Melanie and I use to be avid bikers. When we first started dating, she had a really bad bike, it was from her childhood. She did not seem to love biking but we went and she kept on struggling and I did not really understand what the issue was. At this time, my bike was much much better than hers. She could keep up but she had to work at it while I would coast. I did not realize how well she actually did to keep up until I suggested we trade bikes and she used mine. She noticed the difference right away and I understood her struggle. I managed to convince her to get a new bike. She did not want to spend very much money and thought spending $600 on a bike was expensive. Once she started using it she loved it and we went biking more. During this time I had tried to convince her to use clipless pedals and she resisted it for years. At the local bike shop, one of the bike mechanics decided to start a women’s biking group with some others and my wife began to go with this group. After a couple of rides she decided that she wanted clipless pedals. I had mentioned previously that we have a very good relationship with the owners of one of the local bike shops. I was in the store one day just checking things out and the owner was in an annoyed mood because there was a bike there that was on hold for a customer for several weeks. The customer could not decide whether she wanted the bike or not and the owner just wanted to get it out of the store. He made me an offer I could not refuse and I purchased the bike on the spot for Mel. I asked what if Mel did not like it, and he said he would refund me the money. I told Mel I wanted her to come to the store with me to check out some clothing and tell me how it looked. Once we got to the store I told her I bought her a new bike. I told her that she needed a new bike as the things that they were going to be doing with the women’s group would be difficult with her current bike. She took her new bike for a quick ride at the store and could immediately notice the difference and loved it. With the new bike her skillset increased significantly and she began riding more technical trails. Melanie even competed in competitions with teams.
When Xavier was born he received a balance bike from a friend of mine. It was not something that was super common in Canada at the time. I bought him a higher end balance bike that had suspension and he loved biking on it. He was fast and fearless. He managed to bike 5km route once. From our place, down Copper street, Martindale, down Southview, then up Kelly Lake rd and then back home. All at the age of 2.5-3 years old. He was exhausted when we finished, but it was quite impressive. He learned a lot of this from my parents where they went to for babysitting. My parents took him up biking every day. We went around the block once at my parents and he was so fast I had to run to keep up and he got so far ahead of me that I had to call ahead to my parents place to stop him otherwise he would have just kept on going. As he got older and was not at my parents his skills declined once he outgrew the balance bike.
Today we all went for a bike ride and I biked with him for the first time in quite some time. We went for a nice ride. I look forward to going for family bike rides. I did not use my clipless pedals today and took it easy going at a very slow pace. It was enjoyable being on a bike again. On the way back to our house, I got a flat tire. Normally I have spare tubes and have a kit to repair my bike, but on such a short ride I did not bring anything with me and had to walk my bike back to my house. I currently do not know where all of my things are to repair the bike, but I will fix it soon so we can go for group rides. We just need to teach Olivier to bike better without training wheels. Next year Xavier is going to need a new bike and Olivier can then have the one that Xavier has. The bikes my kid use are better than the ones I had as a kid. I think I am done being defined by what I can or can not do because of my current condition. I will take small steps now to get back to an active lifestyle now. It will just be shorter intervals until I work up my stamina and strength. I will see if I can manage to continue it throughout chemo therapy.
Quoc Hao