Our social life with non-riding friends and family is organized around optimum ride hours. In hot weather the riding is early but not so in the winter so it may mean an early breakfast together. I usually have one big ride on the weekend, most usually Saturday, so that allows more flexibility on Sunday. We'll limit the number of activities done during the optimum ride hours to maybe one a month. Friends and family have to tolerate this because if they don't I am more than willing to give them a response of "wasn't it just last week that you didn't want to do X because you wanted to watch the [insert pro sports team name here] game?" and then we have the silent internal (nor not so silent) discussions of couch-spudness.

I think one of the biggest challenges for all of us is learning to say to others that riding (i.e., exercise) is not a frivolity or an option. It is critical to our health and happiness, now and for the future. Learning to say no to others or find a more mutually agreeable time without feeling guilt about placing your ride time high on your priorities list is so very difficult but absolutely necessary.