Quote Originally Posted by parity View Post
When he's not looking sabotage his bike by ever so slightly misaligning his brakes so they rub the rims. Followed by deflating his tires to increase the rolling resistance. Then on your next ride drop the hammer when he's killing himself trying to keep up with you.
Heeh.

I have the same problem except my BF is just. FAST. End of story. The guy will tell me he's managed speeds like 40 to 50km/h while I consider it a good day if I can hit 30km/h and hold it for more than a mile or so. So, well, we don't ride together much. I've only been on the road bike for 5 months and I'm training to get faster with two one-hour long interval sessions and one long (100km<) ride a week at least. I used to ride between 4 to 6 days a week but gave that up when it became clear that at my new intensity, riding so often would push me into being overtrained. I'm also going to start doing one day of core and strength training in the gym to help build whatever muscles I need.

+1 for the importance of bike fit. A friend helped me tweak my pedaling position once and suddenly, I could pedal 30km/h without an insane amount of stress on my quads. However, my cadence is still rubbish and my current bike fit makes spinning a literal pain. I'd really suggest getting your bike fitted out, maybe by a female fitter if you see the need for it (I do!).

And if you're interested, the July 2010 issue of 'Triathlon Plus' has some great pieces on cadence and building speed. I also have a bunch of interval workouts from 'Triathlete' clipped out, if you want them, I can scan and pass them along.