Exercise notes
Nov. 7th, 2008 08:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
johnpalmerI managed to swim twice this week, and did two more sets of interval training.
I've decided to cap my intervals at 1:15, because I have a tendency to want to expand them, and what I'm trying for is intensity, not duration. I figure the swimming will give my heart steady exercise, so the interval training should be restricted to actual interval training. (The funny thing is, I'm doing this based on an experiment that 5 *30 second* intervals would help with my heart. I've already doubled it to 60 seconds, and added an extra 15 so that I'm exercising at full intensity the entire 60 seconds, rather than losing a bit at the beginning while speeding up.) (Oh, yeah... do you see how I keep extending those intervals? "Well, just a few extra seconds at first, so I'm *really* exercising for a full 60 seconds." And then it's another few seconds, so I'm *really* exercising for a full 75 seconds. And then, I wonder if I can do two minutes. And then, I need to add a bit more to make it a *full* two minutes.)
Today, I was able to do 5 intervals; the fourth was tiring, and the fifth was exhausting - I ended up taking a 10-20 breath rest after each. But I managed to get 1:15 on each interval, and kept up around 180rpm. I had none of the "please kill me now!" feeling, and I'm even tilting away from the "I really hate this", except (obviously) near the end of an interval, when time slows down[1]. Also, I was tired afterward, but I haven't been falling-asleep-tired, so that's good.
I've also been keeping up with calisthenics at home - mostly pushups and abdominals, with a few leg exercises to hopefully strengthen my knee (well... the core muscles that support my knee, really).
[1] That's one of my rules for determining when I'm at my limit. Time slows down. When I'm exercising hard, but well within my limits, I can ignore the timer for a minute, or two, or three. When I'm getting near my limit, I can't help but check every 30 seconds or so for when time is up. And, when time slows down, so twenty (or even ten!) seconds feels like an eternity, I'm working too hard.
