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Monograph

Tuesday, March 30, 2004

Don't run, walk

I'm older today, and one of the benefits of being older is new possessions. This year my better two thirds got me a heart rate monitor for exercising. I've wanted one of these for ages, but had of course completely forgotten this right up to the moment I unwrapped it.

Now, my 90 day fitness plan calls for me to exercise for 25 mins three times a week, for three weeks to improve my cardiovascular fitness. I should do this exercise at 70% of my maximum heart rate, or about 143 bpm.

Trying this out brought some interesting results. My dead stopped, doing absolutely nothing and having forgotten about the monitor heart rate is between 64 and 66. Not great, but not bad. My wandering round the house doing next to nothing heart rate is more like 80 - I've no idea if that's bad or not.

My heart rate at what I've usually considered a 'light jogging' kind of pace (9 minute miles) is over 160. Much experimentation revealed that jogging at 70% of my maximum heart rate is pretty much impossible. The moment I so much as lift my feet off the ground my heart rate hits about 153 and stays there.

Think it's time I kept this fitness thing up for more than a week in a row.