Start as you mean to go on

International dancing in Worthing, dancing on the seafront, me in the blue-green skirt

Start as you mean to go on

After the first really hard days work in months, Steve can be forgiven for deciding not to set the alarm to go off at the usual ungodly hour that we have set our Covid time ways into. In truth I was more than happy when I first woke and saw that it was 5.20 am and not 4.20 am. Even so I did not want to wake Stephen up and managed to slip back into a light slumber myself for yet another hour.

My daughter in a tutu I made for her. She didn't like the ballet class and wouldn't go in the end.

Before Steve had gone to work yesterday as I mentioned, we had both had a new 8 mile PB. What I didn’t mention in my diary yesterday, was that it was the third 8 mile run in seven days and actually, we were both tired after that build up anyway. So a tough day of heavy lifting seemed to be mistimed but there you go, its just the way things work out sometimes.

For the two of us it is most satisfying that we have held firmly to our plan to come out of this time in much better shape than we were going into it. So it is fair enough that we are both tired after the three in a row test of strength and stamina for a pair of oldies but goldies. The last of the 3x8 had had a short on the day in between instead of the clear day with no run. So the seven day total was 26.5 miles.  I hate to keep on banging the same noisy drum but we both think that the careful planning with much more attention to not just stretching the muscles but also including activities where we are relaxing the muscle or using different muscles has all contributed to the success if the training build up. 

 This was taken at a dancing festival at the Dome in Brighton. I always loved dancing. My mum made this tutu. I thought dancing was heaven.

So for the first time in ages we had a fairly lazy start, well; lazy by our standards anyway. This morning’s programme started with thirty minutes of Qigong after which we felt totally released from any tightness and in a fully relaxed frame of mind. With a short break for a bit of a tidy up, we then started the one hour work out with the New York City ballet that is a clever mixture that suits our way about anything really; warm up movements, floor exercise that include a fair bit of abdominal work and back exercises, crunches and even press-ups. Where does the ballet come in I hear a curious voice ask? Some of the leg raises are turned out and that is about it in the floor barre. 

The rest of the class does include some fairly basic dance and we do break into a sweat. At the end there is a warm down and bow, the reverence. Most group classes have something that marks the end of the session, not just as a cool down but a sort of respect of the art form or a gentle reminder of where the journey is leading. When I was a child there was always a bow marking of the end of the class at the ballet school. It was a choreographed curtsy to both sides, not just to the teacher and the pianist but to art you were learning. At the tap and acro' school a modern version, a slick water ripple of one hand from above the head down to the thigh with a bow of the head. Other classes even these days, you may have a simple hand together at the chest, your respect for the tutor and the subject you are following. Pity we are not that polite in normal life.

The Red Shoes

Long ago when I was a little girl

Hair tied with ribbon in pretty curl

Short gathered skirt to twirl and swirl

Imaginative mind always in a whirl

Only poor but very nicely dressed

Home made clothes all neatly pressed

Mother told me that I was blessed

So learn to dance and be the best

I was taken to a ballet movie show

The Red Shoes tale, you may well know

A ballerina danced and danced as though

She couldn’t pull them off her toes

All through my childhood I danced

In satin, net and tulle I pranced

And through the classes I advanced

Young days gone before I glanced

From twenty to thirty came change

Marriage, family, love life exchange

Unexpected turns in life so strange

And brings a new life to arrange

Now in old age I swim and run

Ride my bike and still find it fun

And age group races I have won

And too many days spent in the sun

When will you stop, they all enquire

Yet to go on and on, is my desire

But one last thing I may require

On the day that I finally expire….

“Take Off the Red Shoes”