Group Ride for Two, Please

Grey@Stanford

Maybe you know this feeling: It’s been a long week. You haven’t had a ton of quality time with your family. Then Saturday morning rolls around and you’d love to get out for a few hours on the bike but the idea of getting up at 6am on your day off sounds about as fun as, well, getting up at 6am on your day off. What do you do?

Unless you’re blessed enough to have a family that rides with you, cycling can often take us away from our loved ones for hours at a time. A constant tension that I battle is “how much is too much” when it comes to taking off on a Saturday morning for a long ride and missing out on a few precious hours of hang time with the fam. Maybe you live with this tension too – I’d be interested to hear how you strike the right balance between riding and spending time with your family on weekends.

I don’t know why I waited so long to look into this but I recently invested in a bike trailer for my 2 1/2 year old, Greyson. Who am I kidding, it’s just as much for me as it is for him. It’s been the greatest thing for us. He loves being outside with the wind in his face and consistently encourages me to “go faster daddy!” I roll a little slower pulling a 40lb load but we still manage 15-18mph or so. Obviously, this isn’t time for a Group Ride but I pack up a lunch and we roll about an hour to a fun playground, play around for a bit and eat, then roll an hour home. He almost always falls asleep on the way back and then it’s nap time when we return. I find that I can spin the whole time and actually get some good training out of it as well.

I have a few friends that, on Saturday mornings, pick out a coffee shop or lunch spot in a neighboring town, ride to it, and have their family meet them. There’s a creative idea I want to try.  If you have some creative things that you do to involve your family in your riding habit, I’d love to hear them.

Leave a comment, let us know.

Ride on…