Daughter Rode to Tynemouth
So Daughter has a two hour ‘Stage’ class on Saturdays at 1 pm. It’s in Tynemouth, which is about a four mile round trip, and so far we’d driven there to drop her off and pick her up.
But last Saturday, two things struck me:
- It was a lovely day
- It’s only into Tynemouth. Although Daughter’s only six, she can cycle that, no problem
So we cycled in - her on her Cindy special, and me on Trixie the Fixie. Both properly helmeted up, and she also with a pink rucksack containing her drinks & snacks. I think we made rather an odd pair cycling along . . . but what the heck!
It took us less than 15 minutes to go in, and she was allowed to leave her bike in the church hall where they hold the class (’though she also has a hefty combination lock). I make that around 7 mph, which isn’t bad for Daughter - Cindy’s got small wheels, and I’ve not bothered to work out the gearing, but for a lot of the time her legs were doing something over 120 rpm!
Riding back was a lot quicker - just under five minutes, overtaking traffic, generally cycling like the wind, stuff like that . . . . and then back into Tynemouth to pick her up again just short of two hours later - against the wind, so not quite as fast!
In all, I spent 40 minutes cycling.
But here’s the thing - if we’d driven, I’d have probably spend 30 minutes in the car. By the time you get everyone in, make sure that Daughter’s seat belt’s fastened, drive down the road, find somewhere to park, walk to the final destination, walk back to the car, and drive home, the car’s really not significantly quicker than cycling.
Even if you are only six years old.
Workout:
- Type: Cycle
- Date: 09/15/2007
- Time: 12:45:00
- Total Time: 00:40:00.00
- Distance: 7 miles
- Average Speed: 10.5 mph
