Me, the HRM, and the C25K - part 1.

So my Polar FT7 arrived today. I was so excited... like a little kid at Christmas! As soon as hubs gave me the package I tore it open and tried it in. I was worried that the ladies watch might not fit, but I've got heaps of room!
Anyway, after putting dinner in the oven (fish and chips from the crunchtime cookbook), I left Hubs with the kids and off I went to tackle week 1 day 1 of the Couch 2 5k program. This is a running program designed to get you going from not being able to run more than 20 metres (me), to running 5kms non stop in 9 weeks. I had started this program before and gotten to around week 3 or 4 and given up. I thought it might be a good way to get some exercise into my day.
So off I went.... 5 min warm up and intervals of 60secs running and 90 seconds walking with a 5 minute cool down. It went well, I was huffing and puffing away keeping an eye on my heart rate. Half way through during one of the walks I worked out how to see my calories burnt and was shocked to see only 120. I really thought being my size I'd most likely burn the 500 in the 30 minutes. So I pushed myself as hard as I could go. I didn't stop running during any of the running intervals and upped the walking speed. I tried to take larger strides and really push myself... I just HAD to get over 200. In the end, I burnt 212 cals. I must admit I am disappointed that that is all I burnt. Either I didn't push myself hard enough (although it really felt like I did!!) or maybe I'm a little fitter than I thought? I have no idea really, but at least I know where to aim from now on.
Thankfully earlier today I'd done 30 mins on the Wii so that made things a little better.

Looking forward to having another crack in the morning :)

Living where I do does have it's drawbacks when it comes to exercise. I live a good 50-60 mins from the nearest gym, so it's just not worth me bothering with that. I have however decided to do one class one day or night a week. After talking to my Mum and two sisters, we've decided to tackle a zumba class of a Thursday night. I've done Zumba once before, with my netball team as a pre season session. We were just having so much fun, laughing our heads off and really enjoying ourselves. I'm wanting to incorporate more things like that into my exercise regime to keep it from getting stale.

At the end of October our tennis season starts. I'm looking forward to getting into that and hopefully being the fittest I have been since I started playing 2 years ago. It's just a casual day out with the locals, although they do make mad afternoon teas and I'm going to have to make sure I take something for myself rather than indulge in the creamy fattie goodness that normally adorns the table. It shouldn't be a problem because I've face 2 of these situations in 11 days and didn't budge at all.

So things are still going well. I'm feeling good, eating well, still making great choices and enjoying myself.
Here's to Week 1 Day 2 and smashing out a few more calories :)