Fun Group Ride: Social Pace

Session Overview

Not every ride needs a structured set. This is a genuinely easy, conversational-pace ride with training partners or a club group — useful for active recovery, building bike-handling and group-riding confidence, and staying motivated through a long training block without every session feeling like a test.

What You’ll Need

• Road or gravel bike set up for a longer, relaxed ride (mudguards if the season calls for it)
• A group of 2 or more riders — a local club social ride or a few training partners
• Snacks and water for a longer outing, plus a spare tube and pump

Warm-Up (10 minutes)

Roll out easy as a group for the first 10 minutes, using the time to settle into a comfortable formation and check everyone’s legs feel okay before the pace (such as it is) picks up slightly.

Main Set

70-100 minutes of steady, conversational-pace riding as a group — you should be able to hold a full conversation throughout, not just short sentences between breaths. There’s no structured interval work in this session; the point is time in the saddle, group-riding practice, and enjoying the ride.

• Practise smooth, predictable riding in a group — steady hands on the bars, calling out hazards, holding your line through corners rather than surging or braking sharply.
• Rotate through the group on any short climbs so no single rider is stuck pulling into a headwind the whole ride.
• Stop for a coffee or snack break partway through if the route allows — this is meant to be a social outing, not a race against the clock.

Cool-Down (10 minutes)

Ease the pace further for the last stretch home, spinning an easy gear rather than pushing to finish strong — the whole point of this ride was to stay well below effort, so there’s nothing to save for the finish.

Coaching Notes

• The most common mistake on a “social” ride is letting it turn into an unofficial race — if your heart rate creeps into threshold territory, you’ve lost the point of the session.
• Newer riders: use this ride to practise close-formation riding and communication (calling “car back”, pointing out potholes) in a low-pressure setting.
• Scaling down: shorten to 60 minutes total if you’re building back from time off the bike.
• RPE guidance: this should sit at RPE 3-4 out of 10 for the entire main set — genuinely easy, not “moderate.”