Let's talk about running now

So, let's talk about running.  As you all may know, I decided to start running in late August while we were on a trip to Disney World.  I've always hated running mostly because I was so bad at it and because I used to get this awful itching in my legs when I ran.  The itching made it impossible to run and so I always used to quit after attempting a one mile run.

Finally, I decided enough was enough and that I would start running.  Within a few days the itching (due to inactivity) went away and I was off!

I started out doing very slow runs (about 12 minute miles) while in Disney World.  Mostly because it was so darn hot and humid.  Then I started running about a 10 min mile and I was stuck there for a while.  Finally I was able to run a 9 min. mile and then I was able to keep an 8:30 pace for a 5k Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving day!

I am able to run a 7:30/8:00 min. mile for only about one mile and I would say my average pace is between 8:30-8:50 a mile for my normal runs.

I'm actually starting to enjoy running and now my goal is to train for longer than a 5k distance race.  The longest run I've ever done so far is 7 miles and it really wasn't that bad.  I slowed my pace down to just above 9 minutes a mile for that particular run.  I'm hoping to do a 10k and maybe 15k in the spring.  Perhaps down the road even a 1/2 marathon but I'm still thinking about that one.

Here are my stats from when I started running at the end of August.  My best month was October when I logged 39 miles.  I can't wait until spring so I can start running outside more regularly because I really hate running on the treadmill.

And here are my stats from the only three 5k races I've ever run.

1. The Edison Park Elementary Pound the Pavement 5k.  This is my old elementary school!

I actually placed 3rd in my age group 30-34 (because it was a very small race!)

http://results.active.com/events/edison-park-elementary-pound-the-pavement-5k/awards-female

Time: 27:49, pace: 8:57 per mile

Overall: 43rd of 215

Female: 30-34: 3rd of 43

2. Hot Chocolate 5k Chicago.  It was cold and crowded for this race.  I lost at a least a minute or two trying to get by people at the start line.

http://ramracing.enmotive.com/results/index/527932f9-106c-44a0-a757-61afc0a86524

Time: 27:30, pace: 8:51 per mile

Overall: 1,591 of 25,856

female: 644th of 19,404

Female 30-34: 77th of 2,998

3.  Edison Park Turkey Trot Chicago

This race wasn't officially chip timed, but my nike app tells me I ran it in 25:56 or about 8:20 per mile, making it my fastest 5k yet!  

Here are other fun things that have happened in my life lately, besides running.

Went to Denver with the husband. 

Performed in a tiny ballet recital

Went to a pumpkin farm

Went to Disney World!

Took Christmas pictures!

America on its way to paid maternity leave?

Supposedly, the US Department of Labor is seriously looking into the lack of paid maternity leave in this country.  It's about damn time.  Their first step was awarding $500,000.00 to Massachusetts, Montana, Rhode Island and the District of Columbia to fund feasibility studies on paid leave.

I suppose that's a start.  I wonder how many years this will take to actually implement and how much paid leave new mothers (and possibly fathers) will actually get?

I'm incredibly skeptical about such a big change in any national program, but I suppose all we can do is just wait and see for now.

Read more about the push for paid leave here.

Just for fun let's look at other countries' paid leave policies again.  Keep in mind though, that a "paid" maternity leave in Afghanistan or Somalia for example probably isn't much, but the point is that these countries have long recognized the importance of offering paid leave. 

Source: http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/05/24/489973/paid-maternity-leave-us/



Source: http://www.buzzfeed.com/laraparker/this-is-what-paid-maternity-leave-looks-like-around-the-worl

Did you get any paid maternity leave when you had a baby?

I work in the private sector and was lucky to have 6 weeks paid but it paled in comparison to say Finland's 167 week paid leave policy!

I started running!

Alas, I've been away from my blog in months.  Pretty much I've been away the whole summer.  But let me tell you, we had a FUN summer.  The husband and I went to Vegas for a weekend then we took the kids to Disney World.  That was a blast!

