Today’s workout has a different soundtrack. Or, I should say, an additional soundtrack so loud it all but drowns out the first. This one sounds like a 400-pound, waterboarded rodent: squeak-SQUEAK-squeak-SQUEAK-squeak-SQUEAK-squeak… It almost hurts my ears, and definitely grates on my nerves.

Not that I’ll let this get in the way of my workout. I tool along at about 60 RPM, wondering idly (or perhaps not so idly) just how high I’ll wind up cranking this baby before using the still-untried resistance and incline functions. Do I just keep cranking faster and shorter (timewise)—or would I be better off cutting back on the pace, but going longer? Does it make a difference and, if so, what kind of difference?

I toy with the idea of creating some sort of intensity index that will allow me to compare my more recent shorter-faster sessions with the longer-slower ones I used to have. Some calculation involving workout duration and RPM. Or would I be better off monitoring my heart rate in real time over the course of each workout?

These are questions I’m willing to get to the bottom of—after I finish this 13-minute, near-60 RPM workout and give the repair guy another call.

squeak-SQUEAK-squeak-SQUEAK-squeak-SQUEAK-squeak…

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Stat tally:

BASE:

245.3 (weight on waking)
73 (pulse, resting)
116/74 (blood pressure)

WORKOUT:

13:00 @ 58.76 RPM (avg)
180* (pulse, after cardio)
130.2 (calories burned on machine)
1,528 (strides)

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