Again, now that I think about it.
Today, per my training schedule, I was supposed to run a 10K race. I quite honestly don't feel any more compelled to run a 10K road race than I do 5K road race, so, needless to say, I just mapped out my own course, tacked some warm-up distance on to the beginning, and timed myself going at what I figured might be my 10K pace, which translated to what I though I could sustain on this disgustingly humid day. I liked my course quite a bit, actually; I made pretty good use of hills and had only one mile long stretch of fairly flat going. But it was really no fun; I probably started a bit fast and the heat sucked the life out of me. (And this was very early in the am.) I am starting to wonder if this weather is going to break before the race, and decided on the fly that if it doesn't, my goal will just be to finish the race, as I won't do anyone much good winding up a sodden heap on some street in Philadelphia, in the name of an arbitrarily set goal.
Which is really not what I want; I WANT six plus weeks of cooler weather and a race time start temperature of 60 at most. But I'm not exactly batting 1.000 in terms of things I want these days, weather-wise, so it'll be what it'll be.
Yesterday the dojo had its first ever black belt and instructor's retreat. We went to an off-site location, a hospital wellness center. (Incidentally, I had no idea hospitals now had boutique-y looking places that offered spa days that included botox and other a la cart cosmetic procedures, along with the garden variety massages and facials. I don't know why that surprised me, but it did.) Sensei brought in an outside instructor, a guy with some really impressive credentials - black belts in at least two forms of jiu jitsu, plus escrima, plus something else. He teaches weapons disarming tactics to police officers, so guess what we got to do? It was something completely different and had that definite cool factor, but it also brought in a lot of familiar moves and tactics, so it was stuff we could work with right away. Afterwards we hit the pool and spa pool. Nice day, overall.
I've taken a couple days' mental rest from the grad school thing, but I'm starting to ramp my brain back up again. One thing I did find out is that my alma mater has changed the cirriculum for my degree, and in fact no longer offers the physics course I took way back when - which means I have no course description with which to plead my case to prospective schools requiring a physics course with laboratory - which is to say, all of them. I'm stifling a reflexive urge to sign up for a physics course RIGHT NOW since I do have time before I get on with the application shit. In the mean time, it seems I have a lot more research to do on PT schools; the lack of early specialization has been bothering me a bit, I suppose because I've always known where I would want to go with this (the athletic training/rehab end of things). I need to do some researching and reading, and hunt down some more people to talk to in the near future. I've waited a very long time to finally do this; there's no point in hurrying things now and going off in the wrong direction.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Friday, August 6, 2010
Open House, Boggled Mind
Let’s deal with the exercise stuff first, shall we? After that, I’m going to have to go to bullets because my brain is still pretty flooded with information from last night. So, to wit: Yesterday, I did a short, easy run followed by the B workout of the second phase of FBB. I did like it, overall; this one had more of a leg focus with some adjunct focus on core and shoulders. I can see it balancing pretty well with the A workout and it would make a nice M/W/F, A-B-A, B-A-B routine for a few weeks. I could see myself doing it again with a few mods. Or, not. I’m still a bit ambivalent about the program, overall; I guess the focus is eluding me, perhaps because I’m just using it out of convenience and not because I’m committed to it. I skipped karate last night, even though I probably could have made class after the open house, but my mind was going in a zillion different directions and I was happy to just chill for a bit. Besides, tomorrow will be a day of karate saturation: we’re having the first instructor and black belt retreat, beginning right after class. I am not entirely sure what it’s going to entail, although I do know it’s going to be off campus, and he’s bringing in at least one special guest. My curiosity is piqued.
OK, OK, so - the Open House. As it happened, it was a very small gathering, just myself and one other prospective student (and her mom), a current college senior. The people available were one of the professors as well as a first year student. The professor went over the nuts and bolts of admissions - a lot of stuff that is on the school’s website, plus admission rate (which is based on the number of applicants, because they only accept 30 students a year), matriculation rate, rate of passing state exams, getting a job right out of school, etc. The student gave us a campus tour and answered questions on the fly. Afterwards I got to sit down with the professor for a while to go over admissions stuff, specifically holes in my educational background. It was very, very helpful as it was and raised plenty more questions for me, going forward. Some highlights:
The program is what they call a lock step program, meaning you start with your graduating class and go through all of your classes together for the duration.
Going to school there is more or less a 9 - 5 job, five days a week. It’s not recommended that you work at all during the first year, and after that, only limited hours. So, no working your way through this particular program unless you have no need for sleep and an unlimited attention span.
