MOVED

This blog has now moved to head ♥ heart ♥ health

Recent posts from head ♥ heart ♥ health

Tuesday 13 January 2009

BFFM Day 22 Carb Down


Weight : 61.6 kg
Training : romanian deadlifts, front squats, leg press, calf raises, single leg deadlifts, back extensions + treadmill 20 min MIIT/5 min steady state.
Time : 1 hour 30 min ~ Calories : 853 ~ AHR : 133 bpm
Month #1 target : 31 Jan ~ 60kg

one hundred grams of fat a day
is effortlessly melting away

one hundred grams of fat a day
is effortlessly melting away

*chanted to the tempo of your feet running intervals for 1 minute*

Lets talk today about high intensity interval cardio vs moderate intensity steady state cardio. Some people feel that you need to do one or the other and others feel you need to do both.

I do a hybrid of the two that we shall call MIIT [moderate intensity interval training].

You see I am not a big fan of sprinting until I cough up a lung, feel like puking and then gasping for air for 60 seconds and doing it all again. Frankly, it is unappealing, brutal and not very likely to happen. If I do sprints, I'd be lucky to get out about 5 before I gave in.

My intervals are way more civilised. I warm up with a power walk for 1 minute then run [not jog] for 1 minute. I power walk again for the next minute and repeat.

My heart rate doesn't hit 100%, I don't go all anabolic, I don't lactate have lactic acidosis and I don't feel nauseated. I hit about 85% of my max heart rate on the run and it gets back down to about 65% by the end of the walk.

UPDATE: Now I have my HRM back I can tell you that my run effort is 160-165 bpm and the end of the walk is around 150 bpm. So according to the looney heart rate estimations [220 minus age] I am working at 85-95% max heart rate the whole time ... um ... not likely.

I enjoy it. I work hard, I sweat, I puff but only for half the time I am on the treadmill/cross trainer. The other half of the time I am just cruising along. I can put in 20-30 minutes like this rather than 10-15 minutes at full bore.

This may not be as effective as traditional HIIT intervals but in all honesty, nothing is going to work if I don't do it. I figure three quarters of the effort and double the time probably equals the same result. And because I am not flogging myself I can do cardio my way every day.

And as for steady state ... *yawn* I just fall asleep ... changing things up every 60 seconds makes the time fly by.

How do you do your cardio?

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:41 am

    I hear you on the MIIT. I'm just not a sprinter either.

    I do enjoy my long walks however. I do them outside in the early morning sunshine, being dragged around by a Border Collie in and around a national park so it's never boring. Shoot me now if I had to do this on a treadmill.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Katie, like Michelle I enjoy long walks and also do them in the morning, dragged along by a labrador around a park. I've been doing HIIT sprints lately too (which I actually like) but was considering something along the MIIT lines today, so thanks for your thoughts.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love your chant!

    And your cardio!

    And your loss yet again.

    Can you believe it's high carb day again tomorrow? Licorice bullets this time?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Shelley - no licorice bullets - I just put them in calorie king and they have twice the carbs of the Mars Bar. I might have to think of something else.

    ReplyDelete