First Training Ride

Well, it’s begun. All four of us went out on Sunday afternoon for a bike ride. Stephen wanted to test our legs before we signed up for one of the first official training rides of the biking season (more about that later).

Stephen had spent a fair amount of weekend time making sure all four bikes were road worthy. Mine is the oldest – and has been ridden (by Erin) in two MS 150s already. It’s still quite functional, however. I have a special seat so that my butt will hurt less than it would if I were, say, riding a raging bull in the rodeo. Notice I said hurt less.

Erin graciously offered to let me borrow a pair of bike shorts and one of her riding jerseys. She has two from the MS 150s that she’s ridden and a third pretty Hawaiian print one. I said that I always pictured her in the Hawaiian print one, so I’d borrow one of the MS 150 ones. “Mom. I had to earn these jerseys. You can have one of those when you’ve earned it. You can borrow the yellow one.” (Guess she told me!)

On Sunday, we saddled up and headed out. Erin announced that her gloves were too tight. I offered to trade her for my holey ones and she pronounced hers far superior. Nathan found that he’d grown sufficiently since the last time he’d ridden that he needed his seat raised. Stephen saddled up last, after the rest of us got on and rode around the street a couple times to be certain we were properly adjusted. We’re going to have to all be careful that he doesn’t end up being the roadie. He’s supposed to have fun with this adventure too. I’d filled the water bottles, but that’s a far less arduous task than preparing and adjusting four bikes for crown princes and princesses.

Off we went. The typical ride goes through our neighborhood for a few blocks north and then cuts over to the major road to our west. Once on the major road, we head north a little bit more and pick up the bike/hike trail. From there we can head on a couple paths either west or east. This will be our typical ride when we don’t have an organized, supported ride to complete in the weekend. It can be a bit more leisurely – there are pedestrians and dogs on the hike/bike trail, so speed has to be carefully managed. But there are no sag wagons, port-a-potties, rest stops or repair tents on the hike/bike trail either. Those are only going to be part of the organized rides.

On our way through the neighborhood, Stephen and Erin shouted instructions to me and to Nathan. “Practice looking behind you.” “Always warn your riding buddies of things in the road or approaching cars.” We discovered that Stephen has the same problem with stop signs on a bike that he has in a car. Apparently they pop up on him in the darnedest places. He takes the traffic lights seriously, however. (Phew!)

We continued north on the typical route through the neighborhood when I noticed that Erin and Stephen were no longer shouting to Nathan and me but more like AT one another. I didn’t hear the discussion because I was flashing back to the first year they rode together during which I was relegated to the role of cheerleader from January through the ride in April.

Stephen turned back toward us and said
“We’re going to do a u-turn at the next intersection.”
Erin shouted back
“No, we’re not. We’ll just take the next street.”

Nathan and I looked at each other and shrugged our shoulders. The next intersection approached. Erin took the lead and headed down the street. I laughed and hollered to Stephen who had u-turned as he’d planned
“Mutiny on the Bounty!”

Erin’s laughter carried back quite plainly. Nathan and I followed her. She explained that Stephen just likes to go down the other street because that’s where some friends of ours live. “Stalker!” she accused.

Eventually we ended up at the trailhead. We stopped for a brief drink of water and decided together to head east first. We rode to the east end of the trail, stopped for more water and they all got to laugh that I had a huge streak of grease on my right leg. (Apparently, this is NOT exactly a badge of honor.) Nathan announced that his knees hurt a bit. We stretched, remounted and started back west. We got back to the trailhead where we began and Stephen asked if we were tired. Of course not, all of us answered. So he proposed we ride to Eldridge. The kids decided they wanted to ride together, so off they went. Before they got out of earshot, I could hear Erin shouting instructions to (at?) Nathan. She loves the teaching role – especially when she can tell her brother what to do. It just doesn’t get any better.

Stephen and I rode along for a while, he is faster than I am, so he occasionally had to slow way down and allow me to catch up. The kids were racing by this point and really enjoying the speed and freedom of riding ahead. Once when I caught up, Stephen worried aloud that the kids wouldn’t be allowed to ride without a parent on any of the official training rides, so when we caught up to them at Kirkwood, we needed to regroup. I said, “You said Eldridge.” He said, “Well, I meant Kirkwood.” I said, “We’re at Kirkwood now and I can’t even see them anymore.” So, we saddled back up and hauled butt toward them…Eldridge is about 3 miles away from Kirkwood – which would translate into 6 miles added on to Stephen’s planned route. He wasn’t thrilled with the idea of pushing that far on our first ride. So, we really need to catch those kids! We got about a mile and a half and we could see the kids. We stopped and I whistled for them. They turned back. You have to guess who had the following exchange.

“What?”
“I meant Kirkwood.”
“You said Eldridge.”
“I meant Kirkwood.”
“You said Eldridge.”
“I meant Kirkwood.”
“You said…”
(Fill in another flashback here).
“Let’s head back from here.” (Voice of reason – always assume that’s me.)
“Well, you know, this is Dairy-Ashford anyway. You didn’t stop at Kirkwood either.”
(Flashback! Flashback! Flashback!)
Stephen (who will also occasionally have the Voice of Reason role – I’ll warn you when that happens) suggested that we re-group.
“Nathan, you ride with me. Erin, you ride with Mom.”
“WHAT? In the back?” She was aghast! I offered that we would take off first and get a head start. This wasn’t on Nathan’s agenda – but we’ll each have our agendas met at one point or another I’m sure over the next six months.


I probably won’t write this much for each ride – and believe or not, I left out a few other tidbits like riding back down our friends’ street and discovering the entire block was in their front yard watching us ride by as Erin called her father a stalker repeatedly. I also left out the golf ball hunt – which just really, really bothers me. Perhaps I’ll leave that to Stephen’s blog.