This particular program prepares you to be a generalist. It includes subunits in all of the major areas of PT, which of course I can’t remember off hand, but range from kids to geriatrics and ortho patients to cardiac patients.
Because the class size is so small, the professors get to know the students very well; the woman who lead the discussion last night said that they will usually know a student is in trouble before the student knows s/he is in trouble. This (surprisingly) appeals to me, I suppose because I’ve been out of school for so damned long it’d be nice to know everyone has my back.
And that IS the general attytood there - once you’re in the program, the competition is over and focus is on EVERYONE successfully completing it.
The campus is very small, although I don’t know what one would expect considering the class size. It is shared with nursing and medical students of various stripes, but the PT program seems to only have three or four rooms to call its very own.
There is, as one would expect, a lot of hands on work, and a lot of clinical experience built into the program.
One of the first classes you take is human anatomy, which involves doing that thing which I presumed I’d have to do, but really hadn’t thought about in practical terms until last night, when our student guide took us to the anatomy lab. Everything was under wraps, but there really was no mistaking exactly what was on those dissection tables. And yes, the room smelled of preservative, and I STILL have that smell in my nose/head today, even though I think we were in that room for a grand total of about two minutes.
Turns out that, aside from my need to take undergrad anatomy and physiology (which, for all I know, will also involve cutting up a person), the biggest potential problem with my adacemic background is not a bad grade in one semester of chemistry (they will tend to overlook an outlier grade, provided it really is an outlier), but the fact that my physics class did not include a laboratory element.
Depending on the actual content of my physics classes, I may have to retake physics 1 and 2 entirely, something I do not really wish to do, not so much because I dislike physics, but because I haven’t had to use higher math in twenty plus years. So, yikes!
At this particular program, there is obviously no degree of specialization in any branch of PT, something that did surprise me a little bit. When I think of a graduate-level program, I do think specialty, and had figured that at some point beyond the gross anatomy/kinesiology/biomechanics/etc., one would have the opportunity to get a bit more into the area in which they wished to practise. I don’t know if this is the way all programs are run (obviously, something I have to look in to) or if that is just the way things are now; you come out of school a generalist and then look for a practise that is in your area of interest and then do the on the job training thing, along with continuing ed.
Although they have rolling admissions, they really want you to have your application package in by November 15 for spring admission (and there is only spring admission). Sooooo, it looks like I will not be applying to this particular school for spring. The wheels that are churning in my head have spit back the proclamation that that is probably a good thing, overall, as it gives me more time to get my shit together, mentally and academically.
That about covers it. I don’t know if it all made sense, but it was good for me, at least, to type that all out, helped to clarify and organize my thoughts a bit. And so, with a clearer head and the lingering smell of preservative in my nose, I bid you a happy Friday.
OK, OK, so - the Open House. As it happened, it was a very small gathering, just myself and one other prospective student (and her mom), a current college senior. The people available were one of the professors as well as a first year student. The professor went over the nuts and bolts of admissions - a lot of stuff that is on the school’s website, plus admission rate (which is based on the number of applicants, because they only accept 30 students a year), matriculation rate, rate of passing state exams, getting a job right out of school, etc. The student gave us a campus tour and answered questions on the fly. Afterwards I got to sit down with the professor for a while to go over admissions stuff, specifically holes in my educational background. It was very, very helpful as it was and raised plenty more questions for me, going forward. Some highlights:
The program is what they call a lock step program, meaning you start with your graduating class and go through all of your classes together for the duration.
Going to school there is more or less a 9 - 5 job, five days a week. It’s not recommended that you work at all during the first year, and after that, only limited hours. So, no working your way through this particular program unless you have no need for sleep and an unlimited attention span.
This particular program prepares you to be a generalist. It includes subunits in all of the major areas of PT, which of course I can’t remember off hand, but range from kids to geriatrics and ortho patients to cardiac patients.
Because the class size is so small, the professors get to know the students very well; the woman who lead the discussion last night said that they will usually know a student is in trouble before the student knows s/he is in trouble. This (surprisingly) appeals to me, I suppose because I’ve been out of school for so damned long it’d be nice to know everyone has my back.
And that IS the general attytood there - once you’re in the program, the competition is over and focus is on EVERYONE successfully completing it.
The campus is very small, although I don’t know what one would expect considering the class size. It is shared with nursing and medical students of various stripes, but the PT program seems to only have three or four rooms to call its very own.
There is, as one would expect, a lot of hands on work, and a lot of clinical experience built into the program.
