Out of the mouths of babes

Today I rode the now fixed gear to work. I had IM soccer after school (one more day!) and came home right away.

The girls were on fire. Big daughter had no nap and was still (miraculously) going strong. Little daughter was moving and shaking. She should be crawling any day - or so the phrase has been for the last I don't know how long. I grabbed a snack and played with big daughter before getting ready for the Monday group ride.

I told big daughter I was going for a bike ride and she immediately asked to go, too. I told her I was sorry but this was a Dadda only bike ride and we would ride together on Thursday. She repeated her request and I had to restate our deal for Thursday. After I got dressed and went to say goodbye to the girls, I walked into the kitchen and said, "All right." Big daughter looked up from her playing long enough to say, "Bye", and that's all there was. I admit I was a bit afraid of a meltdown on departure.

The ride today was a fairly flat 28 miles, giving me 30 miles with the trip to and from the gathering place. I felt lousy after all the riding yesterday but I got going pretty quickly today. It was so different riding the geared bike after spending so much time on the fixed gear yesterday. I'm not used to riding fixed, yet, but I already feel a difference in my pedal stroke. We started pretty fast and one guy and I kept the pace high all the way back into town. He headed home at the city limits and I had a few miles home by myself.

I pulled in a little before 8:00 and big daughter was still up and reading stories. I walked into her room and asked her how dinner was. Instead of replying, she said, "How was your ride, Daddy?" I love that kid. I can't wait to get her pedaling on her own soon.

Don't forget to drop a donation in the bucket for the Lance Armstrong Foundation. I'm working on the shirt design and I will include names of friends and family of donors on the back.

Monday's ride stats:
29.69 mi - 32.3 max - 17.9 avg - 1:39:27 rolling time