I also decided to start running a little bit, which quickly turned into me running about 10 miles a week.  For seasoned runners that's not much, but for me that's a LOT of running!

I've never been able to run (or wanted to run) because of this weird itching in my legs due to inactivity I think.  But I overcame the itching and now I can run more than a mile at a time! Yippee!!! My time is still pretty slow though.  I'm running just under 10 minute miles, but it's better than not running at all.

I'm also taking ballet twice a week now and hitting the gym the other nights.  Also volleyball starts next week and I've really never felt better.

Over the weekend I got fitted for some beautiful Mizuno running shoes and I can't wait to run a few miles in them.  Last night I ran 2 miles in them and felt great.

For now my running goals are just to run a decent 5k and maybe be able to run a 10k down the line. 

Time to go running!

Let's talk about car seats

I'm going to try and not to make this whole post about car seat safety.  For tips about car safety, you can visit the lovely people at Car Seat For the Littles on Facebook or on their website here.  They are experts in car seat safety.  The main points they discuss: Extended RF past 2 years (pretty much EVERYONE should do it) and how dangerous it can be to prematurely move your toddler into a booster without a 5 point harness.  DON'T DO IT.  Also make sure you actually know how to install your car seat and read the damn manuals.  So many people install their car seats incorrectly.  Oh and always use the tether when FF and all that jazz.

Instead, I just want to talk about the car seats I have used in the last 3-4 years.  We've had a bunch.  My kids are 2 and 3 and we've gone through so many car seats already. 

1. Graco SnugRide® Classic Connect™ 35 Infant Car Seat: $179.00

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When my first child was a baby we had this classic Graco bucket seat.  The base is easy to install and they stayed in this bucket seat until they were about 9 months old I think.  There's not much to say about this seat, it was fine. We used it again when our second child was born.

 

 

2. Safety 1st Complete Air 65 Convertible Car Seat: $169.00

 

Then I moved my first child to this seat.  We kept her RF in this seat until she was almost 3 I believe.  I really like this seat.  It's easy to install, and easy to use.  My 2 year old is still in this seat in one of cars rear facing.

 

 

3. Safety 1st Alpha Omega Convertible Car Seat: $100.00

 

Then we bought this whopper of a car seat (without properly researching how crappy the reviews were for this seat).  We put our younger child in this seat rear facing.  We still have this seat but it's in the nanny's van now forward facing because it SUCKS as a rear facing seat.  First of all it's a massive seat and really wide so it's not good for small cars.  Then that dumb red lever handle you see is supposed to incline the seat for rear facing but it hardly moves and your child is hardly reclined when rear facing, so their heads fall forward.  It's also hard to install because it's hard to get a tight fit using either the LATCH or seatbelt installation.  I would never buy this seat again, it's pretty awful.  I've also read that it's a dangerous car seat when used in booster mode, so I'll be giving it away before we use it as a booster.

 

4. Guide 65 Sport Convertible Car Seat (made by Dorel in their Safety 1st line): $99.00

 

 

This is one of the cheaper car seats out there.  My mom bought this one to have as an extra seat in her car in case they ever needed it.  I ended up having to put it in the back seat of my Jetta and it worked great because it's simple to install, easy to use and pretty narrow.  However, after using it for about a year (for the 2 year old rear facing), the belt you pull at the bottom to loosen and tighten the harness got REALLY frayed.  It's a safety issue when the strap is so frayed so I called Dorel and they provided me with a new seat free of charge!  So now I have this seat again in my car for the 2.5 year old rear facing.  I recommend this as a simple seat with decent RF facing limits to about 40 lbs I believe. 

 

5. Graco Comfortsport Convertible car seat: $89.00

 

 

Then my friend gave me an older model Graco Comfort Sport that looks just like the one above so I could have an extra seat for my car for my almost 4 year old to be forward facing.  This seat is ok but my almost 4 year old's head reached the top of the seat (which means she outgrew it) so I have this one sitting in my closet for use as a back up.  It expires soon though so I'll have to trash it.  It would work fine for a younger child under 3 feet tall I think.  The rear facing limits are also only to 30 lbs so my 2.5 year old couldn't RF in it anymore since she's a little over 30 lbs. 

