Why I love cycling...

Ever since Alli and I got married, we have noticed that we are not like other couples. We like to spend all of our time together. We don't have any friends. I do the cooking and cleaning while Alli brings in the big bucks. Basically, people have a hard time understanding us and why we couldn't go play racquetball without the other or run a quick errand without the other. I am proud to say that I have spent as much time as possible with my wife in the past 16 months.

Although other couples have thought us strange for our inseparability, the thing that makes us the strangest, apparently, is our bicycling obsession. When Allison excitedly tells her co-workers about our new Vittoria Rubino Pros with blue sidewalls and a kevlar belt, her co-workers stare at her like she just tried to explain how electricity works. When I tell people in my class that I would like to take 3 months off and ride my bike across America with my wife, they act like I just told them my plans for suicide, asking why, how, and are you crazy?

It's not that we're crazy, it's that we're freaks. We enjoy pushing ourselves to new speeds. We enjoy struggling up hills. We enjoy the exhilaration of feeling slightly out of control when our speedometer reaches 45 MPH. We enjoy the smells that can only be smelt from a bike. We enjoy lusting after Cannondale SuperSixs and Cervelo R3s. We enjoy comparing our new tan lines. We enjoy dreaming of our next trip. We just enjoy the time alone together that cycling provides.

It's true that I can gain 4.8 miles on Allison on a 5 mile climb, but it's also true that she can go 5 MPH faster than me when we're facing just a 10 MPH headwind. Maybe we enjoy cycling together because it helps us to understand each other.

While the rest of the world cries about carbon emissions and obesity, Allison and I will be quietly riding our bikes, eating homemade granola, and leaving our stresses behind.

Maybe we're not that crazy after all...