One of the first classes you take is human anatomy, which involves doing that thing which I presumed I’d have to do, but really hadn’t thought about in practical terms until last night, when our student guide took us to the anatomy lab. Everything was under wraps, but there really was no mistaking exactly what was on those dissection tables. And yes, the room smelled of preservative, and I STILL have that smell in my nose/head today, even though I think we were in that room for a grand total of about two minutes.
Turns out that, aside from my need to take undergrad anatomy and physiology (which, for all I know, will also involve cutting up a person), the biggest potential problem with my adacemic background is not a bad grade in one semester of chemistry (they will tend to overlook an outlier grade, provided it really is an outlier), but the fact that my physics class did not include a laboratory element.
Depending on the actual content of my physics classes, I may have to retake physics 1 and 2 entirely, something I do not really wish to do, not so much because I dislike physics, but because I haven’t had to use higher math in twenty plus years. So, yikes!
At this particular program, there is obviously no degree of specialization in any branch of PT, something that did surprise me a little bit. When I think of a graduate-level program, I do think specialty, and had figured that at some point beyond the gross anatomy/kinesiology/biomechanics/etc., one would have the opportunity to get a bit more into the area in which they wished to practise. I don’t know if this is the way all programs are run (obviously, something I have to look in to) or if that is just the way things are now; you come out of school a generalist and then look for a practise that is in your area of interest and then do the on the job training thing, along with continuing ed.
Although they have rolling admissions, they really want you to have your application package in by November 15 for spring admission (and there is only spring admission). Sooooo, it looks like I will not be applying to this particular school for spring. The wheels that are churning in my head have spit back the proclamation that that is probably a good thing, overall, as it gives me more time to get my shit together, mentally and academically.
That about covers it. I don’t know if it all made sense, but it was good for me, at least, to type that all out, helped to clarify and organize my thoughts a bit. And so, with a clearer head and the lingering smell of preservative in my nose, I bid you a happy Friday.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Endless summer
Or, at least it seems that way.... After maybe a week's reprieve, it's friggin' hot and humid again. Did a tempo run this morning and I think I was sweating for at least an hour afterwards. Of course, I didn't turn the air on until after my run, so the apt. was warmer than it was outdoors, and it was plenty warm outdoors - blech. I'm trying to track down that part of my brain that convinced me that I didn't really mind training hard in the heat, so I can sit it down and have a really good chat with it.
Yesterday was the usual long day. There were just two of us (sensei J aside) at the morning training session, and the other was a gal about my size. I almost never get to spar with someone about my size (occasionally, in NY, where there are more women in the school, it happens) so that alone was interesting. We are working on some of the same things, although at different levels; she's learning new fighting habits, and I'm trying to unlearn some of my old ones (moving to somewhat more a Kyokoshin vs. a Shotokan style, at least as I've been taught) so we drilled some blocking/countering techniques for a good long while. Did the help-teaching thing in the evening and as it happens, I'll be off that duty for the next couple of weeks since those classes have gotten smaller (due to promotions to different classes, and people being on vacation). Things typically get a little crazy in mid September so I'll take the break.
Also coming in mid-September - it's looking more and more like a group of us will be doing the Insanity program at the dojo. I've been very curious about this program but reluctant to buy it myself since I haven't been having any problems keeping myself busy, otherwise. But doing it in a group setting sounds like a hoot, so IF it happens, I'll be doing that after the half, and I'll probably segue from there into the Maximum Strength program, which seems the perfect thing to do over the winter.
School shit: I've been getting together some volunteer applications. So far it looks as if most places (I've been looking primarily at hospitals) have summer interns and start new volunteers in the fall, so I'm looking to start that work in September. Tomorrow, one of the schools I'm considering applying to is having an open house/meet and greet; hopefully it''ll be educational and they won't tell me I'm a few cards shy of a full deck for even considering trying to get in to school considering my age/background/grades/hair color/love of ice cream. I'll probably be too mind boggled to post about it tomorrow, but I'll try to ramble on about it on Friday.
Yesterday was the usual long day. There were just two of us (sensei J aside) at the morning training session, and the other was a gal about my size. I almost never get to spar with someone about my size (occasionally, in NY, where there are more women in the school, it happens) so that alone was interesting. We are working on some of the same things, although at different levels; she's learning new fighting habits, and I'm trying to unlearn some of my old ones (moving to somewhat more a Kyokoshin vs. a Shotokan style, at least as I've been taught) so we drilled some blocking/countering techniques for a good long while. Did the help-teaching thing in the evening and as it happens, I'll be off that duty for the next couple of weeks since those classes have gotten smaller (due to promotions to different classes, and people being on vacation). Things typically get a little crazy in mid September so I'll take the break.
