July 14th, 2007
I think I stopped blogging partly because I was split between two sites (delirity.com and delirity.com/busybee). I haven’t stopped exercising (well, I did for a while because I was injured, but I’m back at it again) - but I no longer want to treat it separately. If I want to write about these things, I’ll do it on my main blog www.delirity.com. See you there.
February 12th, 2007
To Whom It May Concern at Polar:
Let me begin by saying that I truly believe that your company puts out some of the best heart rate monitors available. I began training with one in June/July 2006 while I recovered from a car accident and found that it greatly helped me prevent from overdoing it.
Unfortunately my experience is that your customer service and repair is greatly lacking. In October/November 2006 my F6 was no longer giving me accurate heart rate information (it would give me 00 for much time while the little heart icon was flashing, then skyrocket to 220, then to 70, then back to 00) I called in a few times to see if I would be able to get the problem resolved over the phone. I was hopeful – I thought I had done something wrong (I wasn’t always wetting the sensors and wasn’t always disconnecting the elastic straps) – but even once I started doing everything by the book my HRM was still not performing well. When I sent my HRM in for repair (the first time) I was convinced that it would be returned to me quickly and working properly. When I received my HRM back a month later it was still having the same problem. I have now sent it in for repair a total of 5 times, each time to have it returned to me not working (though the “tests” say that it is).
I am very unclear why no one can return a working unit to me. When I called in the first time I explained that I believed that my transmitter wasn’t working properly. Each time I’ve sent it in they’ve claimed that the receiver had some sort of electrical defect. This last time I only sent in the transmitter after having explained to tech support that when I use my transmitter with my watch (or my husband’s F1) that it shows erratic behavior, but when I use my husband’s transmitter it shows normal readings. I received it back in the mail today with a note saying that it tested ok. And once again, when I test it with my watch and my husband’s watch it doesn’t work (but of course, my husband’s transmitter still works just fine).
I’m hoping that you can help me to once again have a functional HRM and restore my faith in your company. For now, I’ll be giving a warning to all the readers of my fitness blog. I really am a big fan of exercising according to heart rate, but the trouble that I have gone through with your product makes me wonder if it’s worth the hassle and the price.
Sincerely,
Annoyed
When the stupid HRM works, I love it. My HR used to be really high when I’d go to spinning and now it’s much much lower all the time. But, I’ve been dealing with this stupid F***ing HRM since October 2006 and for some reason unknown to me, the people at Polar appear to be unable to fix it. Why? Isn’t this what they do for a living? Thank goodness no one in my department listened to me when I suggested purchasing Polar HRMs to modify for one of our studies (I work in a biomedical engineering department). Honestly, I want to kick the people at Polar. It’s not a terribly adult thing to say, but why can’t they be competent?!
Anyway, I’m still trying to get back to the gym regularly. I’ve been running about twice a week and can run for 20 minutes straight without any trouble. I’ve been sick off and on since the beginning of the year so it’s been hard. Eating still isn’t working out well - I don’t really feel like I have enough support at home to give it the kind of attention it needs. Yes, things were going well at the beginning of the year, but then we moved and suddenly I had a lot more on my plate - and not much help. I think Jesse means well, but he doesn’t want to grow up, so doing a few chores on a regular basis isn’t very high on his priority list. Plus, I’ve been really busy at work and the stress from that hasn’t been helping. I’m going to get there someday, but for now I’m just happy to get through the day.
Cross your fingers for me, I’m hoping we’re almost at a point where we’ve worked through some of the issues that are holding me back. Once we get through that stuff it’s just me disciplining myself (which apparently is impossible for me when there’s too many other things I have to be in charge of) and making it happen (which is still no small feat).
