Fitness Test on Polar

I finally tried the POlar heart rate monitor. I did the fitness test last night, but forgot that i had had a cuppa coffee before the test. Anyway, my resting heart rate turned out to be 61bpm (which is pretty good considering I had coffee!) and my VO2 max was 47.

I was kiasu and decided to test it out in the morning again, and this time my resting heart rate was at 58bpm, with a VO2 max of 49! According to the chart and the heart rate monitor, my fitness level is ELITE (hurrah!)! I guess one can be fat and fit at the same time...oh well, if can't be skinny at least can be fit... Also, this result is that of a female in her mid 20s :) :) Double bonus!

Anyway, I used the heart rate monitor at the gym, and it could sync with the treadmill and elliptical machines because they are Polar ready. The treadmill was quite accurate in its readings, whereas the elliptical machine was not accurate as my heart rate tended to fluctuate between 130 and 160bpm when I hadn't changed my pace at all. In any case, the training zone that was set on the watch was quite low, about 70-80% of my max heart rate. ( My max heart rate is 183 - so for those of you who know the formula you can guess my age!) I usually workout to about 163-165 bpm which is about 90% of max heart rate. This morning I even went up to 170bpm..which is about 93% of my max heart rate!!!!That's crazy!!! Unless of course...my heart is actually younger than its physical age..:) :)

Polar RS300x

This is one of my birthday presents - a Polar Rs300x watch with a heart rate monitor. I should be able to sync this to the treadmills in the gym , but I've been too busy all week to test it out.

More later!

A Pleasant Day at BB

My brother booked me a one night stay at Swiss Garden hotel yesterday. I got to the hotel about 4ish, the first thing that I had wanted to do was check out the swimming pool and gym. Alas, I turned on the tv and saw Eric Bana, so got side tracked for a while. The movie being shown was “Lucky You” starring Eric Bana and Drew Barrymore.




After the movie finished, I went down to check the pool and gym…the pool was so tiny, slightly bigger than a Jacuzzi pool so I did not bother to swim (plus too many people at the poolside sunbathing – I hate crowds). The gym overlooks the pool and is quite tiny too. It had 2 treadmills, 1 elliptical trainer, 1 stepper, 2 bicycles, free weights and some benches. I was happy enough with the treadmill.

Right after that I went gallivanting on Jln Bukit Bintang, and shopped a bit in BB Plaza. It’s like a whole new world as I very rarely go to that area with so many neighbourhood malls now. Saw a lot of cheap clothes, but they were mostly Ah Lian looking thingy. Only got myself a nice cheap halter neck top (which would probably last a few months only). As a teenager I used to frequent a poster shop in BB Plaza for Duran Duran posters, and much to my surprise I found that this shop still exists today!Only it mostly sells posters of football celebrities and movie posters. Later I met up with a friend and we went to Jln Alor for dinner.

We went to a restaurant called “Happy Lim Eatery”. We ordered:
Fried kangkung with belacan
Grilled stingray
Chicken satay
Marmite ribs (yummmmy!!!)






We were so tired we just went back to the hotel to chill out. Later that night some of my staff came to surprise me with a cake! It was very sweet of them.



We called it a night by 12 midnight, and slept until 8am. (The gym only opened at 8am so this was one of the rare occasions that I got to sleep in  ) We headed for the gym at 8.30am but the treadmills were all in use. So I’d started with 20 mins of the stepper, followed by 10 mins of the elliptical trainer before I got to use the treadmill. It was unbelievably hot – of all days the aircon did not work.

After I finally got on to the treadmill, it was so hot, like running in a sauna. I had to stop after 4km as I was all soaked and dripping onto the treadmill! It was also very uncomfortable and could not breathe. It’s supposed to be outdoor running day today, but I guess working out in that sauna-like room was enough!

After about an hour of workout, I showered, then we headed to Pappa Rich on Bukit Bintang for breakfast. We had the traditional toast + butter+ kaya, 2 half boiled eggs and coffee in the traditional cup and saucer. The ambience was pretty nice, except for the stupid tourist bus across the road infront of Federal Hotel honking with the loud horn and the stupid people smoking. Don’t understand why the best seats are always given to smokers. They should just ban smoking in restaurants.







It was a lovely morning, and it rained so it cooled the day. I hope the haze clears so I wont feel awful when I run outdoor.

Mid Life Crisis Ramblings

I don’t understand why I have love handles when I don’t have anyone to handle it.

I don’t understand why I have child bearing hips when I won’t have any children to bear.

Ho hum, such is the life of a middle aged lady with middle age spread and mid life crisis!

Been good with my diet and exercise whole of last week (with the exception of yesterday’s dinner) but the scale needle won’t budge. Feel a bit smaller but the scale needle still did not move. No I am not buying that “it’s muscles” story!

Anyway it’s usual legs day today on a Monday…had to run off the extra calories from the yummy dinner last night!

Rain, Shine or Haze

Finally started my Saturday morning runs again. Been lazy, tired and sluggish for a while now..It's been a few months since my absence for Saturday morning runs. Woke up late this morning, about 8am, but decided I needed to run anyway since I've committed myself. Hazy morning, but I went nevertheless.

I think runners are delusional people. They will either kid themselves into thinking that its ok to run in the haze OR they run early in the morning when they cant see the haze!

So anyway I ran 8.5km this morning....was going to do 10 but my throat was rather itchy because of the haze, so i thought I'd cut it short. Plus my left foot hurt a bit so I thought I'd better take it slow and increase distance another time.

Feeling more energetic now with the run :)

New Mantra

Must have a new mantra to get out of this sluggish mode.

I MUST
I MUST
I MUST
I MUST
I MUST
I MUST
I MUST
I MUST
I MUST
I MUST....

....motivate myself.

I must keep reminding myself that I am beginning to look like the Digi yellowman.
I must keep reminding myself that the only similarity that Miranda Bailey and i have is the ass.

I've committed myself..but can I do it?

Ramblings

I've been lazy to blog about my exercise regime. Actually I've just been lazy - whole of last week especially. It's back to the clapper this week.

Oh forgot to blog about this issue - in Celebrity Fitness, initially they placed the clothes hooks outside the shower cubicles. So you'd have to expose yourself a bit to reach out to grab your garments etc. However, after 2.5 years of operating in Bangsar Village, now they've finally fixed a hook INSIDE the cubicle. On top of that, it's a fancy hook in the shape of a dolphin. DOn't understand - it took the management over 2 years to fix this? They sure take a long time to fix small things. They took more than a year to fix the heaters as well.

Been trying to get back to RPM - but it's always too much of a rush before work...so i've started swimming again. Gotta motivate myself!!

Irresponsible Pet Owners

I can't understand people who don't put their dogs on leash when walking their dogs - AND especially so when they know their dogs don't like runners. It's such irresponsibility which leads the dog to attack people, and they blame it on the dog and put it to sleep.Animals don't have the capability to think whether an action is right or wrong - unless they are put through some positive or negative conditioning - they mostly behave on the defensive when they are scared.

The reason why I am bitching about this is because I nearly got chased by a dog today while running. Small dog, but nevertheless terribly irresponsible of the owner. I love dogs but owners need to take control of it. If your dog doesnt like to be leashed, then dont bring it out!