 

Ok, I just checked and the limits for forward facing are only 20-40 lbs and only up to 40" so it would be a pretty awful seat to buy because it would only work until your child was 3 or 4, and it doesn't work as a booster after that.  Most convertible seats now have limits of 65 lbs for forward facing, though most toddlers would outgrow the height limits way before they got to 65 lbs.  The seat worked fine for me for about a year.

 

6. Diono Radian RXT $271.00

 

 

Now we have two of THE world's most beautiful car seats.  We just purchased 2 Diono Radian RXTs for our almost 4 year old to sit in.  I wish I would have purchased these seats earlier and skipped all the other seats.  I would have moved our kids straight from the bucket seat into this seat had I known how wonderful it was!  The seat claims to work until your child weighs 120 lbs and is 57" tall, but I have heard people comment that it won't actually fit your child for that long.  So far my almost 4 year old is about 39" tall and weighs 36 lbs so I think she has a few more years in this seat.  Then the younger child can use it.

 

This seat also has really high rear facing limits (45 lbs) so we might put our 2.5 year old in one of these to continue rear facing her.  For now though we are using these seats in each of our cars for our almost 4 year old to sit forward facing. 

 

This seat is very narrow so it works great in smaller cars, but it's REALLY heavy because the frames are made of steel.  They're easy to install, just make sure you really read the manual so you can learn about using the stop latch when necessary.  The issue I had when trying to rear face it is that the incline is very deep so you have to push the front seats really far up to fit this in the back seat rear facing.  There is a rear facing angle adjuster you can buy from the company to help lessen the incline but we didn't purchase it.  For now I'm really happy with this seat and I hope we can get at least a few years of use out of it.

 

It's also one of the only car seats that I've seen that folds up for easy storage like so. 

 

 

7. Harmony Defender 360 3-in-1 Convertible Car Seat: $99.00

 

Finally, I recently purchased this seat for the nanny's car for my almost 4 year old to sit in.  It's a forward facing only seat that claims to turn into a booster until 110 lbs.  I read some good reviews for this seat and so far I'm happy with it.  It also converts into a high back and backless booster.  I plan to keep my oldest in it using the 5 point harness until she's at least 5 or 6 then we'll see how it works as a booster.

 

And those are ALL the car seats we've had in just 4 short years.  I've really learned a lot about car seats over the years.  I would love to become a car seat technician but you have to take a 4 day course and I just don't have the time to do it yet. 

 

Here's a recap about what I've learned about car seat safety over the years:

 

1. Rear face your child for as long as possible (until the limits of the seats ideally or at LEAST until your child turns 2)

 

2. Read your manuals very carefully and make sure you install your car seats as tightly as possible, leaving less than in inch of wiggle room.

 

3. Always use the tether behind the car seat when installing a forward facing seat.  Do you know how many people DO NOT use the tether? It's infuriating.  Do people just not know to use the tether? Do they not care about safety? When I walk around parking lots I peek into people's cars and I swear less than 10% of the forward facing car seats I see are NOT using the tether.  I'm tempted to leave people notes on their cars telling people they're endangering their kids lives.

 

4. Keep your child in a 5 point harness as long as possible.  Just do it.  They can be in a booster later in life.  I keep seeing 3 year olds in boosters with a seat belts only and it looks so dangerous.  Ugh.

 

Finally, if you're still not convinced, let's see how professional race car drivers sit in their seats.

 

The restraint used on NASCAR race cars is a five-point harness. Two straps come down over the driver's shoulders, two straps wrap around his waist and one comes up between his legs. The straps are made from thick, padded nylon webbing. They are much stronger than the seatbelts in a street car.

