Pulling the Bike Trailer (things aren’t always as they appear)

Owen (nearly 2 years old now) loves to ride in the bike trailer while I do my training rides.  It’s a killer workout for me and he likes to see the various vehicles on the road as we cruise along.  In exchange, at the end of the ride, he gets to crawl around in my car turning on hazard lights, adjusting mirrors and seats, etc.   It works out well for both of us.

Cody and I alternate who pulls depending on who needs an easy workout and who needs a hard workout (the hard workout would be pulling the bike child trailer, duh).  It has been a great system, but we’ve discovered on the days that I pull and Cody coasts along side, the average person we come in contact with during our workout doesn’t seem to readily understand our system.  As a matter of fact, most seem to think Cody is a complete jerk which is especially funny because Cody is one of the nicest people you will ever meet (and over-the-top supportive of me maintaining some sort of life outside of being a mommy).   

As we were finishing our ride today, coming up the final hill, we passed a man and woman.   I was completely cooked because I had decided to do hill repeats and Cody was completely fresh.  He was chattering away while I huffed along side only able to answer him with grunts and wheezes (you can probably imagine how slow I was going with 50 extra pounds hanging on and how easy Cody’s ride was as a result).   The woman looked like she felt sorry for me and the man sarcastically said, “looks like someone’s getting a workout, and it’s not him!”   It’s not the first time someone has said something like that.   

We always get a laugh out of it and continue to amuse ourselves by coming up with  completely inappropriate responses (that we of course never actually say to the concerned citizen) like -  “I’m making her do this because she ate a cookie this morning” or “can you go a little faster, I’m not getting a workout”…things that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

It’s really interesting how people can see the same situation but draw such different conclusions.  We fill in the blanks with our own assumptions – true or not.  What one person sees as some jerk making his wife pull the kid up a long hill, is actually a very supportive husband trying to keep his wife motivated as she tries to get back into shape after having a baby.  Hummm, maybe a little life lesson there…things aren’t always as they appear.