Also coming in mid-September - it's looking more and more like a group of us will be doing the Insanity program at the dojo. I've been very curious about this program but reluctant to buy it myself since I haven't been having any problems keeping myself busy, otherwise. But doing it in a group setting sounds like a hoot, so IF it happens, I'll be doing that after the half, and I'll probably segue from there into the Maximum Strength program, which seems the perfect thing to do over the winter.
School shit: I've been getting together some volunteer applications. So far it looks as if most places (I've been looking primarily at hospitals) have summer interns and start new volunteers in the fall, so I'm looking to start that work in September. Tomorrow, one of the schools I'm considering applying to is having an open house/meet and greet; hopefully it''ll be educational and they won't tell me I'm a few cards shy of a full deck for even considering trying to get in to school considering my age/background/grades/hair color/love of ice cream. I'll probably be too mind boggled to post about it tomorrow, but I'll try to ramble on about it on Friday.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
The yoga experiment ends... and, Pace - THAT Pace!
Yesterday, I did the final written workout of my 8 week yoga program. Wendy asked in the comments why I decided to do the program in the first place, and actually I’ve been reflecting on that a lot over the past few days. That, and trying to assess what I’ve gotten out of the program and to decide where to take things from here (if anywhere).
The whys: Yoga has always been one of those things that has never been what I expected or wanted it to be. I was introduced to it when I was young; my folks took yoga classes at the local high school back in the 70’s in what I call their somewhat hippy-dippy era, and my mother did some yoga TV show (Lilias?). I had this impression that by doing the movements and - something, whatever - you reached some wonderful, relaxed, contemplative state in which you could - something, I don’t know. Cure cancer? Develop a nuclear fission reactor? Move paperweights using telekenesis? Eventually I just looked to it to be something that would help me relax and possibly get to sleep easier, as I’ve never been great at relaxing or getting to sleep.
Basically, it’s been fail on all of the above counts - for me, anyway, and I sort of doubt Fermi, et als used yoga in their work on nuclear fission, although you never know. But for some reason, that itch, that curiosity about the potential of yoga, has nagged at me for years. I’ve tried doing it and enjoying it for its own sake, and I do, to a point. It’s a little less boring than stretching, although it’s not enough about stretching to be a full-fledged substitute. I can end a practise feeling relaxed - and I can end a practise annoyed as hell. And that started happening fairly often toward the end of my little 8 week program.
Why? This one took me a while to figure out. It wasn’t so much the poses; he showed mods for headstand and handstand (basically, for me, that meant doing them against a wall), and everything else I could usually do right off the bat (the so-called flexible beginner thing). BUT everything was held for a timed duration, and seldom did he use number of breaths as the hold times. He did encourage you to determine number of breaths for the common hold times for yourself, and I did use this for holds of under a minute. For hold over a minute, I used a timer. Now, I have no problems holding poses long enough to get something out of them (usually, a feeling of extension or a bit of release somewhere), but if you’re counting breaths or waiting for a timer to go off, after a while... it gets old, and it interrupts any semblance of a flow you might establish (although Iyengar yoga is not about flow). I am also not that into props, and don’t like dragging out blocks, bolsters, blankets, straps, and chairs so I can basically flop around on the floor. Interesting to a point, but it also becomes distracting and, yes, annoying.
What I found was that I could come out of the shorter, less involved practises that did not include a lot of restorative poses feeling a bit more centered and open, and I like that feeling. I believe I have a better handle on my body alignment, am more aware of my asymmetries and imbalances, and have learned how to create a little bit of meditative space that I can use to help keep my crazy in check. And frankly, that’s probably enough to have endured the whole program (which, quite honestly, up until the end really was a pleasure to do for the most part). So, I’m glad I did do it, but I’m also happy it’s over.
I’m still not sure where I’m going to take things from here. My rough idea is to keep doing a practise - probably a media practise - on Monday, continue in my class on Wednesday, and if I feel like it, revisit something from the book on Friday.
Yesterday was noteworthy for another reason: I had a pace run. It was supposed to be 5 miles at race pace. Because I’ve been failing big time in doing pace runs at pace, I decided to approach the thing slightly differently, and set up an out and back course with just two check points: one at the halfway (turn-around) point, obviously, plus one at the quarter point. I added about a half-mile of warm-up space to the beginning of the run and just loosely tracked time from there. It was a somewhat hilly course with a couple of long grades so it was unrealistic to expect to be exactly on time at each marker, so I just kept a loose gauge on pace. And you know what? I did the whole thing, including the warm-up, at what turned out to average EXACTLY half marathon pace. To the second. Freaky, huh?
