90/10

Today Zdenek and I woke up, tired and groggy as ever, and a bike ride in the darkness of the early morning seemed very unappealing. With our flashing LED lights and extra layers under our jerseys, we headed to the Park. It was cold and blustery out, and I figured the ensuing ride would be a poor one indeed.

The winds were strong and the air was cool, but Zdenek immediately took the lead. I stayed right on his tail, and for eight miles we rode like this. But midway into our second lap, after a moment's consideration, I suprised him by getting into my drops, gearing up, and passing, thereby giving him a 90 second reprieve from the headwind. My legs burned and, even though I was soon tucked safely into his slipstream once again, I had to work especially hard on the next big hill to keep up. By the third lap, Zdenek wasn't too proud to ask me to move ahead and take the lead, and so I obliged, again for about 90 seconds. Fortunately, my short efforts allowed him to rest just enough to lead us to success: we completed today's ride in one of our fastest times ever! Today we worked as a fluid team.

What a casual observer might not realize is that, although Zdenek led for 90% of the time, the two or three minutes during which I allowed him to rest were instrumental to our success. As he said, he couldn't have done it without the 10% of the time that I led, and I certainly could not have done it without his 90%.

They say that a successful marriage is a 90/10 proposition. That is, you are giving 90%, and receiving only 10%. Crucially, though, as I realized on today's ride, the 90/10 probably refers to effort, and not necessarily time. We each have our strengths, and, depending on the task, our abilities and endurance differ greatly from those of our partner. But even the leader needs a helping hand from time to time, and that little bit of assistance can mean the difference between merely getting by and truly excelling. Today we each gave our own version of 90%.