When the Other Woman is a Bicycle...

Chris at a motel during a brevet.  Yup, with "her!"

The text message I sent to my friends read:  Chris is with "her" this weekend.  Anyone up for Mexican food and beer?  Chris was away (again) for one of his qualifying brevets and I had another weekend to myself.  As anyone who shares a home with a long distance cyclist knows, long distance = LOTS of time on the bike.  And when you are with a long distance cyclist who is training for the Paris-Brest-Paris event, the amount of time on the bike increases exponentially!  Which means you, as the supportive partner, must get used to the idea of doing a lot of things by yourself. 

No matter how rational you try to be, you will occasionally find yourself jealous of the bike and the time your spouse spends with her, er, it.  Don't get me wrong - there are times when this solitude is a luxury.  There are other times (like grocery shopping or cleaning the bathroom or taking three cats to the vet) when you wish you weren't flying solo.  Weekends can be especially lonely since Chris works on Saturdays, and Sundays are always a big riding day. 

The Other Woman...

So how do I fill my time?  I do a lot more cooking.  Chris' mistress doesn't cook.  That's one thing I've got on her.  Chris comes home ravenous after his brevets.  We do not have children, but to look at our grocery cart many people would swear that we have three growing teenage boys who are eating us out of house and home.  No, no teenage boys.  Just one endurance cyclist.


Over the last two years of goal setting and training for Paris-Brest-Paris, Chris, his mistress and I have worked out a pretty good relationship.  He still chooses her over me on most Sundays.  But I think I understand their relationship better.  After all, I'm counting on her to get Chris over the finish line in 84 hours or less, and mostly intact.

But I've got news for her.  On the flight to France, I get the window seat.