Waking Up at the Eighth Hour

This blog hasn't been the inspiration I had hoped for, and eight months went by in my Becoming Sixty Year without much progress.  I did find that inspiration, though.  Two weeks ago.  It came from an unlikely source: the Defense Logistics Agency's Facebook page.  They posted an article on the benefits of morning exercise, and when I read it a spark went off somewhere in my mind that appears to have lit the fire I've been trying to kindle.

So, I've now done good, hard cardio in my home gym on eleven of the last twelve mornings.  I feel great!  I had to grease the elliptical to get the smooth, undistracted ride I need, and it's now beginning to feel like habit again.  I'm waking early, throwing on some shorts, shoes, my Polar Bluetooth chest strap, my Klipsch ear buds and iPod Nano, and I'm working myself into a dripping sweat before doing anything else in the day.

That DLA Facebook post created the spark, but eleven out of the last twelve days has now become the motivator.  I want to go twelve of the last thirteen, and eventually twenty nine of the last thirty.  Fifty nine of the last sixty.  I missed one Friday.  I don't want to miss another single day.  Of course I know I will, I'll not be at my home gym when I spend two weeks in Boise this September.  On those days I'll have to just focus on my Fitbit steps and make sure I get 10,000 or more.

The Polar heart rate monitor and the iPhone app - coupled with the Polar Flow website - is helping with my motivation.  Technology and exercise creating some interesting data!  Here's a look at my monthly data as of today:

I've spent most of my workout time in the yellow range, which is when my heart rate is between 128 and 144.  That's perfect.  It's what I learned in cardiac rehab and it's what I did 5-6 days a week back in 2001 after my heart attack.  I wore a heart monitor back then, but I never got data from it, and I never had data visualization like this.  Here's a graph from this morning's workout, and it's basically what I see real-time on my iPhone as I workout:

I love it.  I'm finally motivated enough to make this a habit again, and although I haven't lost any weight and my waistline has no perceptible change, I feel better.  I'm breathing better.  I can already see the improvement in the stats just over two weeks.  I'm just getting started, so the weight loss and looser belt will come in time - or not.  Maybe this is just me, now, at almost sixty.  I'd be OK with that, as long as I have the wind and the strength and the stamina to do the things I want to do.

I'm happy, and I'm back.