A Recap of the Summer

Now that summer is un-officially over, I thought it was the best time to recap all that has gone on in my life over the past few months. This summer was one for the books and I couldn’t be more grateful for all that has gone on in my life while the weather has been warm. This year I did summer a little differently. Instead of feeling bad for myself because I was lonely, or that some of my closests friends were far away, I made plans. I made plans to enjoy time with the people who are closest to me in New York. I made plans to travel to see the ones who live farther away. I never said no to a weekend get away. I made this summer happy because I was happy, and that’s exactly how I wanted it to be. Now, to do the best recap possible, I’m going to break my summer down into three main sections: friends, travel, and running (of course there is running guys… it’s me we are talking about).

 

Friends

Now this sounds a little silly, because summers are supposed to be about friends, right? But this summer I got to see SO MANY of my friends. I made time to meet up with lots of good friends in New York, from going to comedy clubs, brunches, or just meeting up at their new apartment, I got to see so many people and reconnect with friends I had been missing. Even my wonderful friend who moved to Florida made it up to New York for a visit! But, my biggest friend event this summer was going to home to California for one of my best friend’s wedding! Not only was the wedding beautiful, but the trip was a great excuse to see all of my friends, and I was extra lucky because the wedding got everyone in town. It was beyond perfect. Not only did I travel home this summer, but I took a trip to North Carolina for a weekend of biscuits, kayaking, and dancing with my girlfriend who is about to become a Master! (It’s really cool to have super smart friends).  

 

Travel

 

I know I mentioned travel a bit in the previous section, but I feel like I have been everywhere this summer! To list all the places out, I’ve traveled to California twice, New Mexico, Lake George New York, North Carolina, Mont Tremblant Quebec, and Washington DC. Did I spend a little too much money on airplane tickets this summer? Probably. Do I regret any of the trips I have taken? No way. Surprisingly, I made these trips rather affordable, and my traveling for the year is far from over. With apps like Hopper, and websites like Skiplagged and Google flights, none of the tickets were all that bad. On top of just getting the tickets, I also had to figure out how to take off time from work for all of these adventures. Now, I am very lucky to work for a company that has an incredible vacation and summer Friday policy, and this was a game changer in planning out my summer, but I didn’t end up taking too many days off. Going straight to the airport from the office when I got off work for summer Fridays made a huge difference, and really using any days we were given off to extend some trips made all my traveling possible.

 

Running

This wouldn’t be a blog post about me if it didn’t involve something about running. Summer is one of my favorite running seasons, not because it is warm, but because it is light! As a personal choice, I choose to never run  in the dark alone, which can really trim down on my training time in the cooler months when it gets darker earlier and the sun comes up later in the morning. This summer I got plenty of maintenance runs in before work in the mornings, which is not very common for me (I usually prefer to sleep in), but wow did it make a difference in my day. I felt awake and refreshed and ready to go! Were those the best runs I have ever done? Nope. But they were runs that I probably wouldn’t have done in the evening when it was hotter and then it freed up time after work to meet up with friends. Another thing I did this summer was start training with a group. I found a running group that meets a couple times a week in New York to do various workouts that I can already tell are really helping my training. I have speed workouts scheduled in now! And when I am running with a group, I am much less likely to wimp out or take it easy. Because of this I can feel myself getting stronger and faster.

 

I’ve been up to a ton this summer and I’m just a little bummed that it’s over, but I can’t waste any time being sad because soon comes fall and then the happiest time of the year, the holidays!

 

❤ Nikki