Usually I ride alone and put the power down til I’m banjaxed, have a little rest, repeat until I get home, or until I’m a pathetic crying mess, at which point I limp home by the shortest route possible and collapse in a heap on the doorstep..

Last week though, I borrowed a small stubborn trail hound who dictated a more leisurely pace and I found myself getting air at the top of ascents that I usually have to push up.. I rode further than usual and maybe even perhaps enjoyed myself more..

How do you find the right balance between pushing yourself and pacing yourself?

Slow mates

Power meter.

I vary my amphetamine levels

Slow mates

Occasionally wondered if I can rent myself out as a slow rider, I might get a bit better and everyone else gets an excuse to stop 🙂

Experience, learning how my body works, riding with faster and slower people.

I used to ride with a very varied bunch of mates and some inexperienced riders, part of that was making sure you had that 10-20% left at the end to make sure you were thinking clearly and could sort out problems.

On the road try and maintain a sensible average you can keep, on the mountain bike keep something in reserve.

Unless you try and ride differently you won’t learn…

binners – Member
I vary my amphetamine levels

Get out of your comfort zone, try something different.
Monday night mushroom ride?

I don’t think I’ve ever thought about it tbh.
I go riding with Mrs Spanner quite a bit so just tend to bimble along at chatting pace. Climbs always turn into a race though.
🙂
I go a bit faster on my own, but still slow enough to talk to sheep, squirrels, dogs, crisp packets etc.

On big rides, I hate that feeling of impending doom when you realise you’ve pushed it too far.
Limping home, knackered and chasing light makes me grumpy.
I suppose I’ve got used to building in too much of a safety margin even on local rides.
I should try pushing it a bit sometimes.

getting air at the top of ascents

Dude… that’s a kicker, not a climb – just how unfit are you?

Pedal slower?

Dunno, it’s just something that comes naturally. Maybe it helps that most of my rides will be 3hrs and up so I’m just bearing that in mind.

Depends how the mood takes me, but I tend to most of my leisure off road rides either on a singlespeed so grunt like hell on the climbs and relax on the descents, or on the fat bike just bounce along enjoying the ride.

Pacing yourself isn’t simply going slower, it’s going to within yourself in a knowing way. There is a huge difference between going at 90% and 60%

There’s a lot of discussion about training slow to race fast. For me it was 18 months of varying illnesses a few years ago such as tonsillitis, sinusitis and pneumonia that had me changing gears and spinning on my rides, too scared to thrash myself. Strange thing was at the end of that horrible period I had lost weight and found myself fitter than before.

allan23 – Member

Occasionally wondered if I can rent myself out as a slow rider, I might get a bit better and everyone else gets an excuse to stop

Don’t even joke- we lost our slowest rider a while back, I was bereft, suddenly I had to go faster and the last rider gets the least breaks. Disaster.

Boring, but a heart rate monitor is a very good way. eg you set an alarm if your HR goes over a certain value, and you know you only have 10 mins above that threshold in the day