Last week was my first week in the Pilates/Dance Conditioning certification program at Orange Coast College. I am currently taking four classes for a total of 9 credit units:

• Kinesiology for Dance
• Pilates Methodology
• Pilates Apparatus/Mat 2
• Gyrokinesis

The Kinesiology and Gyrokinesis classes are both taught by my body mechanic Donna Place, and the other two classes are taught by Amelie Hunter.

I make the rather long drive down to OCC on Tuesday and Thursday. All of the classes are in the same room (all four on Tuesday, and the first three on Thursday), so on Tuesday I am in there from 9 am until 5:50 pm. Thursday is a little shorter and I am out of there by 3:30 pm.

The program is pretty intense, and I will be submitting my first homework assignment for Kinesiology tomorrow. On Thursday I had to do my first Pilates practice teaching, directing the class through a set of single-leg stretches.

On the other side, my right foot is still not doing well :-(! I beat it up pretty badly almost four weeks ago, and it has still not forgiven me. I did get to see a podiatrist on Tuesday, and he thinks I have the ankle equivalent of a carpal tunnel syndrome. The tendons and nerves that do a right turn when they reach the inside of my ankle are inflamed and angry. I am okay as long as I don’t push it too much, but it doesn’t take much in the way of walking to fire them up. He sold me a set of off-the-shelf orthotics and put me on a “take it easy and wait and see” program.

My guess is that it is the yellow tendon that is my problem