Originally Posted by travelerman

Anyone else have difficulty with slowing down the pace for a more casual ride?
Some of my riding partners - like all of us - are getting older, and I have struggled on group rides these past few years to keep from getting out ahead of them... I am BY NO MEANS a racehorse - I average from 16.5 - 17 mph on longer rides in our hilly neck-of-the-woods (my highest average last year was a century in a flatter part of the state - about 18.2 mph average).
Our local club has a NY Day ride, which I have missed the past two or three years, and I met up with some of the guys I've ridden with for years at the start; we stayed together for the first mile, but the rolling-hill nature of the terrain (and a wicked crosswind) ultimately found me dialing up the speed, to maintain momentum, and I didn't see any of them after the first five miles were past. I finished the ride a good 2 mph higher average than the guys I started out with.
I know a longer, slow ride is good for training, but I really struggle to not hammer it out, especially when the hills require a little momentum going down to keep a good pace going up.