Hurrah for the great weather this past weekend! Even though I got a lot of work done, I wanted to be sure to enjoy the outdoors a bit too. A lot of cooking was done (new simple recipe for you this week) and if you see the recipe I posted over the weekend, you might see where some of the extra energy came from.
Having recently purchased my friend’s unlocked iPhone5s, it was time to **FINALLY** do the Under Armour Armour39 assessment (because I wasn’t about to run around a track during the “all out” portion while carrying an iPad). (Want to just skip to the workout? Click here instead.) I’d long sense questioned the validity of that old “220 minus age” = estimated HR max, even before the more recent info about the not-so-good science it was based on came out. Apparently according to some scientists, HRmax can be highly individual and even among elite athletes somewhat wide ranging.
I’d often wondered about my ability to carry on a meaningful conversation while faaaaaaaaaaaaaar outside of the ranges where that was supposed to be possible. This was part of the reason that I’d been hesitant to use HRMs in the past for some things. Having also mentally done the calculation of “how I feel where” in terms of heart rate, I had modified some of the HR-related workout experiments I had been doing to a level of perceived effort. Going back to look at the results from these past workouts with the “theorized on my weight and gender” projected HR and the resulting highly theoretical “calorie burn” both of which seemed ridiculously insane, I was looking forward to doing the assessment and having the HRM app use those numbers instead. Even if it did mean that I would have to do some jogging and running (not my favorite activities at all).
So, in the interest of science and the joy of doing an experiment, I headed out to the track with my new-to-me iPhone5s and the Armour39 to complete the assessment. LOL how a running track is some form of psychological trigger… I’m immediately aware of the lighter-than-air looking runner people in their impossibly bright running shorts and coordinating shoes… pay no attention to the dark one approaching the track! (No really, please don’t look over here, I’m about to do some geeky science stuff and had to psych myself up about it by also bringing a kettlebell and Ultimate Sandbag to use in a workout after the assessment to get even more data. The kettlebell and sandbag are the fun part of the workout, I don’t want to run! NOOOOO! **twitch-twitch-flashback** “But coach I AM dressed out for PE Class, chucks are athletic shoes, and everything I own is black…” **end-flashback**). The choice for the 10 minute assessment was treadmill or running track, and as I explained to a friend since there’s a “going all out” part of the assessment, I’d much rather use a track, the idea of going all out on a treadmill fills my head with the dread of misstepping and somehow ending up teeth first on the floor. On a track I’ll just go a little more left or right or worst case dive for the grass and roll. Fortunately none of that ended up happening, especially since the aforementioned grass seemed to have a lot of anthills in it. But I’ll take my chances with an anthill before a treadmill to the face any day.
With my kettlebell, waterbottle, and Ultimate Sandbag carefully stashed at the corner of the track out of everyone’s way and temptation, I clicked “start assessment” and heard the familiar voice of Todd Durkin narrating. Cool. The first phase involved just a walking warmup for a couple of minutes, the next phase called for a 2-4 mph or light jog–still a warmup (amusingly a slow jog actually drives me nuts and is annoyingly uncomfortable for me to do for some reason), then the instructions were to gradually speed up over 3 minutes to a point of perceived exertion of “not able to complete a sentence without taking a breath” (halfway through this, I started to get much more comfortable with the faster speed…), finally the instructions were to go all out for 90 seconds which I did, and then realized exactly how long 90 seconds can be! HAHA! Finally the instructions were to stop to see how long it would take for the heart rate to recover from all out. I used this time to slowly stroll back to my stuff (and much needed water bottle). After wandering around a little and texting a few people about the experience it was time for the “actual factual” workout to begin. With the shiny new numbers from the assessment automatically stored into my profile on the app, I would be very curious to see what would happen. I just had a small workout planned, especially since it was starting to get dark out etc.
Here’s what I did:
Short mobility warm-up, a few kettlebell swings, and some clean and presses with the Ultimate Sandbag. Should note that I brought the lighter “power” sandbag and the 14kg kettlebell (the weight I would use for an RKC kettlebell snatch test.)
Then 5 rounds of (only resting as needed):
- 20 Ultimate Sandbag rotational lunges
- 10/10 kettlebell snatches
Then I did the reverse form of the Primal Move warm up, followed by the CC2 Trifecta (bridge, l-sit, twist) and a couple other specific mobility moves I’m currently working on.I noted that the % of HR max on the app display seemed to better match how I was feeling and what I was experiencing. Was also somewhat disappointed to see the “calorie burn” was much less, but not that disappointing since I’m not a big calorie counter and just look to make that number as insane as possible for nothing other than an odd phenomenon I throw under the blanket title of “macho reasons” (yes, women can have “macho reasons” to do things too.)
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