Last spring, after five years of inactivity due to back problems, I started riding again. After a few weeks, I decided to head out on the local group ride. I went out with the 'Slow B' group - which is several clicks down from the AA guys who I generally ride with now. This is middle aged fat guys, women, essentially a major fredfest. Very nice people, nice ride, etc. Now remember I'm a former hard core racing guy (like every weekend for a decade) who routinely averaged 7K miles annually, yada yada.

So my MIND thinks I'm still like that. But my overweight (at that point I was 5'11", 190+ lbs) body belied that fantasy. So on the first climb (a moderate 3/4 mile affair with a couple of 10%+ upgrade spots) I get dropped by EVERYBODY. Old guys, fat guys, middle aged women, you name it. Man it was the loudest wakeup call I ever got. I knew it was coming - but the degree to which my cycling mojo was diminished was rather stunning to me.

That was 9000 miles/9 mos. ago. I'm 90% of the way back. I wound up with a similar group (sort of by accident) in December and dropped the entire group on the same climb by 150+ yds. So it's coming back. But I won't forget that day. EVER.

At the time it didn't really bother me. I was happy to be riding ANYWHERE with ANYONE on ANY LEVEL. Still am.