USDC Preparation Week 2 has just finished and let me tell you, we are exhausted! As tough as Week 1 was, Week 2 was worse! It is true that we got a day off, compliments of 4th of July. We took that opportunity to try to rest a bit more…. But it didn’t quite work. Let me explain a bit more below of how our week went.
USDC Preparation Week 2: “The Look”
Our coach was in on Sunday and I put on a brand new practice dress. This dress had a completely different style from any dress I’ve worn before. When I started dancing and moving in it, he liked the look of it so much that he suggested he might want to change the dress for Nationals to this design. My heart almost stopped. I’m only a single fitting away from finishing the first design! But he just gave me this little, wry smile, as if to say, “It’s ok, you can handle it.” He’s just evil! But I say that with all the love in my heart.
On Friday and Saturday we danced the Manhattan Dancesport Championships. This is a huge competition, one of the majors in the USA, and I wanted to make sure everything was just right. For the past 3 months I’ve been doing my own acrylic nails. The learning curve is steep but I’m proud of my improvement. This week they look the best so far.
USDC Preparation Week 2: Diet and Fitness
This week I started my diet in earnest. My calories are set at 1,800 and my macros are: 40% protein, 35% fat, 25% carbs. I’ve tried a lot of different percentages of macros in the past. I’m not a believer of a low fat diet, as I understand the important of fats for your body. I’ve tried the ketogenic diet, which is a diet based on between 50-65% fat and less than 10% carbs. That didn’t work for me. Usually, between 20 and 25% carbs is the best for me. Even so, I always find it hard to hit 25%. I don’t habitually eat a lot of high carb food, and all of the fresh food that I eat (a lot of it) is generally not high in sugar. Although I do track my food, I’m usually a bit high in the fat and a bit low in the carbs.
Even with 4th of July in the middle of my week, I did really well! The only fault on the 4th was my alcohol consumption. I didn’t get drunk or anything. But sitting outside during a bbq for hours at a time can easily mean sipping on a surplus of sangria. And, I’ll admit, I indulged in an ice cream sandwich or two.
Other than that, I really stuck to my diet. It helped that Alaska Airlines upgraded us to first class for our flight to NYC Thursday night. For dinner they served us hummus with a vegetable crudité. Perfect for my diet!
On the fitness side of things, I was disappointed. Although I did manage to fit in a no-weights workout on Sunday and Tuesday, I simply ran out of time to work out on the other days. I had intended to go to the gym and fit in a great workout on Monday, but sometimes I just can’t get away from the studio. I finished teaching early on Monday, but I had person after person asking to speak with me about something…. And before I knew it, my hour and a half morphed into 20 free minutes. So, I gave up on the gym that day. Oh, well. I run a studio. That goes with the job description.
USDC Preparation Week 2: Physical Dancing
We definitely did a lot of dancing this week! Imagine, in 7 days, we managed to fit in a full day of lessons with our coach, three practices, two days of competition, and only one day off (the 4th). We also completely missed a night of sleep. Here is the breakdown:
Sunday
We started our training with our coach as 10am, then during our break at 11:30 we took the opportunity to work out together. At 2:30 we were back with our coach again and we didn’t get a break until 7:00, when our weekly Sunday night social dance party at the studio begins. Then we made a mad dash for the airport to drop off our coach before going home and collapsing in bed.
Monday
We did get some good sleep Sunday night, and we woke up feeling refreshed and ready. After taking Casper to the dog park, we headed into the studio and got in an awesome three hour Standard practice. When we started teaching, I went straight through (without a lunch break) until 8:00 and I was seriously looking forward to going to the gym! But… that didn’t work out as planned. No fault of those wanting to catch my attention. I don’t blame them. The gym was just not meant to be.
I also visited my PT, in between practice and teaching. Leave it to my amazing PT to torture me for 30 minutes and still get my grateful dollars.
Tuesday
Another great practice today! We had a good night’s sleep for the second night in a row (which is rare) and felt ready to attack the dance floor after taking Casper to the dog park. This time, since the weather was so beautiful, Simeon and I decided to jog around the perimeter of the dog park while Casper played with the other dogs. We might as well kill two birds with one stone!
In between dance practice and teaching, we both went in for hair-cuts. And once again, though I was supposed to finish teaching early so I could go to the gym, things at the studio came up. After we finished at the studio, we joined Simeon’s parents for dinner. When we finally arrived home, I was so annoyed that a second day had gone by whereby studio responsibilities robbed me of my workout, that I cleared a space in the living room and started a 30 minute calisthenics workout. I might have turned out the light, finally, at 1:45am, but at least I went to bed satisfied.
Wednesday
Happy Independence Day! Sure it was a day off, but I still work up early. By 7:30 am, I was awake and hard at work at my acrylic nails, which always takes me a long time because I’m still a newb AND my drill is weak and sucks. However, I don’t let that stop me.
