Happy Friday y’all!

I knew yesterday morning it was time for a running route shake up.

I just didn’t have it in me to run my usual 3 -4 mile neighborhood route for a couple of reasons.

1. Boredom
2. The sloped road and downhills were bothering my knee

So I took my run to the beach.

There’s a great 4+ mile trail that runs between the beach and the marina at Gateway National Park here on Staten Island.

marina

The weather was spot on….in the 70s with a nice breeze. There is a loose gravel trail that runs parallel to the cement sidewalk so I alternated between both. The gravel is softer but also requires my knee to work harder to stabilize me. By alternating I was able to give it a break every so often. And the route is pancake flat which meant no downhill for my knee to get aggravated by. It was refreshing to see different scenery and psychologically it felt good to run all 4 miles in the 10:XX range.

The heat and the knee aggravation have made left me running in the 12:XX lately because I have been choosing to walk during downhills and when the oppressive weather forces me to.

Beaches are the best backdrops!

Yay 10:29 average pace!

I’ve been running mostly just to achieve my 12,000 steps a day goal (and to relieve my stress) but haven’t had any other real goals. But the Staten Island Half Marathon is at the beginning of October and that means I’ll finally be focusing my running on other things like hill workouts and long runs. I know at mile 9 of the Staten Island Half Marathon there is a big hill, so I’d like to run lots of hill drills. And since my knee is fine on the uphill I can get good workouts going up and walking down.

Anxiety lift

Well don’t ya know that my anxiety levels have come down so much over the last 3 weeks since leaving that full time gig. I’m enjoying freelancing again.

Such a lovely office view

The flexibility is by far one of my most treasured aspects of freelancing. Not just for personal stuff like running and keeping up with my chores but to be available to bail people out when their in need of something, most recently when Mr. SOTSS had to work late and I was able to go feed Chester and let him out in the yard. I love that I can almost always create my own hours, whether to join my niece and sister-in-law for a jaunt in the city for epic milkshakes or today for instance, I’m going to a friend’s pool party but I’ll work this evening. And have I mentioned how awesome my clients are? They are really happy with my work and don’t hesitate to communicate that to me. It’s empowering as I start looking to sell my services to new clients. I’m working on updating my portfolio and credentials website and then I’ll be pushing hard this fall to land a few more clients. My life will always have things in it to cause anxiety and I’m ok with that but the anxiety I had being at a job that wasn’t a good fit for me was causing that anxiety to be more than I really should have had to deal with. The constant uneasiness of not knowing what my responsibilities or daily tasks were supposed to be and the complete lack of communication/direction from my superiors was just not my style. I also felt a ton of anxiety letting my family, especially Mr. SOTSS know how upset I was and how disappointed I was. I felt like a failure at first. I also wanted this job to work because I wanted that steady income so I could start saving for our (Mr. SOTSS and I) future together. And of course, as everything else in my life, everyone was so supportive of me. Life is too short to do anything that doesn’t make you happy or give you fulfillment. I’ve got plenty of time to save for that future. And once I realized I just wanted to work harder to find more freelance clients I felt so much better. I am a hard worker and have a marketable skill. There’s no reason I can’t make the same, or more money as an independent contractor. Actually I did this for many years so I know i’m capable.

Sorry for that ramble! Sometimes these blog posts become some much more for me than for you. 🙂

Have a great weekend!

Question:

Do you remember a time in your life where you just felt overwhelmed with angst? How did you handle it? Did it force you to make a change in your life?

P.S. I totally missed National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day yesterday! I guess that means next year I’ll have to eat 2 cookies. (or 2 boxes:)

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