Pedaling Is My Prozac. Sounds like a tagline, but it is so true. Nothing can turn a day around for me more than going for a bike ride. The simple act of spinning those pedals, the forward motion, the act of going somewhere, not stuck in thought, or wondering what I should do. I am here and now doing it.

Yesterday I just woke up grumpy. I wanted more sleep, but the dogs were crazy and loud, my mind moving too fast to even pretend to try. Perhaps I was too tired, my blood sugar low, but for some reason the grumpies stuck to me. All day I just couldn’t shake the feeling that I wasn’t winning at this game of life, that I could do better. In tight circles my thoughts raced, over and over to the same conclusion, I need to grow up. Stop racing my bike all the time, stop spending all my meager income on bikes, race entrees, and time off. Maybe I need to get a “real” job and move on from this phase of my life.

Then I got home from work, got changed, got on my bike and rode away. Luckily I ended up at Hartman Rocks. I started to climb away from the parking lot, by the time I was on top of Jack’s Trail, with my heart pounding, my mind calmed down. Then it was Becks to my favorite, Tech Becks, two moves into the trail and negativity was gone. A smile was firmly in place, things were gonna be ok. The night was quiet, the air was cool, the sunset perfect. An hour and ten minutes after leaving I got home a much better person.

Tonight I just needed to put the day behind, to hammer out a few miles, push some blood through my veins. So lucky to live so close to a place like Hartman’s. After so many years it still challenges my lungs, my skills and makes me feel small and my so called problems smaller. Tonight I looped around on Jacks, Tailpipe, Ridgeline, Top Of the World, Mid Luge, the new Sea O Sage, to good Ole Rattlesnake, and of course Tech Becks, to Collarbone. Just a perfect little ride on a perfect summer evening. Another gorgeous sunset, another reminder of why I live here, why I live the life I do. Thank you Universe, thank you.