Monday, December 31, 2007

be still my heart...

or whatever other heart reference you can come up with. For Christmas, my DH gave me a heart rate monitor to use in training. It's pretty cool actually, a strap that you wear around your chest (i kind of tuck it under the bottom band on my sports bra, and barely notice it once its on) and then a watch that reads your heart rate and tracks it during your workout. So I've been playing with that the last couple of days, first on the bike on Saturday, and then running today. Turns out that the treadmill can actually pick up the signal from the monitor as well, so it was displaying my heart rate right on the control panel.

Anyway, the idea is that you use a mathematical formula (or a test done by a doctor which is more accurate but expensive and lengthy) to determine your maximum heart rate, and then use some more formulas to work our your target heart rate for easy, moderate, and hard workouts. Once I move into my formal training schedule, I have days when I'm supposed to do an easy run, and days with a moderate run, so it helps to quantify those numbers. Good thing I have a few more weeks until we get there, because at this point, anything more than a brisk walk is getting me into my moderate to high heart rate. At least it isn't a surprise, I definitely knew I had some work to do to get ready! But I'm a numbers person, so it's great to have something quantifiable as opposed to just "I'm tired" or "this hurts" to measure by.

4 comments:

Ella said...

Happy New Year 2U.

Blessings, Ella

Chris said...

wow can i borrow it? i am sure i might have something you can borrow of mine too? maybe not techy but some piece of clothing perhaps...wait until you see this lil yoke neck dress mom has made for me :)

marian said...

ar you kidding? I plan on stealing all of your clothes within 24 hours of your arrival. :-) Can't wait to see the latest Chaz creation.

Yes, you can certainly borrow it.

Normal Mom said...

I'm still so proud that you are still in the race. I would have given up after being sick.

You rock!