Year of sitting on my duff all night, monitoring alarms is starting to take it’s toll. I think it’s past time for me to start some kind of training program, before I get too far gone. I know that there are a few dopers with some training smarts, and I’d like to hear their input on some training ideas.
About me:
Female
34 years old
Fairly strong considering all I do is push a mouse all day
5’8" / 150lbs , which is about where I should be
Abysmal cardiovascular fitness
Just quit smoking (again)
Resources available:
Modest set of free weights
NordicTrack thingy (which I like)
Bicycle (with no where fun to ride it)
Mountain trails (which I love, when it’s not hot)
Heartrate monitor
About an hour a day for exercise. (more on some days)
Goals:
My priority is to get a decent level of cardiovascular fitness. My resting heart rate is starting to get a little silly, and I’m tired of feeling out of shape. Weight loss isn’t a big issue for me, although I’d like to go back down to 145lb so my jeans would fit right again. I have a feeling that those five pounds would fall off just as soon as I started moving around more.
Later, I would like to add some weight training into my routine for some modest strength gains.
Questions:
How often and for how long should I play on my NordicTrack. How long before I should see some results? Where should my heartrate be while exercising? I don’t feel like I’m doing anything unless my heart rate gets to about 180. I can keep that up for 30 minutes with no problem, but that seems high from some of the sites I’ve looked at. Then again, my max heartrate seems to be higher than the charts suggest. I’ve seen it at 195+ on grueling hikes before. Is that bad?
When I’m ready for it, how would I include weight trianing in my routine? Would I do weights and cardio on the same days? Different days? How many days of weights? Do I make sure I have a day or two off a week to give my body a rest? Will the cardio work interfer with the weight training?