Out of any accomplishment in my life, the two biggest have to be my kids. I know how cliche that sounds, but it really is true. If I think of anything else I have done, it really pales to the pride I feel in my kids. I try not to be one of those people that brag about their kids all the time, they don't make that easy.
Its also not always easy being a father, but its funny that the hardest things are the things you don't do, rather than the things you do. Telling a kid not to do something is relatively easy, knowing that sometimes experience and failure is the best teacher and letting it happen, that's hard. Kids think parents have some guidebook or something that tells you what to do, I wish it was that simple, I feel like we're always sort of making it up as it goes. Its strange realizing my parents also didn't have a guidebook. I feel like we have somehow done things in a non-traditional way, but luckily that has worked for the most part.
While the kids have absolutely flourished in college, I can't wait to see what the next five or six years brings. It will be interesting to see how they meet the challenges of advanced degrees, work and everything that comes with those things. Based on what they've done so far I have pretty high expectations, shhh don't tell them.
On to riding:
The trails are still too wet to ride, I've heard from multiple people that the ground is saturated at many places, holding and weeping water in places not seen before. I rode in the woods last weekend and honestly didn't feel great about it, I hate wrecking the trails. Rather than going through that mental anguish again today, I joined the NERAC road ride. It ended up being me and the ride leader, John, he's an experienced road rider, while I'm a relative novice. He talked about a 40 or 60 mile loop, even the 40 mile loop would match my longest ride to date.
John did a great job of managing the pace to keep me from blowing up. There were a few hills that slowed me down (a lot), but over all it felt pretty good. There's no way I could have maintained that pace without John leading the way. I decided going in that I was going to draft as much as possible, I stuck to that plan. I felt guilty not taking my share of the pulls, but I kept telling myself that if I didn't go on the ride John would be riding solo and not drafting off anyone. I know, terrible logic, but I felt like I needed that to do the mileage John had planned. I'll get better at knowing my limits and where I can push as I get more experience on the road bike.
We ended up doing 58 miles at nearly a 19 MPH pace - fastest pace I've ridden and longest ride I've done. The ride was hilly in the beginning and end, but nearly flat in the middle, but I feel pretty good about that pace and length.
Oh and today's ear worm, Shame of Life, not a great song, I regret listening to it yesterday :-D
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