The whys: Yoga has always been one of those things that has never been what I expected or wanted it to be. I was introduced to it when I was young; my folks took yoga classes at the local high school back in the 70’s in what I call their somewhat hippy-dippy era, and my mother did some yoga TV show (Lilias?). I had this impression that by doing the movements and - something, whatever - you reached some wonderful, relaxed, contemplative state in which you could - something, I don’t know. Cure cancer? Develop a nuclear fission reactor? Move paperweights using telekenesis? Eventually I just looked to it to be something that would help me relax and possibly get to sleep easier, as I’ve never been great at relaxing or getting to sleep.
Basically, it’s been fail on all of the above counts - for me, anyway, and I sort of doubt Fermi, et als used yoga in their work on nuclear fission, although you never know. But for some reason, that itch, that curiosity about the potential of yoga, has nagged at me for years. I’ve tried doing it and enjoying it for its own sake, and I do, to a point. It’s a little less boring than stretching, although it’s not enough about stretching to be a full-fledged substitute. I can end a practise feeling relaxed - and I can end a practise annoyed as hell. And that started happening fairly often toward the end of my little 8 week program.
Why? This one took me a while to figure out. It wasn’t so much the poses; he showed mods for headstand and handstand (basically, for me, that meant doing them against a wall), and everything else I could usually do right off the bat (the so-called flexible beginner thing). BUT everything was held for a timed duration, and seldom did he use number of breaths as the hold times. He did encourage you to determine number of breaths for the common hold times for yourself, and I did use this for holds of under a minute. For hold over a minute, I used a timer. Now, I have no problems holding poses long enough to get something out of them (usually, a feeling of extension or a bit of release somewhere), but if you’re counting breaths or waiting for a timer to go off, after a while... it gets old, and it interrupts any semblance of a flow you might establish (although Iyengar yoga is not about flow). I am also not that into props, and don’t like dragging out blocks, bolsters, blankets, straps, and chairs so I can basically flop around on the floor. Interesting to a point, but it also becomes distracting and, yes, annoying.
What I found was that I could come out of the shorter, less involved practises that did not include a lot of restorative poses feeling a bit more centered and open, and I like that feeling. I believe I have a better handle on my body alignment, am more aware of my asymmetries and imbalances, and have learned how to create a little bit of meditative space that I can use to help keep my crazy in check. And frankly, that’s probably enough to have endured the whole program (which, quite honestly, up until the end really was a pleasure to do for the most part). So, I’m glad I did do it, but I’m also happy it’s over.
I’m still not sure where I’m going to take things from here. My rough idea is to keep doing a practise - probably a media practise - on Monday, continue in my class on Wednesday, and if I feel like it, revisit something from the book on Friday.
Yesterday was noteworthy for another reason: I had a pace run. It was supposed to be 5 miles at race pace. Because I’ve been failing big time in doing pace runs at pace, I decided to approach the thing slightly differently, and set up an out and back course with just two check points: one at the halfway (turn-around) point, obviously, plus one at the quarter point. I added about a half-mile of warm-up space to the beginning of the run and just loosely tracked time from there. It was a somewhat hilly course with a couple of long grades so it was unrealistic to expect to be exactly on time at each marker, so I just kept a loose gauge on pace. And you know what? I did the whole thing, including the warm-up, at what turned out to average EXACTLY half marathon pace. To the second. Freaky, huh?
Thursday, July 29, 2010
BAD yogini!
Hard to believe I'm in the last week of my sort of independent study yoga program. The practises this week put together all of the "learning" practises that have been done over the past 7 week into longer practises - and by longer, I mean "good grief, when does this fucking thing end?" longer. Don't tell Rodney Yee, but I haven't been doing the meditations because that adds 10 minutes of sitting on my ass at or past the point when I'm ready to get on with my day. There are only two practises left in the program, plus the relaxation/meditation day, but at least that final meditation is done walking, which I think I can hack. Still no idea of how I'm going to carry this forward, or if I am. One of the suggestions is to just do this final week's practises, and there's no way that's going to happen. They're just too long. I could go back to DVDs, although there's a certain lack of appeal to that. Or I could just call it a wrap, and just do yoga when I feel like it. It's a shame - there are things about it I really enjoy, and yet these final practises are just pushing my annoyance buttons.
