PS - FAIL.

Also, I had my heart rate monitor in my gym bag ready for this afternoon's run. I left my gym bag in the car while I was at work. In the summer Texas heat. For nine hours. When I put it on at the gym, the little computer thingy that attaches to the chest strap wasn't picking up my heart rate. I think the heat fucked it up. I hope it's not ridiculously expensive to replace.

10.22.2011 workout

For starters, Roommate and I biked to a restaurant for lunch with his family instead of driving. That set a good tone for the rest of the day & also managed to ease my slight hangover. So round trip it was about a six mile ride. I didn't time it but I got sweaty during both so whatever!

After a lengthy nap this afternoon, I set out to run. I was just going to walk on the treadmill since I'm exhausted and I can feel a sore throat possibly coming on. BUUUUT there were some treadmill issues. Mainly just me realizing that since we put up the Halloween lights, the extension cord is unavailable and I had nothing to plug the treadmill into. So I just went around the neighborhood with the dog. I did 2.13 miles in about 24 minutes, putting me at about an 11:20min/mile. It was definitely a slower run but it felt good to keep it slow. And for once, I managed to stay in my heart rate range throughout most of the run.

I think it's time for a shower, some soup & hot tea, maybe a movie, and then bed!

10.18.2011 workout

My heart rate monitor finally arrived yesterday! AND the weather was absolutely beautiful, so I immediately donned my running clothes when I got home from work and put the new device to the test. I did 2.19 miles in 24:40. BOOOOO. That put my pace at over 11:00min/mile. I think part of the slow-down was because of the damn HRM.

I plugged in all my stats and it gave me a range of 128-167 bpm. Well, once I started running and got halfway through, my heart rate was around 175 and the stupid thing kept yelling at me that I was out of my range. So I decided to listen to it and slowed it down so my heart rate would slow. Well, let me tell you, being in the range did NOT feel difficult enough for me. When I'm working out, I like to FEEL it. So at some point during my run, I just said 'fuck it' and kept my own pace, ignoring the 'out of range' beeping coming from the watch.

Another gripe I have about the monitor is that I feel like it overestimated the amount of calories that I burned. A 25 minute run at an 11:00min/mile pace + a five minute cool down walk couldn't have possibly made me burn 343 calories, right?

I am undecided on my feelings on it right now. I'll try it again this evening. I think I will do intervals on the treadmill instead of a neighborhood jog.

wise investment or not? i can't tell yet.

I just ordered this gizmo off of Amazon. It's the Polar FT4F heart rate monitor. It'll be able to help me make sure that I'm working out at the right intensity and it'll give me an accurate measure of how many calories I'm burning in a work out. Plus it does neat things like track your fitness progress over time and what not.

It was $65 dollars, which makes my tummy hurt thinking about, but I'm hoping that it'll help me get better work outs in and, since it was so pricey, maybe it will motivate me to work out more so I can get my money out of it!