Bike rides

We have gotten into taking Bike Rides as a family, which is great. Partially it started as me trying to find good routes for my triathlon training. In effect, at least once a week I take the rest of the family on one of my longer rides. Last Sunday we went 10.5 miles as a family. (Granted it takes a but longer than when I go out by myself).

In preparation for riding as a family, we first had to convince Garek to ride the "tag along." The tag along is a little bike with one wheel that we attach to one of our bigger bikes so Garek can ride along without having to ride his own bike (as shown in the picture). I figure his extra weight gives me some extra drag for working out since he does not help a lot with pedaling. In fact the first time I tried to get him on the tag along, we were going to ride to Gavin's soccer game across town (about 4-5 miles of riding). Garek had been begging us to try out the "three wheel bike," which is what Garek calls it. Matt and Gavin left for soccer in the van, Garek and Gavin and I were going to ride to the game, and Gavin was going to ride back with me. I thought it would be no big deal to get Garek on the three wheel bike since he was so excited about it...WRONG! Garek got on, and then when I went to get on he claimed it was wiggly and scary and he wanted off right now! So I left him off (we are still in the driveway). I then spent the next 10-15 minutes convincing Garek to get back on with the promise that we would only ride around the block so he could see if he liked it. He agreed as long as he could get off the bike if he did not like it after going around the block. Needless to say, half way around the block he was going "WEEEEEEEE." I asked him if it was fun, he laughed and said yes, so we did not complete our loop around the block and headed out to the soccer game!! Now part of my agreement with Garek was that he did not need to pedal, just rest his feet on the pedals. That is certainly what he did, until about 2 blocks from soccer when all of a sudden he said "hey mom I can pedal too!" Good thing he helped those last 2 blocks! We made it for about the last 10 minutes of the game. Needless to say, Gavin is an "experienced" tag along rider, the trip back home was a bit quicker. Ever since that day we have gone on at least a short ride each day (that it is not raining).

Back to long family rides...when we do go on rides, I feel bad for Gavin. Since he cannot change gears on his bike, he pedals a lot! By the time we get home he is exhausted. But he is a real trouper and showing great improvement on bike riding. While we are out riding about Garek is busily identifying birds, pointing out flowers and trees. It probably is a good thing he does not need to steer, who knows what he would run over or run into!!

Maybe one of these days we will take a picture during one of our family bike rides to show everyone!