Learning to be myself

 I am an avid listener to the Podcast "This I Believe."  I have mentioned in previous posts that I wish to submit an essay to the organization but cannot seem to come up with the right essay.  This weeks essay (which you can listen to by clicking on the title above) was about the life lessons that one man learned while hunting with his father.  I am not an avid hunter so I won't try and bore you with a post about what I might be missing by not hunting.  Instead, I immediately thought of the activities in my own life that I share with my children.

I share the activity of biking my oldest princess and my youngest prince.  I taught both of them to ride their bikes without training wheels within twenty-four hours.  It really was simple.  I was patient and kind with both of them as we worked through their fears and set backs.  I am not normally a patient man especially with my kids.  I am scary often overbearing.  So, it surprised me that I was able to get both my princess and prince from not even being able to balance on training wheels to a two hour journey a few weeks ago.  I am a different man on a bike.  I don't feel frustrations the same way as when I am on the ground.  I understand that I have limits, and I accept that not everyone will be able to ride at the same level.  I forgive myself.  I feel a bound stronger than steel with my kids when I am leading them down the road.

The challenge now is to find that same bounding activity with my oldest prince and youngest princess.  Each one of them presents separate challenges.  My oldest son is Autistic which makes him very unique.  He and I run on similar batteries but they aren't 100% compatible.  My youngest daughter is a fiery red head with spirit.  If you think this is sounds pat it's not.  She is exactly as described.  The challenge with her is merely age.  As young as she is now, I just need to take her the nearest 7-11 to get snacks and that is special to her.  I wonder what she will want to do when she's thirteen?  But isn't that the challenge?  As dad's we have to meet our kids half way in their lives to get to know them and conversely they get to know us.   They see use through our activities and we get to see them.  We just have to be open to trying out what brings our children joy.  Good Luck.

Lazy Saturday Ride

This Saturday my oldest princess, my youngest prince, and their friend came with me on a bike ride down the Lee Gulch trail here in Littleton.  We started out by making our lunches then packing up the hydration packs with water and food.  I had not even gotten dressed in my bike shorts when we ran into our first problem.  My princess' back tire was flat.  I had filled it up when doing my safety check of the kid’s bikes.  I didn't really have to more than five minutes and the tire was flat again.  Luckily, we had a secondary bike nearly the same size that would work.  I got dressed prepared my bike, and we were ready to go.  Not yet, once my princess' friend D showed up his chain was falling off.  No problem, the adjustable wrench worked its magic and off we rode.  We rode quickly through the streets getting on the trail.  Five minutes on the trail, D lost his chain again.  I made a quick repair with my chain tool removing a link from the chain.  I figured if the chain kept falling off it was either the wrong chain size or it had stretched out to much.

We finally got on the trail.  I didn't really know if I could keep everyone together on the ride.  My princess and D started out strong leading the way.  My prince struggled up the hills but did pretty good. We recently got him a bigger bike.  I am really glad since the larger tire size means he moves more easily.  D and my princess stayed in the lead till we got to the lunch spot.  I chose a bench near a lake on the trail.  D wanted to show us his secret hide out that lay near the lake in a grove of trees, but I asked him if we could locate it another day.  We got out the turkey sandwiches and trail mix.  My prince asked me if the lake was safe to swim in.  I looked out over the brown water, and I observed the half dozen ducks swimming in the mirror still water.  I told my prince that I really didn't think that it was safe water to swim in.  D chimed in saying that it was probably full of gross stuff.  Yep, ducks got to poop somewhere I pointed out.


Once everyone was fed we were back on the trail.  Everyone rode really well.  Our destination was a dirt jump park setup by the parks and rec.  D was great at keeping the other two going even after they started getting tired.  Both the prince and princess alone don't really have the motivation to make it as far as we were going but with D there he gave them a reason to keep going.  I was so proud of them.  We rode a lot faster than I thought we would.  We arrived at the jump park in little under forty minutes.  When we got there I took one look at the size of the jumps and thought this whole trip might have been a bad idea.  Personally, I look at the jumps and they don't really look all that big.  I am not saying that they are tiny by any means.  To give you some perspective to the size the largest jump is about as high as my shoulder (my height being 5'10").

