There is a Nike poster of a runner going down the road and the caption ends with “the roads are always open”. Yes they are! If all the roads had a bike lane then I would have to call it heaven. Wait a minute that is Boulder. Nah, just kidding some like Broadway still do not have one. But many in Boulder do have a bike lane.
When I started riding my bike for triathlon I rode I45 between Clear Lake and Galveston south of Houston in Texas. It is flat, hot and many times windy. We rode the access road which is two lanes one way. There is usually not a lot of traffic and since there are two lanes going one way the motorists can move over for riders.
When I moved to Boulder I rode the Boulder flat rides as these seem hilly to me. It was a hard adjustment. As a flatlander I was always hammering on the flats so when a hill appeared I had a hard time with them and got dropped many times on the up hills. Did I mention it took me at least a year to go get a new set of cogs with easy gears? I was scared of riding the mountains. Forget it. We never ride mountains in triathlon. Who needs them?
One of the problems was that I was always looking at the speedometer. I was always in a hurry, always trying to go as hard as possible. Going easy and relaxing was never an option. With that attitude and lack of climbing experience how was I going to make it on a long climb.
Finally one year a good friend showed me the ropes of climbing and not only changed my cogs but also put on a 38 small chain ring on my bike. Then I decided to smell the pine trees and look at the streams and not worry about going fast. I learned to relax and spin up the mountains. I basically learned how to ride instead of hammer on the flats.
Once I learned how to ride the mountains, you could not get me off the mountains. There are fewer cars, the air is cleaner and then there are the long downhill rides. These are a great reward after a long climb.
The interesting thing about learning to ride the mountains is that now you look at all roads differently. Every time I go somewhere and I am on an undulating road or mountain I look for four things. Is there room after the white line, is the road smooth, how many cars travel it and how fast are they going. The end result is the ride or not ride decision.
This week I am celebrating my 5th weeding anniversary and also taking the opportunity to baptize our daughter in Kauai, Hawaii. We were married here 5 year ago and it is a great place to vacation. Unfortunately it is not the best place to ride your bike. There is only a two lane two way road and although some of it has a bike lane there are tons of cars on it. Many cars travel real fast. We are staying near Princeville and I have my bike to try to stay in shape. When going out I have to make a decision. Do I go left toward the center of the island and ride the bike lane but have cars zoom by all day. Or do I go right were the road is more desolate but no bike lane. I went right; there are a couple of great climbs. Going down the climbs I was taking the entire lane and it so much fun to go faster than cars. Some of the up hills are a little scary because the twisty roads makes it so that the cars may not see me until the last second. I am trying to go right before sunset as most people are home by then from the beaches down at that end of the island.
I got to the condo after one of the rides and I had to tell my wife how much fun it was to do the little climb from Hanalei to Princeville. This is the section I said was scary. So I basically hammered it. Although I am fat and out of shape I felt like I was in Kona 15 years ago. There is a certain taste in the mouth created by the CO2 and the deep breathes of Hawaii air. I was taking these deep breaths while climbing so when the air hit the bottom of my lungs it was a huge deja vu. I told my friend Eddie this story and he said “we are sick aren’t we?” I did not think of it that way but maybe he is right.