#wegotgoals

Before I moved to Chicago in 2011, my concept of fitness was split into two dichotomies: sports, which I had retired from upon graduating high school, and the elliptical at my university’s tiny, carpeted gym. That is to say, working out to stay skinny. But my arrival in Chicago gave me what happiness researcher Gretchen Rubin calls the “fresh start effect” - the chance to rebuild my relationship with fitness anew. And unbeknownst to me, I moved to this major metropolis right on as two major fitness trends were becoming mainstream: running and boutique group fitness classes.Running, I reasoned, would be a good way for me to exercise because it was largely free and I lived a mile from the lakefront, which was a novelty to me at the time. And after a couple of years, I moved from downtown to Lincoln Park, right as Nike opened a Nike Training Club studio above their Armitage shop and began offering free - yes, free - classes every single day of the week (real ones, remember?). Quickly, fitness became a landmark i