Need a shrink? Ride your bike...

Getting out on the bike has always been a type of mental therapy for me, and no doubt for most riders. On more than one occasion I’ve heard other riders say they go on long rides to clear their minds. When a lot of life drama clutters up the head, a good mind cleansing can definitely take place on a long ride. On those rides, the “I just gotta clear my head,” kind, most distressing thoughts that are on a crazy loop in the head, start to evaporate. The mind tunes into the body’s work of pedaling the bike, and a meditative state of zero thinking often emerges.

I just got off serving on a jury for a trial involving a brutal crime, and the evidence we jurors saw was not pretty. It was a seven-day trial, and while we jurors digested everything displayed and explained during the case, we couldn’t talk about it amongst ourselves or to anyone else during the trial, by orders of the judge. So we just soaked all this negativity in for days with no emotional outlet. It was a gnarly, ugly scenario to go through day after day. And the day it ended, after we jurors finally could talk to each other about it during deliberations, and after we delivered a verdict, I went home, got on my bike and just rode.

It was interesting during the ride because I had no problem not thinking about anything. Blank mind came naturally. I just pedaled a slow comfortable pace, and it was as if the pedaling gradually released the compacted negative thoughts and emotions built up in the recesses of my head, letting them free to dissipate into the wind. I just rode and rode, blank minded, in a kind of meditative state.

Another juror told me he was a very active bike rider, he said he’d gone on a three-hour ride after the trial session the day before, just to clear his head. He didn’t get home until dark. I just hope the other jurors had some similar way to get past the horrors of the trial. They’re not so easy to forget. I just look at my bike and say, thank you my friend, thank you.

Power from within

While riding last week, I didn't feel much energy, and in those cases, I just tell myself to forget about speed. I tell myself that the ride, this slow ride in which there’s not much power in the legs, is a chance to build a base and get power back into the legs.

Slow riding with occasional sprint intervals is a good way to go. I can always tell how my fitness is going by my recovery times. If I do an interval sprint, and at the end I’m huffing and puffing and feel like a rag doll with rubber legs and it takes some slow pedaling before my legs can power back up to a good cadence, then it’s clear: Not so fit, bro!

But no worries, I just keep piling up the slow base mileage. I like to imagine the quick recovery power of fitness after bursts of speed is like a reserve gas tank, full of gas. Being fit to me means I have a full reserve tank of gas ready to tap into right after an interval sprint. With that full reserve tank, the legs have power back almost immediately to get into strong cadence.

Ultimately pedal power comes from overall fitness, and it’s one of the great feelings to call upon reserve power and bam! it’s there, and you continue with good pace in no time at all.

But even when that reserve power is not there, I just figure, no big deal, relax. It’s just time to slowly build back that reserve with base miles ridden at whatever pace feels right, interspersed with sprint intervals. After awhile, the power builds back, the energy reserve and overall strength to ride with pace is back. The reserve tank is once again, full of gas.

Bike lock theory

Urban riders who commute on their bikes have a challenge: To keep their bikes from being stolen when locked on a public rack. Bike thieves use many ways to get past bike locks in seconds. One rider told of an old trick city bike thieves will do. They use a big, thick bike lock on an already locked bike. When the owner comes back, he or she can’t get their bike, since the big lock is holding it hostage. The thief then comes back in the middle of the night when nobody is around and unlocks the big lock, cuts the bike owner’s lock and makes off with the bike. This rider told of his response to that trick: He got a hacksaw, then flagged down a policeman and told him the situation. With the policeman’s approval, he sawed through the thief’s lock and got his bike back. He made sure to leave a little love note to the thief’s sawed-through lock.

It’s a real risk to leave your bike locked in a public place. If you really don't want your bike stolen, don't leave it alone, locked on a rack. That's when chances really go up that you'll lose it to a thief. The risk may be reduced, though, when it is locked on a rack with many other bikes, packed close together. But I think even in that scenario, you're still putting your bike up for grabs.

An inventor friend of mine asked my opinion of a bike lock prototype he’s working on. It would mount on the bike frame, with its retractable cables pulled from the mounted housing. The idea is that it's a convenient lock that allows for quick locking and unlocking without having to carry the lock separately. I told him it wouldn’t work against a bike thief, that the thin cables could be cut in seconds.

The only way it would work, I told him, would be if the owner stayed close enough to the bike to keep an eye on it. He seemed a bit offended by my opinion, but hey, he asked!

I’ve had my share of bikes stolen over the years, so I’ve become an advocate of trying to eliminate the possibility of my bike being stolen. On my cruiser bike, I use a thick metal strand cable and padlock that I drape over my shoulder. If I can’t bring the bike inside wherever I’m going, and I have to lock it to a stand outside, I make sure I stay close enough to keep it in my sight.

I don’t even have a lock for my road bike. Its lock isn't any cable. It consists of being kept inside the house with the burglar alarm set. But I must say, the key here is to have the alarm set. I’ve had bikes stolen right out of my garage because the damn alarm wasn’t set. Lesson learned. Several times. The hard way.

Til next time, make sure to pull on a helmet every time you get on the bike. Then, keep the rubber side down, and ride safely. But most importantly, have a blast.

-- Mark Eric Larson