A List of Our Life

You know you are a cycling family when:
1. You refer to your two children as “the roadie” and the “dirt guy”.
2. You are knocked out during the summer by the aroma of the huge pile of cycling laundry produced by four people, riding 6 days a week.
3. You order 4 Jumbo sized Muscle Milk containers at a time.
4. People don’t refer to you, when passing on the bike, by your first name or even distinguish whether you are male or female. You are just a Lindner. “hey, it’s a Lindner”
5. You steal each other’s gloves and cycling socks. They don’t really even have to be a matching pair.
6. You hide your Paydays and Jelly Beans, because they are always missing right before a long ride.
7. Your teenagers request that you DON’T stop for fast food, because they have a big ride and they don’t want to get sick.
8. You don’t have T.V.
9. You have more trainers and bikes in the living room, than sofas and tables.
10. Instead of, “did you wash my clothes for school?” (they really don’t care if that stuff is clean) you hear, “did you do cycling laundry?”
11. Joe Friel’s training bible is on your teenager’s nightstand.
12. Your Christmas lists consist of kits and components. (and that’s all)
13. Your dinner time stories are mostly about what happened during the race and/or group ride.
14. You race each other EVERYWHERE.
15. Three of you have matching saddles, pedals and grips on all your bikes, so they can be exchanged quickly.
16. Your son spends hours looking at frames and components on-line.
17. You spend the weekend with 9 teenage boys, in one condo, at a national race and think that is the most fun EVER.
18. You never spend much money on any of your pants because there is a very high chance they will have grease on them within the first few times they are worn.
19. When asked what team you ride for, you have the list memorized for each family member.
20. You buy six bags of boneless, skinless chicken at a time, 12 boxes of pasta, six jars of natural peanut butter, 8 dozen eggs, etc. just to try to keep up with the amount of calories burned in the household.
21. Your son teaches the coach at the public school about nutrition before and after a cross country running race.
22. Each of your kids could probably run a cycling clinic or race in their sleep.
23. Your teenage boys own a kilt and wear it daily.
24. They are not interested in getting their driver’s license right when they turn 16, since they can ride so many places anyway.
25. Your happiest moment, as a parent, is when the hippie van is loaded with bikes, camping gear, two dogs, two kids and an ice chest.

Life is good.