Incorporating the Group Ride into Your Training Plan

As a coach, I often get asked the question whether an athlete can incorporate their favorite group ride into their training plan. The short answer is, of course, as long as the ride is helping you meet your training objectives and goals. There are always pros and cons to every training decision you make. Let’s delve into some of the reasons why you may or may not choose to do the group ride during the season

Pros of the Group Ride: Improving Skill set

Well timed group rides can be an integral part of your training plan. Not only are group rides great for fitness, but they also offer the opportunity to work and improve riding skills. Group rides are incredibly beneficial for upgrading your drafting, proximity, paceline, sprint, and racing skills, depending on the etiquette of the particular group ride. Oftentimes, most areas offer a “race” ride, where there is a sense of anarchy in the bunch with riders attacking and trying to smash the bunch up. These rides can be great at simulating racing and working on specific skills that are next to impossible to work on when riding solo. From practicing pack skills to working on your sprint positioning and timing, group rides aren’t just about improving your fitness, but about improving your cycling skills.

Pros of the Group Ride: Social Camaraderie

Let’s face it, riding bikes with other people is more fun! Joining the group ride allows you to see your mates, catch up with other riders in the cycling team and work towards goals together. Having a consistent group ride helps keep motivation high, as your fellow riders keep you accountable to your fitness and training goals. Group rides go beyond offering a place to work on fitness and skills, they also include a social component that can lead to a sense of belonging in the community. 

Pros of the Group Ride: Increase in Race Specific Fitness

The fact of the matter is that it can be really hard to replicate the demands of a race when training solo. Use a group ride to work on race specific fitness. Group rides usually call the kitchen sink as far as what training zone you are in. Oftentimes, with lots of surges in pace and sometimes different sprint points, you’ll get a lot of time in every training zone and get race specific work following/creating the surges. 

Cons of the Group Ride: Not Specific Enough

The biggest con for not joining the group ride is that the training is not quite specific enough. This might not matter early in the year when training is more general, but if you are working on something specifically, you might opt to skip in favor of a solo interval session.