The rest of my workout life is going well. We had a nice cool morning on Tuesday, and what do you know, I did my "easy" run at what was 10 seconds off half marathon pace just running at what felt like a casual pace. Just goes to show you (me) how much the heat really has been a factor. Yesterday was a quarter mile repeat day, and today was an easy run followed by FBB base phase workout B at the gym. Interestingly this workout doesn't annoy me nearly as much as the A workout, and I realized why - I can pretty much do this workout as is, just upping the weights to make it challenging, and for the A workout, for HALF of the exercises, I have to modify them significantly to get anything out of them. And let it be noted, Ms. Rachel doesn't offer any mods up for any of these exercises; in fact for one of them, she suggests you may never even make it to the designated rep range. Um, guess what, girlie? At least the next phase, "Define Yourself," looks significantly better. Jury's still out on whether or not I'll ever do this program for its own sake (with or without her idea of cardio), but suffice it to day, I won't be doing the base phase if I do it any time soon.
Nothing new on the school front. Classes start in early September. I have permission to take Organic Chemistry if a spot in the class opens up, but will have to move my A&P class if that happens. I'm checking the online class advisor program daily. Also, I'm looking forward to an Open House that's being held by one of the schools I'm interested in; that'll be taking place a week from today. Hopefully I'll have a chance to speak with an academic adviser & ask him/her whether or not it makes sense for me to apply for admission this spring (2011), or wait until next spring (2012). In some ways it makes more sense to wait, mostly because I still don't really know what the hell I'm doing, other than what seems to be the Next Right Thing; but OTOH, what's life without a little mass confusion?
The rest of my workout life is going well. We had a nice cool morning on Tuesday, and what do you know, I did my "easy" run at what was 10 seconds off half marathon pace just running at what felt like a casual pace. Just goes to show you (me) how much the heat really has been a factor. Yesterday was a quarter mile repeat day, and today was an easy run followed by FBB base phase workout B at the gym. Interestingly this workout doesn't annoy me nearly as much as the A workout, and I realized why - I can pretty much do this workout as is, just upping the weights to make it challenging, and for the A workout, for HALF of the exercises, I have to modify them significantly to get anything out of them. And let it be noted, Ms. Rachel doesn't offer any mods up for any of these exercises; in fact for one of them, she suggests you may never even make it to the designated rep range. Um, guess what, girlie? At least the next phase, "Define Yourself," looks significantly better. Jury's still out on whether or not I'll ever do this program for its own sake (with or without her idea of cardio), but suffice it to day, I won't be doing the base phase if I do it any time soon.
Nothing new on the school front. Classes start in early September. I have permission to take Organic Chemistry if a spot in the class opens up, but will have to move my A&P class if that happens. I'm checking the online class advisor program daily. Also, I'm looking forward to an Open House that's being held by one of the schools I'm interested in; that'll be taking place a week from today. Hopefully I'll have a chance to speak with an academic adviser & ask him/her whether or not it makes sense for me to apply for admission this spring (2011), or wait until next spring (2012). In some ways it makes more sense to wait, mostly because I still don't really know what the hell I'm doing, other than what seems to be the Next Right Thing; but OTOH, what's life without a little mass confusion?
Monday, July 26, 2010
Beach Training
OK, so I'm happily eating a bit of crow over this one. Much as I whined about the idea of training on the beach in the heat blah blah blah, it turned out to be fun and very worth while. It was a long car trip, just under 3 hours both ways, and I could not believe some of the tolls ($11? To cross the Verrazzano bridge? Jesus H. Christ.) plus it was $10 to park. Fortunately we carpooled so I can't really complain, but wow - I am continually surprised at how freaking expensive it is to do just about anything in/around NYC.
The training itself was almost all weapons, bo staff in particular. Sensei has come up with a long, pretty intricate attack/defense drill that is based on an advanced bo kata, and we learned most of it yesterday. I think there are for or five moves left which I'm guessing he'll teach at the October Special Training. The added difficulty factor was, of course, learning it all in deep, hot sand. The arches of my feet were really none to happy, but otherwise it really wasn't that bad. It was maybe 10 - 15 degrees cooler on the beach than on the mainland (low 80's as opposed to mid 90's) with a breeze. There was full sun but I about drenched my exposed parts (heh, head and neck, forearms and feet - I guess there is a bit of an advantage to wearing a gi to the beach) in sunblock, so I came away unscathed in that department. We cooled down in the water for a bit after the class and then had a picnic, and then made the long drive home. Nice day, overall.
I'm a bit tired today, which is normal, day after ST. I usually make it a rest day but I don't really want to do that, so what I will do is knock off my workout extras. (Usually I do a glute exercise series - which now consists of heavy hip thrusts plus one or two rotational exercises - push-ups and assisted chins before heading to the gym.)
