January 7, 2014

Would You Rather: Running Edition

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Sure, I might not be doing any actual running yet (nor have I for about the past 10 weeks)–but this seemed like a cute link up to participate in to help me get back to being excited about running! Cori’s original link-up is here.

#1. Would you rather run in a thunderstorm or a snowstorm? 

Definitely a snowstorm. Snow is so pretty. Plus running in a thunderstorm seems…dangerous.

#2. Would you rather breathe through your nose or breathe through your mouth?

Thanks to being so allergy prone, I’m a total mouth breather. Trying to get better with my breathing in general, though.

#3. Would you rather do 100 squats or 100 crunches? [Now take a break and go do them. ;)]

100 squats definitely. Trying to work more on core strength though, so maybe I should pick the 100 crunches.

#4. Would you rather have a baked good for dessert or an extra serving of your favorite entree?

I’m a total sucker for baked goods. I’m currently working on perfecting my chocolate souffles. It’s a work in progress.

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#5. Would you rather run on a treadmill for an hour or run around the same street block for an hour?

Same street block. There’s nothing I hate more than dreadmills. Plus, I slam down on them more with my feet, making them pretty bad for my legs.

#6. Would you rather have a headache during a run or a side stitch?

A side stitch. I’ve been dealing with pretty bad headaches as of lately, and I cannot manage to workout with one of them, so side stitch it is.

#7. Would you rather have a rest day on a work day or a day off?

Tough decision. Sometimes a workout is just what I need to clear my head after a workday, but sometimes it’s just nice to relax. So I’d say rest day on a workday.

#8. Would you rather be a race director or a race volunteer?

I think I’d want to volunteer first to learn some of the ropes before I’d become a volunteer.

#9. Would you rather spend your money on running gadgets [HRM, GPS watch, Headphones] or running shoes?

Running gadgets and clothing, definitely.

#10. Would you rather run in a relay or do the run portion of a distance triathlon?

I’d rather do a relay with multiple runs than run the run portion of a triathlon.

Would you participate in a “Would you rather” post about ballet? 

Filed Under: Blog, Running Tagged With: , , , , 4 Comments
January 5, 2014

Six Weeks and Counting: Injury Update and 2014 Goals

It’s been about six weeks since I went and I had an MRI done on my legs and discovered that in fact, had stress fractures. It really sucked, but it was nice to finally have an explanation for the pain I had experienced. For the next two weeks I plan on gradually adding back some of my PT exercises before attempting to gradually get back into the swing of things.

Even though it’s been relatively tough to not be at ballet or running, the holidays have certainly helped a bunch and I’ve kept busy with crocheting, coding, etc. I’m also working on yet another new website design using TwentyFourteen which is pretty cool (and more news-site, less blog which is a look I want to go for).

Rather than set resolutions (because everyone eventually just forgets those in a few weeks anyway), I’ve decided to set a few 2014 goals:

  • Read more often, borrow from our local library more. I don’t read often enough and it’s something I really miss. Any and all book suggestions welcome!
  • Learn more coding. The more and more I learn more coding, the more I think it’s something I’m potentially interested in going back to school for. Hoping to successfully complete Harvard’s Introduction to Computer Programming class this year with HQ. I’ll probably make the two of us blog about it.
  • Grow out my bangs. Seems kind of silly, but I always end up getting fed up with them and cutting them again. I’d like to be able to put my hair up into a bun without having to use a billion clips and bobby pins.
  • Get back into ballet. Fairly straight forward, but it’s going to take some work for me to not just jump back into it and instead start off with one class a week before moving to 2-3 classes a week. Baby steps.
  • Complete Couch25K Properly. Last time I skipped some levels and jumped around, so my aim this time is to actually follow all the steps to gradually get into running. Someone yell at me if I fail at this or jump too fast into ballet, too.
  • Blog and write more often. I’m hoping to write and blog more often, as well as read more blogs and get more involved in the blogging universe. I recently became a Girls Gone Sporty Ambassador, so I’m hoping that will help push me in the right direction, too.

What are your 2014 goals? What books should I add to my reading list? What are your favorite blogs right now?

Filed Under: Ballet, Blog, Running Tagged With: , , , , , , , 3 Comments
December 16, 2013

A Job and Lessons Learned

I’ve been away from this blog a bit for a few reasons: last week I started working 3-days a week at my job (wahoo!) and it’s a bit tough mentally to be writing about ballet when you can’t actually do ballet. I’m still going to try to stick to about 3 posts a week–although I might not reach that goal until after the New Year. Normally, I’d prepare some posts, but seeing as how I’m a writer and we’ll also be doing the same thing for our publication at work I can see it not exactly happening.

