I chose to go get a much-needed chiropractic adjustment this morning instead of hitting the gym. Then I ran an errand or two before picking Alex up at Preschool.
So this afternoon I decided to go for a bike ride on the trail. I wasn't ready to run yet after Saturday's race (my legs are still sore). I was going to go alone, but at the last minute, I asked Nicholas if he wanted to go along. Keira can't ride because of her broken arm and Alex would go about a mile and have to turn around and would probably whine the entire time. :)
Nick said yes, but he didn't have a helmet since I backed over it with my van a few weeks back. In my defense, he left it on the ground behind my car and I didn't know it was there until I saw it smashed in the driveway. Oops! I told him he could wear Keira's if he didn't mind the butterflies and flowers all over it. He didn't. I guess he's pretty secure in his 7-year-old masculinity.
So we loaded up the bikes and off we went.
Once we got going on the trail, Nicholas must have thought I'd never been on the trail before and was being my Tour Guide. Telling me where the horse farm was ... and the cow farm ... and the farm that has buffalo ... and the golf course where he asked me if I needed to pee because we could ride up to Trish's house if we needed to.
He cracks me up sometimes.
My plan was to ride to the turkey farm and back, which would equal approximately 8 miles. I told him that ahead of time in case he didn't think he could go that far. He didn't seem to think it would be a problem.
Well, it should have taken me about 30-40 minutes to complete my task. I would have stopped at the turkey farm for a drink and a stretch, then returned back.
NOT!
We had to stop every mile or so because his back was hurting him or he was tired or he really needed a drink.
I wasn't allowed to ride in front of him on the way out. He was pedaling his little legs off while I was either barely pedaling or actually coasting. Not exactly the workout I was hoping for. A couple times he accidentally put his brakes on and stopped abruptly. Thankfully I was paying close enough attention to not run him down and hurt us both.
We stopped at the turkey farm and watched the birds for a few minutes. Then we looked at the cows. We talked about how we had been at that farm last year for the Farm Tour. He didn't know that it was the same farm and thought that was the coolest thing.
On the way back he let me ride in front. I lost him a few times so I had to stop until he caught up. Most of the trail is pretty straight so you can see a long distance, but there are some turns where you lose sight of each other. I didn't want to lose sight of him since there were more people coming on the trail as we were heading off. Probably people getting home from work and getting in a bike ride before dinner.
Which is what I needed to do ... get home and get dinner ready. Like I said, I had expected to be done in about 30-40 minutes. But it took an hour and 15 minutes with all the stopping.
I will say it was a pretty nice time ... just Nick and me. And I probably noticed more things going slower than I would have if I had just put in my headphones and cranked my iPod and rode.
But I probably won't take him again. At least not when I am riding for exercise.
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