Originally Posted by
caloso
It's possible you are psyching yourself out. Unless you're under doctor's orders to limit HR, I might suggest sticking the head unit in your jersey pocket or putting it on a screen without HR and power. You might surprise yourself that you can dig deeper than you previously thought, and you'll still have the data for after the ride.
+1 for my group rides i put my garmin on the map and only don't look at avg speed or anything else until the end. I either have it to stay in the group or I don't and whatever speed that day is doesn't matter. I am kinda in the same boat of B+/A- for our shop ride (tho i'm the skinny bastard you hate on hills but coast past going down).
If you are getting dropped on hills and know the routes you are doing then move yourself up before the hill then have everyone pass you going up. Then you are at the back going down and can recover.
knowing the speed difference between A and B would be helpful too. One shop I ride with the A is 20-21 down to 18-19 for B or a different shop they say the A is 18-20 and the B is 16-17.