Cycling Alone 

As you said, find a balance. I ride with the club on the weekends. By myself on weekdays.

Great video! Insightful. I prefer to ride alone or with a friend or two who understand I'll often distance myself simply for some alone time. I'm curious about your bike build. Any chance you'd consider a build video?

Great thoughts on cycling. I didn't start cycling until 2021 at age 61, but much of what you said resonated. I enjoy riding alone but also like being pushed when riding with friends. Each has its own pluses and minuses.

Truth. On a group ride, you are only as fast as the weakest link and you are stuck with the route the group wants to do. And you have to start when and where the group wants to. You have to ride by yourself often if you want to get in a good ride that's worth all the time it takes to do one. Group rides are a useful tool for 2 specific purposes: Faster group to push you, regular group to socialize or recover. But you should only use faster group rides to push you on rare occasion because too often will make you plateau. And social group rides are too slow to give you any real training benefit. Once you learn to change tires/tubes and fuel/hydrate, you'll rarely rarely rarely ever need anybody else for help. And then you can have great meditation rides like you say.