 

Now of course, professional race car drivers drive at speeds of over 200 mph and NEED five-point (or 6 point) harness seat belts, but it does say something about how important it is for children to stay in a more secure five point harness for many years.

 

Finally, you know who else wears harnesses? Airplane pilots of course!

 

 

 



Back to ballet class after a 2 week break

There are some days after ballet when I seriously doubt myself.  Why would a 33 year old with no dance experience and limited flexibility decide that taking a ballet class would be a good idea?  It's near impossible to do anything correctly in class and even though I'm sort of flexible, none of that counts in ballet.  But tonight, I have hope! Class didn't go as terrible as I thought it would and I was actually able to do a pirouette!  Sort of.  Not really, but sort of.  Even though I haven't had ballet class in 2 weeks I have been going to the gym and stretching every night so that helps.

But I still hear the same corrections from my teacher: Stand up straight, don't move your hips and point your toes.  Those seem to be my biggest flaws.  I tend to move my hips when I try to just move my legs.  But unless your hips rotate in the socket like Barbie's hips, I don't understand how you're supposed to really rotate from your hip and only move your legs. Rather, I DO understand how it's done (in my head) but my body will not comply. 

I found this article randomly online today and I think it really explains why I'm having such a hard time in ballet.  Random article here.  Basically you have to do about a million things in order to perform one simple move.  You have to make sure your core is engaged, your head is facing the right way, your arms have to move with your feet, your feet have to be pointed and your standing leg always has to be turned out.  I usually remember about 2 things at a time.  My head hardly ever moves correctly.  Then throw in having to be on releve (or as our teacher calls it: on tippy point", and all hell breaks loose.

Here's how you're supposed to look when standing in a proper passé.  (well I wouldn't do this on pointe of course)
 

Here's my attempt at a passé on releve.  It's a bad angle I don't know why I look crooked but anyway it's all wrong.

The article above gives you a list of questions you should be asking yourself during class.  I will answer them based on today's class:

What Aches Today?
-Today I didn't have many aches but my hamstrings were a little tight.  After standing on releve for a few minutes my calves ached.  Now at home, my calves are killing me.

Do I Feel Warm?
-I actually felt pretty warm in class, but had a hard time doing jumps and grand battements at the end.

How is My Alignment?
-Terrible.  My shoulders and hips are hardly ever square and my shoulders are never "down" enough.  All class long I hear my teacher say: "Claudia shoulders down!".

Am I Breathing?
-Absolutely not.  I have learned that I can hold positions longer if I don't breathe.  Oh well.  Maybe if I get better I'll learn to breathe during class. 

Is My Weight Out of My Heels?
-Nope.  My main goal in class when we're doing center work is not to fall over because I can't seem to figure out how to shift my weight properly, especially when attempting to hold an arabesque.

Am I Rotating From the Hip?
-Only when I remember.  Having my hips and legs turned out is really hard for me since it's such an unnatural position.  I do admit I've gotten much better at rotating from the hip instead of the knees.  When I first started taking classes back in September my knees would really hurt after class.  I quickly corrected this because I do NOT want knee problems!

Where is My Head?
-Never following my arms, that's for sure.  All class long I hear my teacher say "Claudia, head head!".  I just can't seem to focus on pointing my feet, moving my arms correctly AND moving my head- way too many moving parts.

I really thought these questions were great because they are exactly the issues I struggle with during class.

Oh, and I originally started this post wanting to talk about how I felt hopeful after today's class.  Despite my troubles I don't actually think class went too badly.  I was able to sort of follow some of the exercises today and after one combination my teacher actually told me that it was "pretty not bad".  That is a BIG compliment by the way.  She's a sweetheart but hardly concedes that I'm doing anything properly (well because I'm NOT).  So, when I hear that I did something "pretty not bad" in class it's very exciting.
I
 even came home and did a few stretches at my barre since I was so excited I did something "pretty not bad" today! 

Until next time, I hope your week goes "pretty not bad"!

I love them and I hate them.

