I guess it's kind of obvious that blogging hasn't been a priority for me lately, but that's how it goes sometimes. School finally is feeling like school again; I've had more than a full cycle of exams, and of those I've had graded, my lowest grade was just shy of a 98%, (whatever 47 out of 48 works out to be) so I have no reason to complain. Except, it annoys me when I gets stuff wrong, so... I had my second psych test yesterday and as usual I came out of it uncertain about some questions - she has a very odd way of asking test questions that doesn't reflect either her teaching style or the book's teaching style. I suppose that's good, in that you have to think, but that tends to make me OVERthink some questions, which is where I can run into trouble. But whatever; I've never NOT gotten a good grade on one of her tests, so I must do something right, eh?
Today I finished my hypertrophy rotation. I'm feeling good, but tired and a bit beat up, which from what I gather is about the way one is expected to feel about now. I plan to do a good long run on Sunday and then take an easy week before starting the next rotation - I was even thinking of taking Monday totally off. I'll get to the "results" and next rotation stuff in a moment, but first, speaking of long runs... I've gone over to the dark side.
Or something. One thing I've said numerous times IRL and on forums is that I don't think it's particularly wise to run with headphones on. And you know, I don't know that I've changed my mind about that, BUT - I have started doing it, and I LOVE it. Holy shit. I just do it for long runs, since I do them Sunday mornings when there's practically no traffic. But I've been digging out stuff I really haven't had a chance to listen to in a long time, and have been very pleasantly surprised to find a good number of favorites that just groove with my natural running stride. Those that don't, I just happily ride along with, but when one just hits it, wow. It's made me a very happy camper, and those long runs just seem to fly by.
And now, on to, results, or something. I think it's kind of hard for me to truly evaluate a program for what it is when I more or less violate one of the cardinal rules of doing a type of program - that is, doing a program designed to build muscle, and combining that with endurance training. Granted, it's not SUPER endurance training, but I don't think Robert dos Remedios - or anyone else - for that matter presumes someone doing a muscle (or strength) building program is going to run 25+ miles a week while they're at it. In fact most people recommend very little cardio with those types of programs, which is all well and good if you're not a runner, but if you are... well, you run, and, I guess, accept the consequences.
Which, in this case, IMO weren't all that dire. LOL. While I'm sure one thing affected the other, I am running as much as I was at the start of the program, only a bit faster, overall, and I also clearly have done a bit of remodeling in the physique department. My weight hasn't changed significantly - I might be up 2#, but won't really know for a few days; I tend to hold a bit of water when I'm working hard, plus I've been taking creatine, which I stopped today. Even if it doesn't come right off it's no big deal, although I'd love to know if I actually DID put on muscle. I doubt that's something I could figure out on my own, but if my arms and legs tell the story, I may actually have. Either way, I'm happy with my over all strength gains, that I feel more solid and balanced, and - yes - with what I see in the mirror, and I can't argue with that.
So, what next? My original plan, and quite possibly the one I will come back to, is to do another RDR plan, this one for what he calls total fitness, but using a functional split instead of total body format, meaning each weight workout would be a bit shorter than the ones I've been doing. The plan would be to add some cardio, specifically hills or interval work, on two of those days each week. I've also toyed with the idea of doing Maximum Strength (which, frankly, looks like a cake walk after this rota, although I'm sure it's not!), either as written (four days a week) or on a three day a week schedule.
And then, there's New Rules of Lifting for Abs. I JUST got this book late last night, and haven't had a chance to look at it, but to my utter surprise, I've heard good things about it. Frankly, when I first saw the title, I rolled my eyes. NROL for ABS?? Seriously? Couldn't have interested me less had it been NROL for biceps. But from all I've read, it's actually core and athletic-performance oriented, which is right up my alley. I have to look at the thing, though, and decide if it will fit reasonably well with the rest of the year's running plans, or if it's something that might better wait until after running season. Anyway, I have a good week, 10 days to sort this all out, and in the mean time - well, after Sunday - I'm definitely going to be up for a bit of a vacation.
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