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:

[Bonnie and Kona]

Laurie, I love your blog! We got a tandem but have only ridden it about 4 times. There is no way we could ride "together" on separate bikes.

 

Oh Deanna, We had a similar canoeing experience.. My DH kept saying, "If you can't steer, ROW." Then, "If you can't row, STEER." haha. We quit playing doubles tennis in our 30's to preserve our marriage.  Sports, ugh!

[Deanna & Desi & Cori]

Gotta love those husband/wife activities.  In order to preserve our marriage, though, we avoid such activities whenever possible (with the exception of shore excursions during cruises).  The closest we ever got to divorce was during a canoe trip.  My husband is almost twice my size so our paddling strength isn't exactly equal.  We did a lot of zig-zagging down the river, bouncing off the river's edge like balls on a billiard table.  ... and with each bounce, lots of yelling and blame-placing.  We'd still be there today (and the trip was over thirty years ago) if we hadn't capsized.  My husband (who is nearly blind without his glasses) lost his glasses, so he HAD to rely on my guidance - on which side of the canoe he should paddle, how hard to paddle, etc.  Funny thing, we sailed down the middle of the river straight as an arrow!!!  We've never been in a canoe together again!

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

I'm thinking that they need to make those serious racing bikes as bicycles built for two  ..... for couples just like you and DH ...... That way he can go as fast as he likes and you can keep up!  Everyone is happy!

[F, Calla & Luca]

Wonderful. You must look amazing in your getup since you clearly choose almost exact lookalikes to demonstrate muscles and curves, hard to have both but I guess you've mastered this. A 100 mile bike ride and you'd only need five hotels--you go girl! I am in awe here and have to go rest after reading this : )

[Lindsey]

.....bahahahahahaha!! Thank you, thank for the laugh this morning :-)
My DH and I ride Dirt bikes together...it's a ton of fun. We started when DH suggested a sport that we could share together, he suggested four wheelers, as he grew up riding them. I suggested dirt bikes as that was what I grew up riding...I won the argument when I said "so are you ever going to give up your training wheels?"