Mike Wazowski

Glad you're finding the energy and/or doing the darn thing even if the energy levels are still low! Go you!!

Thank you!! So at some point, prompted by raptron posting about reading a book on training (“hybrid athlete,” I think), I started reflecting on what characteristics were most important for me as a ballroom and latin dancer. And I came up with something roughly like this list, which I’m typing on the spot: 1) Motor control and coordination, especially the core muscles for posture and spinal rotation / twisting 2) Sufficient mobility for basic dance technique and injury prevention 3) Anaerobic conditioning (ballroom dancing, at competitions, involves 5 bursts of ~90 seconds within 10-15 minutes, repeated over a few rounds) 4) Full or atypically high mobility in a few key areas: toe dorsiflexion, ankle plantarflexion, whatever the name for rolling the ankle slightly inward is, knee extension (basically, to “wing” the foot, get on a very high ball / demi pointe, and have visibly straight or even hyper extended legs) 5) Aerobic conditioning to enable long, 3+ hour training session at a sustained intensity 6) Physique aesthetics (because, for better or worse, my body looking “athletic” has an effect on how I’m judged in a subjective sport-art) So running supports both 3 and 5, and is something that doesn’t require me to pay for a gym membership or drive somewhere to do it (unlike swimming or biking, the two other conditioning modes I’d consider). It also gives me a different stressor on my ankles than dance and a place where I can focus on maintaining good posture and other mechanics over a repetitive activity. Also, I’m kind of self-conscious that I call myself an athlete but I couldn’t run a 5k - so I want to have that baseline level of aerobic fitness where I can join my coworkers for a random Saturday morning 5k and run a respectable time. Also also, I started a noob running program in the fall and started enjoying it before putting it aside due to cold weather and traveling home for the holidays - so I want to see if that continues when I finish a noob program and transition into a beginner / intermediate one. That was a super long-winded answer, but it’s hopefully coherent. I certainly want to keep up with some strength training because I enjoy it intrinsically, but it’s way less directly applicable to my sport so I’m unlikely to go whole hog like back when I’d lift 5 days a week on a bodybuilder style plan (also, that bodybuilder training had the effect of making my practices less productive - so goal is definitely to strike a balance and avoid that type of negative consequence in the future). Pitchfork squad, I’ll keep y’all posted how the hard conversations go - the damage is already done from the recent incidents, so I’ll be focused on avoiding the violations of my privacy becoming patterns.

Haha thanks! Now I'm tackling the equally hard challenge of "people with an irrational fear of friends who've been infected with COVID recently." It's proving tougher than the actual disease. ❤️ thanks so much! I specifically needed to be reminded of my exciting long-term stuff because my short-term is a little grim (more on that below). Thank you!! I'm crossing my fingers for the surgery - and more specifically, I'm hoping that I'm not forced to reschedule due to me being one of the anomalies that tests positive for COVID after recovering from all symptoms (per current CDC guidelines, it is safe to assume that a positive result does *not* mean I'm contagious, but given how other people in my life have responded when I point that out, I'm worried my surgeon may have an abundantly cautious policy that'll be a logistical headache for me). So, past couple days - I did meditation and mobility Wednesday, totally whiffed yesterday. I *think* my caffeine consumption has been a bit too high since recovering on Tuesday, as I've had issues falling asleep and staying asleep both Wednesday and Thursday nights (or maybe this is a normal rebound after using generic Nyquil for a little over a week to help with Covid symptoms in the evening). Fix there is pretty simple - knock it off with caffeine intake that I know might be too much for me (plus, up my activity levels to use up some excess energy I'm starting to feel). Frustratingly, I encountered two things yesterday related to my recovery - 1) in short, people are reacting irrationally in my non-work life in a way that's going to keep me away from some of my favorite people and activities when there's no rational reason for their feelings that are affecting me. 2) some of my medical information was shared with others in a way that I feel was inappropriate. Hard conversations are in my short- to medium-term future, along with a big push on the work front on some things. But there are exciting things in my medium- to long-term to look forward to, and that'll be enough to get me through a few weeks of crummy. I think.

Way to KILL IT with those deads!!! 3 plates for sets of 5??!? So freakin' strong!

Ooh, good luck with picking a shelf arrangement - definitely not an easy task! Tech issues during online D&D are the pits - sorry you had so many of them to suffer through. Yuck.

Haha thanks - I definitely needed to just relax (and wallow in self-pity, just a little bit).

