August 28, 2014

Ballet Class Recap: August Slump

It’s been a bit of a rough couple of weeks. I’ve decided to pass on running the Philly 10K, since there’s no way we can be ready on  time. While I’m pretty disappointed that it feels like I’m giving up (again)–I’m still glad that I’m making the right decision for my health. There is always next year.

Instead, I’ll be doing my favorite local 5K from last year at the end of September, which will benefit a group that runs with shelter dogs. I’m excited. So far, running without the pressure of trying to greatly increase my mileage has been going really well.

I feel like I haven’t consistently made it to ballet class consistently with vacation, moving and work (as well as lack of sleep) — although I’ve made it to at least one last class in the past three weeks. This past week I made it to two, thanks to some friends from class who texted me to get moving and get to class.  I’ve been a little frustrated with how I’ve done in class (especially with jumping) but I’m hoping once summer is over and I’m more regularly in class things will be going better.

How has your August been?

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April 14, 2014

Refueling Before, During and After Workout Tips!

My local dance studio recently ran an article about how to fuel, before, during and after dance workouts, Eat While You Workout?

The article has great tips such as making sure you aren’t running on empty when you show up to class–I’ll admit, I’m  guilty of this a lot of time. To prevent this,   munch on some fruit, an apple, a granola bar, or even some gels or gummies like many of us use for running (I love Clif Shot Bloks)!  You should also consider eating during (again, the gels or shot bloks are great for this) if you’re taking classes back to back. As always, make sure you refuel afterwards, too. And don’t forget to hydrate!

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March 18, 2014

Do What Makes YOU Happy

I have to admit, it’s been quite a struggle getting myself into gear to get to ballet class the past few weeks.  I had plans to go both last Thursday and Friday, but I couldn’t manage to get myself up off my butt and into the ballet studio. I did finally get there on Saturday, although it was no easy feat yanking myself out of bed in the morning.

My legs have done really well post stress fracture, but they’ve been really sore. Last week was especially tough. I pushed myself a bit too hard on a run  on Tuesday (I started off too fast for someone who hasn’t run much) and my legs have been pretty whiny since. They survived Saturday morning’s ballet class and pre-pointe class (in slippers) no problem, other than the fact they felt weak and quite sore.  My ballet teacher recommended more ballet classes (which is the plan, I just need to motivate myself) and not as much running.

I’ve always struggled to find a good balance between running and ballet. Often, weeks will go by where I’m completely gung-ho about ballet and then I’ll be all about one the next month. If I had a dollar for every time someone recommended I quit one or the other because of my injuries,  I’d be rich.

I toyed with the idea of giving up running completely this weekend, since I wanted to blame it for all my injuries and pain.  Then someone on Twitter gave me a little advice.

If you follow me on Twitter, you may have realized that I’ve tweeted a lot of my older posts lately. I’ve got a handy little WordPress plugin that does it automatically for me. Over the weekend, it tweeted my “Should dancers run?” post and one of my fellow adult ballerinas tweeted that she does (and I know more of you do, too).

We chatted for a little about the topic and she reminded me to do what makes ME happy, not anyone else.

So that’s what I’m going to do.

Take ballet when it makes me happy (which is a lot of the time) and run when that makes me happy. And of course, take care of my body and listen to it when it tells me I shouldn’t be doing either.

Do what makes YOU happy.

 

Filed Under: Ballet, Blog, Running Tagged With: , , , Leave a Comment
November 20, 2013

Updates, Updates, Updates–I’m almost PT free!

Why hello there!

I feel as if I’ve been awfully busy lately, between work and freelance work and Physical Therapy appointments and haven’t been updating on here as much as I’d like.

Finally, after about a month of PT, I should be just about good to go. I had my last appointment last Friday, and as long as everything still feels okay this week (my PT is supposed to be calling at some point this week to check in)–everything should be great. I have to go see my ortho again at the end of this week too–well actually a different ortho doctor considering my old one switched offices–but at least this one now is much closer!

I’ve been back to my (almost) full-on ballet schedule for about three weeks now which consists of two classes a week and it feels great–although sometimes it’s really tiring since I haven’t been in class a lot. We’ve been working on a Nutcracker combination in class that focuses on some of the steps we’ve been learning at the barre and center–which has been a lot of fun, but I can’t say I sad to see it go as we’ll be working on something new this week. Two weeks ago I was really exhausted from work and ended up having a terrible ballet class where I completely messed up the combination and got really frustrated with myself for messing it up. Luckily the week after I had two good classes in a row where I felt like I did really well.

The last step in getting completely back to ballet is to add Monday classes back . I thought about going this week but then I completely forgot about it until it was too late!

In other news, I’m still not running as much as I used to. I ran for about a week and a half when my PT said it was okay, and then I twisted my ankle (while walking–not running) and haven’t ran since. The cold isn’t helping to motivate me, but hopefully I’ll be back at it soon with more of a free schedule.

What has your ballet life been like lately?

PS. The studios have all been moved over to this URL, but if you notice something is broken–let me know! I was having some issues uploading them. If you’d like to add a studio, email me at adultballerinaproject@gmail.com

Filed Under: Ballet, Blog Tagged With: , , , , 4 Comments
November 15, 2013

#AdultBallerinas Can Dance!

ABP-logo

One of only three photos I’ve ever shared of me dancing.

We put in hours upon hours of dance a week and many of us take 3, 4 or 5 classes a week–yet we rarely share photos or videos of us actually doing it–myself included. That’s part of the reason I request photos of dancers when I interview them, so that readers can put a face to the dancer.

Kudos to those who already share photos AND videos of yourselves dancing, I deeply admire you. But I want to see more. We can encourage others to dance by sharing more and more photos and videos of us dancing, and I’d love to share them all on Adult Ballerina Project to show just how strong the adult ballerina community is!

Here’s how:

Starting Friday, November 29th (the day after Thanksgiving) post your photos and videos of you dancing (ballet or any other form of dance) on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Vine using the hashtag #adultballerinas. Then each Friday until January 3rd, I’ll post a weekly recap of your photos and videos posted throughout the week.

Don’t have a social media account or prefer to e-mail photos? You’ll be able to e-mail photos to adultballerinaproject@gmail.com to participate too!

Not enough incentive yet? Over the next few weeks I’ll be looking for rewards to giveaway to those who participate, but for now I’m still on the hunt for prize ideas–if you have an idea of what would make a great prize or know someone who’d like to donate something for the contest, let me know!

Thank you to http://politefrivolity.blogspot.com/ for sparking the idea!

 

Filed Under: #adultballerinas campaign, Ballet, Etc. Tagged With: , , , , , 1 Comment