Why is bicycling SO good for you?  Why does it make you happy? What kind of a 'high' do you feel while pedaling your bike?  

Heal your heart

Studies from Purdue University in the US have shown that regular cycling can cut your risk of heart disease by 50 percent. And according to the British Heart Foundation, around 10,000 fatal heart attacks could be avoided each year if people kept themselves ?tter.  Cycling just 20 miles a week reduces your risk of heart disease to less than half that of those who take no exercise.

Make creative breakthroughs

Writers, musicians, artists, top executives and all kinds of other professionals use exercise to solve mental blocks and make decisions — including Jeremy Paxman, Sir Alan Sugar and Spandau Ballet.

A study found that just 25 minutes of aerobic exercise boosts at least one measure of creative thinking. Credit goes to the ?ow of oxygen to your grey matter when it matters most, sparking your neurons and giving you breathing space away from the muddle and pressures of daily life.

Get High While Cycling

Once a thing of myth, the infamous 'runner's high' has been proven beyond doubt by German scientists. Yet despite the name, this high is applicable to all endurance athletes.

University of Bonn neurologists visualized endorphins in the brains of 10 volunteers before and after a two-hour cardio session using a technique called positive emission tomography (PET).

Comparing the pre- and post-run scans, they found evidence of more opiate binding of the happy hormone in the frontal and limbic regions of the brain — areas known to be involved in emotional processing and dealing with stress.

"There's a direct link between feelings of wellbeing and exercise, and for the ?rst time this study proves the physiological mechanism behind that," explains study coordinator Professor Henning Boecker.

Back on the Road Again

In the morning, we rolled out of Rawlins on the eastbound side of I-80.  Since it's the only highway in the area, they allow bicycles for 20 miles until we reached the Exit 235 for Route 130, southbound into Colorado.

It's not that much fun riding along with 80,000 pound 18-wheelers blowing by you at 70 miles per hour.  We kept our eyes on our rear view mirrors every few seconds.  Thankfully, we enjoyed an 8-foot paved breakdown shoulder which made it smooth sailing.  Within an hour and a half, we would reach the exit for some quiet riding into Colorado.

Except, after ten miles, road crews tore up the westbound lane into gravel and construction.  They shut down the westbound lane, and, they funneled all that traffic over to two lanes of the eastbound lane.  All of a sudden, we rode our bikes along with westbound traffic buzzing along at 60 mph, and eastbound riding right up our rear-ends at 60 mph.  And, we still enjoyed 8 feet of shoulder, but with the eastbound traffic, those 18-wheelers didn't slide out away from us.  They held their lane.

"Holy shit," I said to David. "This is scary stuff."

"Let's get the hell down the road to that exit as fast as we can," said David.

I took off with my flags flapping and my red strobe light blinking at the eastbound traffic.  I'll bet every trucker was cursing in his tobacco chew wondering what the hell were two cyclists doing out on the Interstate.

Not far into the maelstrom of traffic, some asshole of a passenger in the right side of an 18-wheeler, threw a soft peach right at David's head—and hit him at 60 mph.  He laughed as he saw the peach splat all over the back of David's helmet.  It jolted David quite abruptly.  It scared the hell out of him.  

"Good God," I yelled, after stopping with David. "What kind of an asshole would do such thing?"

"A pretty big asshole with no brains," David said.  "Damn, we gotta' get off this highway."

In all my years of touring, I've had cans and bottles thrown at me in Bolivia, India and, now, in America.  You really must be stupid to throw such hard objects at a cyclist from a speeding car. You can kill the cyclist if that object hits in the wrong place.

Nonetheless, we were powerless against our situation.  We simply hammered the pedals harder until we reached the exit heading southbound. Once we hit Exit 235, we sat on the guardrail exhausted, and, happy to be alive.

"David," I said.  "I just realized that I made a huge mistake today."

"What's that?" he said.

"I should have steered us over to the westbound lane," I said. "We could have ridden in the dirt, and it would have been slower, but one-thousand times safer.  I don't what the hell I was thinking or not thinking."

"Well, we were simply focused on the moment," David said. "Actually, we were both scared and riding for our lives."

"I'm really sorry I didn't think to get over to the westbound lane," I said.

"Hell, just thankful to have lived through that last hour," David said.

"I sure would like to get my hands on that son of a bitch who threw that peach at you," I said.  "I'd wring his neck. I would do damage to him."

We sat there on the guardrail somewhat dazed and totally relieved.  I've had a few events in my life where I could have died: face to face with a grizzly bear in Alaska outside my tent; close call mountain climbing a 14,000 foot peak, getting caught in an avalanche on a mountaineering ski hut trip, and nearly getting lost scuba diving during a cave dive with the water getting really muddy so I couldn't find my way, and one time, a drunk nearly ran head-on into me.

Living our lives proves one thing: it's a miracle to be here in the first place.  Just to be born proves a miracle of the universe.  It's even more of a miracle to live to 70 with all the ways death might visit us.  Sure, we could be run over from behind by a texter, drunk or someone swatting a fly.  It's a precarious life; for what it's worth, you can't live it in fear or with a fatal attitude. Instead, live it with courage, fortitude and a certain sly smile in your spirit that your moment on this planet, counts.  It sure counts for you, so make the very best of it.

"Ever ride a bike? Now that's something that makes life worth living!...Oh, to just grip your handlebars and lay down to it, and go ripping and tearing through streets and road, over railroad tracks and bridges, threading crowds, avoiding collisions, at twenty miles or more an hour, and wondering all the time when you're going to smash up. Well, now, that's something! And then go home again after three hours of it...and then to think that tomorrow I can do it all over again!" 
? Jack London

"And who knows what Romance, what Adventure, what Love, is lurking around the next turn of the road, ready to leap out on us if we'll only travel that far?" –Jack London, The Road, March 26, 1914

I ask you, are you living at full throttle or mediocrity at low speed?  What do you have to show for it?  A million-dollar house and bank account or a "memory shelf" full of incredible moments?  Are you lean, clean and healthy, or fat, sloppy and prone to pain?  Do you live simply to reach the next day, or do you dream of conquests?  Are you afraid to die, but more afraid to live?  As for me, I'd rather blast into a new day with enormous enthusiasm, and at dusk, gather a sunset into my heart.   Such moments give my life eternal expectation.

David and Frosty's Excellent Adventure: Bicycling the Continental Divide, summer 2019

-- Frosty Wooldridge

Golden, CO 

Population-Immigration-Environmental specialist: speaker at colleges, civic clubs, high schools and conferences

Facebook: Frosty Wooldridge

Facebook Adventure Page: How to Live a Life of Adventure: The Art of Exploring the World

Www.HowToLiveALifeOfAdventure.com

Www.frostywooldridge.com 

Six continent world bicycle traveler

Speaker/writer/adventurer

Adventure book: How to Live a Life of Adventure: The Art of Exploring the World

Frosty Wooldridge, six continent world bicycle traveler, Astoria, Oregon to Bar Harbor, Maine, 4,100 miles, 13 states, Canada, summer 2017, 100,000 feet of climbing:

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Newest book:  Old Men Bicycling Across America: A Journey Beyond Old Age, available on Amazon or ph. 1 888 519 5121

Living Your Spectacular Life by Frosty Wooldridge, Amazon or ph. 1 888 519 5121

FB page: How to Live A Life of Adventure: The Art of Exploring the World

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Email Frosty: frostyw@juno.com