Between Groups
 

Trying to improve my speed I have started riding with a group that is well above my skill level. On a 55 mile loop I am on for about 24 miles of it. After that I get dropped and struggle for the next 30 riding with a couple individuals that just happen to be going the same direction. I do this with them once or twice a week.

Would you rather be in a group that is slower and the workout is about a 6/7 on a scale of 10? Or ride with a faster group but end up spending a good deal of time solo after getting dropped? Over the last month I have accepted option 2 but feel I will never be able to keep their pace... Damn hills...

Personally, I usually do option 1, but I've been looking for groups more my speed. Up here in Maine we have the Bicycle Coalition of Maine and they host on their website a page listing a bunch of group rides and their target speeds. Do you have anything like that near you where you might be able to find a group more suited to you?

But, you know, you are pushing yourself with the fast group, so that's a good thing.

I'd go for option 2. It would be nicer though if a few of you got dropped off the back so you could pedal the last miles with some company.

I would say Option 1 and spend more and more time at the front till you spend the entire time at the front pushing, then move to the faster group and chill at the back and take short pulls

Who are you riding with PBA?

I do both. Base miles with the slow group, then once a week I take my punishment with the faster group.

OP...what is your overall fitness like? Good weight? What is the average speed of the paceline you are trying to keep up with?

Improving speed requires speed work - if you're intent is to get faster in group riding VS riding on your own - TT.
Of course, speed work in a group also greatly aids your individual efforts, since group rides are often like doing intervals, just that you don;t often know when the interva l will happen and how soon the next will come - the group pace is usually out of any one rider's control...
so I choose option 2

Q's
1. Are there a significant number of racing oriented riders in the group?
2. Is the route regular or does it vary a lot?
3. How large is the group?

Ride pace and objective willvary depending on seasonal objectives. If you just started with this group ride a month ago, and the 'racing' riders form a significant group of the ride - you hit it at the point where these rides can still be at a high level. With a lot of racing riders, the wkends that they don't 'race' they will ride hard for maintenance - so group hammerfests in the summer months will still have a steady hard pace.
As the fall and winter approaches the pace of rides tends to slacken, as the race calendar winds down. Winter often finds smaller groups and steadier, slower tempo rides.

Stay with the group. As you improve over the coming months, the group will also begin to slow for the winter.
Then all hell will break loose again as the new season approaches...

As you 'learn' the route, you'll find ways to manage your effort (if you're thinking and not just reacting) so that you can make it over the hard patches in better form.

Work on your technique - riders are a combination of aerobic capacity and power - find what works best for you, so that you can manage yourself better,

Don;t be afraid to sit in 100% of the time. Don't take pulls if you can't. Others in the ride will figure out that you're doing your best, and give you plenty of slack to fit in.

Review your gearing - many riders do not have optimum gearing for fast/hammerfests/race. One needs a tight step gear range in the gear ranges where the hard efforts happen. It makes no sense to have a gear that is too high, except for sprints, when you can never get to, or participate in the sprint (at the expense of not having an important gear when you just might be able to hang on...). It makes no sense to have a 34/28 if you get shelled when you use it. If you have large jumps in gear (8 to 10 gear inch jumps) in the ranges where the efforts really happen, then you can't optimize/maximize your own effort by finding the best gear for the moment.

Get tougher mentally - pick a point in the ride when you normally allow yourself to become weak mentally, and bring 'determination' to your effort - see how that improves your performance over that short segment. You may get shelled later, but start the mental improvements right from the first hard effort - then move onto the next - and so on.

If you never, ever finish this ride with the group, that's ok. All your other rides will get much easier and be more rewarding/fun.
Competitive riding is about suffering, sacrifice and self-determination as it is about anything else. Competition is about speed. Like Jens says "Shut Up Legs!"

other option - which I have also taken at times...

if ride route is the same each week/ride - meet the group at some point later in the loop and join for the last half of the ride and work backwards from there...

The 7:30 group leaving WhiteRock Lake doing the South Loop

Fitness is pretty good I think. I am a bit heavy for a typical cyclist... I weigh in at 205. On the faster ride there are typically 30-50 people riding... From what I understand many of the local crit guys use this ride for training... Typically when I get dropped the average is somewhere between 24 and 25 depending on the day. With the slower group the average finishes right around 20ish.

Yep. It's good to mix things up.

As for hanging with the fast group, look for landmarks and try breaking up the ride mentally into segments. See if you can hang at least until one of those landmarks. Next week, see if you can make it with the group to the next one. Eventually, you'll be hanging the whole way.

Also, be mindful of the parts where people are likely to get unhooked like crosswind sections or hills. Those are the places where you need to move up. For crosswinds, learn where to hide and look for the wheels that going to stay attached. For hills, there's a time honored fat guy method of being on the front at the start of the climb and then drifting back through the group, just hoping that you don't run out of group before the top of the hill.

Keep going!

You're doing something wrong if you have no improvement. Increase your miles. Do intervals on the trainer. Get a coach.

Stick with the fast group, by the way.

I usually use this method, but in larger groups that are pretty tight, they tend to get pretty pissed if you can not keep the pace... I am always off to the far right but I still hear "pedal faster", "get out of the way", or something of that nature... I typically just blow it off, but I know it is difficult to keep lines if people are dodging me... Or am I over thinking this?

The faster of the two groups on that ride cooks, I ache to be that fast. I figure maybe in 5 years.

I don't know if it's universal, but Dallas riders in my limited experience tend to take themselves very seriously. Didn't see the same thing when riding in California.

2. not enough people choose to the harder ride. good for you for doing that. At some point in the future you will make the entire ride and it will be that much more rewarding.

The faster group is the one I am trying to keep up with... The other group switched to 7:00 (fit to train).

As long as you are holding your line and don't come to a dead stop, I don't see what they have to complain about.

Group 1 if you want to improve.

Group 2 if you don't care about improvement and just want the fun and social aspect of riding.