I am a 50 year old man and I have a 19 year old son who is very athletic. He races sprint kayaks. He is repping NS at the Canada Games, spends almost two months training in Florida in the winter, will travel to Montreal twice, Lake Placid, Welland Ontario and Sherbrooke Quebec later this summer. Those are confirmed and I am sure there will be a few more “travel” regattas along the way. He is on the water EVERY morning (except Sunday) at 6am for ninety minutes and again in the late afternoon for 2 hours from 5-7. He runs 3-4 times per week and also has a strength training program that involves the gym 3-4 times a week. As a method of transportation to and from the lake he’s been riding my Kona Hardtail. I can tell he likes riding and is full of questions about shifting and that sort of stuff.
He races this weekend and took Thursday night off as part of his race prep. He asked me if I wanted to go on a bike ride with him and I jumped at the opportunity. He’s never ridden on anything but the road and thought he’d like to give the dirt a try. I thought Shubie would be as good as any place to let him get the feel for “dirt” and we could do a little loop through Vivian’s Way to get a taste of a little single track. I thought this would be a great chance for the old man to show off his mad riding skills to his noob 19 year old son.
We started my Mic Mac Mall and I rode behind him and gave him a little help by telling to shift left thumb, right index finger, that sort of thing. We rode through the main park pretty uneventfully and I could tell he was really enjoying it. So I decided we would head out the Lake Charles extension where we could really open it up and get some speed and flow going. I took off in the lead as I dropped it in my big ring and gave it everything I possibly could to show him that my years of riding skills and my sort of decent fitness level would keep me out front by quite a ways and give him a chance to put the hammer down and try and catch me. About 1 km in I looked over my shoulder to see where he was, half suspecting for him to be out of sight. He was maybe 12 inches off my rear wheel. I dug deeper and hammered harder. He stayed right on my ass again. Ahhhhhh, here comes that long climb I’ll drop him by using my superior knowledge of shifting and blow up that hill like it is not even there. He never shifted once and beat me to the top just by spinning faster. I thought this is craziness. I told him to take the lead for the next stretch and that I would draft him for awhile and conserve some energy. He jumped in front and disappeared so fast it was like he was never even there. He actually had to stop and wait for me. And I thought I was riding pretty strongly on this ride.
We hit Vivian’s Way and I knew it was my best chance to put him behind me. He powered his way through that like there wasn’t a rock or root down. Looks like I wasn’t going to be able to show off to him at all.
So after all that we got back to the car and he told me how much he enjoyed this new found Mountain Biking thing and wants to go to Spider or Whopper. I will gladly take him and I think he would love the xc ride of Spider and the fun factor of Whopper. He is a little reluctant and doesn’t want to risk injury and in particular injury before the Canada Games. His day off is Sunday and since it is Fathers Day. I’m hoping we will be able to hit up Whopper for a little bit of fun. We’ll stay off the Lake Loop and mostly stick to the Granite and out to the Powerline.
I only tell you all of this because it is amazing to me how ones fitness level is such a huge advantage. Fifty ain’t 19, that is for sure. I tried to get the upper hand with my “trail wisdom” but that didn’t get my anywhere either. We arrived home at eight and had a quick bite to eat. I say in the recliner chair looked at the clock and saw it said 8:44. That is the last thing I remember before heading off to bed at 11:45. I guess not the only thing. I woke up once to hear him counting off sit -ups 110-111-112. I HATE him.
That’s nothing son. When I was your age…
, even if it is sucking wind in the dust left by my son.