Saturday Workout and Sandwiches

Today I went to the gym again for another long workout. At work I've been working in the warehouse for about the last month for various reasons so my morning workout routine has suffered as a consequence. My only day to get a good workout now is Saturday and so because of this for the last few weeks I've been doing longer cardio workouts on Saturdays. I've been spending about 45-55 minutes on the StarTrac Crosstrainer and then an additional half an hour on a LifeFitness bike to cool down. The programs on the machines limit you to 30 minutes so I have to cut my StarTrac workouts into 2 consecutive chunks. My first half hour is the most intense and the intensity of my second 20 or 25 minute turn on the StarTrac depends on how I feel. I've been targeting my heart rate at a maximum of 140-145 during the first half hour and easing off a bit to the 130-145 range for the second run. I cool off on the bike maintaining my heart rate around 100-110. By the time I'm done I've usually drank two bottles of water. When I take my shirt off before my shower I'm always amazed at how heavy and wet it is. It's pretty disgusting really but in a way if feels like an accomplishment of sorts.

I never know whether or not to believe the stats from the displays on the machines. I have no idea how they calculate your calories burned or your distance. I'm most skeptical of the distance figure. I'm not a runner as much as a cyclist but the StarTrac only shows I'm going about a mile every 25 minutes or so. If that's true I'm working awfully hard just to get one mile. I don't think running a mile would take that long or would be that difficult going across real ground. Maybe the settings I use would be comparable to running up a steep hill or something. I always use the manual program and during my first half hour I adjust the level to a 12 or so out of 20 and I keep my strides per minute to a min 130 but I try to maintain it around 140 or so. It's plenty difficult but not overwhelmingly so. These are just the settings I need in order to reach my target heart rate. After my workout....stretching, a shower, 10 minutes in the hot tub, and then another shower I'm usually pretty hungry. When I get home I usually make my favorite sandwich of late which is a peanut butter and banana sandwich on toasted wheat bread. I make 2 of them and I put super chunk peanut butter on one half and smooth on the other half. Because I'm usually so hungry by this time eating these 2 sandwiches is like eating the 2 greatest sandwiches ever made.