» exercise - Simon Lau

Fitness for the Day – March 11 2008

bicycle

I spent the entire day down at the lab working on my mechatronics project and progress has been fairly limited. Leaving my house at 11AM and coming home at 7PM, I was ready to skip my workout but for some odd reason, I wasn’t hungry. I snacked on an apple and had a cookie from Second Cup between breakfast and dinner. So since I wasn’t hungry, I hopped my my bicycle and rode for 50 minutes. I covered 12.76 miles and burned 1006 Calories.

The robot is due Thursday, so expect a couple of pictures and videos of it shortly after that.

Tags: Bicycle, exercise, Fitness, hungry

. 11 Mar 08 | Fitness | Comment (1)

Fitness for the Day – March 10 2008

bicycle

Another day, another ride. Today’s adventure lasted exactly 50 minutes. During this time, I traveled 12.77 miles and burned 1006 Calories. It’s worth pointing out that after the fifty minutes elapsed, I keep cycling for another few minutes at a much slower pace. This lets my body cool down and let’s my heart rate drop down to a normal level. It’s never a good idea to go from my workout pace of 120-140 bpm to a dead stop.

A cool down is just as important as a warm up. In addition to letting your heart rate go down, it slows down your breathing rate. It also prevents blood from pooling in the area where you worked out, blood pooling causes dizziness and blackouts. Don’t forget to do some stretching to loosen up your muscles afterwards as well. All of this is important in preventing injury and minimizing discomfort or pain after a work out. If you want more information, check out this article.

Tags: Bicycle, cool down, exercise, Fitness, injury prevention, pulse, warm up

. 10 Mar 08 | Fitness | Comments (0)

Fitness for the Day – March 9 2008

bicycle

After a leisure ride yesterday, I went for my 1K burn this evening. I was feeling pretty tired from the day, so I knew this workout would give me some added energy to keep my going through the evening. My ride lasted exactly 50 minutes but instead of just pausing the computer so I could write the data down, I accidentally hit the reset button. If memory serves me correctly, I traveled at least 12.72 miles and burned something in the range of 1011 calories.

Tags: Bicycle, exercise, Fitness

. 09 Mar 08 | Fitness | Comments (0)

Fitness for the Day – March 8th, 2008

bicycle

It’s been over a week since I’ve worked out. Last Wednesday I became sick and did nothing for a few days but eat and sleep. I was completely sore and I was coughing up a fair bit. This morning, I finally felt well enough to hop on my bike for a 30 minute ride. I also shoveled snow for 15 minutes as Toronto got walloped with another round of winter. During my 31 minute and 37 second ride, I covered 7/61 miles and burned 600 Calories. This is significantly slower and lower than my regular ride but I used today to get back into the swing of things. The next few rides I’ll increase the duration to get back on track for the 1K burns.

Tags: Bicycle, exercise, Fitness

. 08 Mar 08 | Fitness | Comments (0)

Fitness for the Day – Feb 26th 2008

bicycle

A pretty quiet day in the world of sports. The Leafs ended up trading Wade Belak, Hal Gil and Chad Kilger for different draft picks. This frees up a tiny bit of cap room but it wasn’t a very exciting day for the Leafs.

For what will likely be my last work out of the month, I ended up riding on my bicycle for 50 minutes and 39 seconds. I traveled 12.65 miles and burned an even 1000 Calories. After cycling 9 out of the past 11 days with 7 of those in the 1000 calories burned mark, I’m looking forward to a few days of rest before I go right back at it. Month end weigh-in will happen on Sunday and I’ll change over to a weekly weigh-in at that point.

Tags: Bicycle, exercise, Fitness, weight

. 26 Feb 08 | Fitness | Comments (0)

Fitness for the Day – Feb 25th 2008

bicycle

Another great day to be a Toronto sports fan. The Raptors get away with a narrow victory of 102-98 and the Leafs beat the Ottawa Senators 5-0!

My workout today let me catch the last quarter and a half of the Raptors’ game and that gave me a 50 minute work out letting me travel 12.72 miles and burn 1003 Calories.

Tags: Bicycle, exercise, Fitness

. 25 Feb 08 | Fitness | Comment (1)

Fitness for the day – Feb 24th 2008

bicycle

The Raptors win 115-92 and Mats Sundin states he has not waived his No Trade Clause. Not a bad day for Toronto. Some say trade Sundin but as the Captain, I think he’s better off developing the club and new players rather than leaving it to help them.

In today’s work out, which I caught the last quarter of the Raptors’ game and the start of the 80th Oscar ceremony, i rode my bike for 50 minutes and 1 second burning 1016 Calories and covered 12.5 miles. I cycled on incline rating 13 for the last 20 minutes and there’s a huge difference in the burn felt. I don’t think it benefited or impeded my workout. To avoid ridiculous muscle development in my thighs, I’ll stick with incline 12 for now.

Tags: Bicycle, exercise, Fitness

. 24 Feb 08 | Fitness | Comment (1)