Drafting... not the drawing kind... the path of least resistance kind

Today I rode a bike further than I have ever achieved before... I'm not going to tell you how far I traveled but rest assured it was a looooooooooong way in a very small and impossibly hard saddle. I hurt. Really hurt. Others might have trained or at least, taken their husbands bike for a test ride around the block before taking on an event like the Santos Great Bike Ride but I live an exciting life of last minute decisions and ill-considered commitments and so I find myself exhausted and suffering this evening...

There were a few thousand people in the event so hopefully they are not all feeling the same as I owe several of them a debt of thanks for letting me ride behind them and reap the benefits of their hard work. Most of all I have to thank my good friend and ex job-share partner, Fern. I roped her in to the event and then proceeded to ride on her tail for most of the course. She's fun and generous and pretended not to be pulling me along. It was while we were in the second half of the ride that my mind briefly wandered from the intense pain I was suffering and I thought. "Oh no, Fern's propping me up again, just like at work. She's doing the hard yards and I'm just sitting back and going along for the ride". This doubting self-talk is not typical of me. I suspected low sugar levels so took one of the red snakes she passed over and a barley sugar for good measure.

Deciding that a fit of depression was only going to add more misery to an already insufferable ride, I decided to think about all the good reasons for drafting. It's benefits are obvious in bike riding - when a steaming peloton comes shooting past -  but I think there are benefits in the office too. Here they are:

1. It's efficient:  NASA said one of its F/A-18 test aircraft had a 29% fuel savings by flying in the wingtip vortex of a DC-8. So if you are feeling tired, burnt out and frustrated, find the closest office DC-8 and hook on. A surefire way to get you re-energized and you'll use less sick leave.
2. Drafting is co-operative: if we take turns in the lead position and work together, we can actually be greater than the sum of our parts.
3. It can also be a bit competitive or tactical: stay close behind your competitors  leaving yourself  more energy for a break-away push to the finish line when they have made a wrong move.

Be careful though. 

Having been at the back end of a peloton once that exploded into a sea of limbs, water bottles and falling bikes, I narrowly escaped with shot nerves and the sad realisation that there are no free lunches. If you are going to hook on to the back of superheros you better be prepared to get up the front occasionally or crash spectacularly with them...