For our slightly delayed honeymoon, my new DH and I are loading up the MTBs AND the road bikes, and traveling west from North Texas...doing a little bit on the MTB in Tucson, then heading to California to ride amongst the redwoods, then will do The Breakaway ride (Santa Rosa/Davis/loop). We are aiming for the medium route of 55 miles. I haven't done it before, I am a pretty good rider technique/ strengthwise when I am fit, but the weather here has been pretty much against me (add it moving and getting married...), so I am just now seriously hitting the roads. Anyone out there doing this and am I going to just die? My DH is a Cat 3 rider, and even though I insist that he NOT wait for me, he does. He likes to pull for me, but pretty much continually drops me (even at my fittest when I average 19 or 20 mph even in hilly conditions, he drops me). He doesn't mind waiting, spinning along while I catch up, but it makes me hammer the whole way while he catches his breath. I am looking forward to riding with him, but our paces are so different that a casual fun ride to me is a hammerfest, to him a hammerfest is 25-27 mph race speed.
Any suggestions?