Biking with Baby

Like many moms, I struggle to fit in exercise. Many times it's an inner battle: do I want to exercise, or do I want to spend time with my little one? And while the answer is that I want to spend time with my little one, another revelation should be acknowledged: if I exercise, I am a better mom.

And now that the weather has (finally!) warmed up in Minnesota, I am finding a creative way to spend time with my daughter and exercise: pulling her along in the bike trailer.

So far, we've logged miles doing hill intervals and a nice steady rides on flats. Saturday we snuck some extra time on the bike during a ride to our local co-op to pick up sweet potato fries to compliment our burgers. Sure, I could have made sweet potato fries from scratch, but we opted for a nice family evening ride outside. Those were bonus miles: I enjoyed some Me Time on the mountain bike at one of our local trails earlier in the day - my husband and I splitting ride time up between us while the other spent time with my daughter.

Mother's Day lead to a 4-hour ride on one of our state trails (I feel lucky to live in a state with wonderful outdoor amenities). It was an awesome day. I told my husband that I didn't want anything for Mother's Day: all I wanted was to spend the day together as a family and grab some time on the bike. I got both - we decided on a family bike ride. We packed a lunch of almond butter and jelly sandwiches, loaded up the van, drove South to Faribault, MN and hooked up at the Sakatah Singing Hills State Trail. (Note: don't start in Faribault. It's not a pretty ride. The nice scenery starts about a half hour ride south from the trail head). We biked to the Sakatah Lake State Park, had lunch along the lakeshore, and headed back (through a headwind. More bonus training :-p) We agreed that we would start our ride from the State Park next time.

Our first family mountain biking mini-vacation is fast approaching. Packing will be interesting...a baby, two adults and gear....wish us luck.