Bikes and Bites

Tis finally the season for biking again. It is hard over the winter to keep up the biking. The cycle trainer is a cruel and poor substitute for riding outside. I tried to bike on the cycle trainer for 30 minutes 2-3 times per week over the winter; alternating with yoga, weightlifting, and walking. It is tough though. Finally this week I have been back on the bike...outside. Monday it was 6 miles, Tuesday 15 miles, and Thursday 5 miles.

I will talk briefly about the wonders of biking outside because I always forget how very much I love it. I love the whirring of the tires on pavement, the wind slapping against my face, the rhythm of pedaling, the sensation of whipping through the world at wonderful speed, I love watching the mileage increase on my odometer, the burning of my legs as I struggle up hills, and even the fishy smell that has started wafting from the lakes. All of this means it is spring and I am riding my bike, and I love it. I was worried that riding again would be tough and it isn't, it just feels wonderful and makes me feel wonderful. After the 15 mile ride on Tuesday though I began to wonder if I did need a new bike. My $90 mountain bike from Sportmart will only take me so far. It has been having a lot of gear issues that no amount of service can fix; I was finally told that it is just a cheap bike and it operates like a cheap bike. So well...then lets switch gears (no pun intended).

Tuesday night was Bike Helmet safety night in Blaine. For $10 you or your child can get a brand-new bike safety helmet and have it fitted. The only thing you need (besides $10) is time. Keegan's bike helmet ($40)from last year broke beyond fixing. So he needed a new one. We got to City Hall 15 minutes early and the line was already to the door. By 4pm (starting time) the line was into the parking lot. Still all things considered the line went fairly quickly and by 4:20 Keegan was being fitted with a bike helmet. Keegan's only request was that the helmet be blue. So he got a super cute helmet that was blue and had dinosaurs on it. I was impressed that all of the helmets there were really nice Bell helmets; maybe next year I will get a new one there.

Keegan was thrilled and told everyone he could about his new helmet. We underestimated the kid's sense of pride in his helmet. We couldn't get him to take it off the rest of the night; a relief after last year's helmet struggles which involved hours of screaming while we tried to get him to wear his helmet. Keegan wore his helmet to the park that night and went swinging in it, he wore it in the car. He wore it everywhere. We made him take it off to go to bed, but he didn't want to.

Where does this new lust for helmet wearing originate from? Well, you can probably guess...HOCKEY! He loves his helmet because it makes him look like he's playing hockey. I guess his hockey obsessions do have some upsides.

After the park that night we went to Dairy Queen with Ruby. We all got ice cream. After finding out the small blizzard I like has 700 calories in it, I opted for a fudgesicle with 50 calories. Not as satisfying but it didn't make me feel ill after I ate it either. Then we decided to go to Pioneer Cycle right behind Dairy Queen to look and see if there were any used bikes for Keegan.

Well this ended up being the most expensive DQ trip ever. There weren't any bikes for Keegan but Lyle talked me in to (okay it didn't take much talking) trying some new bikes for me. Lyle got a new bike last year but I waited because I wanted to make sure I was going to keep riding. Soooo....I tried a hybrid bike and a road bike. And wow...that road bike was awesome. So, I traded in my $90 MGX piece of crap bike and got a $600 Giant FCR3 which is considered a low-end road bike. Didn't have time to take the new bike out for a ride on Tuesday so I had to wait to see if the bike really makes that much difference in the ride.

I really was worried that it wouldn't make a difference. But holy cow was I wrong. My normal average speed is between 13.4 - 14 mph when I am not pushing it but not being lazy either. I hopped on this road bike comfortably has an average speed between 17-18 mph (while talking on the phone with my mom). My 6 mile route that normally takes 25-30 minutes; only took me 15-20 minutes. It was amazing. The gears on this new bike shift like magic, the handlebars are gel and don't make my hands hurt, and the brakes actually work (a huge bonus when commuting)!

So in short, yes the bike makes a difference. I am not a wuss because I couldn't keep up with other road bikes on my mountain bike; it *was* my bike. I mean riding is still a lot of work but I don't feel like I need to wrench my joints out of place to get up a hill.

Riding my bike was the good part of yesterday. The bad part was a phone call from daycare that started, "Well, we have a bit of an emergency, Keegan had an accident." I swear my heart almost stopped when I heard that, I am 40 minutes from daycare and was thinking OMG what did he break. Then I found out that Keegan had slipped off of his chair and smacked his face on the table. He ended up biting straight through his lower lip. The daycare manager calmly explained that this happens to toddlers every once in a while. His teacher was trying to stop the bleeding and put ice on it. She was going to call me back in 10 minutes to let me know if I had to run him to the emergency room for stitches.

That was a long 10 minutes. In that 10 minutes I called Lyle, called my mom so that she could pick him up quickly if it was super bad, and told my manager that I might have to leave suddenly. When daycare called back they said it wasn't horrible and the bleeding had stopped and that Keegan should be fine.

I called back in the afternoon and they said that the swelling was much better, no bleeding, no damage to teeth, and Keegan could eat fine. They also let me know that doctors won't usually stitch lips on toddlers because it is just too hard and too traumatic. The whole thing made me happy I have a great daycare.

They took great care of Keegan, they communicated with me well, and they were knowledgeable enough that I didn't have to leave work and take Keegan for a needless and traumatic visit to the emergency room. Also thank goodness for my mom, who got ready to leave to pick Keegan up on a moment's notice. It makes me feel so much better to know that she is close to him.

It was a bit of scare that ended up being no big deal. When we picked him up Keegan bragged to me about his owie and then proceeded to re-enact (without actual collision) what had happened. Then he said it was a "Bad table that gave him an owie" And of course he got lots of kisses and hugs. Apparently he didn't even cry when he broke it open and was really good about letting them take care of it. It didn't bother him all night, although it bothered me because he kept chewing on it. Watching him chew on it made me a bit nauseous and my knees a bit weak but I just stopped watching since it wasn't bleeding and it didn't bother him.

That is all on bikes and bites. One more thing, Keegan's trike is too small for him. His knees hit the handle bars; so this weekend it will be off to get a bike for him one way or another.

Next week will be bike commuting time, hopefully (as long as it isn't too cold in the mornings).