Ballet progress and more fitness updates

I should start by making it very clear that i've progressed very little over the last 2 years of ballet classes, but in the world of adult ballet, that's about all you get.

You'll never really master anything in ballet at this stage in your life, but you start to appreciate tiny improvements.  If you can hold a position in releve for 2 seconds, you feel like a star!  When you remember your arabesque positions without thinking about them, you feel like a star!  When you do one clean pirouette, you feel like a star!  I don't think i've quite mastered a clean pirouette but one day I might. Oh and I can almost do my side splits on each side.  Almost.

I have become much more comfortable with the ballet terminology and once in a while I can actually perform an entire combination at the barre without any glaring mistakes.  But progress is slow and steady.

I also recently changed ballet studios to a more serious classical school.  My class remains the same because we have the same awesome teacher, but the studio just feels more serious.  After all, with a name like: The Russian Classical Ballet School, you can't help but get serious about ballet.

In other news, I've added boxing classes to my weekly workout mix.  It's more of a circuit training class but it's fun to watch more advanced people spar in the boxing ring nearby.  For now, our training consists of:

• 4- 1 1/2 minute rounds of jumping rope
• 4- 1 1/2 minute rounds of shadow boxing (just slowly jabbing with your left hand)
• 2- 1 1/2 minute rounds of push-ups and sit ups (not my favorite part)
• 2- 1 1/2 minute rounds of simple arm circles (very challenging by the way)

It doesn't sound like much but let me tell you, we are sweaty and exhausted by the end of our 45 minute training session!

Here is our small gym at a local Chicago park district.  One day maybe i'll get in the ring.  Ha.

I'm also still playing volleyball Monday nights and I've been running consistently every day about 3 miles on my treadmill or outside if the weather isn't too brutal.

And finally, I'm excited to report that I've been writing short fitness blurbs in the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin for the last 3 months.

Here are my articles.  Enjoy!