It wasn’t until last Monday that I learned (for certain) that my internship was being extended into a part-time job. I’m super excited–although it made getting blog posts up for last week tough especially since I was struggling with some annoying headaches all week long (which getting about 3 hours of sleep Monday night will do to you).

Now for a stress fracture update–the end of this past week was the first time my legs truly started to feel better–probably because I stuck to wearing sneakers from Thursday on. It’s tough to do sometimes (especially when I do occasionally need to dress nice for work), but for now my best option is to be wearing sneakers as much as possible.

This week, I’ll have the usual Friday profile as well as a guest post on Wednesday from another elf, Renee, (from #Elf4Health) on running. We’re supposed to be sharing our expertise, so I’ll be over sharing about ballet on her blog! I’m also going to try and fit in both a 2013 recap and 2014 goals in the next few weeks too.

In addition, I’ll be starting a professional writer blog/resume website too, so stay tuned for that!

What has your December been like?

Filed Under: Ballet, Blog Tagged With: , , , 3 Comments
December 5, 2013

And Here’s Another Post About My Injuries

I’ve probably written about a dozen or so posts about my leg injuries in the past year. It hasn’t been fun, and while I thought that physical therapy was finally my solution–apparently I was wrong.

My shin pain goes back to the beginning of October 2012, when I got out of a ballet class and practically had to wobble home because of the pain–I had to call my boyfriend to pick me up from the train station. It seemed to get better for a while, but running/walking on a treadmill was painful. I got it checked out, got an x-ray, was told to stay off it for a month or so with a diagnosis of tendinitis. I had a couple of bad cases of the flu and didn’t do a whole lot of ballet during the month of December and January with the holidays.

In February/March, the pain started acting up again when I got back into the swing of things. I had more x-rays and even a bone scan. But nothing. I stayed off it for 8 weeks. I failed at running a 5k thanks to my shin splints. I finally listened to my body and took it easy, gradually increased my running. Things were going well.

Then slowly it got gradually worse. My leg was moderately unhappy after doing the color run in old sneakers. There was an off week where it felt pretty bad, but a week off helped tremendously. But after the Rescue Run 5k I decided to go back to the ortho and was prescribed PT.

PT went well. Before my most recent ortho check up, I had a somewhat rough ballet class and my left calf and knee seemed really tight to me, so I mentioned it to my new ortho doctor (the one from September moved offices) and because of the pain he wanted to do an MRI. I wasn’t even sure I was going to get one, but when I got an appointment for the same day, I got it done. Then a week ago (the day before Thanksgiving–after fainting at a blood drive, no less), I got a call telling me I had stress fractures. One in my left leg, and the start of one in my right.

So now I’m off my legs again for 6-8 weeks while they heal.

Kudos to you if you’ve read all of that! For now, I’m looking for recommendations as to no- and low-impact activities I can do from home. I’ve already had some recommendations, so I’ll be writing a post about what I’ve come up with and tried soon. I’m also trying to read more, write more, and maybe even do some crocheting of some legwarmers to keep myself occupied.

What have you found to work for coping with injuries?

Filed Under: Ballet, Blog Tagged With: , , , , , 4 Comments
December 2, 2013

#Elf4Health Daily Challenge: Write a Handwritten Note

The Lean Green Bean

I had a pretty wonderful Thanksgiving break–minus that I found out I had a stress fracture on Wednesday(but more on that later). It felt kind of good to get away from the Internet for a little bit, especially given that, but normal blogging and profiles will resume this week! I’ll be putting the photo challenge on hold for a little bit while I get in better shape myself and work on securing giveaway ideas.

Now for the main part of this post: this past week I’ve participated in a holiday season challenge called Elf for Health. There’s a series of daily challenges (ranging from healthy foods, workouts, to personal health) plus you get partnered with an elf to exchange e-mails with twice a week to keep you on track! My wonderful elf is Emily from Fit and Free Emily! If you want to take part, you have until December 6th to sign up for round 2.

Today’s challenge is write a handwritten note. I’ll be writing to an elf I’ve been partnered with and we’re sending letters to each other to send back to ourselves in a year with our hopes, goals and more–but I wanted to go a little bit further than that. So I’m sending out send out holiday cards to my fellow blogger and ballet buddies! So if you want a card, you can e-mail your address to adultballerinaproject@gmail.com, fill out this form or leave me a comment here and I’ll get in touch!

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