I'm referring to birthday parties of course.  I love them.  My kids have fun at parties, they get to play with their friends and eat pizza and cake.  They take home fun party favors and candy.  They look forward to parties for days!

My happy 2 year old at her Mulan themed birthday party this year

I hate them.  They eat too much cake, they take home terrible party favors and eat crappy candy.  They obsess over parties for days and whine and cry when they end.

I love planning birthday parties.  Making the cute invitations is fun (although now a days I use evite), picking a theme is an adventure, putting together adorable goodie bags is great! 

I ordered personalized Mulan party decorations one month in advance

Etsy provided beautiful centerpieces

I hate planning birthday parties.  Making invitations is a pain in the ass, I feel like 1/2 the people invited don't bother to respond to evite invitations, picking a theme is torture, and I despise goodie bags.

But maybe I wouldn't mind birthday parties so much if they didn't cost a minimum of $1,000 to put together.  We usually invite 25 kids and about 25 adults.  The rental of the location is usually $300-500.  The food is another $250 minimum.  The party favors and decorations are easily $100.00.  The cake about $50.00 and now we've spent about a grand- for a 2 HOUR PARTY.  For a 3 year old. 

I present to you a $75.00 cake.  I think.  I don't even remember.

I hate complaining about it, because I love seeing friends and family get together and celebrate.  I love the look on my kids faces when they open gifts and enjoy cake with friends.  I hate the presents.  But then again I wish we didn't get presents, it just adds more toys to my already cluttered house.  But wait, I love the feel of the party and how excited all of the kids are.  But I still hate them.  And love them.  And hate them.  And love them. Now I'm off to plan another birthday party!  And don't you judge me for being such a scrooge, I know you feel the same way.  The End. 

My 3 year old at her birthday party last summer.  She was so happy!

Ow my hamstring, and more about ballet.

This is a little of a belated post, but aren't they all really?

A few weeks ago in my Tuesday night ballet class, our teacher was stretching our legs and "pop", I felt something pop in a funny way in my hamstring.  I went home and iced it but it was definitely injured.  I don't think I pulled my hamstring or tore anything in there, I just plain hurt myself.  Still, the pain was terrible for about a week and I pretty much lost any flexibility I had built up in my right leg.  Now, about 3 weeks later it STILL hurts, although it's much better.

The pain also felt deeper like inside my butt somewhere almost a sciatic pain, so Dr. Google told me I probably injured my "piriforis muscle".  Especially because I read it plays a role in the outward rotation of your hip.  HELLO, all of ballet is trying to rotate your hips outward for better turnout!

Well, whatever it was,  here's where it happened.  I actually have a picture of the moment it happened.  Right after the picture was taken I knew I had injured my hamstring. How else do you think I could get my leg so high up there?

I was so close to getting all the way down in my right side splits too, now all that progress is gone! 

Anyway, as you all may remember I took my first ballet class in September 2013.  I estimate I've taken about 40 ballet classes since I started, and man do I still feel like a beginner.  Which is normal, I mean what was I thinking taking up ballet at age 33 with absolutely no prior training? Still, I've progressed.  In the very least I've learned a lot of the terminology and understand what a plié, tendu, and grand battement are. My turn out has also gotten a lot better over the last few months, although my flexibility is still lacking.

oh, to be 3 years old and impossibly flexible like my daughter 

Speaking of flexibility, I understand more now what my limitations are for ballet.  First of all, I have really weak ankles.  I've sprained them each several times.  My left ankle I have had in a cast a few times due to severe sprains, so that's a big negative.  As you can imagine, having strong ankles is pretty important for ballet, and I'm not even talking about being on pointe (which I think I now know I will never get to do).  Just doing exercises on releve takes enormous ankle and leg strength.  I struggle to rise up and hold any position on releve for more than a second or two. Next, I will never be able to do a beautiful arabesque.  My flexibility isn't there and it probably won't ever be, and the strength you need in your lower back to hold a nice arabesque is ridiculous too.  Turns are terribly hard for me too.  I can possibly do one pirouette on each side and that's about it. Forget fouttes or multiple turns.  Too bad too, since the reason I started ballet was to perform 32 fouttes in a row like in Swan Lake.



