Sunday, July 23, 2017

Biking Back to (Some Sort of) Normalcy

If you follow me on Instagram (@rmgoldma btw), you may have noticed that my workouts have not been my usual long (or even short) runs lately. Instead they have taken form as early (and sometimes late) morning bike rides. (I don't post them all because that's annoying and boring, but I do it just enough where I hope it's not totally unacceptable.) I finally got a bike a little over a month ago and it has been life-changing for me in these difficult it-hurts-to-run-so-I-can't-do it times.  Everyone that knows me well (and even not so well) knows that I love running. It gives me a sense of purpose, allows me to set and work toward goals, helps clear my head, and lets me see some amazing sunrises as well as get to cover a lot of ground early in the morning before the rest of the city wakes up. However, as previously mentioned in older posts, I haven't really been able to run since like January because of my currently undiagnoseable and frustrating knee injury. Not being able to run was not only taking a toll on my mental health, I felt myself physically getting softer and weaker and feeling just plain gross. Not being able to workout everyday was a huge drag and I missed all the endorphins and as well as a consistent release of all my excess energy. (And not gonna lie, I missed starting my day with a super sweaty workout.) Swimming wasn't cutting it and SoulCycle is always great, but I could only afford to go once a week. I needed something I could do everyday that would make me feel like myself again.