The FastDay Forum

So pleased to hear that Mad Max is not being abandoned, @janeg! Good luck with your new regime!

Number 14 checking in. I have 12/48 HIIT workouts done and 4 weeks into my first 16 week cycle. I really like how these things make me feel (well, TBH I really hate it for about 2 minutes after until my heart and breathing slows, then I really love how it feels).

I'm also running on the treadmill 4-6 miles (1-3 miles before as warmup, HIIT, then 3-4 miles after). I can feel my speed increasing, and my body is much, much more capable of treadmill speeds that used to bury me inside of 30 seconds, and now I can sustain them for 4-5 minutes before slowing down.

In about 3 weeks I have an appointment with my new doctor. I may try to get a full blood workup before I see him and see where things stand. I should be doing fairly well relative to where I was a year ago.

Excited to receive MM's book today, 2 mos ahead of release here in the states. I'm staying up late tonight to read

Im loving the comraderie in here.

ill have to join in the conversation soon. just got some things to sort out before i hit that treadmill button.

Number four is pleased to announce that fitness february has been launched.
Rethink version 3 : madmax attack to consist of 5 minutes warm up, 5 minutes of 20 secs up and 40 secs down, 5 minutes of medium rowing (tyr to keep under 500m in 2:45).
Do this for one week/ 3 or 4 sessions and increase by adding another interval after the medium rowing. Maybe...
I feel i need to get fit to HIIT, rather than do HIIT to get fit if you see what I mean.
And I'll do the shred on alternate days.
First day done!
Hope everyone else is getting there
ps @Juliana.Rivers cooo-eeeh! *waves* madmax is asking after your treadmill...

#28 checking-in. Just got back from the gym and my eleventh HIT session.

It's funny, I can never judge based on how I "feel" before going, how the sessions in the gym will go, you know? Today I felt rough! I've had a sore throat/chest infection this week and haven't exercised since last weekend.
But it actually went great!

I've modified my "HIT" session a bit. If I'm going to go to the gym, then I might as well do something else, but in the spirit of HIT, I'm trying to keep the session to about 1 hour. So the last few times, I've done a 30-35 minute walking session on the treadmill first (400 cals target), then done the HIT session on the elliptical trainer (now up to 300 cals and 7 x 30-40 second sprints).

I have a favorite treadmill: it's the only one set up with a CPR program (constant pulse rate). So you tell it that you're walking (or running), age, weight and target pulse. I tend to set it for around 120 or 125. It then adjusts the gradient and speed and draws pretty graphs of the session. Funniest thing, today my pulse at the start wasn't coming up to the target, the gradient was getting steeper and steeper and the speed was increasing to the point where I had to break into a jog (and I haven't run since 2004!). In the end, I had to drop the pulse down to 115 then bring it back up to 125 as I fully warmed up. The time to complete the 400 cals has improved and today was just over 29 minutes (the quickest so far). So this great and seems to indicate a further increase in fitness!

The HIT session on the elliptical trainer also went well. The main improvement was in the recovery phases between the 30-40 second sprints. I tend to use my pulse as a guide, waiting for it to drop down to 130 or thereabouts (after the first couple of sprints) and 135-140 towards the end of the session. These were much quicker today.

Just measured my BP (not sure you should do that after a HIT session ). BP seems to be down to 114/66 - don't think I've ever seen it that low before!

Thought I said somewhere that I'd join....anyway, sign me up please...

PennyForthem wrote: Thought I said somewhere that I'd join....anyway, sign me up please...

I thought you had too @PennyForthem but maybe i missed it by mistake. Anyhows.. you are Member 37! Let us know how it all goes

First MM HIT done yesterday. - I couldn't manage to keep up the speed on the exercise bike for even 20sec!!!! Did 3 repetitions of 18secs.......
Will do again tomorrow, hopefully will do better - I will be starting the strength training too

number 4 has managed day 2 of fitness february
day one of the thirty day shred- 3 sets of 3 minutes strength , 2 minutes cardio and 1 minute abs.
Managed it all, all be it with modified push ups for 2 sets. I'll aim to do full push ups for one full set by about the fifth time I do it.
Just pleased that I got out of bed and did it.
Mad max tomorrow, the day after a fast. That'll be interesting as I'm usually ravenous...

#14 checking in again today. On a lark (I hadn't planned this) I went running today and pushed myself hard the first 12 minutes to see how my Cooper pace was today. I got a personal best 2.51km according to a GPS tracker. The chart on that link says at my age (44), that result was in the low end of the "very good" column. It was 2.30km just two weeks ago, in the middle of the "good" column. Very happy!

The calculator at this site shows my max VO2 estimation from the Cooper distance at 44.8 ml/kg/min. Two tables on this page show that VO2 max value either in the "excellent" or "good" columns for males of my age, depending on the year that the normative values were established.

I'm quite sure that the 4 weeks of HIIT have improved my max VO2 significantly already.

I keep forgetting to measure my resting heart rate in the morning before getting out of bed to get a second estimate of max VO2. One of these days I need to just go to one of those performance labs and get a stress test and also an accurate body fat percentage measurement.

No 27 reporting in. Finished my usual rowing HIT session. Still attempting to raise my heart rate. Increased resistance to 6 but still not managed to raise heart rate to more than 120. My resting heart rate is 55 - 60, so perhaps this is OK? Any ideas?

Well done, @janeg, Mad Max is looking forward to seeing you tomorrow!

25 here. Hill sprints this morning and that has resulted in very sore pulled thigh muscle. So good to be so fit and healthy

Oh goodness@wineoclock, sorry to hear of your injury! With my Pilates teacher hat on, I would advise RICE for 72 hours at least - rest, ice (for 20 mins every 2 hours), compression (prob not necessary here) and elevation - keep it up at the level of your heart or above, as much as possible. Ice really is magical. And no HARM - heat, activity, rubbing and massage - are all out. After that you can start to gently stretch it - is it front(quads) or back (hamstrings)? Or bum (glutes)? Please let us know how you go!

Hi jools, great advice thanks, of course I have done nothing about it so far, except ignore it!!! Front of thigh, didn't think I had muscles there just cellulite!!!! It feels ok but I might avoid squats etc for a bit.