For better, for worse...For uphill, for downhill

My husband Michael surprised me on the way home from church yesterday, suggesting that we go for a bike ride together. He is NOT into road biking (or any hobby that requires tight pants, for that matter...ask me about his two English horse riding lessons). He'd much rather be bouncing around some rocky, wooded trail on a mountain bike, or, even better yet, his very manly dirt bike, with lots of pads, protectors, and macho boots with steel toes (fill in sound effect: Tim Taylor...arrh arrh arrh).

So I was very happy to oblige him. We loaded the bikes on my car--my streamlined, smooth-tired, lightweight road bike, and his 40-pound, thick and knobby-tired mountain bike--and drove down to the alpaca farm parking spot. We donned our helmets, saddled up, and Michael remarked, "OK, you lead the way, "Sea to Sea girl." At that moment, I actually realized that I was a little nervous...Michael keeps himself pretty fit, and I can rarely compete with him when it comes to athletic activities. This arena, however, was a bit of a new "playing field" for us. Not only have I been biking almost every day for the past couple of weeks, I had a definite equipment advantage. Now what do I do? Do I really push it and try to be a show-off? Do I take it nice and easy? I don't want to make him feel bad for not keeping up in spots; but I don't want him to be insulted if I act like I'm riding too slowly...I guess I just wanted him to enjoy it.

All of this went through my mind in about 2 seconds, and I quickly told myself "Just shut up and ride!" So I did, and it was really fun. I kept up a decent pace, and he was pretty much right behind me the whole way. On the final stretch, which has quite a long incline, he fell back a little ways, facing an added challenge of a gear that wouldn't downshift all the way, and he was clearly more out of breath than I was at the top (he appreciated the fact that we had just passed a hospital). Soon after, I made him switch bikes with me for a little while, just so he could see what he was missing out on, and he was soon flying along well in front of me on the down side of the hill. Riding his bike was like going from driving a Porsche to a pick-up truck; it would probably be great cross-training to ride it once in awhile, but that would be way more work than pleasure (in other words, it would probably feel like "exercise"...yuck).

So, I hope he had fun...I had fun sharing my new hobby with him for a little while. I don't think I'll ever turn him into a road biker (can't get past the pants thing), but he's supporting me being one, and that means just as much.