My Tandem Valentine
by Efren Martinez
It’s no secret that exercising with a friend can be more beneficial to one’s fitness than exercising solo. So why not invite your best friend to join you? For me, my best friend would happen to be my wife. When it comes to cycling one of us obviously has a stronger speed advantage on the bike verses the other. For the sake of loving kindness, I won’t mention who that might be in our marriage. Regardless, when my wife and I go biking together I’ve always been more about keeping her safe with me on the road instead of bolting way ahead to pull the pack as how my group rides. I admit I know a bit more about cycling etiquette and the laws of the road than my spouse. So consequently I am constantly being more concerned about where she’s at and that she’s OK on a ride, which doesn’t really make for the best cycling workout. This is why I turned to Tandem Cycling. With Tandem Cycling I always know where she’s at and taking the lead on the front of the bike. I also educate her with riding skills to get stronger and wiser when it comes to riding with traffic. This is just one of the many pluses with Tandem Cycling. My personal favorite is that we can stay together during the entire ride. We can carry on a conversation and enjoy not only some one-on-one time together, but also some cardio fitness. We have great fun, and outside of that she continually lets me know she’s drafting me. No kidding. Tandem bikes are fairly inexpensive and I personally enjoy the extra weight of such a bike because the benefits of having to work a lot harder to get moving on a tandem bike makes me faster for my road bike which weighs about 190% less, extra rider included. This Spring, I invite you to invest in your relationship, fitness and riding skills because the couple who tandems together, stays together.
