Dealing with cranky significant others (Page 2)

I have a fantastically supportive husband, who was a mountainbiking, road-cycling guru when we got together. He loved that I was so sporty, training for an IM at that stage, and he trained with his guys when I trained for IM, it was great.

But, in Dec 2008, he supermanned over his mtb handlebars at 40km/hr into a rock, breaking his fall with his face.

4.5 months of plaster casts, 2 surgeries and 1 lost job later, there was a severe dip in his morale and motivation for life. At this point, my need to go out and train after work began to impact, because he'd been stuck on the sofa all day and couldn't do anything, and was in desperate need of company. For the record, he's well again now, and has begun the lenghty process of getting his body back into the (delicious) shape it was when he was using it! But, it gave me an appreciation of his supportiveness that I hadn't really had up until that point because of his training schedules.

A cranky SO can make the difference between your training being great and being decidedly mediocre because every time you put your shoes on, you accept that there will be guilt, annoyance, disappointment and hostility to contend with, coming from both sides if you have to be defensive about training.

The other posters are all incredibly wise; if you can find out exactly what the trouble is, then you can work towards resolving it. Including her would be great, but as another poster said, be careful not to make it a competition. If she feels put down or laughed at for her efforts, it will be a slippery slide into unhappiness from there.

Good luck; I'm sure she's lovely, and you'll resolve this. In the meanwhile, could you surprise her by skipping a recovery training session (just one, I promise) to spend some time with her? If you cooked a meal and had it ready for her, it might be a bit of an icebreaker for the conversations you might want to have.