Saturday, December 17, 2016

Like a frosted doughnut

While the folk farther north are getting snow, we got something I consider worse: ice. Overnight we got a thick coating of freezing rain that has left trees, building, sidewalks and roads covered with the slippery stuff.

To make it to the stretch class without hurrying, I'd want to leave home at noon. Although temps are forecast to rise as high as 60F (15C) tomorrow, at 10:30 this morning it was still below freezing, giving me cause to doubt whether it would make sense to drive to the ballet school 40 minutes away. As noon approached it was clear that it would be foolish to try. Now, at 1:15pm, the air temp is still only 32F (0C) and my street is still a sheet of ice.

On the other hand I'm healthy and warm, have plenty to do at home, and have the fixings for far more food than I'll eat in several days. So life is good.

Sunday, December 11, 2016

Ouchy-hurty

When I finished the stretch class yesterday I felt trashed. The muscles that are tightest (hamstrings, quads, and glutes) were twitching and I really hoped I hadn't overdone it. Yet after lunch I felt pretty good. Good enough, in fact, to make plans to go to the Beginner II ballet class this morning.

It was not to be. After falling asleep shortly before midnight (a common time for me) I found myself wide awake shortly after 2am for no apparent reason. Try as I might I didn't get back to sleep until almost 6am, which is very unusual for me. When my alarm went off at 8am I had already been up for 10 minutes, feeling very sore in several areas. The soreness and lack of sleep scuttled many of my plans for the day. Eventually I was able to get back to sleep for another couple of hours.

The worst of the aches are my hamstrings and psoas, to no great surprise, as that's where I'm tightest. My shoulders are also sore, which attests to both my present inflexibility and the thoroughness of the class. Even after taking some ibuprofen it still hurts to move around. Not so much as to be incapacitating, though, and I'm hoping it'll end up being a step in the right direction.

Let's do it again next weekend!

Saturday, December 10, 2016

Stretch class

It's amazing what excuses one can come up with to avoid going to class.