Polar Heart Rate Monitors

So, I've been doing a ton of research on Periodization training amongst other things. Periodization training goes something like - off season, base training, build phase, pre-competition, competition.

In the simplest of terms: the key to losing "fat" weight is to train at a lower heart rate in base training. Once your heart rate goes over the aerobic threshhold your body requires carbohydrates to fuel you- which makes you crave more carbs rather than teaching your body to use the fat in your body for energy. A no brainer right?


(Not the best graph but you can get the ideal concept from it.)

My last heart rate monitor was a hand me down that wouldn't hold a battery charge. So, I did a ton of research to see what my next purchase should be. Polar was the big winner!

They seem to be at the top of the pack in trying to monitor all three sports of swimming, biking, and running at a comprehensive level while still being user friendly.

I bought the Polar RCX5. So when I'm trying to measure my outputs during a run and I want to know my mph, heart rate, distance, heart rate zones, calories burned etc. I can check it all on my watch. If I want to change the views of data all I have to do is wave the watch by my heart rate transmitter. Easy peasy! Also, they have made it very easy to switch between the different sports- no crazy button pushing there.


I'm still researching a ton on running plans, swimming plans, biking plans, and nutrition. But I'm happy to say my first big buy is marked off the list (Polar). I think I'll be pretty happy with it.

Now to buy a carbon bike. Stay tuned.

Oh a relaxing weekend...

The weekend prior to this was the first weekend that we didn't have anything planned on our calendars since the first week of June. So needless to say the weekend prior to this one... we did a bunch of cleaning and errands.

So this past weekend was nice. Pete went out and had a boys night without me so that I could watch Grey's Anatomy without catching any grief. (Fellow watchers... it's been a weird season so far huh?) Then we did a day of garage work and went out to eat with friends. Yesterday I went to the LA County Fair, which doesn't quite live up to the NC Fair memories of my childhood but it did have wine tasting. SO that was a plus. Then last night we went and saw Contagion.

Holy cow, I personally loved Contagion. I think it is exactly, exactly what would happen if a virus of that sort came about. It told a lot of human truths. My heart was definitely racing throughout it. The acting was phenomenal... but the cast was amazing so I doubted it could go wrong.

The big takeaway from it all makes me think that I should move out of this big city and go learn to be more self sufficient out in the country.

Good thing we've been taking survival classes. Did you know that yucca can be used as soap and as material to make a really strong rope? Pretty cool.

Ladies Night!

Okay so maybe a little misleading. By ladies night you think me and a bunch of girl friends went out to a bar or a movie and dinner or something. Nope, I talked a group of five of my girlfriends out to accompany me to Phase IV - Scientific Health and Performance Center for a lecture and a raffle.

Dr. Chris Renna, founder of LifeSpan Medicine, gave a lecture about women and sports. Very interesting stuff as the man is highly intelligent and spoke a lot about the chemistry of our bodies. It all sounded vaguely familiar from my days in school but I'm a little rusty. Here were my takeaways:
• You need to get proper sleep in order to prepare your body to WANT to exercise.
o Turn off all overhead lights by 9pm and read. If you are hungry after dinner
it is probably your body telling you that you are tired.
o Actually not a problem for me but I thought I'd share for the blogging
world. I know…. I'm lucky.
• Yikes! Type A and Type O blood cannot process wheat or dairy or peanut butter.
o This is going to be super hard for me. I can do without peanut butter no
problem. Apparently I can substitue any other nut butter and I'll be in good
shape. BUT NO DAIRY ! Oh my lord... this means no cheese, no yogurt, NO ICE CREAM! Wheat is going to be tough too but DAIRY, ah carumba.

If you have any good substitutes for dairy please let me know because right I now I'm not sure if I'll be able to do it.

Dr. Renna also said that the way America processes there dairy is bad for our system. A friend is letting me borrow a book on this. Apparently Europe dairy is ok. I need to find out what the difference is.

I had frozen yogurt and greek yogurt last night. Day 1 and I already failed.

I've done it! Ironman CDA here I come!

June 24, 2012 I will be doing my first Ironman race in Idaho! I'm currently engaged in reading all about nutrition at the moment.

When I did my first Half Ironman, Vineman, in July of 2011 I didn't suffer an Gastro-Intestinal distress but I have a feeling that they way I'm eating now is going to be a problem for a full day race. So, I'm barrelling down. I'm challenging myself to follow a periodization structure full with Heart Rate monitoring and a healthy diet that mirrors my training. I'll start into base training in December. Here's go nothing!

Hopefully I'll be all smiles like this lovely lady:

Disneyland Family Holiday Party

One of the many joys of working for Disney is the Employee Christmas Party at Disneyland each year. The picture above is Main Street. It was a wonderful year this year as it wasn't too cold (we'd just had 80 degree weather the day before) and it wasn't very crowded.

We enjoyed a lovely Mexican dinner and headed off to the rides. Captain EO (so outdated it was funny, gotta love MJ), Space Mountain, Indiana Jones (pictured below), and Haunted Mansion.

The picture quality isn't wonderful as I'm getting used to my new phone. But yeah, here is me and Pete waiting in line for Indiana Jones.

More holiday spirit posts to come...

Finally something good to talk about...

Life had been pretty uneventful there for a little while. (Ok, ok I did make an awesome turkey for Thanksgiving and play flag football that morning but I have no pictures.)

Last weekend though- prime action! Saturday I talked Pete, my trainer, and a couple of other people into doing this awesome 5k obstacle/ mud course run called the Gladiator Rock N Run. It was super, super fun. Nitro from American Gladiators put it on and it was really well organized. They had all kinds of great sponsors, great music, and food trucks there at the end. So that was part one - get really really dirty, work out, and have fun.

Part two of Saturday's activities was the LA Scavenger Hunt for the LA Union Rescue Mission and the LA Food Bank. The purpose of the race was to help gather material items (food, clothing, toys, etc.) for well you guessed it, the less fortunate. So you had to run around the city and pick up all these crazy things or do certain things and take a picture or a video of it. One of the bigger item scores was to have a teammate get a piercing. So, after a little encouraging from my team... I got my nose repierced. (I had done it back when I was 19 or so but got rid of it pretty quickly.) Ta dah! Yeah, I'm ballsy.

Then Sunday, I got a new phone. I left ATT and joined Verizon and got a fabulous new smart phone. Pity though, I'm still having troubles getting texts. But nonetheless I'm a happy girl.

He's all grown up!

Pete has re-entered the world of no roommates land. We moved him into a charming 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house in the rancho-equestrian district of Burbank this weekend. His next door neighbors have ducks and horses (and dogs)! Its kind of fun to hear it. I'm very excited for him.
He's close to Griffith Park, which I love and he's also close to Baskin Robbins, which I secretly love but also wish it was further away. We had BR twice this weekend. :( How am I supposed to lose weight when Baskin Robbins is 40 feet away?

In other news, I got my little sister (BBBS) hooked on Harry Potter- oh yeah! She likes to read to me in the car when I drive her around. I thinks its adorable. She really needs work on her reading and writing skills. Poor thing's brother is in the mental hospital for at least the fourth time during this year.

I signed up for my first half Ironman. I'm excited to announce that after the 8 hour sweat fest and rest I'll be able to enjoy wine country in Sonoma afterwards.