I will say this experience has resulted in a MAJOR ramp-up in my efforts. I bought all new gears and went from a 52/42 11-28 to a 52/39 12-25 (for better cadence regulation and acceleration), totally revamped my bars/stem setup and position, and most important, STARTED RIDING MY ASS OFF. If I'm not sweating and doing at least 20mph+ everywhere I'm not riding my bike. I used to hang near other bikers on the road, even chat them up at red lights. Now I chase them down and pass them like its a finish line sprint, just to have something to motivate me to go fast on my commute haha. Also, I found a different shop that has group training rides weekly, and caters more to the road/mtn race crowd instead of the old shop I went to that caters to the vintage bike/hipster/fixie crowd.