Still, I think I've found something I really like and I hope to keep getting better with each class I take. 

Also, if you're in the Chicagoland area, we're always looking for more people to join our adult ballet class on Tuesday night in Niles.  Let me know if you're interested!

Flexibility in the adult beginner

Yesterday I came across this beautiful picture of a young aspiring ballerina named Robbie Downey stretching her leg with ease.  She was advertising a stretching tool called Stretch Strap I.  I don't own that particular stretching strap but I have another I use and like.  She has info. about this strap here.
 


Aspiring ballerina Robbie Downey
Her website is here.



I have been following Robbie's FB page and have watched some videos of her dancing and she's wonderful to watch.  I KNOW I should not be comparing myself to her in any way shape or form, but I am in awe of how flexible some people are.  I know it comes with hard work and is much more easily attained in younger dancers, but I have been stretching every night and have improved over the last few months. 

I can almost do my right side splits (my left side needs work) and my middle splits are probably not attainable in this lifetime, but I'm trying!

In the meantime here is my attempt to pull my leg over my head like Robbie above.

my valiant attempt on the right to pull my darn leg up. I'm working on it folks.

I think my biggest frustration with ballet so far has been my lack of flexibility (relatively speaking).  My turnout has improved drastically since I started back in Sept., my port de bras has gotten better, and I'm able to follow simple choreography- but damn the flexibility required is so hard in ballet.  This is probably why there are not all that many adults who take ballet.  Although throughout my journey I've found some great resources.  Here are some of my favorite Adult Ballerina resources:

Adult Ballerina Project run by Kristen Gillette

 

 

The Legal Ballerina- a lawyer and beginning ballerina!

I know.  I love her.

 

Adult Beginner- exactly that, although she's been dancing for a few years now.

I love her "first class" stories.

 

 

Pointe till you Drop: This dancer is most definitely NOT a beginner

but I love her site and her pictures are an inspiration to all adult dancers.

 

Adventures of an Adult Beginner.  She has a great list of other adult ballet bloggers here.

 

 Keep dancing!



My ballet teacher wants to put me in a recital!

A RECITAL.  You know, where you perform in front of people.  The recital isn't until June but you have to understand that I am the queen beginner of all beginners.  If there was ever an inexperienced adult ballet student, it would be me.  I have zero dance experience.  I never danced when I was younger and knew absolutely nothing about ballet before I started taking classes in Sept.  But here I am, thinking about performing in a recital!  (Albeit a tiny recital probably at a libra

So I have no idea what my teacher has in store for me as far as choreography but she knows my limitations so I know it will be a nice simple (and hopefully short) piece, but I'm still incredibly nervous. 

The first thing she asked me to do was to pick the music or performance I liked, so I finally found this one:

Nutcracker- pas de deux



It's at the end of the Nutcracker.  Yes I know it's a piece for a couple to perform but she said she can alter it to be just for me.  I LOVE the music and I always have and it's nice and SLOW so I figured it would be easy to choreograph.  So, we'll see! I'll keep you guys posted!

I know my weak points are my lack of flexibility (relatively speaking) and my inability to execute nice pirouettes so we'll see what she thinks of for me.

In the meantime I will continue working on my technique!

Being an athlete

It's funny that no matter how many years have passed since I played sports in high school and college, that I still consider myself to be an athlete.  Nowadays, a mediocre athlete, but I still put on my shiny new gym shoes and work out clothes and when I look in the mirror, I think I still might pass as an athlete.

Look, shiny new gym shoes, appropriately in 5th position

I know it's all relative since our accomplishments are so very personal and really shouldn't be compared to other people's, but I still find myself trying to compete and keep up with other people in ballet and other sports I still play. 

