5k + Master Class + Jam Session = Dead

So, my morning started out with the Robin Run 5k.  I blew my personal record out of the WATER!  I cross the finish line in 49:33.  Over three full minutes quicker than my best record.

It was OWIE, but AWESOME!!!

Then I showered, got pretty, and went to lunch at Cracker Barrel. I ate all the things.

Then I went to the new studio and got ready for a Master Class and Jam Session with the AMAZING Erica Dixon.

75 minutes of Zumba. Then a THREE HOUR Jam Session.

I said EFF IT and shared and cheese fry and milkshake after dinner tonight.  I think it was worth it though.

Not a bad day over all.

More details when my brain is not FRIED.

Fun, Fundraising and Freaking Exhausted.

Going in to this weekend I was exhausted. The cold that hit me on Monday was holding strong well in to Friday and I was scared that I wasn't going to survive my weekend events and my voice was 95% gone with no sign of coming back.  

Here's what was on my schedule for the weekend:

Saturday 10a: 2 hour Zumbathon for Girls on the Run.
Saturday 4p: 2 hour Zumbatomic Birthday Party for Morgan and Makenzie.
Sunday 2:15p: 1 hour Zumbatomic class
Sunday 4:30p: 75 minute Zumba class at the YMCA.

That's about 6 hours of Zumba related work and Zumbatomic is the most exhausting specialty I currently teach.  Kids are hard.  They require twice as much energy and enthusiasm as a normal Zumba class.  I guess it's fair though because the reward is twice as big.  

Friday night I went to bed early after taking my 100th dose of Zicam, EmergenC, gargling with salt water, taking NyQuil and slathering myself up with VapoRub.  

It worked well enough, I suppose.  I almost had a full voice back when I got up Saturday and I was not feeling so much like death.  So on we went.

The Girls on the Run Zumbathon? AMAZING! Girls on the Run may have won me over and I may be considering volunteering with them.  I love their mission and the way they teach self acceptance, self love and honoring your body.  Ginger from GOTR did a little exercise with the girls at the Zumbathon that I really needed.  It involved a Positivity string and throwing away the Negativity strings that people try to force upon us. Then playing a game of "tag" with positive adjectives that when we had to freeze we had to attach to the people closest to us.  It was a beautiful exercise and I loved the messages.  They resonated with me.

Mostly?  The day was about fun and dancing and playing and we did!!!

Curl in like an amoeba!

Mrs. Fatass gives a lesson on Cumbia

An unplanned circle during a game of Freeze Dance!

The Monster Mash!!

Starting a game of Center Star

Positivity string meditation

It was a blast to get to play with the kids and to watch some of them just come right out of their shell and make new friends.  I miss that about being a kid.  How every new person you meet is a best friend you just haven't met yet.  It was uplifting and made me feel great.  Even though I was still wanting nothing more than to be in my bed with hot chocolate and a book.

After all was said and done I got home, got cleaned up and had lunch while psyching myself up for the birthday party.

And you know what?  The birthday party was AWESOME too.  The two girls we were hosting the party for were turning 7 and 11 and we wound up with a full hour of giggling and dancing.  Even some of the parents and grandparents got in on the action!!!!! It was so much fun and I loved that the kids got so in to the dancing piece of the day.  It was harder with the age span but we did it.

Then Sue and I spent the second hour helping out with the food and drink portion and cleaned up the studio. I was dead tired by the time we finished up.  Like... DEAD.

I spent the evening catching up on the DVR and eating pizza with Matt and Marshall.  It was the best way to end the day.

Sunday morning came far too quickly though. I slept in a little bit, but not much and then had to go grocery shopping.  Then I spent an hour separating meats in to single serve sizes so I could easily making up meals for the week.  Lots of yummy chicken and turkey sausages and veggies for lunch and quick dinners this week.  I also did some planning about breakfasts and snacks and everything is pretty much set to go.

Then it was onward to my normal Zumbatomic class.  I had 2 little girls and 2 older boys and it was a weird class BUT it was fun and everyone got sweaty and giggly.  It took a lot out of me.  It was a hard class due to the age difference.  A 4 and 5 year old and a 9 and 10 year old. OUCH!  It wound up being incredibly satisfying though.

My class at the YMCA was smaller than normal but it also wound up just feeling good.  I went with an all cardio, playful playlist.  There were lots of call backs to old favorites and some Halloween related fun routines.  It was great.  I felt so much better about 30 minutes in to class when the endorphin rush just rose up and hit me.  I love that crew so much.  No matter how tired I am they rock me!

Today I am working from home, on my day off, and about to go run some errands with Matt.

I am still a little high on the weekend.  Why?  Because I got two of the biggest compliments from Zumbatomic kids through their parents.

First one little girl, who has been to pretty much all of my classes, was told that she was going to do Zumba for a few hours Saturday morning by her mom and she said "I don't wanna do Zumba without Miss Sam." Dead. That hit me right in the heart place. WHAM!

Secondly, the little girl from class on Sunday.  Her mom posted this on my FaceBook last night:

 And then this this morning:

Yeah... I'm so won over by the love from the little ones.  They are so open and honest and live life so unapologetically. 

