Google Calendars
Google Calendar -- another useful application created by the geniuses in Mountain View, CA.
During the last couple of years, I’ve become of huge fan of various applications by Google. Google — founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who attended Stanford at the same time I did but somehow managed to accomplish a whole lot more — seemingly has more collective intelligence contained within their Mountain View headquarters than the CIA, Microsoft, and Pakistan combined, and virtually every month they come up with brilliant, intuitive, new software that makes our lives a whole lot easier. Not only that, but their software is always FREE.
The latest Google application I have been using is Google Calendar. While there are several calendar applications out there, Google’s is head and shoulders above the rest in terms of 1) sharing and 2) adding new entries. For example, instead of having to click the mouse button incessantly to fill out a dozen form fields, one can do a “Quick Add” by typing in (for example) “club meeting every Thursday 6p for 10 weeks.”
In terms of functionality, it is similar to Apple iCal where you can search and subscribe to other people’s calendars. Then, you can display all events from multiple calendars simultaneously (i.e., in ONE calendar), or add individual events to your own calendar.
I’ve started using Google Calendar to help determine what athletic events to do. Some public calendars I’ve found helpful include the following:
- Ultramarathons in Europe (Does not seem to be maintained since 2007)
- Ultramarathons in the U.S.
Unfortunately, I could not find many good ones for ultra-cycling, or for running races just in Colorado. Therefore, I created my own. Using data from Randonneurs USA and Colorado Runner, Google’s calendar import functionality, and my superior Microsoft Excel skills (ha), I created the following in about 15 minutes:
It is easy for you to subscribe to them too by clicking on the links above and then clicking on “+ Google Calendar” on the calendars themselves.
Joseph Maurer said:
Hi Felix,
excellent work with these calendars. I am particularly interested in the RUSA brevet calendar – but why are all the distances set to 200k?
Cheers,
Joseph
Felix said:
Thanks Joseph! I goofed; apparently my Microsoft Excel skills weren’t so superior after all.
Anyhow, I have corrected the distances now. Unfortunately, you’ll have to resubscribe to the calendar. To do so you can click on the link above (in the main body of the post).