Quote Originally Posted by li10up
I volunteered to lead the Sat. morning beginner ride...figured that way I could set the pace and choose the route. I've given up riding the Thur. night group ride until I feel I can keep up better. When doing the intervals is it just one gear harder and does the cadence matter or is it just a matter of pushing a harder gear?
Sounds like a good plan, especially since you may get more benefit from leading the easy group than following the hotshots. To do an interval, the number of gears to change really depends. From what I understand, the scientific way to do interval training is by heart rate. Do you have a HRM? Use whatever number of gears you need to use to move up to get your heart pumping hard right at or slightly above your lactate threshold.

If you don't have/use a HRM, the easy way to do intervals is to ride a hilly course (each hill is an interval), or on flats shift up into a gear that's hard enough that you can only maintain that effort for 10-15 minutes, then drop back down to a more sustainable effort level.