Catch Up

I'm behind on almost two weeks worth of workouts!

After my last post about my second swim lesson, I headed South for a few days of vacation. I packed my running gear, intending to at least run around the French Quarter or maybe find a yoga class to drop in on. I should have known better. They only came in handy on my last day when my hangover demanded clean, comfy clothes for the flight home.

Last Tuesday, March 5th, I took the day off of work. This allowed me to go to the 5:30 Aerial Silks class, where I worked on cleaning up my Angel Drop. I felt significantly improved by the end of class. (Although drops are still just not my favorite thing.)

Immediately after Silks class, I headed to my last scheduled Ashtanga class. I was so super sweaty by the end. (Yoga is one and half hours, so added to my one hour of silks, I was beat.)

Wednesday night I had tickets to see a band I like, so no physical exertion that day.

Thursday was Aerial Flow. First Thursday of the months means a new routine! I only saw half of it, but I already love it. I took a video of the instructor demonstrating and watched it a couple of times throughout the week to keep it fresh in my head. Unfortunately, I missed going last night because I am sick.

Saturday at noon I went to a drop-in class of Ashtanga Modified Primary. (This was how we were to complete our 10th class of the series.) This class was still accessible, but definitely went more in depth than my beginner's classes. There were hand stands and head stands in addition to the shoulder stand. But I really liked the mixed levels and the instructor was able to offer other modifications to make a pose work. There was also several more vinyasa movements in the series, so I got very sweaty.

I went directly from yoga to the gym to get in some swimming practice. There are three lanes at the pool and only one was being used. I committed myself to a half an hour. As soon as I got in, the other person got out and no one else entered the area until right before my half hour was up. I didn't feel like I was improving much, but I'm sure that it did actually help.

Sunday I slept in and then went to the gym for more swimming in the afternoon. All three lanes were in use when I arrived, so I decided to do something else and keep checking back until a lane was free. Unfortunately, I had forgotten my phone and headphones at home since I had expected to only be in the water. I just ran on a treadmill for about 10 minutes, which was boring with nothing to listen to or watch, and checked on the pool again. A lane was free, so I changed into my suit and grabbed it while it was open. I spent another half hour there and definitely could feel improvement. Not great, but I can feel the progress.

Monday night was Aerial Silks class. I practiced the dreaded Star Drop, gaining an awful burn in the crease of my thigh and pelvis. I also practiced a few of the harder moves from the Flow routine.

Throughout the days of my return from vacation I had started to feel more and more tired. I wondered if I was not resting enough since I had been out doing something every night since I got back. Tuesday I was sick and I suspect it's onset is what was really making me so fatigued. I took gym clothes with me in the morning so that I could stop at the gym after work, but I could tell I was sick in the afternoon and decided to rest. I cancelled my Wednesday swim lesson and haven't done anything since.

I am starting to feel better, so pending my snot inventory tomorrow morning, I am hoping to go to a spinning class and spend another half hour swimming (with a plan to repeat again on Sunday with a possible addition of a yoga class). I'm eager to dive into my triathlon training in earnest.

Aerial Flow - February Routine

I finally made it to the Aerial Flow class for the February routine! I missed the first two weeks, so even though I had a headache, I made sure I got to class on Thursday. 

The other two girls in class where nursing shoulder injuries, so we were all a little disabled for the evening. Since they had both been to the first week and learned the first part of the routine, we started with the second part.

It was a stylized Russian climb into an Iron T. Then we got into two foot locks and went into a split. From the split, we did three barrel rolls. This was perfect, because they are all moves that I can do with relative ease, so I was able to focus on how to flow into them and between them. I was also grateful that there was no inverting because of my headache. I am also taking special care to point my toes and work on my splits. 

Sadly, I will not be able to make it to the final February flow class next Thursday. The next best thing I can do is to look forward the new routine in March, when I should be able to make it to every class.

Aerial Flow - Week 3

Tonight was the last night of the silks routine for the month. I'm relieved to move on to something else, but also disappointed that I never got through the whole thing successfully. I did every piece of it, just not all sequentially and not timed correctly to the music, and definitely not looking graceful or performance-ready. My focus for the month was getting the moves down and I never moved on to polishing them. 

I really did like most of the choreography for January. There was a great sequence where went from an arabesque, to a inverted middle split, to a J pose, knee sit, and lotus hang. That inverted middle split was so hard, but when I did nail it, it was so fun to go through the rest of the set.

We got a short preview of the February routine, which is more dance oriented. A month ago I would not have been excited to hear this, but after a month of seeing how difficult it is to make a hard fitness move look pretty, I am up for a little more floor work. Being in the air and moving for five minutes is actually quite exhausting. We won't even get into the air until about a minute and a half. Because this is going to be a sexier routine, it has a whole new set of challenges, but hopefully it'll be a good chance to really focus on the flow part. 

