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.

My First Real #SummerTimeChi

It’s almost summer vacation and since most of this year was more or less a vacation for me (hello “adult gap year”), I don’t feel the need to count down the seconds until summer like I have in years past. Of course, I’m still super pumped for this school year to end and to go to the beach everyday and just chill out. I mean, that’s the life, isn’t it? But for the first time in like forever, I don’t have any solidified summer plans. Usually I plan a long-ish trip and a visit home to Chicago with a few other things in there, but because I still don’t know what the fall holds for me, I can’t really plan anything. (And I can cross that trip home to Chicago off the list because, hey, I live here now!!) I mean sure, I could plan a million things, like a big Europe trip again and have an amazing time, but financially, it may not be the smartest thing to do until I know that I will have a steady paycheck come September. Plus, this is my first actual full adult summer living in Chicago and #SummerTimeChi ain’t no joke so I’m ready to dive in head first. I’ve had some FOMO over the last decade seeing things my friends who lived here were doing while I was in NYC. Of course I was doing some very awesome summer NYC things too, but part of me always felt like I was missing out on all the amazingly fun looking Chicago events. And now it’s finally my turn. Woohoo!!

Not 13, but almost 1

This morning, I got a reminder message on my phone: Today would have been my New York anniversary.  On this day thirteen years ago, I moved to NYC and started a new life there. Seems like just yesterday I made that move that forever changed my life. I was actually supposed to be there today running the Brooklyn Half Marathon (and getting my revenge for last year's race), but instead my hamstring and knee still aren't healed so I never booked the flight. Turns out though, I probably wouldn't have been able to race anyway because of my Shingles. I tried putting on a sports bra last night (in hopes of trying to workout this morning in some capacity) and nope, it hurt way too much on my rash. Plus, I still don't have much energy and don't know if 13.1 would have been possible to run today. 

This happened...

We’ve all seen the commercials before… “If you've had chickenpox, the shingles virus is already inside you (dun dun dun)” Ahhhhh. You know what I’m talking about, right? Probably. And you probably think, yeah sure I do, but I won’t get shingles. I mean, c’mon now, that doesn’t happen to people like me. Even though most people may think like that, I actually never did. As someone with a compromised immune system because of the Remicade I take for my Ulcerative Colitis, getting Shingles was always kind of a fear of mine, but I assumed it wouldn’t happen until I was a bit older. Welp, I was wrong. It happened...

Back to It...

About three weeks ago, I started teaching again. Full time. Yup, it happened. And way sooner than I expected it to, but it was an opportunity I could not say no to. Even though this year was supposed to be my “adult gap year” to take a step back from full-time teaching and explore some other options, I was getting a little bit of an itch to get back to it and when this current great job appeared, it wasn’t something that I could pass up.

So really quick, let’s take it back to last June when I quit my full-time teaching (and coaching) job in New York City. It had been something I considered the previous year, but just couldn’t do because, lets be serious, I was too scared. I was scared of the leaving something that I had committed the past eleven years of my life to. I was scared of the financial instability of leaving my job. I was scared I really couldn’t make a career out of anything else because all I knew was teaching. And I was scared that I’d regret it when all was said and done. However, sometimes in life, you have to take a big risk and this was one that I needed to do. Plain and simple, I was just burnt out. I knew I had to quit this job to find my happiness again and I knew I wanted to be closer to my family. I had to do it. So I did.