To ride or not to ride.

Despite having to alter the meeting time, two riders, The Flanders Fat Cat and Talks-With-Legs, made the Tuesday Grimpeur ride. They rode across to the Jumonville climb and over the ridge line to the Summit Inn. Legs realized his dream of sitting on the veranda, sipping tea, and enjoying the view. Unfortunately, his dream did not include shivering in June and putting on his rain jacket against the cold. The Fat Cat's knee protested just enough on the first climb to cut out the Kirby climb. Legs and The Cat continued across Skyline and down Mud Pike to the finish. All and all it was a relaxing ride with a lot of interesting conversation at a 14mph average speed . The Grimpeurs had to ride themselves dizzy, literally for The Fat Cat, over the last mile to get that (the speed, not the interesting conversation).

Scheduling is getting tough. The Grimpeur ride originally manifested organically in a stitch in time between work, dropping one son off at pre-school and picking both sons up after school. Smack dab in the middle of all that running around, is the mountain. Mud Pike and the trips up it served as ideal filler for an otherwise dead space that could not be filled by work or other chores due to the strewn about locations of the office, the schools and the home. Well, school is out now. Between work, pinto baseball, t-ball, boy scout camp, music lessons, etc., It's tough to fit a ride in edgewise.

The easy way out would be to just quit. Being that the Fat Cat rode only one time last week, that may be happening despite his best efforts. However, such a short term, surface fix ignores deeper, important issues. There is of course the fitness postulate. It'd be nice to keep the joints fluid, the lungs expanded and the heart strong so that the children, yes there are kittens, can be fully enjoyed for years to come. Beyond even that though, beyond the cardio, is the cranio workout.

The term cycloprozac/bicyclic antidepressent effect has been bandied about several times in these pages (probably mainly because The Fat Cat thinks it a clever turn of phrase). The spinning cranks, pulleys and wheels of a bicycle seem to whirl a dirty wash of confused thoughts and emotions round and round until they come out clean and presentable. Some have likened this spin effect to the constant repetition of a mantra, so important to meditation. But, as good as meditation may be, you won't catch any son of a coal miner zoning out in the lotus position. There are proven biochemical changes that occur as a result of physical exercise too. Everyone who's anyone knows about the feel good endorphines that are so nice that they can actually become addictive and give "a high." Norepinephrine, serotonin, dopamine and other neurochemicals are also affected, to be sure. Don't believe it; I'll offer a higher proof than published papers. Anybody who knows any cyclist will eventually hear how their spouse said, "Why don't you go out and ride your bike!" when chemicals were waning in a negative way. Bottom line is, the wife and the kids like the cyclist, and he or she likes themselves, better on a bike. It is not selfish or wasteful or anything else disparaging. It's just fact.

So, in light of the above, we will try and eek out a place for the Grimpeurs over the summer. We'll be glad to host any seekers of cycloprozac, persuers of personal records or racers against the Reaper and Father Time, on Tuesdays at Noon. As for Thursday...we'll take that one on a week by week basis.

One more thing. The author of the deleted comment from last week can piss off. Sounds like you couple of lurkers deserve each other. However, I feel for your own children. I truly hope they can survive the negativity in which they are so obviously smothered and become positive and productive adults.