Recreational & Family - The Last, Best Mile of the Day

We were spending the weekend up at my folks' place in Tahoe City. Sunday morning I got up early, mounted the road bike and rode east towards Nevada. Two hours later, I was at the Mt. Rose summit enjoying a breakfast of Gatorade, Clif Bar, and slightly bruised banana. I was thinking This is the BEST ride I've had all year.

How wrong I was....

After a super fast ride down the hill and back around the top of the Lake, I walked back in the condo to find my kids at the breakfast table eating french toast with their Papa and Nana. "Daddy's here! Daddy's here!" Okay, now this the best.

After breakfast, Lucas says "Daddy, ride with me!" And he grabs his helmet and runs outside to grab his little two-wheeler with training wheels. (This was a craigslist special and it's kind of aqua and pink but I made it a little more boyish with some decals I got at the bike shop. He's the only two-year old in town with a "Saturn Racing Team" and "Fueled by Power Bar" decals on his bike.)

We probably rode for 45 minutes, up and down the parking lot of the complex. I tried to show him how to ride around the speed bumps, but Luc wouldn't have any of it. "No! I can do it!" I'd ride ahead and straddle the speed bump and yell "pedal, pedal, pedal! Don't stop pedaling!" and as he'd get to the speed bump I'd reach down and give him a little push over the bump. "Yay! I do it!"

After he thought he'd gotten the hang of it, he tried to wave me off. "No, Daddy. I can do it!" And he'd ride up, lose momentum, and topple over. It caught him by surprise and there were a few tears, but I'd pick him up and ask him to show me if his knee still worked (I'd make him wiggle it) and does his elbow still work (wiggle it), wrist, neck, head, etc. By this time he was laughing and I asked him if he wanted to quit. "No! I want to ride with you!" So, we kept riding, and we'd race to back to the condo. And then back on the loop around the parking lot and over the speed bumps. Finally, he decided he was tired. I put up the bikes and looked at the computer and we'd done at least a mile. I figure a mile on little 12-inch wheels and training wheels was like 10 miles on a 700c wheels.

As I was putting up the bikes, I had a flash on the future. In a year or two, we'll take off those training wheels. Then a bigger bike, then before I know it, he'll be dragging his old man up Mt. Rose and beating me to the county line sign.

Yup, half a dozen times around the parking lot with my two-year old son. The last, best mile of the day.

That's a nice story.

After teaching my 7-year-old to ride without training wheels this summer, she and I have been practicing in the school parking lot. I've started running my rollerblades alongside her -- I'm just fast enough to keep up with her, but I can still help her start and stop when she needs it.

Agreed, good story.

It gets better.
A few years ago, I came home from work to find my son, he was 7 or 8, riding his new bike through a mud puddle, repeatedly. I asked him, "what are you doing?" he answered "I want my bike to look just like yours!" Soon, you'll ride a few miles together.

Then it gets worse.
He is 15 now, just entering high school, has found other interests, and is starting to 'go away' as I did at that age, he needs to become his own man.
I can't wait untill he returns.

This morning I hooked the train up to my bike and rode my daughter to school. She thought that was real cool. When I got home, 1.0 miles on the odometer!

It only gets better...

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=227469

Kotts:

That's wonderful.

Took my two sons and their bikes up to my sisters with us last month and my 4 year old that just learned how to ride with his training wheels off insisted on going over the jump. He crashed every time for an hour or two and then suddenly he made it over and stayed up after his back wheel thumped after dropping of the edge. Now I realize he technically is not jumping but rather he is just going over a jump shaped bump at the speed he hits it but his bike skills are amazing for a 4 year old. His brother is coming along too but has a little more fear than his brother (which is a healthy thing).

pretty soon he'll be dialing up the wattage and dropping you. :)

pretty soon he'll be dialing up the wattage and dropping you. :)

Oh, don't I know it. Everyday I go out for a training ride it's for the specific purpose of pushing that day a little farther into the future.

And it keeps getting better:
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=232091
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=228308
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=190695

As was previously alluded to, you/I are getting older, and they are growing into their strength. Soon, my little girl will be doing loops up ahead while waiting for me to catch up.

