Today’s going to be both a rest day for running and for dancing for me. I’m hoping to squeeze in some pilates and some stretching, however.
As I mentioned before, FitApproach sent me a bunch of pink shoe laces (which are already in two pairs of my shoes!) and I’ll be giving away some pairs of shoelaces this week. To enter, just do some (or all of the entries) below. Good luck!
March 25, 2013
Want to #SweatPink? Shoelace giveaway
March 22, 2013
Ballet Class and Weekly Workout Roundup
MAN, my legs are sore…But in a good way.
Between elliptical training and ballet, my quads are killing me. My severe shin splints have been kept relatively under control with compression socks/compression sleeves, stretching and a little bit of ice. I tried to avoid any activity in class last night that I’ve known has aggravated my shins (ie jumping and moving quickly in and out of a releve position).
For the most part, I attempted to hang out at the middle of barre/back of the studio so that no one would have to watch/follow my clumsy self. That was, until my ballet instructor had me move to the front of the studio in the middle of our center work and to explained to everyone who probably didn’t recognize me (since I haven’t made it to a class in about two months) that I was just back from an injury.
I was relatively pain-free–except when I accidentally attempted a pas de chat when I forgot that I was supposed be taking it easy because I was excited to be in the front of studio. For the most part, muscle memory kicked in and I remembered the moves, but I did have some moments where I thought to myself “Uhhh what exactly are you trying to do there, Kristen?” as I completely messed up a combination.
Overall, I’m really happy with the way the class went.
The rest of my week was:
Monday: Job interview, so other than the mile walk to and from the train station in the cold, I didn’t exercise and came home and crashed after being up at 6:30 am.
Tuesday: My boyfriend and I decided to try the manual treadmills in our school’s fairly new gym but neither of us really cared for them (note: I’m terrified of treadmills. Someone please help me get over this fear). The ellipticals here were kind of pointless because the resistance option was broke on all of them–so we left with me only roughly getting a ten minute workout in.
Wednesday: Finally getting into the swing of things, I did 30 minutes worth of interval work on the elliptical using a Couch to 5k running plan.
Thursday: Ballet class and another easier 30 minutes on the elliptical as to try to not wear myself out.
Friday: An easy 28 minutes on the elliptical following my schedule. I’ll be doing some foam rolling and stretching tonight to help out my legs a bit.
This weekend the plan is:
Saturday: Ballet class in the am if I feel up to it followed by taking a really easy 30 minute work out on the elliptical.
Sunday: More elliptical training, hopefully a pilates class as well.
Part of what has helped kick me back into high gear with my workout plan (and back into blogging!) has been that I recently became a Sweat Pink Ambassador. They’re an awesome community of women who run fitness blogs.
Plus, they sent me a bunch of pink shoelaces some of which I’ll be giving away next week!
Tell me, how do you motivate yourself to get to dance class or workout?
March 21, 2013
Back to the Barre
After over a month of sitting around (trust me, it’s been killing me), I FINALLY get to go back to ballet tonight. As excited as I am, I’m also super nervous. It feels like forever since I’ve been at a barre and that my body will have forgotten everything.
amethyst (Photo credit: McBeth)
Things like….
What if I forget some of the moves?
What if I can’t keep up anymore?
What if I’m in pain again?
…keep running through my mind.
I know I’ll make it through the class just fine (my teacher is super supportive and so are the women I take ballet with!) but I tend to be a nervous nellie. I’ve returned from long gaps between classes before, and I know I’ll work myself back up to the level I was at before. Unfortunately things like jumps (even though I hate them anyway) and pointe are probably out of the question for a while–but I’m still excited to be back in a ballet studio!
I’ll post an update with how the class went tomorrow!
How do you get yourself prepared to return to an athletic activity you haven’t done for a while?
March 18, 2013
Inspiration is Everywhere: Silver Linings Playbook
Over spring break I both read Silver Linings Playbook and go see the movie. Jennifer Lawrence (famous for playing Katniss in The Hunger Games) plays Tiffany, the love interest of Pat Peoples (Bradley Cooper). In both the movie and the book, Tiffany builds a small dance studio in her apartment after the death of her husband so that she can start dancing, something her husband would never do with her while he was alive.
http://www.kcconfidential.com
I was extremely jealous of this studio: it had nice hardwood floors, a wall of mirrors, and even a ballet barre.
She’s essentially an adult beginner dancer and so is Pat after she ropes him into practicing for hours at a time for a competition in exchange for Tiffany’s delivering of letter’s to his exwife Nikki. I won’t spoil the ending for you–but both versions of the competition (it varies between the book and the movie) were very inspirational for adult beginners of any style of dance.
Have any other movies or books inspired you to be an adult dancer?
March 16, 2013
Everything is Beautiful at the Ballet
Last Thursday, my boyfriend and I went to go see the Pennsylvania Ballet‘s performance of Midsummer Night’s Dream to review for thINKingDANCE, my internship. I loved it and it made me want to go back to ballet even more (I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to go back Thursday!)
You can read my review here.
What performances have inspired you to dance?
