My Little Cyclist

Last Saturday, I walked outside and was completely shocked to see Elle riding her bike with no training wheels. Pete was walking behind her, but he wasn't holding onto her at all! I couldn't even believe it.

I had taken Elle's training wheels off a couple months ago because they were bent from when our neighbor hit her with her car (seriously). Elle was fine, but her bike was unrideable with the bent training wheels. I also took her peddles off so she could just push herself around with her feet and practice balancing a little when she'd coast down a hill or something. Well, this method works wonders because, all Pete had to do was put the peddles back on, help her get started and she was off! Totally confident, with an excited, "Off we go!" She won't be 4 until September so I'm super proud of her! I didn't learn to ride my bike without training wheels until I was 7.

Well, now Elle just can not get enough of riding her bike! After my great run on Monday and my new resolve to start running again, I was hit with feeling really sick again for a couple days. Wednesday was miserable, and I pretty much stayed in bed most of the day, but I did get out long enough to take the kids to the park for lunch. (yeah, in the middle of the day, in the heat. Good idea!) I walked so Elle could ride her bike. Once we got to the park, about 3 blocks away, she didn't want to stop riding her bike, and did about 12 laps around the park while they other kids played and I sat in the shade. We didn't stay too long after that, and when we got home, I collapsed into bed again for a couple hours, and was very happy when Pete offered to take us out to pizza for dinner.

Of course, that was still not enough bike riding for her, and almost constantly I would hear, "I wanna ride my bike!" It's so hot out, though, so no one wants to go help her. Friday morning I was feeling quite a bit better, and I was up by 7 so I decided to take myself up on that getting back into running promise. Just before I left, I decided to ask the kids if any of them wanted to ride their bikes with me. Guess who wanted to go.

Elle and I headed down the street to the bike path which is about a mile away. Once we got on the bike path, we looped back around towards our house. It was a little nicer on the bike path since it's wider and I wouldn't have to stop to help her get started again every few minutes because of going off the sidewalk and getting stuck. But she was also getting tired by the time we got to the bike path. After a little while, she turned around and said she wanted to start heading back. I tried to explain that we were actually heading toward our house, and that if we turned around it would be longer, but I don't think she believed me. Finally, I got her to keep going, and we made it to the park we'd ridden to on Wednesday. Soon after that, she sat on the grass and rested for a little while, and she really wanted a drink, but I hadn't brought one. After her little rest, we pressed on and made it home.

In total, that's about a 2-mile loop, and it took us 44 minutes to complete! More than double my usual time. At least she helped me take it easy. It was a little long for her, but I think soon she'll be doing it without a problem!

The funny thing is, even after all that riding, and with how tired she got, a few hours later when I told her it was time to go to Costco she said, "I wanna ride my bike to Costco!" It took a lot of convincing from me and Pete that she wasn't going to be able to ride her bike to Costco, it's too far away. Even when we go there, after 15 minutes of driving on the freeway, she said, "That wasn't very far, I could have rode my bike here." What a funny girl! I'm sure we'll be doing a century together someday, and that will be awesome!