Longer rides not with husband?

06-10-2004, 04:20 PM

OK, here's the deal.

Long ago, in the wintertime, my husband and I signed up for RSVP, a two-day
183 mile ride from Seattle to Vancouver, BC. We have the hotel reservations,
everything.

Two weeks from now is the Flying Wheels Century. The elevation profile for
the 100 mile loop is remarkable similar to the elevation profile for the
first day of RSVP. I've been planning to do the 100 mile loop, under the
theory that if I can do the 100 mile ride at the end of June, I should be
able to complete the 183 mile ride by the beginning of August. I'm also
planning a two-day (100 miles back-to-back) STP ride in July, which he has
already decided he wouldn't do.

Now it's the middle of June. Unlike last year, my husband's hardly been
riding. He does one to three short (10 - 30 mile) rides a week. I haven't
been Lance Armstrong myself, but I'm doing more like 100 miles/week just
commuting, and then doing a longer ride over the weekend.

My husband's in school these days, and this week and next week are the
end-of-the-quarter break. A few weeks ago I had a sort of come-to-Jesus
conversation with him about how he needed to really use the break to pour on
the miles if he really wanted to do Flying Wheels and RSVP with me. Like 30+
miles every day, to get himself up to where Flying Wheels (much less RSVP)
are conceivable. It's now four days into that break, and he's going on his
first ride (an 18 mile round trip) today. I don't blame him for wanting to
do other things on his break, like rest and relax, but there's trade-offs,
and one of those trade-offs might be, he might not be doing these rides with
me this summer.

Right now, for me, doing the complete century (as opposed to say, the 70
mile loop) feels like a stretch, but I've done it before, and I could
probably survive it again. The problem: I just don't see how my husband's
going to be able to do it. The last longer ride we did together, about 45
miles, he faded before the end, and I had to ride to the car by myself and
circle back and pick him up. In general, he's got the big muscles to push up
any sort of hill, but he doesn't seem to have the endurance for longer
rides.

So, here are my choices:

a. Do the Flying Wheels full 100 mile loop. He can do the 50 or 70 mile
loop. We'll ride together for part of the ride. He just has to make the
commitment to have his stuff ready and to get up early enough to make it
feasible for me to be able to complete the 100.

b. Make a commitment to doing the ride with him, and doing it on our tandem,
and doing the 70 mile loop. It won't be the 100 I was hoping for, but the 70
mile loop would be a first for us on a tandem, so has the feeling of a
different kind of accomplishment. I would have it in my back pocket that,
if he feels like he's going to plotz, I can push it as stoker and get him
through it.

c. Make the commitment to doing the 70 mile loop with him, on singles. He
can do a self-evaluation at the break-off point between the 50 and 70 mile
loop, and see if he can actually finish the 70 mile loop.

d. Just do the Flying Wheels full 100 mile loop, and not worry about him at
all. I have friends I can ride with, let him register and get himself down
there to ride, even if it's later in the morning, if that's what he wants to
do.

Then, after this choice is made, we'll have to decide about whether or not
RSVP is really happening as a couple. If we did the 70 mile loop on a
tandem, I'd feel much more confident about being able to pull off RSVP on a
tandem, too.

What do you think? I don't want to nag him, but I'm very nervous about how
this is going to work out.

Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky
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