Algorithms and Bicycles

Yesterday (11/04), I rode up to Ward. Started from my office around 11:45AM and reached there around 2:15pm. The climb was uneventful (well, for the second time I managed to reach there without a break!), although cold. By the time I reached there, my fingers were numb. It was so nice to hold a warm cup of coffee in my hands and to feel it becoming alive again:)

But the return journey was miserable. Although I was wearing three layers, I was cold.  I was shaking uncontrollably  and at times I could not keep the bike steady. In fact, I had to stop after every mile, sometimes even before that. It was the longest  downhill in my life. Took me more than an hour and a quarter to go down the 17 miles!  I still don’t understand why I felt so cold. Yes, the numbers weren’t bad: 52 miles and 4000+ feet of climbing. But statistics don’t tell everything.

To compensate for yesterday’s misery, I went out today and rode 50miles of rolling hills and flats. Home-Dillon-McCaslin-75th-Lookout-79th-Niwot Rd-95th. 95th-Oxford-CR119-CO119-WCR1-Rinn Rd-WCR7-CR8-US287-Baseline-95th. Just to make sure that I have a real half-century and not an approximate one, I detoured into Louisville. In the end, the numbers were 50.48miles in 3 hours and 23 minutes.

I had to write this before getting warmed up… Yes, warmed up.

We had a serious winter storm yesterday (10/26) that dumped a lot of snow. But the sun had come out in the late afternoon. So this morning when I saw a ‘bright and white’ morning, riding to work became an obviously uninformed obvious choice. (more…)

It was a gorgeous autumn day. The weather was supposed to be in the low 80s and nearly clear sky. It would be a criminal waste if I didn’t get on the bike… or so I thought.

So by 10:30AM I was out of the house. The plan was to do about 65-70 miles of ‘plains’ riding. That meant going east. So I went east. (more…)

What a ride! What a ride!

Rick and I started riding around 10:00am from Masonville, CO, a few miles south of Fort Collins. We rode over Horsetooth reservoir. There were three short but very steep hills that made our hearts beat faster than the latest Intel Core-Duo processors! But the reward was that the views of the lake to the west and the town to the east were fantastic. (more…)

Well, it certainly felt that way until a mile or two after Glen Haven when it became bad, worse and insane, in that order. (more…)

Yes, it is the day. And I celebrated it by riding my bike for 15 minutes this morning. Rock Creek to Coalton Rd to McCaslin Blvd and back on to Rock Creek. Three miles in all.

There is an element of fear now while going downhill. I suppose that is natural.

The last one month of physical inactivity became a blessing in disguise as I rediscoverd my passion for, well, what else, fast numerical algorithms and mathematics. I have read several technical papers, reviewed some areas in math which were becoming a little rusty and so on. I am working on a paper and will be commenting it on the next couple of days under electromagnetics.

So here I was, lying on the road, with my head and neck supported by the warm and soft hands of a kind woman. Sun was blazing into my eyes, as if someone had placed a powerful lens between my eyes and the sun. And I was trying to assess the damages. (more…)