Why did I need to wake up so early, you ask? Because we needed to be in the city by 11am to celebrate my cousin’s birthday! Yay! You may not know this about me, but I have a massive family. My dad has 6 siblings and my mom has 4, and all of them except one have children. So when my family gets together, it’s huge. I remember a student telling me she was so stressed out one year for Thanksgiving because she had a large gathering of 8 to plan for… and I just laughed. But then, everything is relative I suppose.
After my cousin’s birthday brunch, we rushed back home to clean up the house and prepare for our little backyard BBQ. Speaking of numbers, we had 10 people over on the 4th. But somehow, thanks to my huge family, 10 feels like a piece of cake. And it was! My parents and Simeon’s parents came over, plus my maternal grandfather and his wife and Simeon’s maternal grandmother, and one of the teachers at our studio (who is a close friend of ours). My parents and the other teacher also brought their dogs, so it was party for us humans and our canine counterparts! Happy 4th of July, everyone!
Thursday
The night of the 4th was a short night indeed. Simeon and I went to bed early because we needed to wake up at 5:00am the next morning. Simeon’s green card needed renewing and the immigration office gave him the first appointment of the morning. It didn’t help that the office is located in the most traffic ridden part of Seattle. And, to complicate matters, Casper needed to be dropped off at the vet’s on the way, because he was scheduled to get the ole’ snip-snip.
I woke up with Simeon, because I had my own tasks to complete. Dyeing my hair, repairing my dresses, packing the makeup and hair supplies for the two of us. When Simeon returned home, he packed his bags.
We still had lessons to teach in the studio. With our bags in tow, we headed to the studio and managed to squeeze in an hour practice between lessons. At 8:00, we zoomed out of the studio and rushed to the airport, arriving at the gate just in time to board our red-eye flight to NYC.
Friday
At 7am we arrived bright and early to JFK Airport. We both nearly fell asleep in the taxi. With relief, we jumped into bed the moment we arrived at the hotel!
When we awoke at 2:30, we immediately went to Rocco’s Tacos, a restaurant next door to the Marriott. Mexican food is a favorite of ours before competitions. We love eating a bowl of fresh guacamole with a couple of street tacos about 4 hours before dancing. The food digests easily and does not leave us feeling hungry. Also, quesadillas keep well over many hours.
By 7:20 we were downstairs in the ballroom, warming up and getting ready to dance. We competed in Latin on Friday night, and let me just say, the competition was fierce! The Professional Latin field is packed with hard-working, talented couples. It was a disappointment we did not make the Semi-final, as we were feeling good and ready to keep jamming! But, there is no shame in losing to couples who are so good. Honestly, we feel lucky to be able to dance in such a tough field. It makes results difficult, but forced us to improve our dancing so much more.
We decided not to get together with any of our friends that night. Unlike all of our competitors, we needed to compete two days in a row, so we changed and headed to bed pretty quickly.
Saturday
We did not really have the chance to sleep in. Although the competition is called “Manhattan Dancesport Championships”, it is located in Brooklyn. That meant we needed to be out of the hotel by 9:40am in order to make it to Manhattan early enough to eat breakfast and warm up before our lessons with one of our coaches. We were training with one of our Standard coaches, and we were very excited since we hadn’t seen him for a while!
The lessons were great. We had a wonderful time catching up afterwards as well. The weather in New York that day was picture perfect, so we walked down to Madison Square Park, enjoyed the sun and soaked up those New York City vibes. Then we had to high-tail it back to Brooklyn so we could get ready to dance the Professional Standard.
We were back in the ballroom by 6:30, warming up and running through some things on the dance floor before they began the evening session. Dancing this time was a bit tough for me. I wore a brand new pair of shoes, which is normally not an issue for me, but the particular pair was maybe half a size too small. The balls of my feet were on fire all night, making it difficult to really roll through my feet and dance my actions fully. When we watched our video (the next morning on the plane), I was happy to see my difficulties did not effect the look too much. However, when I’m preoccupied with the pain in my feet, it makes things very frustrating.
Unfortunately we did not make the Semi-final of the Standard, either, so we changed and headed back to Rocco’s Tacos for a quick late night guacamole. And… I had a margarita. My feet deserved it.
Originally we had planned to go the party afterwards, but the comp finished after midnight and we had an early flight the next morning. With that in mind, we scratched that plan and just changed for bed. Even so, we still only got 3 hours of sleep. In retrospect, it was 100% the right decision.
For more details about the competition, read my post on the Manhattan Dancesport Championships here!
USDC Preparation Week 2 Comes to a Close
With the first of our preparation comps out of the way, Simeon and I are looking forward to digging into those competition videos and picking apart what we want to do differently. Our next competition is only in three days. No time to lose!
By the way, I made a video about our time in New York City. I’d love it for you to take a look!
How are you liking our preparation updates? Let me know in the comments section below!
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