Scoured

Just back from an hour and a half on the bike path in and around Huntington Beach. It's Veteran's Day so there were a lot of people there for a weekday in November -- entire families surfing, lots of older cycling couples, etc. It was 76 degrees and just a little hazy and there was a lovely breeze coming off the ocean.

I remember the first ten miles -- the northward part of the loop -- very well. But I don't remember ANYTHING about the ride back to my car. I guess I should be lucky that I didn't crash into any of the multiple tiny little kids who kept dashing across the bike path, but I arrived safe and sound and as I was putting my bike back on my rack on my car, I realized that I had solved all of my problems on the last half of that ride -- not just writing problems (i.e., what should my next step be with that plotted novel that won't let me rest) but also things like what I should get for my kids for Christmas, what nutritious legume I should make for dinner, how I should extricate myself from a difficult situation I'm facing. I was scoured -- inside and out -- pleasantly tired and feeling like my emotions and thoughts were all cleaned up and ready to go.

I get this feeling other times in exercise -- always after about 45 minutes of work, once I have numbed myself past some line -- and it is that which gets me to do cardio exercise at all. But what I experienced today was quite special. I'm already eyeing my calendar to try to figure out when I can go out again and I'm hoping, hoping, hoping, that as much as I love the rain, it will hold off a little this year -- or just rain at night for a few weeks.