my favorite riding partner

a while back i wrote a post about my favorite running partner so i think today would be a great day to tell you about my boo, the love of my life, hunk-a-hunk-a burnin' love, my side kick, my best friend, my husband...you get the picture.

my favorite riding partner's name is jc and we have been married 13 years but we've known each other over 20 years! it was love at first sight. he worked in the mall, i worked in a kiosk in the middle of the mall, conveniently located right in front of where he worked. i had a lot of fun watching him sell shoes too.

neither one of us cycled or ran when we first met but somewhere along the way, we decided to buy cheapo "ten-speeds" at wilson's sporting goods (no longer exists today) and began riding a bit here and there. by riding, i mean a couple of times around al lopez park which was a 1 mile loop (back in the day it was known as horizon park) and if we went around it 5 times (5 miles), that was a big deal. i wouldn't even dirty a pair of cycling shorts or a jersey for five miles now, that's ridiculous...why bother? but that's how good things sometimes begin...by accident. and how times have changed since then.

we then bought our first mountain bikes around 1993. both schwinn's with zero suspension for about $300 each. nothing too fancy, just enough to get us going on some local trails without falling to pieces like a huffy would. we really started to get into that and quickly upgraded to cannondale f400's with front suspension...the front suspension made of elastomer. amazing to think how far technology has come with front suspension since those first rock shox, which by the way, you could barely feel the dampening when you hit a bump or root. so we rode those into the ground and then moved on to full suspension rigs. once you go full suspension, you never go back. i'd like to think we graduated each step of the way and earned better bike each time. as you can see, most of my early cycling was on trails, so my bike handling skills have easily trasferred over to the roadbike. can't say that happens as easily for those who started off on roadbikes and then tried to mountain bike. i've yet to be proven wrong on that theory by the way.

jc is my personal cycling coach and he is tough on me. he taught me to jump a log even though i was scared. he stood next to the log to "catch" me if i was going to fall. he taught me to go down all the stairs at the tampa convention center on the mountain bike. that was way cool!  i can remember busting my butt behind him mountain biking and he would stop, make sure i was ok, and tell me to brush it off and get back on.  he would tell me, "you have to just get back up and keep riding, you can't ride scared."  so that's what i did and i'm so glad he didn't baby me. i've broken bones mountain biking, crashed and needed stitches. just as long as jc was right there, all was fine. he also pushes me like no one else on the roadbike. because of him, i have learned to love the pain of lactic acid burning in my legs trying to stay behind him. i cherish the rides we have together and we don't even have to talk all that much, just riding together is so much fun.

he was just informed recently that he has been officially hired as my ironman cycling coach. one of his goals is to teach me to change my own tire. i have the concept in my head and have helped someone change their mountain bike tire but that is much easier to do than a roadbike tire. he's always there if i get a flat but i will be on my own come october 23rd, so learning to change a flat is a big deal for me.

i don't want to be helpless like the prissy, damsel in distress in the above magazine cover.

So that's my jc. i did forget to mention that he is the greatest bike mechanic (self-taught) and he can build a bad-ass bike from the ground up. he continues to impress me to this day and i still get butterflies in my stomach when he's on his way home from work.

as a side note on the training front today, nothing really worth writing home about. after the a$$ kicking i inflicted on myself yesterday, weights and abs was all she wrote for me today. i will repeat that same kick in the butt again tomorrow but the ride will be outside since it will be warmer. that makes me very happy.

much love and peace out!