This is an echo of what so many others have said. If you can agree to ride together once in awhile - a light day for him and a harder day for you, you should be able to enjoy some riding time together.

DH and I started riding at the same time years ago, and there have been times that we are the only riding partners we each have. We primarily MTB, but do some road also. He is naturally faster than I am. There was one season that I managed to get very fast and he was recovering from an injury. That was cool for me!

What works best for us? I do still look at biking as "training", even if there isn't a race coming up, so I do some really hard ride days and some really light ride days. DH kind of does the same. I typically try to line up my hard rides with his easy rides. We also try to do rides once in awhile that are purely social. Lots of times he goes off ahead and waits at a designated point; sometimes he'll "vulture" by riding back to circle around me; sometimes he rides behind me to keep me encouraged to keep a good pace. On some rides he's pleasantly surprised that I'm right behind him, and others he worries that something has happened. We both try to be the generous rider with each other and newbies. It's important to have someone who knows sweep, and we have both taken turns doing this. If I'm riding with someone new, I will sometimes get to a section I really really like - a section where I know there are likely no scary dangerous obstacles, or points where a newbie can get lost, and I'll just let them know I love this and I'm going to crank it. I'll have a blast and then wait for them up ahead. DH does that with me, too.

All in all, I think the message is that when you have different goals and different levels of speed and skill, that you just can't ride with each other *every* ride; but that you can probably find great ways to ride with each other some of the time.

Listen to what you and your body want; talk with him about what he wants; and find the scenario that works best for you both.

Happy riding!

Hugs and butterflies,
~T~