My DH and younger son got me into cycling. I had really enjoyed riding as an early adolescent and rode everywhere on my 3 speed Raleigh, on some tough hills, too. I loved it because as far as other sports went, I am a total failure. I was in remedial PE as a HS sophomore and I have horrible eye hand coordination. Don't like competition too much, either! But, when I was in remedial PE, I found out that I like fitness oriented stuff and I have good endurance. This was in 1969, when individual sports were not popular and there wasn't much out there for girls.
I rode until I moved to Miami and no one rode or walked. I had a couple of cheap bikes, later, in AZ (5, 10 speed Univegas) in grad school and when I was first married, but I never rode more than 5-10 miles. I distinctly remember riding the *wrong way* down Rural Rd. between Elliot and Chandler Blvd. in south Tempe, and having a bad experience with a car, and never riding again for a long time.
In the meantime, I got into aerobics/step and became an instructor. Basically, after 10 years, I got burned out, and while I still went to classes, it was in a half hearted way. I started gaining weight, my cholesterol went up, and I wasn't feeling too good about myself. During this time, my son started running and then mountain biking, in 1999. MY DH bought a mountain bike and started going with my son. I had been encouraging my DH to do something because he was getting FAT and the tennis he played wasn't helping. When my son signed up to go on a 3 week tour from MA to Maine, Vermont and back, we bought him a road bike. As a surprise, my DH bought a road bike while he was gone and started going out to practice riding before my son came back. I didn't know my DH had ridden as a kid, like 50-70 mile rides. Well, my son came back from that trip a riding monster... he went out and did a century with a group of adults the week he came back! He started racing that fall and pretty soon my DH couldn't keep up with him.
Around this time I got serious about losing weight and started walking and seriously going to aerobics again. In the fall of 2000 my DH refit his mountain bike for me and bought me shorts and a jersey. He took me out on a 6 mile ride where he had to push me up a small hill with the back of his hand. Even though I was humiliated, I was hooked. After all, I was supposed to be the fit one! I rode that bike for 2 years and in September 2002, I bought an entry level Cannondale road bike. My son (and by this time we had our German exchange student living with us, who was also a racer) went out with me at 6 AM on a Sunday and taught me to use my clipless pedals!
Pretty much I haven't looked back since. I'm on my 3d road bike and also have a hybrid and mountain bike. I became a bike trip leader for AMC, but I have kept that to a minimum, since I was starting to burn out on that, too. My DH has mellowed a bit and we ride together all of the time, even though he is faster than me. Our goal is to ride off into the sunset on our bikes when we die...