Day 18 - Spin (aka a bike with training wheels)

That's what our instructor, ride leader...whatever you call the person running the class kept calling it. When we were slowing down she'd say, "Are you really going to let a bike with training wheels beat you?? It's just a bike people!". Let me tell you - it may have just been a bike, but it's a bike that kicked my ass. In fact, this is the first time that I think I may have gone too hard.

I was pedaling right along when we started a 10 minute "run", or standing up while pedaling. I was really proud of myself that I could keep up, and then when "Lose Yourself" by Eminem came on, it definitely pumped me up. I was pushing myself, sweating like crazy, and then we slowed down to take a pulse check. Mine was high. Really high. In 10 seconds my heart beat 35 times. Multiple that by 6, and it's not good. I really paced myself after that, but what scares me is that I didn't feel like I was going that hard. I didn't feel like I was going to pass out like I did in 30/60/90 last week, and it definitely didn't feel like my heart was beating over 200 which is really scary. I'm not sure how I feel about it to be honest. I'm glad that I was able to push myself, but was it worth it if it's bad for me? I would feel okay if I knew I was going too hard but kept going anyway, but I didn't know and couldn't tell.

Don't get me wrong, I was panting and sweating like crazy. But shouldn't I have felt something more than that if my heart rate was that high? Now I don't know what to do because my motto before was push myself, but listen to my body when it got to be too much. And now I'm not sure if my body is going to tell me if it's too much or not. Do I go easier and hope I'm still pushing myself? That seems like the safer and more obvious choice, as opposed to pushing myself and getting my heart rate up that high again.

Maybe it's finally time to invest in a heart rate monitor. If I can't be sure what I'm feeling is accurate I should have something there to tell me what's really going on with my heart, right? And maybe I'm looking at this wrong. Maybe instead of being scared and a little annoyed, I should take this as a good thing. I was actually working out hard enough for my heart to really get going - granted going too hard, but you get the idea.

On the to-do list for tomorrow? Do some research into heart rate monitors, and skip spinning. I'll have to check out the gym schedule and see what else they have on a Friday...til tomorrow!

~Catie

Minutes spent working out this week: 175