Originally Posted by Gladius (Post 18684513)

Anyone with any actual advice to achieve my goals?

Originally Posted by Jakedatc (Post 18685503)

+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.

Originally Posted by Campag4life (Post 18685687)

Pretty tame so called A group rides. My favorite group is what I call A- and average speed is 21mph with a sprint up over 30 at one point and the line can roll 25+ leading up to this for a couple of miles. There are a couple of faster groups in town with lots of CAT racers. A local CAT 2 sometimes joins our ride for fun. Probably his recovery ride. ;) Pretty funny in the sprint. He rides away from our group. The first time he joined us, I was near the front and grabbed his wheel as I didn't know him...and we were rolling 30mph for over a mile or so and I went anaerobic and he rode away from my buddy and me. We got dropped. :) Nice guy. He rides BIG miles and I see him on the road all the time.

Originally Posted by caloso (Post 18684695)

I would target the Tuesday ride. You'll want to be fresh, so on Sunday maybe just an active recovery ride. That means an hour of just turning the pedals super easy. Don't be concerned if little old ladies on beach cruisers pass you; you just want to be keeping things loose. Monday off day.

On Tuesday, think about where you tend to get dropped. Is it on a hill? If so, it's worth it to burn a match to get up towards the front, or even off the front, of the group as you hit the base of the climb. Then climb your climb. Be steady and allow the group to filter around you as you drift towards the back. Hopefully, you'll run out of hill before you run out of group, then you attach and keep going. Repeat as necessary.

If you get dropped in a crosswind or tailwind, you need to focus on shelter. You may already do this, but take note of flags and trees, and focus on staying out of the wind as much as possible. Think of the route as it relates to the wind and think about the places where you need to be up near the front. Places where the route goes from a tailwind to a crosswind are really dangerous. In the tailwind, there's less benefit to drafting and the big horses can really ramp it up while weaker riders struggle to hold on. Then if the road turns and now it's a crosswind, those riders at the back who're already gassed are now fully exposed to the crosswind and they get popped.

Take a look at the riders on this ride. There are guys who always drive the pace, there are guys who always are in danger of getting dropped, and there are guys who might not be driving the pace but they never get dropped. Look for the never get dropped guys and take your cues from them. Don't allow yourself to be in a situation where you have to rely on a weaker rider to hold a wheel.

Also, think about the landmarks on the ride and make subgoals to just make it to those landmarks. You may get dropped, but next week come back and make it to the next landmark.

Remind yourself that when it's hard for you, it's hard for everybody else. When you think you're about to be dropped, give yourself permission but only after giving everything you've got for the next 30 seconds. This has saved me many times: I am absolutely chewing the bar tape and desperate to hold the last wheel and I say "Okay, 30 more seconds." And most of the time it will slow just enough to allow me to latch on and recover. But if you do get dropped, no worries, you've given it all you had and that's good training.

After you've been dropped, get a drink and maybe eat a little, but don't waste the opportunity to now get in some solid tempo work. After you've had 3-5 minutes of easy pedaling, push a hard but steady pace back home. That's some solid work and you'll come back stronger next time.

Good luck!

Originally Posted by kbarch (Post 18686006)

What fine advice! I like how it's not eye-glazingly technical and abstract (all vO2 and FTP and zones and kiloJoules or whatever) and even seems like common sense, once you think about it. Some of it was sort of germinating in my mind before, but some of it may never have occurred to me at all. But the best part is, I can imagine actually FOLLOWING this advice, and having it work. Thanks for sharing!

Originally Posted by 12strings (Post 18685139)

Lots of good advice here, but the simple answer is interval training. If you have one fast group ride a week, you should have one or 2 other rides that consist of very hard intervals..then a few very easy recovery rides the day after the hard rides. If you're thinking of it in terms of effort out of ten, the riding a lot at a 7-8 effort will not make you as fast as riding the same amount, but splitting it between efforts of 9-10 and 3-4. This kind of work conditions your cardio vascular system better, and will burn more fat, losing weight.

Originally Posted by CafeVelo (Post 18686064)

It's never occurred to me until this thread that I ride a lot more than the average roadie. When I started riding it was for weight loss, and I rode to a coffee shop about 10 miles from home, so I'd do 20 miles. When I got more serious, I just carried over the metric of 20 miles being the baseline for a ride, eventually that got translated to an hour being the baseline of riding, I ride almost every day, and end up riding 160-200+ miles a week. I do the "unofficial" Tuesday ride that leaves from the same parking lot as a scheduled ride wth the local cycling club. It's almost exclusively CAT racers, many 2-3, with a grab bag of 1's and 4's. The ride is brutal, and I think everyone there is doing about the same mileage as me, but many are doing far more focused training and coming in at the lower end of that range. Just about all the people I know who are successful are putting in about 10 or more hours a week though.

Originally Posted by Heathpack (Post 18686492)

For those of you who are telling OP to get a power meter- he already has one.

For those of you who are telling OP that he must ride greater volume, I ride around 8hrs/week now. I used to ride 10-15 hrs. What happened? My coach convinced me to ride less. Why? To get faster.

For OP, I ride 2-3 interval sessions per week, plus another 2-3 longer rides. I have abundant rest in my schedule and overall not tons of volume.

It sounds to me like you need a little more of a training plan. Either buy one or better yet consider a great coach. I can give you some tips on finding a good one, should you want to give it a try.

Originally Posted by PepeM (Post 18686580)

Is a Category 5 racer considered a 'CAT racer?'

Originally Posted by Campag4life (Post 18686467)

There is no other gateway other than to work your body harder...take it beyond its current level to get stronger. You can't do this with zone 2 and 3 riding. You need intensity.

Originally Posted by cthenn (Post 18686304)

I've just started getting serious about intervals. But it's making a huge difference. When I used to go at "7-8", all I'd be good at is going 7-8, and not improving much. But what I'm finding when doing intervals is that when I am doing 7-8, I can lift to 9 or 10 for a short period (say to crest a small hill, or get through a steep pitch on a sustained climb), and return to 7-8 without blowing up. I didn't have that extra gear to go from a hard, sustained effort to a close-to-max effort, and return to a hard effort...instead I'd just blow up.

But man...when I do a hard set of intervals, I am wiped! It's been a week since my last serious interval session, and my legs are still not fully recovered. I assume the more I do them, the quicker I'll recover afterwards, but right now they kill me!

Originally Posted by PepeM (Post 18686580)

Is a Category 5 racer considered a 'CAT racer?'

Originally Posted by Clipped_in (Post 18686704)

Actually, most consider them 'DOG racers'... ;)

Originally Posted by PepeM (Post 18686794)

I was called SQUIRREL during my last crit. Where does that one fall in the racers hierarchy?

Originally Posted by bmthom.gis (Post 18686677)

I can't believe no one has said the most obvious answer yet - get a red bike. You'll be leading the A group in no time

Originally Posted by caloso (Post 18686694)

I have never heard this term outside of BF. All that's needed to race is a working bike and a racing license. You can get a 1-day license for $5 or an annual license for $65. Everyone starts in Cat 5.