Posts Tagged ‘LCI’
I Got To Help Host A Youth Skills 123 Clinic At The Allen Family Bike Day
Last weekend, I worked with BikeDFW and proudly participated at the Allen Family Bike Day – helping with a Youth Skills 123 course at the event. Headed by League Cycling Instructor Dorothy Zarbo, I was part of a team of LCIs which also included fellow LCI training graduates, Betsy Veneziano and Francis Schommer. We worked with local elementary and middle school students to run a successful Bike Rodeo for Allen kids.
We had a great time working with the kids, who in turn, helped others learn some basic safety skills. Kids learned how to signal their stops, left & right turns as well as how to yield in traffic. Since helmets were required on the course, some were loaned out by the City of Allen to those who forgot theirs. I’m hoping parents were inspired to remind their kids to continue wearing theirs.
I love doing these types of events, and I hope to do more across the DFW Metroplex.
So, Now I Get To Help Teach Cycling
As part of my efforts to make my community a safer place for cycling, I decided to become a League Cycling Instructor, last year. Now that I’ve completed the course, I must co-teach, at least twice, before I can teach my own classes. This weekend will be my first opportunity to do that.
I will be assisting in the Traffic Skills 101 class in my neighboring city, Garland.
Quite frankly, although I’ll be working with an amazing team, I’m slightly nervous about this — a little because this is my first time, a little because I fear that I might forget something, a little because I might mess up a parking lot drill, and a lot because I want to make sure our students leave with more knowledge, skills and confidence to be safer on the road.
Hopefully, as I teach more, I will become more confident in doing this. Hopefully, we can inspire more students to become teachers, and help cycling become safer for everybody.
LCI #3760
Image © Kim Turner via Cycling Savvy DFW
I’ve been cycling off and on for almost all my life, more off than on. In early 2008, my car club (I love the irony) started a “Biggest Loser” contest. Since I was the biggest and heaviest that I’ve ever been, I decided to join the challenge, eat healthier and start exercising. I started cycling more often, and really liked it.
I actually won that biggest loser contest (even though I could still lose a few pounds). What I find funny is that you never know how the choices you make – like a silly contest – will effect your life and where it will take you. I’ve become so passionate about cycling that I’ve started commuting by bike. I also advocate cycling, run a couple of bike blogs and now, I’ve decided to teach.
A few weeks ago, I took and successfully completed the League of American Bicyclists‘ League Cycling Instructor Seminar and become a League Cycling Instructor. I am LCI #3760 and I’m pretty proud of that accomplishment. I’ll try to do a writeup about the course later on.
My goal, with the help of some friends, is to bring more education to my area to help elevate my city, Richardson, Texas to a more bike friendly status. To be continued.
Pics From Last Week’s Traffic Skills 101 Class In Richardson
I meant to post these last week, but I was busy with prepping for my own biking course (more to come on that). A couple of Sundays ago, we had our first – in quite some time – Bike League Traffic Skill 101 class in Richardson, Texas. The class was lead by League Cycling Instructors Mike Freiberger, Warren Casteel and Renee Jordan.
They had a great group of students with a broad range of riding experience. Their bicycles ranged from super light road bikes to incredibly long and heavy utility bikes. I was really impressed with how well all of the cyclist handle their bikes – even the big ones – through the parking lot drills. Scroll down to see a video of how well a long frame bike handles the really tight Avoidance Weave.
Here are some pics from the parking lot drills. Click here to see the rest.
Check out THIS Avoidance Weave:
