July 19th 2010 Daily Update

Juggling the work diary meant only an evening work out today. In total a 45 minute elliptical interval session followed by a 5 minute cool down on the elliptical. The warm up/cool down and low intensity, high intensity sections of the workout map very well to the heart rate zones from the heart rate monitor.

This session broke me through the 40,000 kcal barrier for the year and the 8,000 kcal barrier for the month. All good goals.. Next goal, 50,000 kcal for the year! I remain impressed with P90X and will begin a more formal start this weekend.

• 50 mins elliptical = 603 kcal (676 kcal, 142/158bpm, 06:04, 21:26, 22:35)

Summary

603 kcal on the machines (8129 month to date).
676 kcal total recorded on HRM

Heart Rate Monitor showed a 676 kcal burn whereas the elliptical trainer showed a 603 kcal burn. I'm taking the gym machine measurement as this is consistent with how I've measured for the last few months.

From using the HRM over the last couple of weeks it seems to measure much more accurately when I keep my work out to Zone 1 and 2. It begins to show a larger error in Zone 3 and this may be related to the fact that I need to put in my correct max HR level (which is more than the 220-age measurement used by default). I'll try changing it and see what happens. I will also rerun the fitness test this weekend and update my weight settings to see if these help.