Ooh, this is like a higher-stakes version of choosing a leader vs. a follower role in partner dancing (kinda)! Very similar to auto-slotting men (plus maybe some tall women and non-binary folks and maybe not some especially short men, now that same-sex/non-traditional gender role dancing is slowly becoming more normalized) into leading roles because they're less likely to find a partner who's a good build match if they follow (and the general shortage of leads in the genre doesn't help). Though I'm not sure I'd enjoy being an acro base *near* as much as I enjoy leading, and I wonder if that makes it harder to recruit people into the activity. /end idle musings Also, I lol-ed real hard at hippies being a good reason to quit acro (which, honestly, I feel you on - one of my best friends is a self-described hippie, but she's self aware of it and that makes it a fun personality quirk instead of an insufferable one; otherwise, she and I would *not* mesh). Good luck on the exam prep, Epsi - and glad it sounds like most of them have gone well so far! Oh, and way to kill it with the pole workout consistency.

Ooh, I love the plan to walk to the local climbing gym to accomplish two things at once. I'm starting to make it a habit to walk to my local coffee shop for my morning coffee, and it's a nice way to get the body moving out in the sunlight.

Woo, good luck with the moving - I'm excited vicariously for you!! Sorry to hear on the other swirling emotions, ESPECIALLY work frustration as that truly sounds like the pits.

Oof, sorry you're feeling physically run down and getting hit with demotivating weather - fingers crossed the deload helps and you get some sunshine too!

Eep, so many good things - family time, wins at the gym, lotsa yoga. I'm liking WandaVision, but I also walked in with absolutely no idea what to expect and very little background on the characters other than the MCU movies. I imagine if I walked in with slightly more background I'd be more let down (also, Kathryn Hahn is a an absolute delight and I'm glad I now know her name).

What a win re: falling back on some basic bodyweight stuff rather than nothing! (I recognize I'm a week late, but for understandable-ish reasons I promise).

Oooh boy, I needed to read this, and will need to re-read it as I start to put myself out there as a dance teacher (at least 1 year from now, there's some data science training I need to finish first). Because angry customers scare me, as someone who naturally avoids conflict and hates disappointing others. Harriet, that is SO AWESOME that you'll be putting your artwork out there for the world - that's brave and commendable and exciting and all sorts of good things. I'm sorry that you're currently going through a tired, painful spell and I hope that resolves soon for you.

That's an awesome philosophy of care for a PT, IMO - fingers crossed you find she lives up to that! I'm low-key envious that you already know of such a good resource, since the PT I was recommended to by some dance friends went HARD into the massage and e-stim stuff with patient education shoved at the fringes (and it was literally just a couple static stretches). Typing this prompted me to google stuff in Dallas and I have some promising leads for next time I'm injured, so at least there's that. I dunno if you're celebrating on the inside, but I'd call it a huge win to be at a point of apparent physique maintenance while recovering from an injury and without tracking calories!! Freestyle noodle soup looks awesome as well (unsurprisingly).

I empathize super hard with both these statements.

Hey KBG - hope you're doing OK!

I guessed right!!!

Good news update: I'm more or less out of the woods with covid symptoms, now I'm back to my baseline of grappling with chronic sinus infection symptoms (which look a lot like milder versions of my covid symptoms, but respond better to hydration and massaging out tight upper back muscles from some sort of upper back muscle tension headache connection). Sinus surgery is a week from tomorrow, and while I'm cleared to go back to dance practice this weekend (and my partner is so far asymptomatic, though he hasn't yet gotten his test back to confirm he's negative for the virus), I'll have to take next weekend off post-surgery (the surgeon said no strenuous activity, and I *assume* hardcore dance practice qualifies as strenuous). Like I mentioned, my mindfulness and mobility habits (plus daily planning) all kinda took a back seat with COVID, but sleep has honestly been stellar. But also, I really kept my head on straight most of the time while I was sick, including juggling a stressful couple of work weeks (the area of the business I work in has made 3 tech fixes in 3 working weeks to the data warehouses I use, with another 2 teed up - and I've been heavily involved in ID'ing the issues and will need to figure out workarounds for places where the data no longer exists to get loaded the right way - in other words, it's kind of a mess and there's a LOT on my plate). So I question whether I picked the right metric for mental health habits or if it's just able to be punted short term for extenuating circumstances. I need to crunch the numbers...and see just how low the goal percentages are on some of these. Given all that, plus the disruption to my planned January of base building, I put a plan on paper for my physical conditioning that roughly tracks NF challenges* and should hopefully help me ease into stuff post-surgery. Mike's Master Plan (all dates subject to change): Rest of this challenge plus next zero week (through surgery post-op, basically): Just walk nearly every day for the NEAT and the "I'm out in the sunshine!" happy chemicals - plus dance practices with my partner as medical schedules allow and solo practice if I feel like it Next challenge (02/12 - 03/20) - Keep up the walking, build back up to normal dance volume of 4 partner practice days plus 1-2 solo practice days, add in pilates for a bit of core / control work and ankle prehab each 3x / week; option to do light strength work 0-2x / week** The next two challenges (03/21 - 06/12) - keep up dance training volume, walking, ankle prehab, and pilates; add in a 12-week beginner running plan (None to Run, which is basically a slower building couch to 5k as best I can tell); option to do light strength work 0-2x / week** The next two challenges (06/13 - 09/04) - keep up dance training volume, walking, ankle prehab / pilates, and flip to near-maintenance for running; amp up the strength work to consistently 2-3x / week, trying to grow in strength / volume from week to week After that (09/05 onward) - TBD, possibly a conscious focus on cutting if it turns out my physique still has room for improvement after consistently training I'll have to figure out how some of the non-physically taxing things slot in, plus some of the physical things that are less intense from a recovery angle (like focused mobility work on my feet since ballroom dancers LOVE their foot / ankle mobility for aesthetic reasons). *Note: I couldn't find the NF challenge calendar anywhere in my ~5 minutes of searching, so I took rough guesses based on the calendar assuming the 5 week challenge plus a zero week before would continue through the summer (i.e. don't assume that this is really the schedule if Tank tells you otherwise). **The light strength work option shows up because I genuinely enjoy strength training - it's not particularly important to be especially strong for my sport (aesthetics-oriented, bodybuilding style work is maybe of slight value, but even then, not much) but because I enjoy it, I incorporated it early and in a higher quantity than if I were purely optimizing for sport performance.

