Quote Originally Posted by Allie1DukeFn
Anyway - I digress - my husband is so concerned about me hurting something or getting discouraged - I actually feel like he is holding me back. One of my issues that i have riding is balance - I have problems doing multiple things and still stay steady.....getting a drink, going around someone, looking behind me, etc. We have about a 1 mile stretch we have to ride on a fairly high traffic road - so we usually ride single file. I HATE it when he ends up in front of me because he rides slow to try to make sure I can keep up, but I feel like I can be going so much faster than the pace he is setting, but because of my balance issues and the traffic on the road - I can't get around him. Grrrr. I know he could blow me away if he really let loose, but there has to be some kind of happy medium! I know he does it out of love - but it is so frustrating!
As to being stable... when you get your water bottle out, put your hand in the center of your bars not out at the end... then look down at your bottle and use the other hand to remove... put it back the same way... when I was new I found a flat area, and took my bottle out, put it back, took it out, put it back... etc until I was comfortable doing it. I usually stop pedaling briefly while drinking too... I would consider doing this on your own without the DH... do the same with looking over your shoulder until you can maintain a straight line while doing so...

and yeah, he probably COULD blow ya outta the water, but it's cool that he chooses to ride with you... maybe you could tell him you have a goal on this ride of maintaining 13/14/15mph and have him set the pace... then increase as needed! Also maybe he could get a mirror so he can see if he drops you! That way he can go and know where ya are without riding slow to be sure you can keep up... I know when I ride with "new" people I ALWAYS set a slower pace tho... I don't want to max them out and have them HATE the experience and never want to ride again... it can be tough when you're the stronger rider finding the happy medium... you may have to let him know what it is for you...