Body by Liz: CAUTION: CARDIO AHEAD

One thing that is hard for me to adjust to is doing lots of cardio. I need to be mindful of my knees, which were aggravated by my aggressive stadium sessions and love for sprinting in early july, and also need to manage to do a LOT of cardio with pretty high intensity. When doing so many cardio sessions (10/week, 30-45min duration usually) you really have to be careful to not OVERDO anything, especially when performing post-training cardio. I have a tendency to GO HARD or GO HOME. I've started to use heart rate training as opposed to "levels" or "speed" on cardio equipment to decipher my cardio goals for the particular session.

Here's the thing: my resting heart rate is 53bpm. thats REALLY low compared to average people. So for me to hit my target HR, I need to work my body pretty hard. This is no surprise--the more fit you are, the more you have to do to work your heart into a tizzy. For me to just complete cardio at 65% max HR, I need to be running at a 9 minute pace, or climbing the stair monster with no hands. At the end of long workouts, with sore legs, cardio is quite the chore. I'm learning to deal with it, but am trying to be cautious of my knees and more recent neck injury (flares up a bit if I overexert myself or hold too much weight in my right hand) in the process.

Needless to say, yesterday I completed morning cardio at a lighter intensity, and then did a HARD leg circuit: I warmed up with 10 minutes on the stair master at 70%max HR, and finished with 20 minutes on the treadmill at 70% max HR to reach my cardio goal for the day. I spent an hour and 20 minutes working out, with my heart rate UP the whole time, since i included plyos and fast-paced movement in my leg workout. Then, I had initially planned to do 30mins AM cardio and 45mins PM today, but it's my sister's birthday, and I decided to lump it all together. The result? 75 minutes non stop 70%max HR cardio (Avg HR 151bpm, max 170)

It is HARD to get my legs to work like that after the previous day's workouts. But i DID it, and felt AMAZING afterward. I proved that i CAN do it. And since that was 4 hours after breakfast, it was kind of like fasted cardio...right? I popped BCAAs before and after, and took extra glutamine to recover. Post-cardio does not warrant post-workout meal right now, so all I got was a cup of eggwhites with spinach. Talk about hungry. I am making progress, mainly in the waist measurement, but am seeing visible improvement in my legs and upper body. I can't wait til my hip measurement changes. It won't BUDGE!!! STILL 37 inches flat.

Here are some pics: