The FITSPI Team ran the Encinitas Half Marathon yesterday with some decent times an abundance of post race endorphins! Now I can't say getting out took less than a smile this morning... Remember in How I Met Your Mother Episode where Barney ran the marathon then proceeds to get stuck on the subway because his legs won't work? Well pictures something of the sort for us this morning.
BESIDE THE POINT THOUGH! The real question...
Can we sustain regular cardio endurance (good for our heart right??) while we continue to maintain our muscle mass that we are gaining in the gym. Short answer, YES ---however, it takes some discipline!
This topic has been highly debated for years as CROSSFITTERS and regular runners of the sort get bashed for losing all of their "gains" due to running. Now it will be indubitably harder to gain mass if your logging 30 mile weeks but it is all-too-much of a misconception to believe that we cannot physically gain massive while doing our heart a favor a few days a week.
With the right balance of diet and knowing our bodies we can maintain this balance with ease. Tim Ferriss (though used while fasting recommends mild amounts of Branch Chained Amino Acids <5mgs) to help us burn fat instead of muscle mass. This works in a similar fashion with running. Studies were run (no pun) on a series of running thats perfromed copious amounts of cardio while maintaining upper body mass and only losing limiting amounts of lower body mass.
This should reassure us that as long as we are netting a caloric surplus throughout the day we can continue to build our ideal physique while keep our HEART STOKED and us LIVIN.