Going On Another Bike Tour!

For about a month this summer Sheryl and Corwin (14) and Julian (13) and I will be going on a bicycle tour of the central California coast. Starting in San Francisco and ending up in Santa Barbara we will cover over 400 miles of beautiful coastline and epic countryside. When I tell people this, most of them look at me quizzically like I've just told them I suffer from pica. But far from being crazy or eating shards of metal or cotton balls, I'm really excited to share my love of cycle touring with my family. The thing is...I'm way more excited than they are. Sheryl's game, she's all about it. With her new Surly "Long Haul Trucker" named Buffy (all cold steel, NW winter gray frame accentuated with pink fenders and pink everything else) she can't wait. It's the boys I'm worried about. How do I motivate others to fall in love with my passion? Or if that is too tall an order, how do I at least get them to pedal 40+ miles per day without moaning too loudly? Because really, listening to them complain for hours at a time about their pains and anxieties sounds like...well, a lot like triage nursing. One thought I have is to ride just outside of earshot so if they do moan I won't hear it. Another idea is having as much fun with the whole process. So we named the bikes...gave them a little personality. I already mentioned Buffy, named after the vampire slayer who can kick butt and look all girly doing it. My Rodriguez is named Fidel. It's long story about Rodriguez being the surname of Cuba and my political leanings (viva la revolucion'). Corwin is on Cypher (sounds techie and cool)and Julian is riding Ronaldo after the soccer great. And because I want them to be ready physically for the rigors of daily touring, I have become the training nag. "If we don't get in a whole bunch of 40 mile days before we go we're all going to suffer!" Now, there is a really cool thing about being a kid/teenager...you get to live in the now. There is also a really uncool thing about being an adult...you get to nag about the future. So the boys don't get to see our bike outings up the hills and into the headwinds as muscle strengthening and stamina building. They get to see that James is taking them away from the comfort of the couch and the warm familiarity of surfing the internet. It must kind of suck to have me as a step-dad sometimes. It would be like living with your high school gym coach that motivates with speeches and anecdotes about the benefits of hard work and exercise when all you want to do is watch YouTube videos and hang out relaxing. So I'm left with this catch 22 feeling that I'm damned if I nag and push too hard about training, and damned if I don't because the trip, if not prepared for, will be a nightmare for all of us. I know this because some of the training rides have been as fun as listening to a Tony Robbins motivational speech. Or worse yet trying to BE Tony Robbins. The constant questions in the "How much further do we have to ride today" category are hard enough to deal with but the negative comments like "This hill sucks!" really tests Mr. Motivator, my inner coach.
Today however changed my attitude and erased most of my anxieties. Today we cycled onto the ferry for a ride on the mainland. It was new and exciting to be riding in a place we had never ridden. A 30 mile ride through some beautiful farmland and forests brought out the best in all of us and we rode with zero nagging and only a few complaints of sore thighs and fatigue. It was an awesome day and I think they got it...the cycle touring bug. No set schedule. Riding through beautiful places. Eating a healthy lunch on a public picnic table. Feeling physically drained/beat-up and yet triumphant at the end of the day all high-fives and smiles.
We'll see if it lasts as I'll be nagging them again for a midweek ride in a few days.