Biker's High

I think I have at last understood the expression 'runner's high.' Getting most of my exercise in the gym or walking, it was a mystery to me. But lately, biking, I've got it. Nothing fancy, you understand. In my husband's book of Bay Area bike rides, the one I do rates a 2 (out of 5). It climbs, but fairly easily, and then it goes up and down for a while, and then it's a straight downhill shoot back home. On the uphill part I feel like The Little Engine That Could: 'I think I can, I think I can, I think I can'; then when I reach the highest point, if I've got enough wind left in my lungs, I say, 'I knew I could, I knew I could, I knew I could!'

If I left home thinking 'why am I doing this? Why don't I just stretch out in the hammock on the deck with a book?' by the time I get back home, usually about 2 hours later, I am exhilarated. And that's my 'biker's high.'