Well, it has been way, way too long since my last blog post. I do have a couple of what I would consider major pieces in the works, but have found myself pretty much completely stalled in the effort to make them really major. Time to just regroup a bit and just get something out.

My last big adventure was my trip to New Mexico to hang with the Ward’s (Kerry and Indigo) back in the middle of May. That trip is the subject of the upcoming “A Full-Tilt Week” post, one of those stalled projects. Since then I have been continuing to do the slow work of strengthening and refining the progress I have made in rebuilding my right ankle/leg.

Walking in White Sands

So, in addition to hanging out in coffeeshops and talking to people, how do I spend my days? A couple of yoga classes per week at LA Fitness, 3-4 Pilates classes/week at Pilates X, one to three ballet classes at Elevation Studios and EnPointe Dance and Fitness, a weekly swing dance lesson with Mary-Morgan Childs, a weekly Gyrotonics session at Orange County Gyrotonics with Veeseuth, and semimonthly visits to my body mechanic, Donna Place, at Long Beach Gyrotonic. All that, plus an average of about 8 miles of walking/running, and 30-50 miles on the bike.

I have been feeling a bit lazy, though, about doing any excursions where I need to get in the car and drive somewhere for my walking/running. That has led to late starts and short distances on those occasions when I did finally overcome the inertia. I found some much-needed inspiration on Sunday in the form of Anna Isabel Godinez, who proved to be a tireless hiking companion on a 13 mile hike up Temescal Canyon from Sunset to The Hub and back. After our hike we made a visit to the Original Muscle Beach in Santa Monica where Anna received her initiation into the community of acrobats.

Anna and Ernie Thrash at OMB

While this entry is dated on Monday, it is now Wednesday. I had another fortuitous meeting on Tuesday at LA Fitness where I met three young ladies who are training for the Ray Miller 50K Ultra that will be run in the Santa Monica mountains on December 1 of this year. That provides me with both a target for a future ultra as well as some more potential training partners.

Ray Miller 50K Course Map and Elevation Profile

My rehabilitation program is proceeding apace. I was in a ballet class last week, and as I was warming up at the barre waiting for class to begin I became conscious of the fact that I actually felt confident that my right ankle could support me on pirouettes! My right leg is now capable of proper alignment for walking and running. Capable, but still not the default and I am still working on locating, waking, and strengthening the muscles necessary for proper positioning and stability of my ankles, knees, and hips.  They don’t like to fire up at the start of my walks, but once they do fire up they have shown some staying power!

My swing dance lessons have been invaluable in that pursuit. East Coast Swing requires a tremendous amount of side-to-side triple-stepping, and it doesn’t take very long for those muscles to feel a significant burn when I do that work. Those muscles are still on the lazy side and require some time to waken when I walk, but when they do the results are very positive!

Last Wednesday I even made a trip to Rusty’s Rhythm Club, a weekly swing dance meet-up in Playa Del Rey where I was introduced to Lindy Hop technique and had the opportunity to practice my skills. I took the introductory lesson, and got in about an hour of real dancing before my feet and knees got too sore. Still need to work on that endurance, but this was a start!