Got the wife’s present sorted out eventually. We went into the jewellers in the mall and they took out 6 links. It now fits, and I think looks, beautiful. Well so does she which makes it all ok either way 🙂
On the way through the shopping mall I passed a little watch repairers and because the daughter wanted a new battery in her watch I stopped to get them to fix it.
While there I looked around, as you do, and noticed a Timex ‘heart monitor’ watch which looked ok. I’d seen this sort of watch before and wondered if I should get one. However, the Timex offering didn’t have much of a ‘look’ about it so decided against it. However, further down the counter they had a Casio model which had a heart monitor and *this* one I thought looked great. There were two models, one was black… the other… a sort of light blue and white.
This one is ‘basic black’… I couldn’t find a photo of my colour online and I’m too idle to take my own so imagine the same watch but where the one in the photos is black… mine is white.
So, bearing in mind my 60th will be in a few weeks I figured I’d go and nag the wife a little to see if she’d be interested. The thing was $199 so wasn’t a *huge* amount, but even so, it still cost. Anyway, to cut a long story short… I’m now the proud possessor of a watch that will let me know when my heart rate reaches excessive levels and that *will* be useful. The one thing the treadmill won’t tell me is my heart rate and there have been times when I’ve been a little concerned about the way my heart has been thumping.
Now… no more worries. When I collapse I can do it knowing exactly what my heart rate was when I passed out 😀
Oh yes… the face had fallen out of the daughters watch so I couldn’t fix it. We bought *her* a new one too.
The Eclectic Interweb 
Hiya fella. The idea is that you work (exercise I mean) for different periods of time, in different heart rate zones, to burn different levels of either fat or glycogen which build different levels of fitness. That’s the idea anyway.
However in order to do that you need to establish your maximum heart rate (preferably before you go blue and collapse into a twitching heap on the floor!!)
Talk to your trainer at the gym who should be able to help. The old rule of thumb used to be 210 minus your age but given your background it would be better to work with your trainer and set a realistic figure that doesn’t overstretch you but still makes your work meaningful.
For my running it’s why I do a mix of short, fast and very intense intervals to build basic leg speed, but also do speed endurance sessions over a longer distance and time to build my tolerance of lactic acid, and then really long slower runs which eventually burns fat (once I’ve exhausted my glycogen stores!!)
See – perfectly simple isn’t it.
What I meant to say of course was well done mate!
Stick at it!!
Hi Bro!! Would you believe I’ve already been getting my heart rate up to 140 bpm without getting breathless or turning blue?? I think the rule you quoted just might be ok. 🙂
I was thinking about what you were saying about ‘different levels of fitness’ and burning different sorts of fat or glycogen at different speeds and it makes good sense!
When I was on this diet last year I lost a lot of weight overall despite doing very little exercise. What exercise I *was* doing consisted mostly of brisk walks around the estate with the dogs for an hour or so!
Obviously the heart rate was pretty low but it still burned off the fat! This time I’m working hard and the weight really isn’t shifting anywhere near as fast. Maybe if I combine the gym workout with the somewhat gentler walks with the dogs, I’ll get the best of both worlds… because, as you suggest, of the variation in heart rate!
Well I figure it’s worth a try. Thanks for the advice!! 😀