Today I had my long ride planned in and I tried to hook up with a group ride organized by a local bike store. According to their website, it was supposed to start at 11am. Me, being new to the group, I'm not on the email list that notified everyone the time had changed to 10am. It reminded me of Heather's experience, when she had planned to ride with the group... but ended up doing a solo ride.
Triathletes, especially as diabetics, always have to be aware that things happen unexpectedly and change our plans. You have to be ready for anything and roll with the punches. So without losing a beat, I decided to go it alone today. In a way, I'm more enthusiastic about riding solo because it gives you opportunities to test different things like time speed, fitness level, bg testing on the bike etc. Still early in the season, I'm trying to find my pace and a comfortable speed for a full Ironman distance. Riding out and back on your own, you can really see the variances and effects of wind on your speed. When you're in a group the wind effect is diminished. Solo, you don't have to watch your position in the group so you can fully focus on your ride and heart rate, speed and cadence etc. Plus, riding in a group, you don't have control of the route, so you lose a little bit of that freedom to change things up spontaneously.
I've been playing around with variations on my bike. Just for practice, I often drop a gear to see how much slower or faster I need to pedal to maintain the same speed and compare the effort to determine which gear range seems more comfortable. Another little thing I do... I select the average speed setting on the bike computer and monitor it constantly. I find it makes me more aware of all the stop signs and u-turns and all the effects on average speed. For example, you're riding along and your average speed is 32km/hr. Increasing your speed for ten minutes to 35 km/hr might only affect your average by increasing it to 32.1.... meanwhile, if you slow down to 5km/hr at a stop sign, your average speed might drop to 28.8. It has really made me realize how much a quick stop for water can really affect your time. Even when you put in all that extra effort for those ten minutes... it has less of an impact than a slow down has.
Although you can't beat the camaraderie of group rides - you really need both. There is a lot of training and self-awareness that you can only master on solo rides.
Next week I'll get up an hour earlier and try to join that group again.
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