Biking every day, and I mean every day, in Central New York even in the winter except typically the month of February when we finally have too much snow on the bike path, means my mind, body, and spirit want to be outside and move. The fresh air, the blue or cloudy sky, the wind or windless day, greet me and I wear what I need to wear to adjust to the temperatures and conditions.

But today as an orange haze glows outside my window for the second day, matching our Syracuse city’s favorite color on basketball and football days, I feel like a bear hibernating in winter unable to go outside and conduct life as I’d like doing sports especially when I’m willing to bike when it is 23 degrees with wind freezing me. Our orange sky is from the hundreds of wildfires burning in Canada producing an AQI of 124 out of 500, yesterday it was in the 300 range.

So, what is an addictive sports girl to do when she has enough energy from not biking three days in a row? You are right, I jumped on my bike and pedaled up and down the large hills on my road where I typically don’t bike because it is hard but it was close so if by chance I couldn’t breathe well, I could just turn around. I took my asthma and alopecia into consideration and just did it with my Nike sneakers on. It felt so, so good, and yet I felt the burn in my throat and in my lungs afterward, like I expected. I’m not sure it was a wise choice but my athletic spirit needed it.

Today’s post comes from both my head, heart, and burning lungs, that when you love sports, you have to do them after you take into consideration all the pros and cons of what they provide. I haven’t broken a leg from trying rugby or an arm from trying Pro Wrestling or busted a lung yet from biking in dangerous air, so I keep on trucking when I know mentally it makes me feel good. So do what you want, when you want to if you really have that burning desire.