Knee Bust

Part: Follow

Dances: Viennese Waltz, Quickstep

Hovers: 0

Last night was hardly worth blogging about, but since we did get a tiny bit of dancing in, I thought I might as well keep the ball rolling.

When I entered the practice room (after getting dumped on outside by a downpour), I found the mirrors all fogged up again, loud music playing, a new zumba girl doing her thing, and Jeff. Well, the new zumba girl got intimidated (or so it seemed to me, just a conjecture) by us stretching and getting out our dance gear and ended up leaving shortly thereafter.

Jeff was going through some more new music, and we ended up warming up to a Viennese Waltz. We really only got around the room once, but executed a set of fleckrels with the transition from reverse to naturals quite well, with a clean entry and exit. A good start!

Then it was on to quickstep, which I had selected for our practice program, along with notes to work on our last short side that we rarely get to in practice. We were going to work on keeping the connection consistent throughout the rotations and inside and outside partner that happens in quick succession, but that is when I bit the dust. After a few tries, and after Jeff finally remembered how to do a tipple chasse (he wouldn't believe me at first), we went for a run through of that side in an more compact position to try to feel where we needed to be. As I went for the reverse pivot after the quick open reverse, my left knee collapsed from under me and I was left clinging to Jeff for dear life...luckily he's been weight lifting so I didn't fall, but I would likely have. I've had knee problems ever since I was 12 or 13, and essentially it's because structurally I'm set up for them, and this exact thing has happened before, where my knee basically falls apart under me if I torque it the wrong way. Then it usually hurts for some time after and I can't put weight on it and bend it at the same time. I think this time it was partly due to the fact that I was overdoing it with trying to run again (always hard on the knees), and yesterday particularly I had used the elliptical machine for longer and a bit harder than usual, and I had been sore. Lesson learned. I'm sure the super sticky floor due to the humidity in the room didn't help things either. I would like to blame the reverse pivot, however, if I can get away with it.

So that ended practice for the night, since although I tried to keep going, not being able to bend your leg when it is bearing weight is kind of a problem for standard. I'm now taking the usual measures...ice, elevate when possible, keep moving, and hopefully I'll be back in the game tonight, or at least very soon. No more running for a while...I don't think I'll mind too terribly!