I haven't seen many well-known cyclists or MCT members, or people in clubs with similar weight to me. I wonder if they all lost weight through running or if only I ride at this weight... I'd like to ride with people in the same weight category, but I almost haven't seen anyone.
Thanks to clubs, aside from the benefit of not having to rely solely on riding alone, I end up exercising more even for a day or two, and I gain stability on night rides or road rides - that's the advantage. However,
the problem is no matter which club I try, my weight and riding style don't match well, so I'm wondering if I should just ride alone without joining clubs.
In extremely social rides where members look out for each other, beginners' groups, mixed groups, and groups where the lead position is fixed without rotation, there are no particular problems.
But the problems arise in training groups that do rotations on short 1-2 hour rides of about 30-60km.
First, most of the members I've been riding with for several years weigh 70-100kg. My FTP is in the mid-to-late 300s (watts), and their FTP is in the mid-200s to low-to-mid 300s.
But even when I ride with people who have similar FTP levels on Mileage or Rideuck, or roughly similar levels, here's how I can summarize the situations I experience every time, whether on social rides or training rides:
1. I don't know what wattage the leader is putting out, but during TT sections, the pack speed is mostly around 40 km/h. If I'm lucky, the pace holds, but every time I or the person in front is leading, the speed inexplicably increases even on flat sections, going over 45 km/h, and it frequently speeds up like that. Even in 2nd or 3rd position, I'm hitting over 300 watts. The problem is that I have to take pulls too often in this condition, and my body is at upper Zone 4 or Zone 5, so I lack the power to maintain it, so I struggle to hold it for 10 seconds then drop back, but even if I do hold, the pack speed collapses, and by the time I get to the back, I often have to accelerate again.
Or sometimes the group falls apart and I get isolated and dropped.
2. If I get dropped in situation 1, what happens is: when a climb comes while I'm in this state, my power drops due to muscle fatigue before I even get breathless. And if I've used up this energy from the beginning of the workout, sometimes I can't produce significant power due to lower back pain.
3. After riding like this, the next day or two days later, I need to do non-interval social rides, ride alone, or rest to recover from nervous system fatigue.
4. For long-distance riding (tours, brevets, or other long-distance group rides)
On flats, we rotate similarly or even when I take the lead at a steady pace, we only encounter climbs, or after climbing, the pace of the people riding with me drops significantly, so I need to take too many breaks, which usually means arriving at the destination much later in many cases.
Rather than intervals, my style is riding at or slightly below FTP with sustained hard efforts, or steady LSD with almost no breaks, but I've barely seen riders with a similar style, whether the issue is weight category or not.
I only feel good at the end of the workout, but due to frequent interval situations or opposite riding styles, it sometimes becomes stressful - am I the only one experiencing this?
Or is this situation I'm riding actually normal or abnormal?
Or is it lack of training?
If I focus my training condition or body condition on 2-5 minute power, I become weak in long distances like Gravel Grando or Rando, and if I focus on long distance, I suffer or get dropped in every one of these training rides.