Ballet by the way, is totally new to me.  I started in September 2013 and I'm very much a beginner.  In fact, it's funny because I'm not even a beginner, I'm lower than a beginner.  There is a "basic" ballet class and a "beginning" ballet class offered at this one studio I attend and I wouldn't even dream of attending the beginning class.  I'm happy in my VERY difficult basic class. 

These three steps are our preparation for turns- which I can't do at all.  Maybe one day?

Anyway back to being an athlete.  I played softball and volleyball in high school and I was pretty good.  I was better at softball (I was captain of the team my senior year) than volleyball but I enjoyed playing both about the same.  By the time I got to college I had a bad shoulder injury that required surgery so there went any dreams of playing sports at a D1 school.  Instead I played club volleyball after my surgery which was actually really fun.  We got to travel to other D1 schools and played in tournaments all day on Saturdays without the pressure of maintaining a scholarship.

And anyway I could never have played D1 volleyball at Northwestern.  First of all I'm between 5'5 and 5'6 depending who measures me, so I could have maybe been a libero, but I wouldn't have fared very well in the front row against girls who were over 6 ft tall.  I've also never been a very good setter and even the setters in D1 schools are probably over 5'10.

At my Monday night league warming up, that's my butt in the picture and my Hello Kitty socks.

After college I continued playing softball and volleyball in fun but competitive leagues around the city.  After I had kids I had to majorly scale back my sports and I'm down to one day of volleyball a week and two of ballet.  Maybe this summer I'll do one softball league too.

sometime after college, still in my 20s

Ballet has really been a challenge for me.  I'm still challenged and have fun in volleyball on Monday nights, but since my 3 year old daughter is taking ballet now I thought it would be great if I tried it too.  The problem with adults taking beginning ballet (or rather "basic" ballet) is that it's FREAKING hard and the learning curve in the beginning is impossibly hard.  Not to mention, it's addicting, especially for former athletes like myself.  I don't want to just be able to do plies and tendues at the bar, I want to do pirouttes and fouettes! I want to increase my flexibility and eventually be able to do the splits! I want my kicks to be high and my feet to be pointed!

I didn't really know what to expect when I started taking a basic ballet class, but I quickly toned down my expectations.  I realized that just remembering to point my toes was going to be hard, not to mention knowing what in god's name to do with your arms while frantically trying to follow the choreography in class. 

I immediately learned that my turnout needed work, and that just standing in first or fifth position was brutal. Everything a ballet dancer or ballerina does, she's doing while completely turned out.  This makes a seemingly simple task of balancing yourself on one foot very hard.  My standing foot is constantly slipping out of it's turned out position to help support myself. 

same preparation for turns as above, but this time on releve

I can hold my positions on releve for exactly 1/10th of a second. And my right leg needs to be shoved back like 2 more feet.

But I still continued with ballet on Sundays and even added a new more personalized class on Tuesdays.  Our teacher on Tuesdays is a former Russian ballerina and she really focuses on technique and precision, while on Sundays the class is a large drop-in class so we do more complicated moves, but don't do them very well.

I was talking to my dad recently about being an athlete and he recalled his glory days as a semi-pro soccer player in Mexico.  He first played for a local team in Uruapan called the Aguacateros, then moved up to a semi-pro league playing for Morelia.  He then said that he almost made it big and tried out for a big national team from Mexico City called Nexaca, (in the first division back then) but at the last minute didn't make it on the team due to some kind of drama they had with the coaches.  Still, he remembers his semi-pro days fondly and even remembers certain games like they were yesterday. 


I think this is the right logo for the Aguacateros de Uruapan

 

Here's my dad in the middle with the green shirt and khaki pants with some of this former teammates in Mexico

Which brings me back full circle to what it means to be an athlete.  We never stop being athletes, despite how many years it's been since we played competitively.  And we continue being athletes when we take up new sports or endeavors like ballet at age 33!  I have toned down my expectations of what I will ever be able to perform in ballet, but I'm sticking with it and I know I'll improve.

What sports did you play in your prime days? What sports have you picked up since?