Days 93 - 98: Carry me

Seriously. Because I can barely hold myself in a sitting position. The end of this week got out of control.

Tuesday I just had dance. Started the choreography, but we had a sub, so really, we'll probably actually start the choreography this week. It looks like the dance has potential though... I hope so because I want to perform it in the Fall Studio Show.

Wednesday... what even happened Wednesday? I don't even know what day of the week it is right now...

Oh yeah! Wednesday we submitted my paper to the actual journal, so now we're just awaiting the final yes or no on acceptance. I hadn't slept in weeks and had been baking a ridiculous amount (I'm like Izzy Stevens... in 4 days I made a lemon poppy seed cake, a cheesecake and banana oatmeal cookies), and I must have looked like crap because my boss told me to take a day off. I had stuff to do, but I went home at 2:30 and having that stupid paper finally out of my hands was such a relief that I slept until dinner. Then I don't remember what happened, but I assume dinner and more sleep. The ultimate rest day.

Thursday the peace at work had worn off (only took about 24 hours), and I left livid. We were supposed to do a 50 minute tempo run, but I was too mentally exhausted to do that much thinking, and WAY to angry to put up with a treadmill. So instead, I dragged Chris through the hilliest 5 mile pace run I could possibly plan. It was good... we kept it right at half marathon pace despite the wicked hills, and I felt a little better after.

Friday I finally decided to give in to my aching hip and sore quads and went to hot yoga, just the regular old Bikram style class. Ah, the healing powers of yoga. I felt a million times better afterward. And I actually had a really great class, considering I hadn't been in awhile. It was perfect. Exactly what I needed.

This weekend at the belly dancing studio was Haflanta! Which is basically a weekend full of workshops on special subjects. And also a ton of dancing. Yesterday we had a 45 minute yoga/stretching warm up followed by 3 classes. The first was an ab workshop, where we learned how to do all kinds of cool ab tricks, and also worked on some basics, like figuring out where our upper, middle, and lower abs are and how to move them each individually. It was exhausting! Woah. But I think I'm getting the hang of stomach rolls both up and down. The flutter though... not so much. The second was an introduction to Persian Bandari dancing, which is really fun and earthy and not quite as formal as traditional belly dancing. The studio owner taught the workshop, and she's super cute. I'm not sure I learned much technique, but we had a good time and a good workout. The last class for Saturday was a veil technique course. I actually hate the veil. I'm not feminine enough to look right doing it. But I have one, so I might as well learn how to use it, right? The instructor was so graceful and feminine, and I just didn't relate to her teaching style, so it was a struggle. But It was a good arm workout, and I learned some new moves I hadn't learned when I took the choreography class.

When I woke up today I knew I was in for trouble because I wasn't sure if I could sit up. That's how sore my abs were. But I manned up and dragged myself to the studio for round two. After the 45 minute yoga/stretch warm up, I was feeling better. The next class, though, which was hip hop belly dance fusion, wrecked me. The instructor for this workshop is by far the best choreography teacher in the studio, and she wasted no time. We learned a bunch of little combos and then put them together into a bigger combo to "Do It Well" by Jennifer Lopez. The combo was actually AWESOME, and I wish they'd make a full choreography. We had a ton of fun, and I think I'm starting to pull off some of those hip hop moves without looking like... well... a white girl from the suburbs. But we were all exhausted. So much dancing. I can't even tell you. It was good that the next workshop was a little slower: the art of Taksim, which is the slower music, no shimmies or shakes allowed. We drilled the basic moves that can be used during these slow sections or songs and then practiced using them. The final workshop was double isolations, which, technically, was a failure. I'm getting good at most of the single isolations. But I cannot hip shimmy and camel at the same time. Or knee shimmy and maya. My body just does not work like that. But the instructor was hilarious and told us just to do our best and have a good time. We learned a fun combo to "Do You Love Me" and laughed a lot. But again, exhausting. It was a fantastic weekend; I could not think of a better way to spend it than dancing with those girls. But my abs and thighs and arms and back are so sore.

This was not helped by the fact that we had a 13 mile run tonight. I was so tired, I knew going in that it was going to be rough, so we just decided to make the most of it. Unfortunately, we got caught in a storm. But once we were soaked, we decided to just keep going, and actually kind of enjoyed it. It was much cooler and less humid, and it was kind of a fun little obstacle course jumping over puddles and whatnot. By the end, though, even the joy of the rain wore off, and I was just done. I got through the whole thing, but I am about at the limit of what my body can do. Dance is really hard... it requires a lot of strength and stamina and really works your muscles. And so much dancing on top of a long run... it's taken its toll. Not that I would have given up any of it. It's totally worth it. Hopefully in a day or two when the pain and swelling subside, I will have some awesome abs!