Quote Originally Posted by Brandi
I just don't want to give myself a heart attack!
I was the girl in aerobics class that stopped counting after 20 beats when taking my pulse on a 6-second basis because I didn't want people to know that my HR went over 200. (Even if I was pretty fit.) I always worried a little bit about this...

When I got my heart rate monitor I first tried it during a tough winter hike. I was with a cardiologist-friend of mine and he was not at all moved when I hit 194 on a hill. So don't worry too much about this... If you don't feel like you are going to faint you're probably not going to die from this. Of course, I am assuming that you have no counter-indication for hard exercise.

The measure of your improvement is how fast your heart rate goes down after an effort...

(I was really scared the thing would start beeping really loud if/when I hit 200... it didn't. I have been to 225 so far and nothing special happened.)

Take it easy, but not too easy.