I am obviously passionate about Alteryx, being one of its creators, but I am equally passionate about cycling in general, and Colorado in particular. Now that I have subscribers from all over the world on this blog, I think its time to show off this amazing state of Colorado.
I was fortunate to have time to ride the Copper Triangle course today. It is one of the classic Colorado bike rides. Enjoy the ride and Colorado in pictures. Continue reading
The bike industry, like any other, has repeated fads that are designed to separate us consumers from our money. The latest fad is fat bikes – bikes with tires greater than 4″ wide tires. The original idea was a bike that you could ride on snow. I guess it was invented by crazy cyclists in Alaska or something. The hype though goes far beyond riding in the snow – people kept telling me how amazing the big tires are on dry land as well. Continue reading
Mt Evans Summit – from Sundance Images
The Bob Cook Memorial/Mt Evans Hill Climb has long been a favorite race of mine. I am aspirationally a climber on a bike, which is to say that I am not able to compete with the people who are really good, but I love doing it anyway. I first did the race when I was 29 and did a pretty good time. When I turned 40, I decided that I would beat my time from 11 years before. It turned out that that was a slightly more difficult goal than I gave it credit for, but after 4 years of trying I finally did it and bettered that time by 2 minutes.
That was 2 years ago. This year in February I registered for the race with good intentions of getting fit and trying to do well again. Fast forward to a crazy busy summer without much time for training as well as not being very diligent in keeping the weight down and I started to think about not doing it. Instead I made the decision to go ride it just for the fun of it, and not worry about my time or anything. I am so glad I did. It is such a different experience riding that mountain without trying to go hard. My time was 36 minutes slower than last time, but at the top I felt relaxed and happy instead of ready to throw up. I had thought I might be done riding in the Mt Evans race, now I just think that I am done racing in it.
If you are a cyclist and have never ridden Mt Evans, I highly recommend it. Just don’t worry about trying to go fast, just slow down and enjoy it.
I don’t think Valmont Bike Park in Boulder was built for kids. It was somewhat controversial when it was being built because people thought it would only be used by a small niche of lycra clad cyclists. After being open for a while, I think we can all call it a success. The surprising thing though, is it’s all kids (admittedly some of the “kids” my age). There’s kids (like ours) that are just starting out in mountain biking, but there’s toddlers on balance bikes doing the pump tracks! Their moms are out there pushing them! Continue reading
Today is (or was) IMBA’s Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day. I usually don’t pay any attention whatsoever to these kinds of made up holidays, but really, this is as good an excuse as any other to go mountain biking. It doesn’t take much for Nathalie & I. Continue reading
This time I will start with a turkey – actually I saw about 20 of them, but I only had my phone for pictures so its hard to get a good image. Please don’t ask me where I was though, I will not answer! Thanksgiving is getting close and I suspect not all my readers are vegans like me. I really do see a lot of wildlife out riding in Colorado, both on the road and on the trails. You get to cover a lot of distance, but are still quiet enough that you don’t scare everything away. That said, some animals, elk in particular, are exceptionally spooked by cyclists. I think the combination of speed and silence does it. Nothing like being on a bike with a herd of 500 lb animals freaking out and running all over the place! Continue reading
Probably the only thing I remember from my 9th grade english class is Mr Brody emphatically saying “Start with the moose!” Well, here’s a moose…
Road biking can be a very data centric activity. I have a power meter; a GPS; I have contributed to open source software and used Alteryx for analyzing the data; I have had training plans. Some days my work life and my play life aren’t that different.
Today was about none of that. Today I pointed my bike uphill (west) and rode to the end of the road. Most of the time around Boulder, the point when you can go no farther is Brainard Lake at more than 10,000 feet – which happens to be one of the most beautiful places I know. Continue reading
Inspiring Ingenuity 