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Fractal Workouts

Today is Day 3 and I hit the stationary bike for 45 minutes of interval training. My program was 10 minutes of warm up HR 130, 5 x 4:1's HR 150-160: 140, 10 minutes of cool down HR 130. I feel amazing today!

Post workout I logged my HRZ's, and had to do some backtracking with my calendar to update my cardio spreadsheet, as there were a few weeks not logged. This led me to review my cardio log over the past 8 weeks. I have logged 23 hours of dedicated cardio in that timeframe; this averages to about 3 hours of cardio/week. My goal is 5 days/week 30 minutes = 2.5 hours so I am very happy with my performance! If I equate this into running distance, it is the equivalent of running about 30Km/week which I think is a healthy distance- of course, considering I am crosstraining on the stationary bike I only use that analogy as a reference, for the lifer runner in me. 

Of those 23 hours approximately 8 were spent in my warm up/cool down HR Zone, 8.5 were spent in my "maintain fitness/weight" HR Zone, 5 were spent in my "improve cardiovascular fitness" HR Zone, and approximately 1 hour was spent in my "improve athletic performance" HR Zone. This is fairly conservative and congruent with my cardio fitness goals.

So here is a  tremendous argument again for logging workouts! By recording my workouts I  can reflect on the patterns over periods of time in order to assess my performance as well as revise/review and set new goals. So, attempt to measure your efforts in order to gauge:
  1. Progress- review how much you have accomplished!
  2. Motivation- quantitative and cumulative results are very inspiring!
  3. Expectations- allow yourself to be realistic and avoid defeatism.
I am feeling pretty good right now considering my numbers! Woot. As I review my goals I would like to maintain or slightly increase my cardio time each week (let's get it up to 4 hours/week!). This would increase my average session to 48 minutes 5x/week (My ultimate goal would be 60, or 5 hours) Further to, I would like to increase the time spent in my top 2 HR Zones, as my weight management is on track and I will strive to improve my fitness and athletic performance.
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