January 11th, 2007
I’ve found that so far this year, my attitude toward working out and eating well is pretty relaxed. My workouts aren’t quite as regimented as they were (though they’ll become more so as I get further along - though I may be switching things up quite a bit!), but I’m hitting the gym almost every day before work (unless I’m not feeling well or have a commitment that cuts into my gym time). Eating is going really well, but I’m not feeling like I have to be on plan 100% of the time… for example, yesterday I turned 24 and celebrated with one of the tastiest scones I’ve ever had, plus a dinner of pizza and a little desert! But just because yesterday was an exception, today I’m back on track. It feels good to be doing the right things while not being too uptight over them (which is also why you won’t see me posting here quite as often as I used to… at least I think that’s how it’ll work).
The cycling instructor at my new gym is fabulous - and she teaching both Tuesday and Thursday mornings. This week in her class (my first time back to cycling in about 2 months) I discovered that while my body composition may have changed for the worse, my cardio fitness is still great! I was able to go from 3 minutes of cycling with a hr of 175, to 3 minutes around 130 (down as low as 126!). It’s incredible. It makes me realize that even though I was injured with one thing or another most of last year, I’m still making progress overall.
For part of my birthday present Jesse got me the running instruction video by the same group (RMAX - you can check out some clips of their stuff by searching RMAX on YouTube!) as the joint mobility dvd. I haven’t watched it yet, but I’m hoping it’ll help me continue to work on learning how to run without hurting myself! The other part of my gift was as exciting (if not more so) - a brand new copy of the Martha Stewart Homekeeping Handbook! It sounds silly, but I’m super excited to read it. Plus, it was accompanied by a clean living room (Jesse left school early to take all the broken down boxes to recycling, vacuum the floors, and clean up the surfaces!).
January 8th, 2007
I had a fairly successful first week of 2007. I didn’t quite get in all the exercise I wanted, but I did about 90%. This second week will be hard in regards to food because my body needs a little more starch (i’m adding it in the form of starchy veggies)… but I’ll get through it and in another month or so my food situation should be at least a little more settled than it is right now (I add a new food every few days).
January 2nd, 2007
My first day of eating well went fairly well except that I was totally wiped out. That’s what I get for getting my body used to sugar. I know it’ll be a hard first few days as I adjust, but I’m going to feel much much better very soon. I even managed to take my vitamins yesterday.
Goals for Week 1:
January 1st, 2007
Thank goodness the new year is here. 2006 went really badly for me physically. I’m finally feeling better from all the random injuries I’ve had, but I’m at a whopping 165 (higher than ever) and since I haven’t been at the gym and haven’t been eating well it means my 165 is a lot flabbier than it would have been if I had reached it while gymming and eating well.
Fortunately, Jesse and I are both dedicated to reforming our eating and getting in great shape (and now that we’re in a place of our own - yes we moved out over the holidays! - it should be easier since we can actually control what goes on in our home). He’ll be there to suggest that I not put that really good looking but unhealthy thing in my mouth and to instead remind me of the really yummy veggies in the fridge.
Today I start back on eating according to my metabolic typing plan. I know I felt great doing it before, I just got beat up and never really saw it to conclusion… well this time is going to be much much better. I’m really looking forward to the improvement in my health! Regular gym outtings start tomorrow. But don’t worry, I’m not slacking today - I’ll be doing a video that RMAX puts out called Intu-Flow. It’s a series of movements that helps get body parts moving properly by helping lubricate joint capsules. Jesse’s been doing it fairly consistently for a month and finally (for the first time in years) hasn’t had a headache in 2 weeks. I figure if he can get those results for an existing problem, it should help me prevent any problems!
Happy 2007 everyone!
December 1st, 2006
I’ve been trying to think about overtraining and how to avoid it, while still feeling satisfied with my workouts. I’m certainly nowhere near the point where I will be overtraining, but I imagine I’ll have the option shortly after the beginning of the year. For a while there, I was working out 6 days a week, often twice a day for many of those 6 days. While it made me happy and I felt really great, I also knew I was overtraining when I took a few days off, went back and found I was much stronger.
So, the big questions are: How do I do all the things that make me happy while not overtraining? What counts as “active rest”? Can I determine if I am doing something that counts as active rest by my heart rate?
How do you avoid overtraining?