Cardio Coach

Yesterday I decided I wanted to try a jog and test my ankle. First, I downloaded a workout from the Cardio Coach website. Cardio Coach is a set of audio workouts designed by Sean O'Malley mainly for use on stationary cardio equipment such as treadmills, ellipticals, and stationary bikes. I had read a lot about Cardio Coach from some online Cathe forum friends, so I was eager to try it out. I chose Cardio Coach Volume 1, as #1 seemed the natural place to start. I don't have any cardio equipment so I loaded the workout on my iPod Shuffle and hit the nearby trail outside.

Of course, I didn't double-check the order of the tracks on the workout before I went out the door. I realized after a while that I had it all out of sequence on my Shuffle. I started off well enough with a sort of intro, then the warm-up and the first steady state segment. Then it went into a challenge where you had to go to a higher cardio level (perhaps a hill if you use a treadmill but in my case I just kicked it up a notch and sped up). Then it went straight to the cooldown. It seemed like a pretty short workout and I was surprised--I thought I'd just have to repeat it a bit. After that challenge was a "coach's notes" segment with Sean talking about various inspirational stuff. I kind of skipped past that and found another steady state section and that's when I realized it was all out of order. Duh. So I went on from there and finished the rest of the workout. I didn't turn toward home at halfway, so I was out a little longer than the workout, so I did a little more steady state jogging and a little more cooldown.

I enjoyed the workout and I know I pushed myself harder than I normally do when I am just out jogging with my own music or an audiobook on my iPod. It was very motivating having someone in my ear encouraging me to push onward and go faster. I also liked the countdowns right before you went faster and right before you were done with a challenge and could slow down again. I also liked the music well enough. It was sort of trance or New Age stuff, and I'm more of a rock-and-roller, but it was pleasant and pumping enough to keep me going. I'm sure I'll enjoy it more next time when I get the tracks in order before taking off.

Oh, and the good news is my ankle felt fine! On the other hand, I had a bit of a chesty-sounding cough after I came back, but that stopped, so I guess I'm o.k.

I still haven't decided what rotation I'll start tomorrow, so I have some thinking to do today.