When the Numbers Don't Seem Right

Vision Quest console

When the numbers don't seem right, they probably aren't. I dropped my son off at his extra morning gym class and then drove back home. I only had a little over an hour before having to drive back to school to board the tour bus chartered for the class trip to Locust Grove Historic site and museum. My husband and I bought an elliptical for our garage some three years ago. I confess that I've never actually used it until today. My husband used to run on a treadmill before the circuit board needed a repair that cosedt more than the actual machine itself.

I decide that I'm going to try and do my HIIT/LISS cardio workout on the Vision Quest elliptical. It has a smooth gliding motion but it's hard to get up to speed even on the manual setting of zero incline and level 1 resistance. It takes me a considerable amount of time before I can actually double my speed, even as I'm doing 15 seconds On / 45 seconds Off. I do the HIIT for 15 minutes and then do 15 minutes of LISS. At least the display is clear, and without any gym chatter or ambient noise, I can keep the iPod volume relatively low. What really seems amiss though is the built-in heart rate monitor, which is only part of the stationery handles, and not the moving handles (like on the LifeFitness Cross-trainers). No matter how fast I pedal, the monitor tells me that my heart rate is 80-85 bpm. That can't be right!

Then I remember I can take my pulse for 10 seconds and multiply by 6. I can't get a good reading on my wrist. It's much easier to find a pulse just under the jaw, in the big carotid artery. I count 17 beats in 10 seconds. That's 102, which makes more sense. I take a second read just to be sure. I get 18 beats. Well, that's completely different from the machine's reading, but no more wacky than the Precor telling me that my heart rate has suddenly zoomed to 190 while I'm doing a slow jog. Oh well. Tomorrow I'll be back at the gym. It's Leg Day!

Thursday Cardio Workout

Elliptical

15 min HIIT

15 min LISS 

Calorie :   303 CAL
Distance: 2.42 mile
Speed :    4.8 mph
Duration : 00:30:02

Stay at Home Cardio

So it's a dreary drizzly day and I'm waiting for the appliance repairman. My husband assures me that because I didn't go to the gym, he'll show up at 2 pm. Since I had to get up anyway to walk the dog and get my son ready for school, I figured I'd use this opportunity to actually give the elliptical a trial run. We'd purchased the Vision Fitness back in December and I confess that I've not used it until now although my husband does occasionally get himself hot and sweaty on a 20 minute intervals jaunt.

I plugged in my iPod and got into a tank, a T-shirt and running pants, and my hoodie. The motion is wonderfully smooth and I felt as if this is what running, if I could actually run without substantial pain and damage to my knees, would feel like. But even at the lowest setting, there is some resistance which I detected in the way my thighs moved. It wasn't painful though and I did appreciate the multi-position handles which allows a more natural grip. The stationery front handles are also heart rate sensors but I don't know how accurate they are since according to the machine, my heart rate was barely 89 although it did spike to 118 at one point. I alternated between these and the wider placed neutral grip moving handles, which I preferred.

Because I didn't use a program, the machine was set for a steady non-incline session which I thought was best for a first time user. By the end of the session, I was indeed hot and sweaty and a little breathless as well. I snapped a couple of quick photos with my phone because lately I'm inclined to forget those odd meaningless numbers. Oatmeal and coffee don't seem to be enough this morning. I omitted the egg because I'm not lifting weights today and now I'm starving. Of course, I've not had any water to drink either... Instead, I make a frittata with an egg, a leftover half of a small baked potato, a sliver of vidalia onion, and a handful of arugula all sauteed in a pan with butter and olive oil. Add salt and pepper to season, of course. The repairman arrives as I'm halfway done savoring this mid-day treat. Of course.

Today's Cardio Workout on the Vision Fitness S7100:
30 minutes / level 1 / no incline: 2.67 miles (and I don't know how they determine this because it didn't ask me to punch in my weight) 330 calories

Leftovers make great frittatas!