How to get faster? or maybe just ride alone?

[SlowButSteady]

I've basically chosen to just ride alone.

I'm faster than a recreational bike rider and slower than a cyclist.

I mean, why should I load up my bike and drive somewhere to join a group ride when I'm a mile behind the group after less than five minutes? That makes no sense, so I ride alone.

I cover okay distances. But it takes me over 2 1/2 hours to cover a distance that some of them are covering in an hour.

Sometimes I look down and I'm clipping along at 20+mph. Sometimes I look down and I'm going 12.

This is my 4th year of cycling. I have a great bike. I even like to ride up hills.

I'm just failing to progress.

[aicabsolut]

I sometimes ride with a group that is much faster than me. Usually, I just hang on for dear life and hope I don't cramp up or bonk. They only really smoke me on the county line sprints, but luckily they regroup very slowly after those. Some of the guys are really nice and will give me a push now and then or drop back and help me catch back on if I'm struggling. Riding with them makes me push myself harder than I think I can. It has made me faster. It keeps getting easier to keep up with them, and they notice. If they're good guys, they will help you out when they see you are really putting in the effort. I'm sure there was a time when they were between pace groups. Maybe don't ride with them every time. Do the easier ride sometimes and the hammerfest sometimes. Try to make friends with them, and if they still don't want you there, then find a new group. If you are dropping back by 5 minutes, you should just drop back to the slower group. If you're constantly opening a gap, then you are probably not ready for this group either. If you can hang on most of the time but struggle on some hills or with some really fast surges, then you probably ought to be there, but you will need a little help sometimes. Riding solo is a good way to work on the mental aspect of suffering, but if you really want to get faster, you need to try to hang with people who are faster. It is, in my experience, the most effective way. However, they need to be just fast enough that you have a chance. They force you to put in efforts that you may not think you can do solo. If you can fight for the right wheel, you can get the benefit of a good draft that will help you save some energy over the course of the ride. If you're always way off the back, then you are really just training alone.

[Crankin]

I'm like Slow But Steady. Except that I've been riding for 8 years. I guess I could progress if I really trained for it, but while most think I have tons of discipline, I don't want to do something that would take the fun out of cycling for me. I ride alone, with my husband (who pushes me), or with a friend who is slower than me. I do ride with one group that is purely social and has an average speed that is a bit slower than mine. But there is always a "fast" segment of this group; fast is relative here. I have the respect of the faster riders, even though most of them have been riding forever and do long distance rides on a more regular basis than me. I can climb as well as almost all of these people, so that helps my confidence.
One part of me says that I am fine for an "old lady" who didn't start until her late forties and the other part of me says I'm a slug.
The only time I really train is during the winter. And that's just so I don't die on March 1st...