Best advice I've gotten was from the fellow who started the local fast-ish B-group, after he'd watched so many people get dropped on A-group rides, get discouraged and not show up again. At 60, I'm among the oldest and expect to get dropped by the A-group, but thought I could hang with the B-group.

He was out for several weeks with an injury or recovering from surgery, so I'd ridden a few times with the B-group and was on the verge of not returning. But in his absence, on too many of their weekend 50-60 mile rides the A and B groups would combine, which defeated the purpose. The B riders would draft off the stronger A riders. I could hang on for awhile, but gaps opened on hills and I could close them only so many times before I was spent. And despite the no-drop policy, they dropped us slowpokes. (Fortunately I knew the long rural route so I didn't get lost.) So the advertised 15-16 mph average (which I can handle) was really 18-20 mph (which I can't handle for more than 10 miles or so).

I don't want stronger riders slowing their preferred climbing pace for me -- that can be exhausting in its own way. I realized that on slower casual group rides when I got stronger, but would hang back with the slowest folks to keep 'em company, because some were new and unfamiliar with the route. I discovered it was just as tiring to slow myself to around 7-8 mph to match their speed, as it was to maintain my own slightly faster pace. It was hard to find the right gear and cadence to ride slower than I preferred.

When the fellow returned he hung back with me on a couple of rides to chat and just advised me to go my own pace on hills and not try to match other folks. He'd climb at his own preferred pace, but lag a bit at the top to wait for me to catch up. So there was the challenge to not dawdle and keep him waiting too long, but without the pressure to worry about preventing a gap from opening. So I gradually found myself getting a bit stronger over time and not feeling so exhausted.

And after concentrating on intervals and hill repeats this summer I finally overdid it and was exhausted by September, so I cut way back. Now I'm doing the hard training rides only once a week, rather than 3-4 times a week.

I'm also paying more attention to warmups. At age 60, it takes me much longer to warm up -- usually almost an hour. So I have to resist the urge to charge uphill before I'm warmed up. I have to ignore Strava on some climbing segments because, while I'd like to improve my time, those segments occur early in my workouts before I'm warmed up. So I gear way down, sit and spin. There are other equally challenging climbs later in my workout routes when I'm warmed up.