Dates with a Biker

I’ve been on two dates with a biker in the last three days. No, I'm not talking about a motorcycle kind of biker I'm talking about a bicyclist kind of biker - my husband Owen. 

I’m not sure what it says about us, that we get a sitter to watch the kids and instead of heading out for a romantic dinner or out to see a movie we load our bikes in the van and head to the Cannon Valley Trail for a bike ride. But that’s what we did on Thursday - we arranged for a sitter just so we could ride our bikes. And you know what? A bike ride date is something I’d like to do again.

Why a ride on the Cannon Valley Trail instead of a ride on the roads near our home? Well, I’ve been wanting to get out on my road bike for a ride of 20 miles or so to see how my new saddle feels on longer rides. I didn’t want to ride the hilly roads near our home and have to work hard, I simply wanted a nice flat piece of trail so I could just pedal away and see how the saddle and I got along. 

Owen and I got on the trail around 7:00 p.m. with a goal to ride 20 miles. I drafted a lot of the way and we kept up a decent pace despite the dozens of bunnies we had to avoid and the deer that crossed our trail. At our halfway point I told Owen I wanted to keep going because I realized we could ride 28 miles and make my 50 miles a week goal, a goal I haven’t met since I made it several weeks ago. It was a lovely night to ride and along the way Owen introduced me to doing intervals - we would sprint at about 20 mph for about a minute - I kind of enjoyed them. 

When we got back to our van we had pedaled 28.2 miles in just over 2 hours - our average nearly 14 mph. I didn’t feel sore, not 100% comfortable, mind you, but I felt pretty good for having biked 28 miles. And guess what? I've come a long way since I started riding with Owen - I didn't swear at him once ;)

Today the kids stayed home on their own for a couple of hours and me and the biker headed out on a date again. This time we just had to stop at Fit to Be Tri’d, a fitness gear store in Northfield. Our daughter, Rose, turns eleven tomorrow and has her eyes on a cute bicycling jersey at the store so we stopped in to get it for her. While there Owen found a new cycling jersey as well. But best of all - we settled in, talked to the owner, Tom, for awhile and watched a replay of some of the Tour de France that he was showing. Watching a bike race on a date is a first for me. And for Owen, too - at least as far as I know :) We had fun.

I guess biking dates aren’t that romantic but we do talk a lot when were riding together. That’s worth something! Plus it’s hard to fight when we’re riding our bikes or out watching the Tour de France in public. More good reasons for biking dates. I think we should go on many more.

But just to balance things out a bit we are getting a sitter and heading out to dinner and a play with another couple next week. It will be, I hope, a night of relaxation, good conversation, laughter  and fun. And, who knows? maybe romance, too. After all, Owen’s looking pretty swell after all this biking. You should see his legs. I’ve been drafting behind him for weeks now and they are looking pretty good! ;)

My view when I'm drafting behind Owen. Not bad. 

Picture creatively cropped in homage to my friend, Cassi (@morebikes)

who takes absolutely fabulous pictures

and keeps a wonderful blog at: http://shebicycles.com/ 

Go there. It will be well worth your time.