Why Everyone Needs a Training Partner

Proper store stop before night set in. 

This was one of those rides where I felt great, until five minutes into it the humidity hit me and all of my sore, non-cycling muscles from doing squats the day before began telling me to go home. Atlanta had been experiencing a little bit of a dry, cold front that had left me totally unprepared for 80% humidity, further because both Conner and I were semi-swamped with school we didn't leave until rush hour. Everybody loves cyclist during rush hour. Despite making it out of the perimeter in thirty minutes (we may of split a couple lanes), an hour into the ride I was totally over it. I had pulled my already sore hip flexor, clumsily bunny hopping a pot hole, while trying to not get run over by cars passing in our lane. The dull, random pain combined with my body's shock at the humidity meant that if I had been solo I would of called it quits and gone home an hour in. Thankfully though, I wasn't the only one on this ride. Conner needed someone to ride home with in the dark if he was going to do the full workout that he wanted to get in. Nursing a sore ego, I sat on his wheel for the better part of fifty miles.

The route sampled some pristine country roads. 

Low and behold, once the sun started setting my hip flexor had worked itself out and the humidity began to drop. Suddenly I was feeling great and we made great time on the way back as we switched off on the front. What had been a crappy day on the bike, turned into a great training ride with some great scenery. It only took some fifty miles for things to turn around. It's days like these where the true value of a training partner is seen. Someone to get you out of bed at six in the morning or force you to keep going when otherwise you would not.