Great Story, I envy you, My kids are way past that age. (37 & 33) G'kids 600+ miles away.

Caloso, have you considered sending your original post into Bicycling magazine? More people should be able to enjoy that story as much as we did.

My boys are 4 and 6. I've been "riding" with them for the last couple or 3 years... 1st in the burley trailer, then on the tandem (w/child stoker) with the trailer behind, and now on the tandem with a Burley Piccolo behind (although the 6 year old also is a terror on his 2 wheeler, an Electra Townie, since last January). Anyhow, dad (that's me) likes to ride down in Markleeville a couple of times a week throughout the season... normally going up Monitor Pass from Markleeville and then back down. Over the last couple of weeks I've been dropping the kids with their mom off at the Carson Valley pool and then continuing on for my climbs, picking them up ~ 3 hours later. Last week the boys, start agitating about going with, and that swimming was "boring"... Soooo.... last Friday (my little guy's 4th birthday, in addition to being a day off school for Veterans Day) we headed off to "do Monitor pass" on the Santana with the Piccolo hooked on the back, with the wife following behind in the Jeep. Even though I've ridden up the pass more that a couple of dozen times this year solo, I only made it about halfway up (with the extra 120 lbs. of kids plus the weight of the bikes) before I gave in to the temptation of having the Jeep carry us the rest of the way up to the 8300' summit. No big deal, because the kids had come for the descent.... and boy what a descent it was. Now normally I hit speeds in the upper 40's on my solo, but with the boys in tow (and the wife watching every move I made) I did my best to keep the speed under 25 (using an Arai drum as a drag brake).. The boys didn't know the difference as they screamed and giggled the whole way down (~7+Miles & ~2800 feet) as if they were on a roller coaster. Then back in town we stop at the Wolf Creek Inn and I get to listen to the boys explain to the waiter (incredulously) how they just rode the pass and how it was the little guy's 4th birthday to boot !!! I'm thinking to myself that it doesn't get any better....

It gets better.
...I can't wait untill he returns.

neither can he...he just doesnt know it yet

THAT'S AWESOME!!!!!!


My boys are 4 and 6. I've been "riding" with them for the last couple or 3 years... 1st in the burley trailer, then on the tandem (w/child stoker) with the trailer behind, and now on the tandem with a Burley Piccolo behind (although the 6 year old also is a terror on his 2 wheeler, an Electra Townie, since last January). Anyhow, dad (that's me) likes to ride down in Markleeville a couple of times a week throughout the season... normally going up Monitor Pass from Markleeville and then back down. Over the last couple of weeks I've been dropping the kids with their mom off at the Carson Valley pool and then continuing on for my climbs, picking them up ~ 3 hours later. Last week the boys, start agitating about going with, and that swimming was "boring"... Soooo.... last Friday (my little guy's 4th birthday, in addition to being a day off school for Veterans Day) we headed off to "do Monitor pass" on the Santana with the Piccolo hooked on the back, with the wife following behind in the Jeep. Even though I've ridden up the pass more that a couple of dozen times this year solo, I only made it about halfway up (with the extra 120 lbs. of kids plus the weight of the bikes) before I gave in to the temptation of having the Jeep carry us the rest of the way up to the 8300' summit. No big deal, because the kids had come for the descent.... and boy what a descent it was. Now normally I hit speeds in the upper 40's on my solo, but with the boys in tow (and the wife watching every move I made) I did my best to keep the speed under 25 (using an Arai drum as a drag brake).. The boys didn't know the difference as they screamed and giggled the whole way down (~7+Miles & ~2800 feet) as if they were on a roller coaster. Then back in town we stop at the Wolf Creek Inn and I get to listen to the boys explain to the waiter (incredulously) how they just rode the pass and how it was the little guy's 4th birthday to boot !!! I'm thinking to myself that it doesn't get any better....

leob1:

Very poignant. I know there will come a day when Lucas will have nothing to do with me. I know there was a time when I couldn't stand to me around my dad. What did Twain say? "When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years."

There will be girls and cars and "the guys."

And the funny thing is that I'll be disappointed if he doesn't rebel against me. Every boy has to go through it, it seems. I hope I'll remember not to take it personally.