Last night I went on what was billed as a hammerfest. There were only 8 riders total and the course was out and back 3x totalling 28 miles. I have only ridden in groups on charity rides like the MS150 and those were years ago so this sounded like a good change of pace. I figured there would be a lot of drafting so I assumed my power would be spent in spurts while at the front. Nope. The group broke into two groups of 4 after the first 4 miles and I was in the faster group. We were doing a rotating paceline (I think that's what it's called) rather than the lead rider pulling for x minutes and pulling off. I couldn't believe how much more concentration & awareness was involved vs. riding solo. In a group of 4 riders it never felt like there was much of a draft given the rotating nature of the group nor much of a rest. Just a constantly changing feeling of pressure & pain. There was a south wind so the outward leg was more painful than the return leg of each lap. My IF was 0.967 for the entire ride so there the draft wasn't making my life any easier.

All in all I prefer riding solo. I like the ability to get my heart & lungs into a flat routine of pain and holding it there rather than constantly ramping it up and easing it back. There's no doubt though that riding in a group makes the time go by much faster and forces you to challenge yourself to keep up whereas you can have a tendency to dog it going alone.

Here's the ride details:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/359741051