Thanks all for the well wishes - happily, I’m on the mend by all indications. Unfortunately, what I thought was a head cold is, in fact, Covid. I found out Thursday evening and took advantage of our company’s Covid PTO policy to take Friday off work to rest. Not a whole lot exciting to report, other than drinking 6+ mugs of tea a day, eating soup, and watching a lot of Netflix. Symptoms so far have been mild - just upper respiratory congestion, post nasal drip, and definitely having low energy. On the plus side, I’m crushing it on my sleep goals (mobility has taken a pause, and lol at the thought of intentionally planning your time while sick). Obviously, surgery got bumped - though only by a week or so to the first week of February. I still have some logistics to iron out (moving work PTO, finding a friend to drive me to/from the procedure) but all in all, I’m fortunate - I have a lot of good support in terms of local friends offering to drop off anything I need and I’m lucky to work for a company that offers a special bank of sick time for this pandemic (separate issue that that makes me lucky in America, but that’s a topic for another day).

+1 what hatter says, though I’d feel the same nervousness you do in negotiating my own living situation, whether or not it’s rational. Good luck!! Also, I’m late but congrats on being recognized as a great future coach - if it’s something you’ll enjoy doing, go for it!! Bummer that the shoulder’s still being a pain, hope that guy falls in line soon.

The. Dream. ❤️

Way to go in producing a high quality study in spite of not being into it. I looked at the art first and was impressed, then even more so when I read your post about it!

Oooh yes, a perfect friend pairing in your hood! Sorry to hear about the nausea, and the therapist search - I don't know if I've ever enjoyed reading therapists' websites, but I'm sure it's even worse trying to find someone who speaks a less common language in the area AND is taking new patients (during what I'm pretty sure is one of the highest demand markets for therapy).

I have nothing helpful to add, but you have my sympathies (I am a bit scared of when / if I stop dancing, what'll then motivate me to keep up physical fitness). But on a lighter note, I like the work table idea a lot (I'm a sucker for modular and modern setups!)

Thank you!! 🤞 Week 2 Wrap Up (plus week 3 so far): The weekend was basically just a couple dance practices plus a Netflix marathon. I started feeling what I thought was just allergies and fatigue from a tough training week on Saturday evening, but by Sunday mid-morning (end of dance practice) it was clear that it was something worse, likely a full-blown head cold (stuffy / swollen sinus passages, more mucus and post-nasal drip, and swollen lymph nodes, yay!). I've still been working remotely yesterday and today, albeit negotiating different days for some meetings to limit the amount I need to speak (and getting a drive-through covid test this morning just to be sure), but haven't been doing a whole lot else other than Netflix bingeing, eating soup, and sitting on the couch. I haven't done mobility since Sunday and haven't meditated since Friday - feeling restricted breathing somehow makes it harder to imagine it'd be helpful. I have, however, been staying asleep for about 8 hours a night since Saturday night, thanks in part to cold medicine. I *think* I'm on the upswing now, but it's hard to tell for sure - I just want this yuckiness over soon (and I'm crossing my fingers and hoping hard that it *doesn't* cause me to need to reschedule a buncha stuff if next week's surgery needs to be pushed).