I didn't get yelled at...
I did my first group ride today 140km (87mi), I was a little concerned that they would be a bunch of road nazis that would yell at me for every little newbie mistake that I made. Turns out that they are a great group of guys, and I didn't get yelled at once. They dropped me just before the rest stop, but I quickly caught up once everyone pulled over. I got dropped again on some hills on the way back, so a couple of the stronger riders dropped back to help pull me back to the group. All in all a great ride, and hopefully I can join them again in a couple of weeks.
Two questions though:
1. What kind of training should I be doing to help me keep up on the hills? I had no problem keeping up on the flats, and the shorter hills.
2. I had some leg cramping at the very end of the ride. I was drinking a 50/50 mix of gatorade and water. Should I switch to full strength gatorade, or some other product?