So much good stuff.  

I'm still freaking exhausted though. EXHAUSTED.  After this weird week and next weekends Sentao training I am fully prepared to be dead by the end of next week... when I turn 30! EEK! It's coming up so quickly! 

I can't wait to see what year 30 brings!

And when I thought it couldn't get worse...

I woke up today feeling like I had been hit by a train smoking grizzly bear with an attitude problem.  

You see, Friday was pretty much the worst day I have ever had.  Nothing truly dramatic happened but it was the epitome of one bad thing after another.

It all started with Marshall being up too late on his computer and being loud.  He woke me up three times Thursday night/ass early Friday morning.  The third time... well let's just say we had words.  By the time it was time to get up and go run with Matt I'd had a total of maybe 4.5 hours of sleep and I was grumpy.

I got up and met Matt for a jog that wound up being more of a long fast walk. I was late to meet him, I couldn't find my car keys, it was dark and my car was fogged up and couldn't see shit BUT I got there.  I really hoped the endorphin rush would help.  They didn't.

When I got home I just wanted a damn shower.  So I took a long hot shower, where I broke my razor, and got out feeling at least a little bit better.  Until I drank the damn Gatorade protein drink thing I had bought to try.  

Now, I LOVE kiwi strawberry Gatorade but this after workout protein drink? Yeah, I took a very long swigs and then immediately ran back to the bathroom and threw up.  Dear Lord, that stuff was AWFUL. So there I am washing my face and brushing my teeth again and not being too entirely sure if I was sick or if it was the Gatorade.  I know I still have to go to work.

I kept getting my stuff for the day ready.  My laptop was being a pain in the arse while trying to sync my iPod but I was almost ready to go.  

Walked back in to the bathroom to put mousse in my hair, flip my hair over, take a mini step to balance and trip on Marshall's shoe.  Roll my ankle and fall forward over the sink and counter.  I bumped my head on the mirror a bit.  Fucking lovely.

And work?  Not much better over all.  Trying to meet a deadline, had to skip an all day staff meeting, computer problems for me and some of my team mates.  Not cool. 

When I got home, an hour and a half later than usual, I was pretty pissed off at the universe.  We went to dinner at a friends house, it was a glorious, delicious dinner and I got to play with their 6 week old kittens.  So the day ended FAR better than it started.

But today?  I feel like I was hit by a truck.  I don't know if I was already getting sick and that's why everything yesterday got to me or if this was just bad luck but I have a sinus thing going on that's really unpleasant.  

I slept in today until 10:30.  Normally I'm finishing up my first Zumba class on Saturday at 10:30.  I know I needed the rest though.  I did go grocery shopping and we met some friends out of dinner tonight as well.

Tomorrow is a day of prepping - cooking in the crock pot for the week, learning new Zumba choreography, and basically getting my life straight.

Also? Finishing the outline for a challenge to lead me to my 30th birthday.  Stay tuned for details! 

The inevitable crash.

I crashed hard today.  Hard.  There is so much going on, so many balls in the air, and today they finally came crashing down.

The crash was a result of low blood sugar, bad news, and just sheer exhaustion. 

The morning started out AMAZING.  We had a super energetic, exciting and fun Zumba class at 9:30 this morning.  It was, by far, the best Saturday morning class in a long time.  It felt more like a Friday night at the club than Saturday morning at the studio.

Directly after class Sarah and I drove off to Greenville for lunch (SUSHI!!!) followed by a master class and ZIN jam session.  That's 4 hours of Zumba and made for 5 hours total for the day.  And they were amazing hours, all 5 of them!  A tun of fun was bad by everyone and I felt tired but on top of the world. 

In the car on the way home I started to feel gross.  Marshall texted me and gave me some upsetting news about a death of a friend and annoyed me by being kind of thoughtless.  I was grumpy and starting to really feel the weight of the day.  Sitting still in the car for another hour I started to cramp up a bit more and was not so happy.

When I got back in to town all I wanted was something for dinner that involved chicken and vegetables.  My house guests had other plans and I was annoyed by that too.  I should have been grateful that someone cooked me dinner but I was more going BLAH red meat.

Then I was about to say Eff everything and was going to grab a quesadilla on the way home - whole grain tortilla, chicken, extra vegetables, lots of cheese.  I stopped by Moe's and the line was out the door and I got even more grumpy. 

Little things just kept making me feel like everything was ruined and nothing would ever be okay again.  I finally just came home, resigned to eating food I didn't want but it was there.

I got in the shower to get rid of the gunk from 5 hours of cardio and in the shower I just broke down.  It was the hottest shower I've ever taken and I showered until the water just ran cold.  Wrapped in my robe I curled up on the bed and just the tears come. 

I know I wasn't crying because of anything that happened today but it was the culmination of two weeks running on all cylinders without a break.

I'm hoping that the instructor I asked to cover my class tomorrow is available.  She said she thought she was but would let me know for sure.  I would really love to have most of the afternoon off to just relax.  We just have to record Katie's dance project tomorrow and I need to make a pot of turkey stew.  If that's all that's asked me of tomorrow that'll be the best.

If I have to teach it's no big deal but I'd really like to veg.