OPT Intervals

[kobeat]

I did the OPT intervals for the first time today.

I’m supposed to do the lower intensity (walk) at 55% of my max heart rate which for me is about 98 bpm and the higher intensity (an aggressive jog/light run) at 75% of my max heart rate 133 bpm for me.

Since I don’t think terribly well while exercising at 6am I just picked a treadmill speed for the higher intensity and went with it. While I was at that level it seemed like an aggressive jog/light run but it turns out my heart rate at the higher intensity was about 165 bpm, higher than 75% of my max. This also resulted in my lower intensity heart rate being higher than 55% max. No, it didn’t occur to me to decrease my speed for the other intervals, see first sentence of this paragraph!

For those of you who have done the intervals in OPT (or Leigh) is the difference between treadmill speeds really that close? Example, my walk (55% of max) speed is about 3.1mph on our treadmill and today I used 5mph as my higher speed which is obviously too fast. To keep my heart rate more in line with (duh moment didn’t I need 70% of max for the steady state cardio a week ago?) I’d only increase the speed to 3.6mph or so. Not much more than my steady state cardio of a week ago and doesn’t seem to indicate much more than a fast walk or light jog.

Which is more important the actually heart rate or what I’m doing light jog versus light run? Am I in better cardio shape than I think I am or worse? Does drinking a couple of cups of coffee before working out change things?

[Leigh P.]

Wee bit confused by post but I think I got it.

Actual % is more important than the movement you are doing. For some people, at certain weights of conditioning, walking at 3.0 can bring them to 85%. For others they need full out sprinting. It is just a matter of your conditioning.

As for the coffee, it helps me work out in the morning too. Heh it isn't going to bother anything and really, unless a insane amount, wont give any huge increases in HR levels.