I have the same issues as the op when riding with my wife. She doesn’t use TR very often so I either TR before we ride together, use our ride as recovery or more often than not I’ll use my single speed. Makes those climbs more of an even challenge.
You could consider inviting her to improve her cardio fitness by other means that don’t involve exertion on your part.
(My lord I hope in this PC world, people can see the good-natured humour in this. Chances are someone will be horribly offended and get the post removed and me banned. Oh well)
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Another suggestion if it hasn’t already been tossed out: pick a handful of challenging sections of the ride or hills you can hammer. Agree on them in advance a.k.a. don’t pick 50% of your route for solo hammer time. If she’s cool with it, when you reach each section or hill, say “see you on the other side, honey. Wish me luck.” then drop the solo hammer. Then circle back after each section or hill, and do it again with her at her pace. Just do it, then loop back. You get double miles, she gets an encouraging ride buddy. I did that with my hubs last week. He was wiped and lagging a bit, so I went ahead on some sections, did 'em at my pace, then looped back to rejoin him and keep riding together. Also? Teach her to draft like a stone cold pro. If, however, even with a draft benefit (which is what…like upwards of 25 to 30% decrease in effort needed?), she still has trouble hanging on, then I like the idea of getting in your speedier work before you ride with her. Then use the ride time with her to work on form, cadence drills, technique, breathwork, other “minutae” and details, the homework stuff that can’t be done (well) if you’re too focused on pace. Also? You get a gold star for giving a shit about this.
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Does your schedule allow you to ride 2x a day? If you normally ride with your wife in the morning, schedule a TR workout for the afternoon. Consider rides with your wife easy/bonus miles that increase your weekly TSS.
Eh, I’ll give ya a slow clap on that one, dude 
Oh bonus of the apocalypse: local outdoor velodrome has no racing, but is open to the public. Did a vo2 max workout there last week. Would be great for couples training
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Hi
When i first read the intro, I thought it said… “How do i train my wife” LOL
I thought also he will get into so much trouble for that .
Have fun,
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I bought a regular Specialized Gravel bike and recently learned they also make a e-bike assisted model with 3 different power assist settings. I’m hoping to buy that for my wife so we can explore all types of riding you can do on a gravel bike together, plus take them touring village to village in Europe.
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FWIW, here are my thoughts as my girlfriend has recently become interested in biking and I’ve been thinking about this too:
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It’s my understanding that you can’t really go too easy on your recovery or long endurance days. So, the days I ride with my girlfriend fit into my training as long, slow, endurance days. The caveat here is that she’s a runner, so she has a good endurance base. We’ll knock out 3 hour rides, so I am getting decent volume, even if we only make it about 40 miles in those 3 hours. When I ride with her, I’ll sometimes average less than 100 watts (my last ramp was was 348 for context).
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If we only have an hour to ride, I’ll do a sprint workout. Ride super easy with her, not worrying about power, pace, etc. But, I’ll do 3 or 4 really good high quality sprints to a road sign or something. Once I’m fully recovered, I’ll go again. The easy riding in between will allow you to fully recover and get really good sprint work in.
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I’ll do my planned intervals before I ride with her. This works well, and gives the added benefit of volume/time on the bike without much added stress.
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Riding with her keeps me accountable on the days I train alone. If I know I’m going to shorten Saturday’s 1h30m intervals to a -1 or -2 1h long version so I can get back and ride with her, then I’m really motivated to make sure I hit the rest of the week’s workouts 100% so I don’t feel “guilty” about shortening the workout.
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We rarely do a ride without a coffee stop/date, and that’s awesome.
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If nothing else, every time you get on the bike doesn’t have to be training. Just enjoy the time with your wife and be glad you’re spending time together biking, and not shopping or doing something else less appealing!
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Had you thought about buying your wife an electric bike? She will get a good session in, and will enjoy leaving you puffing and panting behind her. You will get some challenging riding ,and feel youve achieved some training benefit. My friend got her husband an E-bike ,and hes not fit, but now they can enjoy riding together.
Sorry if this is not what you wanted, but it could work well for you both.
I can’t get a second session in a day due to work.
I am getting some gatorskin Tyres which will even us out a bit and when the weather is bad I will be doing more indoor training.
I think over the winter I will look at pushing my fitness and probably cruise a bit till Oct when the weather deteriorated as harmony is better than a higher ftp lol
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That last point is really important and one I have to remind myself off so thank you for that. It is easy to fall into the trap of always wanting to turn it into a training session and then forget we ride for the enjoyment first.
I think I will do a few slightly slower rides and pop in sprints or periods of deliberate overgearing so I have a workout on some of our rides without ruinIng it for her.
Having said that, only one of us ever gets in the top 10 or a KoM on Strava and it’s not me lol
Thank you for some good suggestions 
I think the solution is going to be some new tires with increased drag plus looking at routes where I can do a section on my own and then wait for her. Also it’s been good to be Reminded that cycling is meant to be fun not just training and also I am lucky that she wants to cycle at all.
Whilst I am stronger than her out right when we look at our respective levels on Strava compared to other cyclists she is the only one who ever gets the top 10 on a segment or a K0M so she has no slouch. I’m just happy to get in the top 200 lol
Happy riding
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My solution - Don’t ride with the wife - 
No but seriously
Could you not roll up the hills in a harder gear at her speed - would this not give you the workout you need without dropping her.
Not the perfect solution, but with her on an e-bike engaged on just the hills would give you a proper workout sitting on her wheel.
I am planning on over gearing on some rides although need to research what fitness benefits I would get.
Quite a few people have suggested an ebike but we don’t have the money for that and the difference between us isn’t that massive. I think I’d end up divorced if I suggested she get one lol