Something has to give.

There's a lot on my mind lately. A few conundrums. A few questions to be answered. How to treat my fellow man fairly, what etiquette is, should I follow my heart or my heart-rate? I'm hurtling towards a 2016 cycling season at the speed of light and I'm in that tunnel, that frame of mind that borders on psychosis. I know what I need to do in my fitness regime, when to do certain aspects, at what rate and where. But as with most endurance sports, everyone has a different approach to achieving the same results...a win or two at certain events or at least a top performance. I know what my targets for next year are, at what level, and at what personal cost. The problem begins when you put a large number of cyclists with similar goals but different approaches into one group and expect them to function as one organism. Cyclists, unless they ride for SKY, are not creatures to be harnessed and function in unison. We may not heft .22 rifles around with us but we often are by nature loners, off-gridders by default.Cycling also possesses an inordinate amount of personalities. To spend your time killing yourself all over local roads, fighting friction on a turbo, or talking to yourself, planning minutely like a Bond villain for world domination, putting up with biblical weather, an uncaring world and bad roads takes a strong personality. Throw all those lone-wolf types into a 'unified' group on a Sunday ride and, well, I don't have to spell it out, do I? Its ok for a newby, they think all the chaos is actually routine, so riding too slow on a hill and too fast on a descent is like a learning curve for them. Its ok for the guys who are happy to just be there, hanging on for a new PB. The ones I feel sorry for are the lads who know what to do, what's the right pace at the right time, when to back off and when to push on. Those guys, like myself, have picked up all of their experience through the osmosis of hanging out with talented cyclists or listening to decent coaches or learning by our mistakes often decades ago. We sure aren't making it up as we go along or tailoring a group ride to suit our own needs; that's what the other six days of the week are for. And yet due to ill-communication good guys often get dropped or don't know the outcome of the task ahead. Yet most clubs get it spot on. November/December spins are for endurance and if you want to have a shot in the last few kilometres knock yourself out. What's the point in being in a club when you are dropped, forgotten or too fatigued to think? Club is a communal entity. Not a dictatorship. You have to park your personal aspirations unless you are planning on racing unattached come next season. When you roll out this Sunday, make sure you are getting what you need from your fellow club members, get what you want from the spin too but remember that you will get fitter and smarter collectively. If you don't mind leaving your club mates back the road somewhere, remember karma. Unlike those you leave on the road, karma always catches back up.