Aerial Flow - Week 2

This was actually week 3 of the class, but since I wasn't able to make last week, I'm still counting it as week 2. Luckily, the instructor spoke the truth when she told me at Monday's Aerial Arts class that the rest of the people in Flow didn't get much further into the choreography during the class that I missed.

We moved on from the first section that everyone already had down (single foot lock, cocoon, sail, hip lean, flamenco grip). This had us starting at the middle invert, which is the hardest part in the routine for me so far. I had worked on it a little on Monday and I think that definitely helped. During Aerial Flow, we have two instructors, and I was able to get some great advice from them. I was able to get into a split from the invert for 2 of about 10 tries. However, once in the inverted splits, I was able to move into the J-pose, a sit and a lotus hang (although, admittedly, my lotus hang was mostly on the ground since I hadn't climbed high enough from the start).

Later on in the choreography is the crochet climb. I'd never actually attempted this, so once I finally decided to stop torturing my right foot by keeping it in a single foot lock all through class, I gave it a try. (The downside to the flamenco grip is that I can only do it on one side, so it's impossible to switch feet throughout practice.) I can do the motions of the crochet climb, but I struggled to actually move higher with each climb. It's definitely do-able, though.

The last bit of the routine is the angel drop, which I had been working on in Aerial Arts class the last few weeks. I appreciate our instructor's foresight with that. =) I still need to get more consistent with my ankle wraps from this position, but I feel confident that I will be there soon.

None of the girls who were doing the beginner version were around tonight, which was kind of a bummer. As a spectator, I find it more interesting to watch multiple things happening are opposed to the same thing happening in unison. At least we have a person working on the lyra!

One of the other aerialists asked if I had considered performing. I know that I would like to in the future, but don't feel like I'm ready to train for anything specific yet. It was a great boost of confidence to know someone else even felt like I should consider performing. Maybe in the summer or fall.... She mentioned a specific performance, but it's during a weekend that I'm out of town. I have already been planning to perform during the student showcase in April, which feels like an appropriate first shot.

I'm really looking forward to having all of the moves down to the point where I am confident that I can pull them off every time. Then the real challenge will begin of making it look pretty (and presumably hiding my struggling panic).

(When I got home, I went through some of the Ashtanga poses that I've been learning and my pup was sweet enough to join in!)

Aerial Arts - Drops and Flamenco

Last week was pretty busy for me. I had a social activity scheduled on Monday night, a night that is typically a silks night for me. (Yoga on Tuesday, work day-trip on Wednesday.) Then on Thursday, my other preferred night for silks, I was so behind at work from having to travel the day before that I stayed late at the office and I had a friend's art show opening that I really didn't want to miss... so I ended up not getting in any aerial time at all last week. It was kind of depressing.

I was particularly concerned about getting behind in the choreography in the Thursday night Aerial Flow class. (Today I had the opportunity to ask how much further everyone was able to get. Apparently not far, which is good news for me and my need to catch up.)

Tonight was traditional aerial arts. I feel like I had more success than goofs today, which is usually not the case. I was able to do the angel drop consistently (although I did cheat on ankle wraps a few times). I also successfully did a butterfly drop without ruining it with my hesitation to completely let go of my hands at the end.

I had really wanted to work on the flamenco grip since it was where I got stuck during the Flow routine. I feel much more confident now. I was able to consistently use the grip to invert and move into a J pose. Only on my right side, though. My left shoulder is just not going to move that way.

Next things to work on: moving to a sit from the J pose and non-cheating ankle wraps.

Aerial Flow

I've been learning the art of aerial silks for a year now. The studio (Infinity Aerial - love them!) introduced a new aerial class this week: Aerial Flow. I've been learning techniques and tricks (and building strength) for all of 2012 and this new class is about putting the moves we've learned together with choreography. This is perfect timing, as I was starting to want to attempt sequencing and was kind of at a loss of how to use my arsenal of tricks in conjunction with one another. 

We started working on our first Flow routine tonight. 

We only got through the first four moves tonight and while I can do the first three with ease individually, pulling them all together and adding the fourth move, which is difficult, challenging. Everything we worked on today was from a single foot lock, and even though I switched sides with each run-through, both of my feet are feeling pretty tender. 

I'm hoping that reviewing the routine list and visualizing it in my head throughout the week will help for the next class. I also think that the scheduling of Flow will work out well. I usually attend 6 classes per month, so I can take a combination of Arts (learning new moves) and Flow classes and get better as an aerialist all around.

Learning to be graceful looks to be just as hard as learning to be strong....