Taking all the kids sizes into account, I thought they would be too intimidated by the jumps to try.  I was proved wrong right away when D just tore right down the hill toward the biggest jump.  He cleared it without any problem.  He then cleared three more jumps in a row.  My prince took his run next.  The prince like D went for the biggest jump.  To my relief he cleared the top, but then my heart skipped when he turned sharply to the right.  These are table top jumps so imagine a vertical dirt ramp up to a flat top then another steep ramp down the other side.  If one stays straight you'll clear it no problem but off to left or right the sides just drop straight off.  The prince turned sharp right on the top flat move his butt behind his seat and rode down the straight vertical side, pretty impressive for a six year old.  Then I got my turn at a run.  My princess was not going to have any of it, so she would just watch.  I made a couple of small jumps nothing to impressive.  I thought I should give the large jump a try since a six year old made it.  I tore down the hill right up to the jump.  I braked a little too much before hitting it so I was pedaling right up the face.  I cleared the top, though.  Great, I did what a six year old could now on to second jump.  I rolled off the top of the first and toward the second table top.  I don't remember if I had enough speed going into the second, but I can tell you I cleared the top.  Once my front tire cleared, I clearly remember questioning myself as to why I had turned my front slightly to the right.  Before I could answer though physics caught me.  My front tire hit the downward side of the second jump at a slight right angle.  I could see the tire in slow motion lose traction then continue on to right sliding sideways.  I hit hard on my left side taking most of fall in my shoulder and bicep.  God has blessed me with a great instinct on how to take a fall.  Ask my wife and she'll tell you about the time I got throw forward off a horse.

After freeing my foot from under the bike (luckily my feet popped out of the clips), I dusted off and tried again.  This time I didn't fall but I was starting to fell it in my back.  We rode home on the street to save time.  D had to get home on time his mother was taking him somewhere.  I was really happy on the trip home, and I hope that this is the start of a great family activity to share with friends.  To end I will leave you with the only injury I sustained from my fall.  Have a great week.

Four things I have learned while Mountain Biking

I started mountain biking as a part of my job.  Last summer, my sergeant called me one day to tell me that I they needed more people in the police biking class in order to hold the class.  I was not reluctantly to agree to be one of the students.  The class was perfect.  I stretched my body so much that at the end I had basketball sized bruise on my stomach.  My love of mountain biking was cemented in my psyche.  As the riding season draws to a close, I am reflecting on what I have learned.  I love to push my body as part of both physical and spiritual wellness.  I wanted to share some of the little things that I think I have overlooked previously.

1.  Enjoy the ride don't focus on what others have.  As a man I am not immune to gear lust.  I was blessed with my bike, and I worked hard to earn it.  So it stands to reason that as soon as I get it on the trail and see someone coming down with a more expensive bike I become dissatisfied with my own bike.  I have had this same problem with other pass times.  I have made a commitment to myself that I will not buy bike magazines to save myself gear lust and gear envy.

2.  Riding alone gives me a chance to find out who I really am.   I ride alone because most of the time I cannot find a riding partner.  I enjoy riding alone as a way to recharge my batteries.  As I stated earlier I love to push myself, but recently I have also discovered I can give up pretty easy.  Why?  There's no one to push me further.  I also think it's because my body is still getting used to this new activity.

3.  Riding with friends is extremely enjoyable.  I like to ride with others because they push me to keep going.  I also enjoy going out afterward to wind down with a meal.  I don't think there's anything more enjoyable then a mountain bike adventure with friends.

4.  Passing my love of biking on to a new generation strengthens my relationship with my kids.  My enthusiasm for biking helped me teach two of my children how to ride a bike without training wheels in little over 24 hours.  Since that time my children have enjoyed riding with me and with their friends.  They could not have those experiences without my help teaching them to ride.