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judifilksign Today was exercise heavy. I did weight machine circuits this morning during Sparkle's swim lesson. I swam laps or tread water with J this afternoon. This evening, with temperatures in the delightful upper sixties, was my eleventh bike ride with Sparkle. It was also filled with beauty, and danger.
Things started out with a wobble and a startle, as a guy in a car honked at us, smiling and waving and shouting "That's kewl!" at the bike set up. We nearly crashed from jumping at the sudden honk.
The path flew by quickly, as Sparkle really pushed and pedaled hard. Sparkle kept saying "Look, Momma! I see a parachute! Do YOU see the parachute?" I kept thinking she was quoting a Dora the Explorer episode, one I hadn't seen, when she said "The parachute has rainbow colors on it. Can't you SEE it, Momma?" I asked where, and she said, "Where the noise is. Up!" I listened, and what I thought was a lawn mower was in fact coming from above us to the right, and it was a parafoil ultra lite plane! We cycled hard to keep up with it as long as we could. It was following the road paralleling the rail road tracks and bike path. With the sun coming down, the rainbow parafoil just glowed in the air above us. It was beautiful.
I asked if she wanted to keep going on the path across the road to keep following the plane, but she said no thank you, she wanted to turn at the road and go back home. I think she tired herself out a bit, because she drank more than usual out of our water supply.
On the way back, a couple of hikers had each let their dogs off their leashes, and then the dog sets had met up, and dashed ahead in an excited pack, despite shouts from their owners to "Get back here, you --!" We could see the owners in the distance ahead of us, waving their arms and shouting. We rode past the 5 or 6 dogs, who spun on their tails barking furiously and started chasing us, snapping and yipping.
Sparkle screamed in terror, and I nearly lost control of our bike as she tried to lean away from the excited dogs alongside her. My own sudden adrenaline surge allowed me to gear up and pedal like mad, and with the aid of a downhill slope, we outpaced the dogs and flew past the shouting owners, and they got the pack called off. Not that we stopped or even slowed down to see. I stood on the pedals and did a sprint until my daughter stopped her breathless whimpers of fear. My lungs burned.
Then, she seemed okay. We turned off the path in the usual place, and she called "Pump! Pump!" as we did our little uphill, said "Stop pedaling, we're coming up to the road," as we approached our town's stop sign, and shouted her usual happy sounds going down the hill toward home.
She's fine now. She's her usual smiling post-ride self. I'm hoping it was more the noise of the dogs, and their being close startling her than anything else. I may actually have been more upset by it than she was. I'm not sure if speeding up was the recommended course of action or not, but I learned that I can ride a bike faster than I had ever dreamed I could!
Things started out with a wobble and a startle, as a guy in a car honked at us, smiling and waving and shouting "That's kewl!" at the bike set up. We nearly crashed from jumping at the sudden honk.
The path flew by quickly, as Sparkle really pushed and pedaled hard. Sparkle kept saying "Look, Momma! I see a parachute! Do YOU see the parachute?" I kept thinking she was quoting a Dora the Explorer episode, one I hadn't seen, when she said "The parachute has rainbow colors on it. Can't you SEE it, Momma?" I asked where, and she said, "Where the noise is. Up!" I listened, and what I thought was a lawn mower was in fact coming from above us to the right, and it was a parafoil ultra lite plane! We cycled hard to keep up with it as long as we could. It was following the road paralleling the rail road tracks and bike path. With the sun coming down, the rainbow parafoil just glowed in the air above us. It was beautiful.
I asked if she wanted to keep going on the path across the road to keep following the plane, but she said no thank you, she wanted to turn at the road and go back home. I think she tired herself out a bit, because she drank more than usual out of our water supply.
On the way back, a couple of hikers had each let their dogs off their leashes, and then the dog sets had met up, and dashed ahead in an excited pack, despite shouts from their owners to "Get back here, you --!" We could see the owners in the distance ahead of us, waving their arms and shouting. We rode past the 5 or 6 dogs, who spun on their tails barking furiously and started chasing us, snapping and yipping.
Sparkle screamed in terror, and I nearly lost control of our bike as she tried to lean away from the excited dogs alongside her. My own sudden adrenaline surge allowed me to gear up and pedal like mad, and with the aid of a downhill slope, we outpaced the dogs and flew past the shouting owners, and they got the pack called off. Not that we stopped or even slowed down to see. I stood on the pedals and did a sprint until my daughter stopped her breathless whimpers of fear. My lungs burned.
Then, she seemed okay. We turned off the path in the usual place, and she called "Pump! Pump!" as we did our little uphill, said "Stop pedaling, we're coming up to the road," as we approached our town's stop sign, and shouted her usual happy sounds going down the hill toward home.
She's fine now. She's her usual smiling post-ride self. I'm hoping it was more the noise of the dogs, and their being close startling her than anything else. I may actually have been more upset by it than she was. I'm not sure if speeding up was the recommended course of action or not, but I learned that I can ride a bike faster than I had ever dreamed I could!
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Date: 2011-06-14 12:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-14 01:23 am (UTC)It's always amazing what your body is capable of when the hind brain switches into "child in danger mode."
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Date: 2011-06-14 01:44 am (UTC)*nods* Her scream just kicked me up into high gear. And my bike was in a gear I normally do not try to pedal, because it's "too hard." Not today.
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Date: 2011-06-14 03:18 am (UTC)My first response to your subject line was,
On the eleventh day, it was Wednesday again.
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Date: 2011-06-14 11:49 am (UTC)Anyway, I'm glad you're okay and I'm sure you got a good workout. I bet you couldn't have pedaled like that a week ago.
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Date: 2011-06-15 03:07 am (UTC)Good for you -- your legs are directly connected with your heart at that moment and Momma Bear is in control!!
Much hugs -- see you for swimming!!