Ok so to start off this blog I would liek to say that I think our meeting went very well tonight. We got to vent some about how overwhelmed we are with everything, and I also think that this week's workouts and diets are going to be very organized and that Dr. Harshaw and Mrs. Carbonneau are going to be very pleased with it.

Now to comment on your reply to my earlier post Dr. Harshaw; I looked up information on the VO2 max and I found out the definition of it is: the maximum amount of oxygen in milliltres one can use in one minute per kilogram of body weight. I also found out that you are able to increase one's VO2 level by working out at an intensity that raises your heart rate to between 65% and 85% of it's maximum for at least 20 minutes a workout session, 3-5 times a week. Also the average VO2 maximum level for males is about 3.5 litres/minute and the average for women is about 2.7 litres/minute. On a side note all this information was found at www.brianmac.co.uk/vo2max.htm. Now that I have all this information, my only question is what should I do with it and do I need to learn more about it? I would also like to know if this is something we should be considering while Stef and I make the workouts and if we are trying to increase yours and Mrs. Carbonneau's VO2 level by the end of our experiment.

I also calculated the BMI for both you. Dr. Harshaw your BMI is 27 and Mrs. Carbonneau your BMI is 27.9. Now according to the BMI calculations I calculated at http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/ both of these BMIs are considered overweight. So for the remaining weeks and during this whole program we will be focusing on lowering these BMIs into the range of 18.5-24.9.

To find the Max. heart rate for both of you, I used the formula that Dr. Harshaw gave me which was 220-age. Dr. Harshaw's Max. heart rate is 177 and Mrs. Carbonneau's max. heart rate is 171. This information helped me to find the training heart rate for each of you; that is, it helped me find out what range your pulse should be after your workout is completed in order to get the best results. To get this I used the formula I found at www.primeusweb.com/fitnesspartner/library/activity/thr.htm. The formula is: Maximum Heart Rate - Resting Heart Rate x Intensity + Resting Heart Rate = Training Heart Rate. For Dr. Harshaw I considered him a High fitness level so his intensity level is between 75% and 85%, and for Mrs. Carbonneau I considered her a beginner fitness level so her intensity level is between 50% and 60%. When these numbers were plugged into the formula I got the results of:
Dr. Harshaw: 177 - 52 (.75) + 52 = 145.75 (minimum training heart rate)
177 - 52 (.85) + 52 = 158.25 (maximum training heart rate)
Mrs. Carbonneau: 171 - 66 (.50) + 66 = 118.5 (minimum training heart rate)
171 - 66 (.60) + 66 = 129 (maximum training heart rate)
So for Dr. Harshaw during his workouts we are looking for his heart rate (pulse) to be between 145.75 and 158.25 and for Mrs. Carbonneau we are looking for her heart rate to be between 118.5 and 129. From now on we will be trying to design workouts that are intense enough to keep their heart rates within this range in order to get the best results. For example with Mrs. Carbonneau's workout today her heart rate when she was done was 88 beats/minute; this tells us that we need to increase the intensity in her workouts in order to achieve the desired range of heart rate. My one question about this is now that we know the target heart rate, how do we figure out what kind of excerises can achieve this?

As the last part of this blog, I just have some questions. As I was doing research tonight I started to wonder if one of our goals should be to make our subjects resting heart rate lower than it already is. Also I realize that Mrs. Carbonnea doesn't have a hrm and that Dr. Harshaw is trying to get her one, but in the mean time who should we compesate for the missing hrm. My last question is that tonight as Stef and I were trying to plug in the information for the fitness next week, when we would try to set the pace for a 6 minute and 30 second mile, it wouldn't let us; so should we just say a 7 minute mile?

~Renee