I also need to get my eating back in order. Three days off plan (rest day, when I usually go off plan, Saturday, which was dominated by the nephew's birthday party, and yesterday), and I feel like Miss Cranky Pants. I kinda thought I was becoming a total diet fusspot, and I guess this just proves I have. It'll be nice to get back to normal!
The training itself was almost all weapons, bo staff in particular. Sensei has come up with a long, pretty intricate attack/defense drill that is based on an advanced bo kata, and we learned most of it yesterday. I think there are for or five moves left which I'm guessing he'll teach at the October Special Training. The added difficulty factor was, of course, learning it all in deep, hot sand. The arches of my feet were really none to happy, but otherwise it really wasn't that bad. It was maybe 10 - 15 degrees cooler on the beach than on the mainland (low 80's as opposed to mid 90's) with a breeze. There was full sun but I about drenched my exposed parts (heh, head and neck, forearms and feet - I guess there is a bit of an advantage to wearing a gi to the beach) in sunblock, so I came away unscathed in that department. We cooled down in the water for a bit after the class and then had a picnic, and then made the long drive home. Nice day, overall.
I'm a bit tired today, which is normal, day after ST. I usually make it a rest day but I don't really want to do that, so what I will do is knock off my workout extras. (Usually I do a glute exercise series - which now consists of heavy hip thrusts plus one or two rotational exercises - push-ups and assisted chins before heading to the gym.)
I also need to get my eating back in order. Three days off plan (rest day, when I usually go off plan, Saturday, which was dominated by the nephew's birthday party, and yesterday), and I feel like Miss Cranky Pants. I kinda thought I was becoming a total diet fusspot, and I guess this just proves I have. It'll be nice to get back to normal!
Friday, July 23, 2010
I'm a student!
Like, officially, with a schedule (uh, that may still be in flux), a list of books to buy (somewhere - I'm guessing the college bookstore? That seems to be where I recall finding such things), a college ID, a parking decal and everything. Looks like I'm really doing this, eh?
Whenever I start to think about this stuff, my mind starts racing in about 50 directions, so I think I'm going to bullet, Wendy-style, so I don't have to sort this jumble into paragraphs:
1) There are a total of four or possibly five courses I either want to take or need to take to apply to grad school. The need to:
- Anatomy and Physiology, two semesters. I've signed up for A&P I, and will be taking that this fall.
- A chemistry course. I need two semesters of "science major" chemistry, with lab. I actually have that, but for whatever reason - I don't recall at this point - I mentally checked out of my second semster chem class, and have a grade that will not do me any favors in an attempt to get into grad school. So, rather than take chem 2 over, I would like to take either organic chem or biochem.
The want to: Exercise physiology. I can't take this until I've had A&P 1, and I can take it concurrently with A&P 2. I'd like to do that in the spring.
2) The complication, part one: Biochem is not offered this semester, and the organic chem class (which I had to get special permission to take because name of my prior chem courses - prereqs. for Organic - is just General Chemistry, not Chemistry for Geeks) is full. Except it might NOT be full as of next week, when they drop students who haven't paid in full for their classes, which means I could get in. Not realizing that at the time I picked my A&P class section (the selection was based on the fact that the section was offered at the campus closest to home for me), I picked a section that coincided with the time organic is offered. SO, if I can do organic, I have to pick another section A&P, if I can. And if I can't, I can't take organic now, because I HAVE to take the two semesters of A&P, no question.
3) If you could follow that, you get a gold star.
4) All of that is based on the idea that I will somehow have ALL of my shit together - which further includes taking the GREs AND getting something on the order of 100 volunteer hours with practising physical therapists - in time to apply for acceptance to school next year - and the school year starts in MAY.
5) It would probably be easier to back off a bit and not even think about applying for 2011 acceptance, but I figure that's a good goal for now, and if it becomes infeasible for some reason, well, OK, it does, and I apply for 2012.
6) So my next steps are to see what happens next week, re: organic and the schedule, and also to meet (hopefully next week) with some folks about volunteering with a local hospital's PT department. I also have to download and start looking at the GRE test prep materials, which are free for download at the whosamajigger testing center, but, of course, are for PC only, not Mac. I have a dual driver on my Mac and do have a Windows side, but I've had a download or two not behave properly over there, so I may have to fire up my old Dell to run the software.
