Quote Originally Posted by Lenusik
It is a very good article for me to read because constantly ride with my husband. I truly became faster and stronger because of that. But he has way more power. Our rides are definitely not every day race training, so I am never mentally exhausted. I cannot relate to this part. I know that he is physically stronger but I still believe that training with him helped me a lot. It is rather a motivational factor for me.
I do know couple of women who can beat the heck out of a lot of me riders in the group. These girls are super riders and not intimidated by any guy.
I would send this artcile to my husband and see what he has to say about it.
Last year I would have agreed with you, as I almost always ride with my SO and the guys in our bike club.

However, this year is another story. Recovering from knee surgery and regaining my strength have given me a different perspective.

Since I spent most of my winter and until mid April on the trainer I built a really good cardio base, my exercises in PT brought back some of my leg strength but when I finally started riding outside and I tried to keep up with my SO. I couldn't do it. I was so worn out. I rode with my heartrate at a comfortable pace, wasn't overdoing it or so I thought. Everytime I rode at a pace that I was used to the next day I felt like I'd ridden a century instead of just 20 miles. Climbing and wind really did me in. Sometimes after a seemingly easy ride I was so tired that it took me 2 days to recover.

My therapist said I had not developed the muscular endurance I needed. I didn't want to get dropped by the group so I started training on my own. I used Chris Carmichaels book "The Ultimate Ride" as a guide, did his field test to determine the heartrate I needed to be training at, developed a program for myself, followed it and just rode by myself.

A couple of weeks ago I rode with my group again. One guy commented that the injury didn't hurt my climbing as I was climbing better than ever. I've noticed that too, when I climb my hrt is lower than it was last year, the climbs feel easier and when I did my first 56 miler last week I still felt strong at the end.

I"m still not where I want to be but I believe my results so far are due to leg work that I wouldn't have done without the injury, increased core strength and focused training.

Next year I'm seriously considering getting a trainer.