Exercise
OK, so I haven't exercised for 2 or 3 weeks. I was feeling a little down and eating lots of doughnuts and beer and sweets and stuff.
OK, so I put on 3lbs.
BUT. Today I bought a Polar A5 Heart Rate Monitor. I was gonna get an alternate cheaper brand that does similar, but the local Sports Authority doesn't have 'em in stock, and I dunno when I'd get to the large one near Tori and I didn't want to mail order (not at home to receive) but I felt I needed to exercise so I spent the extra $40 or so and got the Polar A5 from J&R.
So I configured it to monitor %age target heart rate (the watch defaults to 65%-85% of max 185bpm for my age). Turned on the next episode of Buffy I was watching, and started exercising after the opening credits had completed. Only took a minute to get above the minimum of 120. Whenever the watch beeped that I went over the 85% mark (157) then I would slow down. As time went on this meant I was actually going slower and slower. It was quite hard to stay at 7mph towards the end! But, by staying in the target zone I actually managed to survive the whole episode. Much longer duration and distance than I'd ever done before. Sweating a lot at the end of it (more sweat than I've ever produced on this machine) but not as tired as I have been in the past.
I guess I'd been over doing it before. The HRM is probably worth it's money :-)
Oddly the Kcals the watch says I burnt off is almsot TWICE what the elliptical machine said. The machine and the HRM also disagreed in times as well by 5%. Hmm.
Machine: 38:37 minutes, 5.0 miles (so av 7.7mph), 340Kcals
HRM: 36:51 minutes, Av bpm 155, in zone 31:52, 670 Kcals (which would also mean av 8.1mph)
I don't know what numbers to trust! I'm thinking the HRM is more accurate for time and Kcals and the machine for total distance.
Hmm.
OK, so I put on 3lbs.
BUT. Today I bought a Polar A5 Heart Rate Monitor. I was gonna get an alternate cheaper brand that does similar, but the local Sports Authority doesn't have 'em in stock, and I dunno when I'd get to the large one near Tori and I didn't want to mail order (not at home to receive) but I felt I needed to exercise so I spent the extra $40 or so and got the Polar A5 from J&R.
So I configured it to monitor %age target heart rate (the watch defaults to 65%-85% of max 185bpm for my age). Turned on the next episode of Buffy I was watching, and started exercising after the opening credits had completed. Only took a minute to get above the minimum of 120. Whenever the watch beeped that I went over the 85% mark (157) then I would slow down. As time went on this meant I was actually going slower and slower. It was quite hard to stay at 7mph towards the end! But, by staying in the target zone I actually managed to survive the whole episode. Much longer duration and distance than I'd ever done before. Sweating a lot at the end of it (more sweat than I've ever produced on this machine) but not as tired as I have been in the past.
I guess I'd been over doing it before. The HRM is probably worth it's money :-)
Oddly the Kcals the watch says I burnt off is almsot TWICE what the elliptical machine said. The machine and the HRM also disagreed in times as well by 5%. Hmm.
Machine: 38:37 minutes, 5.0 miles (so av 7.7mph), 340Kcals
HRM: 36:51 minutes, Av bpm 155, in zone 31:52, 670 Kcals (which would also mean av 8.1mph)
I don't know what numbers to trust! I'm thinking the HRM is more accurate for time and Kcals and the machine for total distance.
Hmm.