Catching Up on Monday and Tuesday

Two strong workout days in a row. 

Yesterday, I spent 80 minutes on the elliptical machine, trying to replicate as close as I could a "medium slow distance" run of 9-10 miles.  I spent about 60 minutes working a heart rate program, and since I can't specify what zone I want to stay in, I told the machine I was 28 years old so that it would work me a little more intensely than it would for a 49 year old.  I still stayed aerobic throughout, so it's not like there's that big a difference. 

Afterward, I did 20 more minutes on the Fit Test program.  The last two times I did that (last week), I did it fresh, scoring 40 and 41 on their VO2max index.  This time, even though I was already 60 minutes into an elevated heart rate and sweating, I scored 42.  I thought that was weird.  I was totally expecting it to deflate my score, since I thought the algorithm would assume the user was starting from a resting state. 

I don't know how much wiggle room there is.  I know I used to score 44 on the thing and I sure feel more fit now than I did way back when (what?  a year ago?).

For fun, I did some backwards running on the treadmill at a safe pace of 5.0-5.5.  It's a workout.  Got my HR up to 80% and I can feel it today in my quads.  It's absolutely amazing to me though how unimpacted my calves are, especially since it's almost pure forefoot running.  There's just no push off that taxing on the calf, I guess.  Except for the awkwardness of running in a direction you're not facing, it seems like a legitimate running drill, working antagonistic muscles to the ones normally used in forward running. 

I ran about a mile as a warmup before the elliptical workout, and then later during my circuit training, I worked in two more backwards 880s between circuit "laps." 

That's a lot of time spent in the gym for one day. Double session; but good.

Today, I just did the spin class with Renee.  I cheated a little and didn't work myself into the anaerobic zone as much as normal.  Renee's classes are demanding, full of high intensity intervals.  I got a good sweat and definitely worked past my lactate threshold at times, but overall, just burned some calories. 

It's a chin-up/push-up/sit-up day with Quin.  We'll do that tonight.