Two Pre-Teen/Teen Tandem Team Rides down now - Cycling Mob: Road Cycling, Mountain Biking and More

02-12-2005, 02:02 PM

I'm leading a ride series with my bike club with the title, "Pre-Teen/Teen
Tandem Team". The concept was to get adult/kid tandem teams in shape to be
able to dovetail into the club's regular training series that begins in
March. My selfish motivation -- to get me and my daughter Rose into shape so
we can be able to similarly dovetail into the regular training series.

After leading two of these rides, I have found them to be a challenge. All
last summer I led kids' rides, but these were little cheesy rides down the
multi-use path for the most part, at a easy or leisurely pace. These rides
are at a low moderate (~15 mph), and are on the road. I not only have to
coordinate with my daughter on the tandem, but also coordinate with the rest
of the riders. As a result, my concentration is always up there -- there's
never a moment where I can let my mind wander a bit. How's Rose doing? How
are the other riders doing? What's that gravel doing there on the shoulder?
Look at this traffic -- holy cow! etc.

Last week's ride was tough. It had been cold but sunny up until the day of
the ride. The day of the ride, it was cold and wet. Then, it became cold and
even wetter. One team turned back; my daughter's lips turned blue and we had
to bail out of the ride a few miles before the end.

I felt awful -- I was ride leader, but I had to bail; my daughter was
hypothermic. I felt like I had let just about everyone down -- my kid, the
other riders, and even myself. I began to really worry about Rose and my
ambition to ride STP together this summer. Two hundred miles is a lot of
miles. Would we really be able to get into shape by July to be able to pull
it off? We couldn't seem to even do 20 miles on a rainy Sunday!

Today, I made sure Rose was dressed warmly enough. I made sure we had gotten
our stuff together and were ready to ride earlier in the morning than last
week, when we had to rush it. We had a 25 mile loop planned around Lake
Sammamish.There was a light rain, but not it wasn't pouring, and the temps
were in the low 40s.

This time, things went more smoothly. Rose was not in such bad straits. We
were damp but not chilled through this time. We got home in time for lunch.
Nothing like the restorative powers of tomato soup and mac and cheese.

We might even be able to pull off the 30 mile loop planned for next week!

--
Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky
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