-ish, it was 6:30 by the time I was ready to roll. Luckily, I saw a familiar bike on a roof of a car that pulled into a parking lot - a friend I knew from a season of XC racing I did a couple of years ago.
Turns out her SO couldn't ride and she was heading out by herself, I asked if she would mind company.
Man, if I knew how much she would kick my butt, I would've gone by myself at much slower pace! Ha-ha

It was late, and getting dark soon, so we only had time for half of the normal loop. Still about 5 miles of gravel path and then 6 or so miles of single track. She was moving at a pretty good clip, and I had to work hard to keep up!

It was a shortish ride, but a hard one, and it was nice flying thru our trails at 8-9/10th! Trails felt quite a bit different from a more relaxed normal pace.

What really perplexed me was why it felt so hard and I was so tired after only 10-12 miles?! Just a couple of weeks ago I completed SM100. I mean, it almost felt harder doing these 12 miles than 100 miles two weeks ago! Granted at shenandoah, I was pacing myself, and yesterday I was going almost all out, but still...

This is also right along the lines of what I was thinking few days ago. Having ridden 100 miles, why does it still feel almost impossible commit to and ride two complete loops of my regular ride? That would be "only" 32-ish miles...
I'm sure it's possible, but I haven't been able to convince myself to go for the second lap, after finishing first.
I wonder if I looked at the SM100 as n almost "super feat" and thus just threw everything at it, expecting to suffer to no end. I contrast, the regular ride, is just that, "regular" ride, and thus when at the end of the first loop I feel some fatigue, I expect myself to do the "regular" thing, and stop...

Must work on not stopping! After all, 12-16 mile long "training rides" would not help me much at those darn hundies next year... :-)