Biking and Marriage!

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

 

After what seems like months of rain, our weather is looking up and my DH and I have started bike riding. He is a serious biker and I am a not so serious biker. Any bike ride I go on has to have a beginning and an end designated BEFORE we start the ride. This is important because my DH can ride for hours and even rides 100 miles every year on his birthday. I could ride 100 miles too, but it would involve about 5 nights in a hotel and lots and lots of stops for snacks.

 

The first time we went riding as a family a few years ago, my DD almost had a heart attack when she saw her father in his riding outfit. I had seen it several times, but didn’t think to warn her and so you can imagine how shocked she was to see her father in his biking spandex ensemble. I think she spit out her Gator-Aid and screamed “GROSS!”  I told her it was a constant battle fighting off the other women on the trail when they saw him, and she said, “Are they angry because he is wearing that outfit and want you to do something about it?”  When I told her I like to call him Lance Armstrong on the open trail, she started laughing and said if I didn’t mind she was going to call him Rubbermaid.

 

Anyway, the point I am trying to make is that my DH takes his riding seriously. Since I don’t go as fast as he does, it makes me nervous to have him following me and often times I ask him to go on ahead.  This started shortly after we got in a fight one day because I accused him of riding too closely behind me and trying to draft off me. I told him it was causing me to be more winded and he said it was impossible to draft off someone whose speedometer’s gauge was blinking “are you even pedaling?”

 

So, we worked out something that works best for us. We drive to the rail trail together and I put my IPod on and listen to my music and leisurely ride up the path and he takes off like a bat out of hell. The only kink in this system is sometimes I can’t find him when I am ready to leave. He says he can’t hear his phone on the trail and sometimes he passes me and pretends he doesn’t see me.  The last time this happened I asked him how he could miss a 6 foot tall woman wearing a lime green Nike shirt ringing her bike bell and screaming, “I WANT TO GO HOME NOW!’  Well, that must have jarred his memory because he then said now that I mentioned it, he did remember riding by me and looking back to see me waving.  When I told him that wasn’t a wave, he just smiled. One of these days, I am going to throw a stick in his spokes as he sails by.

 

Well, I hope this blog encourages others to get out there and ride. It sure does help to keep a marriage strong to do fun activities together…LOL!  We have had some good riding opportunities and some we have turned down. When my sister and her husband asked us to go on an almost 400 mile marathon bike ride with them, we declined.   My sister sent us the brochure and two things stopped me from going.  First, the brochure had a section on what to do if you encountered snakes on the trail and it wasn’t scream or call 911.  Second, there were no stops along the way to malls or gift shops.  My DH has ridden with me for 20 miles and he declined for mental health reasons.  I guess you just have to know what works for you.

 

Unfortunately, I do not carry a camera with me when we bike, but here are some similar pictures. This is what my DH and I look like on our bikes:

We almost never look like this:

Before I get on any bike, I always do this to warm up:

My DH does this:

I like to stay fit, so I look like this in my bike outfit:

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Jennifer, Check on Ebay. Thanks for your comments :)

[Jennifer,Chloe & Myla]

As usual an awesome funny story. I can't believe you can make it that far with him! I've been wanting one of those pet bike trailers too still searching for a great deal. I bike DH don't and I want my doodles to get outside too.

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Lynda, We got ours off of Ebay. It was similar to this one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/MEDIUM-DOG-PET-BIKE-SOLVIT-HOUNDABOUT-CARRIER-T...

 

Thanks, Leslie!

[Lynda Kamrath]

My husband was talking yesterday about training Harpo to ride in the BOB (beast of burden) that you pull behind a bicycle.  I doubt that would work, especially if Groucho was running alongside.  Probably a Burley child trailer would work better.  We have a little homework to do.  Harpo is going to begin agility training soon so he has a lot of learning experiences coming up.  MIght as well include biking.

[Leslie and Halas]

Thanks for the laughs!  And great pictures!

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Nancy, I love Yahtzee, but my DH does not :(

Thanks, Caitlin and Karen

Donna, I used to pull our 75 pound rescue dog. It is a lot more work and on hills would be GREAT and exhausting exercise. We could hear people saying, "OMG, that is a dog." I think they were expecting it to be a child.

[Melody & Bruin]

I think Karen has the right idea!

[Donna K & Quincy]

Puncuation is not one of my strengths as you may have noticed.

[Donna K & Quincy]

Laurie, you look hot girl and DH ain't too shabby either. We once had a similar experience except I was the one in front and DH was having a minor meltdown trying to slog his way up a hill, I was already at the top. To be fair I had been biking more than he had so I did have an advantage. I would love to have a trailer to take Quincy with we me but it would be such an unusual sight around here I might get laughed out of town. We also have a lot of fairly steep hills to climb so I'm not sure I'm up for that.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

That woman in the second picture......I'll have what she's having!