KATRINA TWEEDIE

We need to show kids that exercise can be transformative, both physically and mentally

HOME has turned into Team Sky training camp as we gear up for Pedal for Scotland on September 9.

Youngest son and I will join thousands of other people for Scotland’s biggest bike event.

It’s a 45-mile trip – 50 if you add the few miles to the start – and his longest distance on a bike to date has been 20 miles.

Not that we’re worried as my encouragement, his doggedness and the brilliant home baking at the halfway point will keep us going on the journey between Glasgow and Edinburgh.

I’ve done it twice before with my two other sons, now teenagers, who have developed a passion and commitment to sport that I can only regard in wonder.

Growing up, there were few things worse for me than PE at school and the misery of cross-country.

Cold and wet, trudging round the school pitch and local fields on grey winter days, straggling somewhere near the back.

Or the humiliation at netball and hockey, where I was always a reserve, consigned to the B team and never quite understanding how my peers managed to keep up their athletic enthusiasm.

I still remember the disappointment of Mrs Geechie, our indefatigable gym teacher, when she realised I didn’t have the competitive streak of my older sister.

Encouraging teenage girls to participate in sport and enticing a young generation to put down digital devices remains a massive challenge in Scotland.

We need to show kids that exercise can be transformative, both physically and more importantly, mentally. Never motivated to push myself, there was no exertioninduced adrenaline high for me – that came much later. How ironic that many decades after my unenthusiastic introduction to activity, I live among sports fanatics. We have a dizzying array of cycling shoes, sports bottles, protein shakes and training plans stuck to the fridge.

It took me 30 years to learn to love exercise.

After two marathons, countless 10ks and a weekly 5k Parkrun, I still move, slowly, at my own pace – competing only against myself, listening to podcasts and thinking about the treat at the end. I’m hoping Pedal for Scotland will motivate and inspire my little one, proving that activity does not have to be a miserable chore. If you fancy joining us for a Sunday bike ride, cake stop in Linlithgow, and lots of laughs along the way, there’s still time to sign up.

Enticing a young generation to put down digital devices remains a massive challenge