I am pretty proud of myself today. I skipped my weight training yesterday, because I was exhausted, weak, and sore. Today I continued with cardio. I might actually be seeing some progress!
I compared today's track (
http://www.sportstracklive.com/track/detail/herald/Cycling/wellness/52011) with one about a week ago. Yes, they are different...today's stationary bike doesn't give a remotely accurate gauge of speed or distance and the walking track a week ago shows spikes where I ran.
However, I compared the max heart rates, the average heart rates, and the calories burned. I had a lower peak heart rate, identical average heart rate, and today I burned more calories. I even felt like I had to work to keep my heart rate up, instead of fighting to keep it down.
I don't know if that's because walking/running is more strenuous than biking, but I had a great sweat going, and I kept having to kick it to keep my heart rate in my target zone.
I'm certainly no athlete, and in fact all my readings and calculations say I'm obese (30% body fat) but I feel like after two weeks of really trying to do this right and make a difference in my fitness, that it's really starting to work.
I work at a research lab with a pretty large campus, and I have to walk quite a bit from building to building. It's much easier to do this now, and I'm not panting like a dog in heat anymore. Going up flights of stairs in the parking garages is far easier than it used to be.
Granted, I'm comparing two different types of exercise here, and the numbers may justify something totally different, but I FEEL like what I'm doing is paying off. That is such a great feeling and a huge motivator to keep it up. Now I want to exercise just to see what happens to the numbers!
Thank you FreeTrainers for your exquisitely useful workout program, informational website, and for being free to get me off my butt. Thank you Zephyr for making a great Bluetooth HRM, and thanks to HTC for making a phone that can tie it all together in an easy and helpful package! Music and a fitness tracker (and tons of other uses)!
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