Author: davecriswell

Photo courtesy Austin Yellow BikeI’ve been fortunate during my time in the bike industry to be exposed to some great organizations that help promote cycling and that use cycling as a tool to further other worthy causes. No matter whether you ride a bike to commute, race, do errands, get healthy or as part of a a multi-sport event, you’ll likely benefit by getting involved with one of the organizations below through either your volunteer efforts, your donations, or both.

People For Bikes: People for Bikes is spearheading a petition to help policy makers, media and the public know how important cycling is to our health, our environment and our culture. Sign the pledge and help bring them closer to their goal. If you are in an organization that is part of the cycling community then consider joining Bikes Belong, People for Bikes sister organization.

Bikes Not Bombs: Bikes Not Bombs uses cycling to help promote community development and alternative transportation in both the US and internationally. Programs include preparing and shipping used bikes (about 6,000 annually!) to people in countries where a bike can mean the difference between getting to work or going hungry, to helping local children earn a bike through confidence building and awareness activities.

Rails to Trails: Rails to Trails is leading efforts to transform America’s unused rail lines into trails for recreational use.  A great example of recycling in a unique way!

League of American Bicyclists: As their tagline says: “Working for a Bicycle Friendly America”. Some of their top initatives include Safe Routes to School and National Bike Month.

Alliance for Biking and Walking: The Alliance for Biking and Walking is a “coalition of grassroots bicycle and pedestrian advocacy organizations.” and has assembled a huge selection of resources in their online library to help you promote cycling where you live.

 Livestrong: Livestrong is the organization founded by Lance Armstrong to support cancer prevention, finding a cure for cancer and providing a support network for those with cancer. The network of cycling related events that help raise money for this organization continues to grow.

In addition to these national organizations there are countless other local efforts going on in towns and cities in both the US and abroad. What are the other organizations are you involved with?

Just over one year ago I asked the question in this blog, where is the parenting manual? And in this past year as my son moves through middle school, puberty, and all the joys that go along with that age, I’ve asked this question over and over again and unfortunately come no closer to answer.

However, I’m making progress in understanding parenting challenges (at least that is what I’m telling myself).

I’ve used this example over and over with my son when I see him frustrated by the mistakes he is making and learning from. I ask him what a baby would do if while learning to walk he never got up when he fell down? After I get his seemingly obligatory answer under his breath that the baby would never learn to walk, I can only hope that the repetitive message will sink in.

Parenting on its surface is not unlike a baby learning to walk or any other skill we learn. It involves lots of mistakes that we hopefully learn from and apply to future experiences. However, after 12 1/2 years of parenting (and still feeling like a newbie most of the time), it’s recently become clear why parenting is so challenging.

To use my overused example, when a baby falls, and with most mistakes we make, there is instant feedback. The baby thinks (in baby talk of course) I shouldn’t try to take a step with both feet at the same time. Or, we instantly understand we shouldn’t touch that burner on the stove when it is glowing red.

But with parenting, in many cases, its different. For the advice, counsel, punishment, support, freedom, etc, etc that I give my son today, I may not know the consequences of that action for days, months or even years. Which of course doesn’t help much when I’m trying to figure out how to handle the next challenging parenting scenario.

And so as parents we stumble along hoping that our parenting methods are working while not really knowing right away if what we are saying is having an effect.

What makes it all worth it? Those glimmers of feedback we receive that show even one thing we said has helped our children in some way, far outweigh all the challenges we experience.

Happy parenting.

This familiar motto from the Life is Good company is a phrase that most people have seen but I don’t think a lot of people have considered how powerful a statement it is. It is to me any way.

Living this phrase is not easy, nor should it be. I know that it has taken me a long time to find a career path that combines my personal and professional passions – but it has happened. In June I started a new adventure as head of marketing for Montague Bikes. Even though I only started a few months ago I can say with certainty that I’m doing what I like and like what I do. In fact, I’ve been so busy liking it, it’s been several months since I’ve been able to update this blog.

You’ll see some changes to this blog as a result of my recent change.  I have struggled with what to do with my place on the web – how do I combine in one place my passion for cycling, running, swimming, triathlon, endurance sports, marketing, social media and technology?  My solution up to this point has been to maintain two separate blogs, one covering the sports side of me and the other covering my professional interests of marketing and technology.

Just as I’ve found a role that combines all these things professionally, I’ve combined the two blogs and will cover all topics in this one place.  I love what I do and the industry I do it in and look forward to sharing my new adventure! 

Hanging out the with the Tour de France devil at EurobikeWow! It’s been a long time since I got a blog post up. To bring everyone up to speed, here’s the short version of why.

After my DNF at Lake Placid last year and with my 40th birthday this year I decided in early 2010 that while I couldn’t get back to Ironman to redeem myself just yet, I wanted to do something big.

After doing some research and talking to friends I decided on the Vermont 50 ultramarathon. I had never run longer than a marathon before and in the long term I thought it would help with the mental and physical stamina needed for my next Ironman attempt.

Soon thereafter I landed a dream job as the Marketing Manager for a bike company which meant a trip to Interbike. However, Interbike ended the day before the Vermont 50 which meant no go on the Vermont 50, so, I looked for a different race, and found the Rhode Island 6-hour Ultramarathon in November.

Training was progressing well until the trade show time in September. While it severely limited my training, I felt privileged to be able to go to Eurobike in Friedrichshafen, Germany and Interbike in Las Vegas in September. But, between the travel, jetlag and 12+ hour days at each one week show, I missed several key long runs.

Unfortunately this left me playing catchup on my training. If you’ve ever tried to play catchup on any endurance sports training you’ll soon find out that it just doesn’t work that way.  First I injured my achilles and missed 2 long runs. Then on my last 20-miler I was getting severe IT band pain.

So, after consulting with my coach and family I made the decision not to do the ultramarathon. It was a very disappointing decision but it’s the way life turned out this year.

And so now I start planning for the next event. Now that I’ve settled in as the Marketing Manager for Montague Bikes I hope to be able to update this blog on a more frequent basis.

I’m very fortunate to be working in an industry I’m passionate about in a field I’m also passionate about. It’s providing me with incredible experiences that I want to share and hope this blog will be the medium that allows me to do that.

Thanks for staying tuned!