Can I vent / whine here? I am getting really frustrated with the whole road bike thing. I love the bike, I love how much faster I can go, I love how it is becoming a part of me, like my MTBike was. But.... I started cycling about 4 months ago. I put about 1200 km over 3 months on my MTbike and made huge strides in ability and stamina. For the most part, I could keep up with Erik, although he'd always beat me on the hills. He was seldom more than a few hundred feet ahead of me and we'd usually be able to ride together on the flats and downhills. I couldn't wait to get a road bike so I could go faster etc... But now that I have one, it's a completely different story. Although I am so much faster than I was on the mtb, so is Erik, and he's way ahead of me all the time. He's very patient and he stops and waits for me frequently and sometimes I lead or he rides alongside me but I know it gets boring for him. On the hills, he's waaay faster and is usually out of my sight entirely. I find I need the encouragement of having someone close enough to talk with once in awhile rather than having to watch him slowly edge away from me on every hill until he's out of sight. Honestly I don't want him to have to ride slowly just for me - it's supposed to be a workout for both of us. I actually think we'd do better if he rode his MTBike but he's been dying for me to get a road bike so he could ride his.

Biking is a big part of our lives now. We both love it and it's something we love to do together. But for the past 2 weeks, I have been increasingly disillusioned at how it is turning out. I know I will get better and stronger if I keep riding, but so will he. So he's likely to always be way faster than me. I just don't know what to do short of riding on my own and encouraging him to go on hammerfests alone or with other guys and do his recovery rides with me. I think it just sucks - we were looking forward to riding 4-5 times a week with each other and I'm just getting more and more upset each time we go out. I guess there's no advice to give here - I just needed to unload...