By Abby Young

Staff Writer

By now, most students have seen or heard of Cornerstone’s new provost, Rick Ostrander. However, furthering the academic success of CU’s students and faculty is just one of Dr. Ostrander’s passions; another is cycling.
When asked how he became involved in cycling, Ostrander said it wasn’t something he started until later in life. His first passion was basketball. Though he continues to play basketball on intramural teams, college injuries, ankle trouble and the normal wear and tear of an aging body lead him to pursue different ways of staying active.

 
Initially, he began with mountain biking, but soon discovered that his favorite part of biking was the speed.

“Once I got on a road bike, I was hooked,” Ostrander said.

Ostrander has been riding for eight years. He rides both on his own and with groups, and has competed in some races. In order to train for these races and biking expeditions, he said his workouts of choice are hill training and interval training.

While living in Arkansas, he would train by climbing the hills on his bike, turning around and climbing them all over again. Each of his training rides consists of 30 to 40 miles at a time.

Ostrander explained that interval training involves varying your heart rate. This can be achieved by 45 minutes or so of riding, resting, riding and so on. He also said one of the best ways to prepare is simply “to get in lots of miles.” For him, this means over 6,000 miles a year.

Ostrander’s cycling has taken him across the globe, combining his love of travel with his love of biking.

While directing international programs at John Brown University, he had the opportunity to take several oversea adventures. These biking adventures include the busy streets of Rome, the beach on the northern coast of Ireland and Spain. He has even biked to the top of the Austrian Alps.

In 2004, he and his family lived in Germany for half a year, where he taught at a university through the Fulbright Fellowship program. “That’s when I did most of my European traveling,” Ostrander said. One of his all-time favorite places to bike through was Tuscany, “where biking originated on the back roads in wine country,” he said.

He admits that though biking teaches joy, especially on a Tuscan “summer evening with no wind,” it also teaches perseverance and discipline. This discipline proved especially useful while competing in a Texas race called the “Hotter than Hell 100″. He shared that one of the years he rode in the race, a sign, marking the direction of the path, had been removed. That year, instead of the standard 100 miles, he rode 120 miles in 110 degrees, with no water.

Ostrander said that, while biking, “you’re trained not to always listen to your body.”

He adds that biking is “one of the best ways for me to connect with God,” and becomes a time of extensive prayer. He also shares that being in nature is his favorite place to worship God.

As driven and passionate as he is about his work at Cornerstone and his time spent cycling, Ostrander says his priority remains with his wife and four children. After dropping off his son at college this fall, he reflects on “how brief and how valuable these years are.”

Michael Stevens, professor in the Humanities department, said “Rick Ostrander really wants to do the things to make the experiences of students and teachers here better.”

Good teachers and leaders are always willing to go the extra mile; Rick Ostrander does it on a bike.