As much as I believe in team collaboration at work, my workouts or sports tend to be “lone wolf’ things. More of a “me time”.
So for example, while we lived for close to 20 years in Weston, FL, a city that prides itself for having bike lanes all around it, and that is the home of the “Weston Flyers”, a cycling club that organizes several weekly rides with sometimes enormous groups, i never joined them.
You can see them riding the loop, early in the morning with easily 50 spandex-wearing individuals, closely packed, sometimes running a red light.
I don’t like riding with other road bikes. I do understand those who enjoy it. The camaraderie,feeling part of the group, the competitive spirit; but from purely the riding experience, there are two opposing outcomes:
The first one is what makes cyclists pack together, and is looking to draft. Every cyclist ahead of you is pushing against the air and leaving a small pocket of vacuum behind them, that wanes away rapidly as you get farther from the point where they rear spindle and your front meet. That little pocket of vacuum can someone make the difference between being able to keep up, or be left behind.
Then there is the pile-up. When riding this closely, if one cyclist stumbles, a few will go down with her as well.
This is the risk for the benefit of the small pocket of vacuum.
Is there a similar dichotomy in something you do?