Okay, so I feel like a total jerk here, but I've got to find a way out of a bad situation.

A month or six weeks ago, upon hearing that I biked a lot, my neighbor (let's call her Jane) asked me if I wanted to bike with her and her friend (let's call her Sue). I asked about their route and was told it was a loop of about 13-14 miles that I tend to do when I don't have a lot of time. I usually ride it in about 50 minutes to an hour (there are stoplights along a good chunk of it). Jane said they usually rode it in about an hour or so. I thought Perfect! Women to ride with!

Jane told me Sue rode this route almost every single morning. She also warned me that she (Jane) might be a little slow. Still okay, I thought.

I showed up the next morning with my road bike and casual kit to find Jane in her mom jeans with a 20+year-old no-brand mountain bike. "Okay," I thought, "This is okay. We'll have a slower ride, maybe her friend Sue will be someone I can ride with. Well, Sue had bailed on us and completed her ride earlier in the morning due to weather considerations (with no prior communication - we waited in front of her house ten minutes before finding out she'd been and gone).

Jane and I did the route as planned. It took nearly 1:45. Our average speed was 10 mph, and I felt like I was pushing her too hard.

I wanted to be neighborly (we moved into our place in June), and it's nice to have someone to talk to and ride with (I almost always ride alone except weekends with my SO), so I figured I could ride with Jane as a recovery ride once a week. Sometimes it helps to have someone push you out the door when you're busy and the weather is cool etc etc. I've ridden with Jane 4 more times, with no increase in speed. She talks about riding for exercise, but she spends more time coasting than pedaling. Sometimes we're going so slow I have trouble keeping my bike upright and stable.

Today Jane and Sue and I were supposed to ride that same loop, stopping for breakfast at a cafe halfway through. Social ride. Cool. Fine. Meet new person/rider. Turned out Sue is also a casual rider, who was riding an ancient mountain bike with a broken rear derailleur (I think) with slack in the chain because her "regular bike" had gotten a flat and she didn't know how to fix it. Needless to say, ancient mountain bike only made it about two blocks before the chain came off. Sue walked back home and drove to meet us.

After sending Sue back towards home, I expressed some concern about this thing not taking four hours (slight exaggeration; but I had other stuff to do) and suggested we cut part of the loop out. Jane got VERY huffy and offended. Things almost got ugly. I almost turned around and rode home. Long story short, we cut four miles out of the loop and it STILL took us three hours to ride under ten miles and have breakfast.

I can't ride with her any more. I can't take it. I have good cardio. I need to work on my strength and hills. Winter is closing in. Any day I can ride, I've got to ride (it's Minnesota, folks). And while I want to remain neighborly, I was pretty offended by her behavior this morning. I had told her when we arranged the ride that I needed to keep it under 2.5 hours. She didn't have good communication with her friend either time. This morning we waited in front of her house for 5 or so minutes before Jane called Sue only to find out she was waiting for us at a different corner, on the main bike route two blocks away. I don't need to be chewed out for being rude or inconsiderate because I made one comment about running behind schedule and needing to move things along.

Gah! I don't know whether to tell her I need to focus on training in the remaining nice days, or try to sneak out the bike, hope she doesn't see me, and just always tell her I'm too busy if she invites me to ride. She literally lives next door. All she has to do is look out the kitchen window to see me headed out... But I'm really concerned that she'll take it as a personal insult, "You're too SLOW!", if I tell her the truth. Sure, she's slower than I am, and slower than I want to ride. But that's not her fault, or my fault, and I'm not trying to be critical. I'm trying to take care of myself.

Sorry about the rant. But I was PISSED OFF and frustrated this morning, and the only thing that kept me from turning the bike around and saying "Whatever!" was that I have to live next door to this woman for the foreseeable future!

I really just needed to get this off my chest. Thanks...