Maximum Strength

Yep, it's time for a change of pace.  Since I last posted, I've completed another ultra, a 33 or so mile trail run in North Jersey.  It wasn't supposed to be that long, but I went seriously off course near the end and added about a mile to my total distance.  Oops.  I was slow, slow, slow and found the race a real mental challenge.  My hamstrings were very tight and my stride was annoyingly short; my guess is my complete disregard for that stretching thing has finally caught up with me.  I'm naturally pretty bendy and I've always taken that for granted, but either age or mileage or some combination thereof has most definitely bitten back, and hard.  Hence, my lone resolution: stretch after every run.  (I've already broken it once, but the fact that it's ONLY been once is actually quite good, I think.) 

So... on to my winter project, which is to finally make a go of Eric Cressey's Maximum Strength.  Yes, something completely different!  I've put this off several times as Cressey recommends against doing any serious cardio when doing the program, and it's hard to train for distance runs without doing serious cardio.  I'm finally willing to take that step back and stick to his recommended cardio guidelines, specifically, limited cardio that includes up to two HiiT sessions a week and short (by my standards) steady state sessions at 60 - 70% of max heart rate.  Most of those steady state sessions are 10 minutes and take place immediately after strength training.  I'll add one more on Sundays that will probably be a bit longer; that will be done with the running club I'm trying to start at the dojo (we've already had our inaugural run). 

In other news, I am going to be offered a place in the Physical Therapy grad school program of my choice!!!!  I expect to get the written offer this coming week.  There are a few hoops left to jump through, including vaccinations, a background check, and some additional coursework (specifically, two physics labs), plus who knows what else - but the big hurdle is done and assuming all goes well between now and the end of May, I'll be starting school around Memorial day.  Holy shit.