In the midst of this, my workouts have been very, very boringly on schedule, as you can see to the right. *Yawn. Actually having that structure and outside focus has very much helped me stay sane, and I'm sure all of the physical activity has helped me sleep at night, even if I do periodically wake up with my brain going 1,000 miles an hour. This is a bit of a break week in terms of overall running mileage. I have no long run this week, but instead it's suggested that I take a rest or easy day tomorrow and run a 5K race on Sunday. As it happens, I have Special Training on Sunday, so the plan instead is to run 5K at a good clip tomorrow and enjoy the fact that I'm not skipping a run on Special Training Day.
Which I'm not actually looking forward to, for a change. In fact if I didn't need to go (and I do, in order to test this fall), I might think long and hard about skipping this one. It's scheduled to be a beach training, which sounds very nice and romantic (I mean, fighting on the beach? what could be nicer?), except for the full gis and forecast heat and humidity. And it's not like I'm going to want to jump in the ocean afterwards to cool off, because then we have the 3+ hour ride home. I have to wonder who came up with this brilliant idea. Oh well. It'll probably be a great day, in the end, but I'm not looking forward to it with my usual enthusiasm.
Whenever I start to think about this stuff, my mind starts racing in about 50 directions, so I think I'm going to bullet, Wendy-style, so I don't have to sort this jumble into paragraphs:
1) There are a total of four or possibly five courses I either want to take or need to take to apply to grad school. The need to:
- Anatomy and Physiology, two semesters. I've signed up for A&P I, and will be taking that this fall.
- A chemistry course. I need two semesters of "science major" chemistry, with lab. I actually have that, but for whatever reason - I don't recall at this point - I mentally checked out of my second semster chem class, and have a grade that will not do me any favors in an attempt to get into grad school. So, rather than take chem 2 over, I would like to take either organic chem or biochem.
The want to: Exercise physiology. I can't take this until I've had A&P 1, and I can take it concurrently with A&P 2. I'd like to do that in the spring.
2) The complication, part one: Biochem is not offered this semester, and the organic chem class (which I had to get special permission to take because name of my prior chem courses - prereqs. for Organic - is just General Chemistry, not Chemistry for Geeks) is full. Except it might NOT be full as of next week, when they drop students who haven't paid in full for their classes, which means I could get in. Not realizing that at the time I picked my A&P class section (the selection was based on the fact that the section was offered at the campus closest to home for me), I picked a section that coincided with the time organic is offered. SO, if I can do organic, I have to pick another section A&P, if I can. And if I can't, I can't take organic now, because I HAVE to take the two semesters of A&P, no question.
3) If you could follow that, you get a gold star.
4) All of that is based on the idea that I will somehow have ALL of my shit together - which further includes taking the GREs AND getting something on the order of 100 volunteer hours with practising physical therapists - in time to apply for acceptance to school next year - and the school year starts in MAY.
5) It would probably be easier to back off a bit and not even think about applying for 2011 acceptance, but I figure that's a good goal for now, and if it becomes infeasible for some reason, well, OK, it does, and I apply for 2012.
6) So my next steps are to see what happens next week, re: organic and the schedule, and also to meet (hopefully next week) with some folks about volunteering with a local hospital's PT department. I also have to download and start looking at the GRE test prep materials, which are free for download at the whosamajigger testing center, but, of course, are for PC only, not Mac. I have a dual driver on my Mac and do have a Windows side, but I've had a download or two not behave properly over there, so I may have to fire up my old Dell to run the software.
In the midst of this, my workouts have been very, very boringly on schedule, as you can see to the right. *Yawn. Actually having that structure and outside focus has very much helped me stay sane, and I'm sure all of the physical activity has helped me sleep at night, even if I do periodically wake up with my brain going 1,000 miles an hour. This is a bit of a break week in terms of overall running mileage. I have no long run this week, but instead it's suggested that I take a rest or easy day tomorrow and run a 5K race on Sunday. As it happens, I have Special Training on Sunday, so the plan instead is to run 5K at a good clip tomorrow and enjoy the fact that I'm not skipping a run on Special Training Day.
Which I'm not actually looking forward to, for a change. In fact if I didn't need to go (and I do, in order to test this fall), I might think long and hard about skipping this one. It's scheduled to be a beach training, which sounds very nice and romantic (I mean, fighting on the beach? what could be nicer?), except for the full gis and forecast heat and humidity. And it's not like I'm going to want to jump in the ocean afterwards to cool off, because then we have the 3+ hour ride home. I have to wonder who came up with this brilliant idea. Oh well. It'll probably be a great day, in the end, but I'm not looking forward to it with my usual enthusiasm.
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