I think I wore out my daughter tonight
 

(Sorry for the title, but I could not change it after submitting it. My daughter was not hurt in any way, so read on) Tonight my 14 year old and I went on a ride that I had promised that I would do with her. She has been wanting to take me on a ride that covers her school bus route. I was fairly sure I knew where it went, so I had no concerns about the roads and such. It proved to be a little harder then she thought. It is a route that I use all the time that is 17 miles with 900 feet of elevation gain. I let her lead so I did not wear her out with my pace, and I rode my old ridged MTB so I would not be to fast. Even with that, she ended up walking one of the bigger hills towards the end. I don't think that it helped her cause by speeding up every time I got close to her. (I have no idea where she got that competitive nature from:innocent:) Anyway, after we got home, I told her how proud I was of her, plus I mentioned how long the ride was. She had no reference of how long 17 miles was, so I told her it was like riding to the far side of the next town. With that she seemed proud of herself too.:D As soon as we got in the front door she headed right for bed and I have not heard from her since. Maybe I killed her with tonight's ride.:p:)

Sheesh, go easy with the thread titles, huh? :(

Related discussion, however-

My 7-year-old nephew just learned to ride his bmx bike a couple months ago (he was riding solo without training wheels on his second day). A couple weeks ago, he, his father, and I rode almost 15 miles together. I think that's incredible, as well.

Good for her...she's probably just exhausted from all that leg-work at once...but if she has that competitive side to her (and the pride of knowing what she had just accomplished) she'll most likely consider another ride of a less intense nature once she recoups...then when she gets into riding more frequently with her old man she'll eventually get to where she'll try not to wear YOU out, and you'll be left wondering what kind of monster you've created ;)

It's amazing what pre-conceived notions of distance or "ignorance" of can do to you. I went 14 miles on flat double track my second day riding. Definitely no as difficult as I had previously considered 14 miles.

Then after the fact you're happy about what you accomplished. Congratulations to your daughter, she's got me beat in the pedaling for distance department.

Sorry about that, I could not edit it after I submitted it, so I did put in a new first line so people know my girl was not hurt.:(

That is what I am hoping for, since my wife does not want to ride. When we bought her a new bike last year, she said she wanted a road bike "just like yours dad":D Unfortunately, the budget could not support it and I think she had a change of heart since most of her friend ride MTB/comfort style bikes. I think I will keep an eye out though for something used in a small frame road bike if she still has the interest.

Last year my 8 year old daughter was fine with riding 30 km (18 Miles) in a day and would usually sing her way to the top of hills that had other folks walking.

We sometimes commute to school and it is 6 km / 42 blocks and we (my daughters and I) have a blast doing it.

That is cool that your daughter was able to bike 17 miles. I am sure she will want to go out again with you, maybe a distance half that or something. That is something to be proud of. Good for her. :o

Hah, I suspected I knew what you were talking about when I saw the thread title.

My daughter is 18 and I've been trying to get her to ride with me for a year now. It's most likely a life saving event for me that she won't though. She's headed off to college on a soccer sholarship and has quads most of us would die for, and is light as a feather even compared to the skinny minnie climbers in the pro peleton.

Well I guess I did not kill her, she woke up this morning fairly sore, but none the worse for wear. I showed her your comments and it seemed to pump her up a little bit. She really liked the idea of wearing me out someday.:lol: I asked her if she was going to ride with me again, but she said not today. Then she said we WILL ride again in the near future. :) I finally mapped the ride and found out that it was actually an 18 mile loop, so she did even better then she thought she did. :thumb: