Two days ago, I rode around the block with the girls. It felt good. Today, I made the jump to a longer ride. I took Katerina to school on the bike.
It is all downhill to the preschool. That was easy. The uphill part was just me and the beach cruiser. I made sure that I got a cruiser with gears and it has been a great beach bike for the past 6 years or so. It is an aluminum bike (Key West, or Key Largo I think) that has survived the salt air at the beach with 6 speeds. Anyway, the gears do save my knees a lot.
I knew after riding around the block that I could do a little riding. It may be 1.5 miles to the preschool, so this would be a much longer ride for me. I’ve been on the indoor trainer, but being outside adds a lot of other dynamic forces. I think I may be a little over cautious about it, but I am doing well.
Anyway, the ride was not bad. It was nice to ride back up the gentle hill. I can tell that I have a long way to go from a strength and endurance perspective, but I did better than I expected. And, it was very cool to finally take my daughter to school on the back of the bike!