Oh boy!

Same story here. Not anymore/recently though.

My partner and I have had two very ugly rides like that in the past. One of the days I was feeling really sh***y, I was recovering from a cold or something and just couldn't keep up. We were battling a fierce head wind and he just kept dropping me, and turning around to look when he was 100 meters ahead. It drove me nuts because I always felt like I was working to catch up with him instead of just doing my thing (the rabbit thing). Eventually I stopped pedalling altogether so he would disappear behind a curve, and I felt immensely better immediately.

We've since had a few conversations about cycling together. Sometimes when I don't feel on par I'll tell him to just go ahead and do his thing. He now knows to just do it and not feel bad about it, and that it doesn't make me feel bad, either. Usually he'll wait for me at the top of the next big hill (sometimes with the camera, so I am now trained to smile when I get to the top!!). However I usually ask him, on those same days, or after a strenuous workout, to wait for me at an intersection where a long flat, slightly uphill and very windy stretch of road starts, so I tuck myself in his wheel and he gently brings me back home. He glances behind his shoulder more often to make sure I'm still in his wheel, and I'll let him know if he should take 1 or 2 km/h off his speed to save me from misery.

With these two tricks, we've avoided those episodes of frustration. It took a few rides before he was confident that he could actually go ahead and not hurt my feelings, but he's learned to trust my word.