Saturday, September 4, 2010

HR training.

ALDI was selling these HR monitors for a measly $20, and seeing as I have never known what my heart is doing during activity I thought it would be wise to find out. And what a bargain I got.

So on looking at it and assessing the pro's and cons:
  • PRO'S
  • the design and colour are nice. Big hit in my eyes.
  • the watch band is not made of very hard plastic and sits nicely on my fine wrist.
  • chest strap is about 2cm in width and made of soft rubber.
  • has adjustable elastic to be able to get the right fit around your diaphragm.
  • comes with a bike clip so you can check what your doing cycling. BIG BONUS.
  • CON'S
  • The part on the chest strap that holds the battery is hard and slightly uncomfortable.
  • I know this works on the principle of moisture to conduct a signal but it's going to make me sweat even more than I already do.
  • How does one go about disinfecting it.
I am sure I will find many more things to like and dislike when I get to wearing it properly for the first time.

A friend of mine Eoin from Eoin's journey - jump on over and become a follower of his great blog, will be loaning me his book on HR training. We will be meeting this Thursday with other fellow DailyMiler's Jaydub - another great Aussie blogger who is documenting his training to his first marathon and beyond, Andrew - who also documents about his running and some of my other DailyMile friends as well. I can't wait to meet them all, should prove to be an interesting night.

I wish I had the heart rate monitor yesterday when I did the spin class in the morning. It would have been screaming warning alarms throughout our hill climb I'm sure. Everytime I go now I try to increase the intensity and not miss a single gear change when the instructor ask's of it. I stick hard and fast to all my sprints and hill climbs. If my legs start to burn I simply close my eye's, regroup my thoughts and keep repeating in my head "this will make me stronger, this will make me stronger". And before I know it interval one is over and I have another one to look forward to. I love it.

So swim session is on for this afternoon. Looking forward to more hard sessions in the water - or maybe not. I am thinking it is going to hurt this afternoon. Oh well, suck it up princess .

Your hard work will be rewarded.

"The path to a dream is paved with sacrifices and lined with determination. And though it has many stumbling blocks along the way, and may go in more than one direction, it is travelled by belief and courage and conquered with a willingness to face challenges and take chances" Barbara Cage