It all started when we were riding in the final leg of the B&O ride last weekend. Em asked our friend E the following question, "What speed should you ride with a group of riders of various speeds?" Ok...I may be paraphrasing her but I think that was the gist of the question. Should you ride to the fastest, to the slowest or compromise in the middle?
This doesn't mean that I don't want to be challenged. I feel comfortable at a pace of 10mph. I am working more in my cardio zone at 11- 12 and I am at the high end of my cardio zone at 13 and above (unless I am going downhill). When I am talking and having fun I like to ride about 11. When I am trying to challenge myself I try to ride about 12.5 but above that I am unable to hold a conversation.
This means that when I am biking with my friends for fun I don't really like to go above 12 because part of the fun of biking for me involves talking and socialization. I like the combination of exercise endorphins and great conversation. It always makes me happy. What doesn't make me happy? When I feel I have to ride faster than I am comfortable in a given situation. This is a sticky and floating speed because if someone doesn't make me go faster how will I challenge myself.
I think part if this comes from my insecurity. I feel that most of the people who I ride with can go faster than me and sometimes I feel like I have a hard time keeping up. Then I feel bad that I don't have the same abilities that other people do. I know that sounds dumb and the rational part of my brain tells me that we all cannot have the same abilities but that doesn't change how I feel.
So loyal readers what do you think? What speed would you choose?
PS...I feel the right answer is Candy's pace;)
PSS...I realize I have a one track mind. Biking=Summer
2 comments:
Unfortunately, there is no good answer. Any time you have a group of people with different levels of skill and you try to plan an activity for a certain level, it's going to be too hard for some of the group or too easy for others. (This is, of course, only applicable when the activity is done only at a single level.)
A better way to look at it is to consider your own abilities. How fast do you want to ride? How fast do you want to be able to ride? (Obviously these can be multiple-response questions. Maybe you want to ride at 10 mph on Wednesdays and 16 mph on Fridays.) If you want to be able to ride faster, at some point you'll have to work on increasing your speed. If you only want to ride at comfortable speeds, that's cool too.
Once you have an idea of what you want to do, next you need to consider the other riders in the group. If they are similar to you, then your ideas will probably work very well for them. If not, then you have two choices: you can either alternate the types of rides you do or encourage/allow/expect the other types of riders to do separate rides at paces they can handle.
Say you have three groups: a 16-mph group, an 11-mph group, and an 8-mph group. The 16s can probably ride at any pace, the 11s can ride at 8 but probably not 16, and the 8s can only ride at 8. If you all want to ride together, you'll probably have to ride at 8 or so, at least until (if) the 8s improve ... but at some point the 16s are going to want to ride 16. If you are an 8 (or an 11), you'll have to understand if sometimes the 16s don't make it to the weekly 8.
Likewise, if you're a 16, you can't really expect everyone to train to ride 16 mph. Some people simply don't want to; others may not be able to (or may require months or even years to reach that point). You, too, must learn to plan some rides on your own (or with other 16s) ... especially if you want to improve your own speed. A 16 isn't going to improve her average speed to 18 by riding with 8s.
Wow, Dave I believe your comment is as long as Candy's blog :).
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