Endurance sports are refuge for the mind. It is impossible to let the daily anxiety of the world eat away at your sense of calm when you are exercising for long periods of time. As your breathing and heart rate settle in to an endurance pace it is possible to relax.
I’m at a point in my life where I do not think I choose to go on a morning bike ride, or swim over lunch, but I do so because I must. My wife will freely admit that I am not a nice person to be around if I have gone more than 3 days without some form of endurance level exercise. It is a necessity that allows me to cope with the always connected, always on world that is constantly collecting the data of my daily life and shoving itself back at me through a recommendation algorithm.