Fitter Faster Harder Stronger !

 I think I'm getting fit...slowly! I have come to this conclusion at around 8am this morning after doing my early morning 45min spinning class where I've struggled to burn more than 300cals and before you say I haven't made a big enough effort - I did!

I read yesterday that Lance Armstrong's resting heartrate is only 32 - 34 beats per minute! Imagine how much effort he needs to put in to burn about 500cals at that heartrate. So the bigger and slower you are, the more cals you burn and someone who is getting fitter needs to put in extra effort to reach the same rate. Or do I have it wrong here??

I had a wicked gym session yesterday by doing 30min gym work which included weights and core training, then 75min of spinning. The grandtotal of 705cals was logged!! Unfortunately I am not shifting any weight at the moment which is a bit demotivating. According to my plan I was supposed to have dropped a stone by now and go below 11st but this is not happening. I'm slightly annoyed and slightly upset but not too much. I measured my waist last night and since 1 Feb I've lost 3.5 inches. That means I've lost an inch during March, when my weight seemed to have stabilised.

I know all about muscle vs fat and if you get to look leaner your weight doesn't always move down. I have one of these fancy Tanita scales which measures body composition and according to that my bodyfat is still the same as it was 4 weeks ago. Annoying!! I bought the scales about 18 months ago and since I bought it, it has calculated my body age at 58. That is probably my biggest motivator, to get that down to my own age and maybe even go younger ;-)

I have a no training day tomorrow coming up due to work and will be doing a lovely Ladies bike ride on Saturday, although it will be a short one.

Talking of short...I am quite short at 5ft 3 and the bike carrier we have is something which carries the bikes on top of the car roof. That is impossible for me to manage so I have had a look for several months now for something else and found it. It is a lovely bike carrier which uses a towbar and looks like a little trailer from behind. Only problem is that my car hasn't got a towbar...until today. I've taken the plunge and is fitting (now!) a towbar onto my car and will also be driving away with a lovely new Thule bike carrier capable of carrying 3 bikes, could be upgraded to 4. I will get a picture up soon for you to look at.

This carrier is quite cool as it also tilts forward if you need to get into your boot and it is also lockable which included the bikes, so you can stop at Services and pop in without being afraid that someone will nick a bike from your carrier.

Back to weight issues...I will give myself till end of March to lose my remaining lbs to get down below 11st and then use April and May to lose the last stone. That should be slow enough weight loss. I need to stay focussed, drink plenty of water (it did slip these last wto weeks), stay away from carbs and maybe work on some different exercises like running instead of just spinning.

Thanks for reading!