Originally Posted by
deacon mark
I am going against the grain and say not to do this. Not because it is something that an 8 year old cannot do but that burn out and moderation is not a bad idea. I liked to ride a bike as a kid but going 100 miles may have changed my prospective 30 years later. Cycling is great but I just would not encourage and 8 year to do this, ride and have fun. I am a runner and sometimes high school and college kids want to run a marathon. My thought on that is wait till your a bit older and go for speed not distance. At some point it all will be distance because after about 28 years old we are not going to get faster if we have trained at this since teenagers.
if the kid is driving this, I say back him all the way. I respect the caution you’re advising here, but unless this is a pushy dad pushing Junior into something (and there’s no indication that’s the case) then allowing the kid to achieve a pretty awesome goal like this at a young age is fantastic.
I’d be in favor of creating a loop with the river trails, mainly for the safety aspect. That headwind coming back west on the SART, though, ooof. It may seem a bit boring to some, but I always liked looking out for the big A at Angels Stadium when I used to ride down there.