Finding Zone Four

Did some cardio today. Well, I do cardio most days, I guess, kinda. Running is cardio, right?

But I don't usually pay any attention to the "zones" per se, I usually just run at whatever level my body feels like, for that day.

Yeah, well, see below for why that wasn't enough to distract me. Add below PLUS I lightly sprained my ankle yesterday (falling off my own non-heeled shoe. Yes. My grace is abundant.). Today I did a different form of exercise - a class - and there was a whole bunch of yelling/exhorting re: the "zones."

Zones, and heart rate monitors, and "feel ninety." I don't know about anyone reading this, but I don't need help feeling ninety. I work out to NOT feel ninety.

So I guess I need to find zone four to be a successful interval exerciser. F--- me. I always thought, work up a sweat, stay in the sweaty mode for oh, thirty, forty, ninety minutes, depending on the day, and I'm good. I haven't got the least interest in wearing a monitor - mainly because I am slightly obsessive (this surely isn't news?) and would become all about the monitor and none about the supposed joy of exercise.

There were charts, and I have seen those before, that told me what these zones were, but it all seems so - chipper, and routinized, and you know - how do you KNOW that because I am thirty, or forty, or 90, I need to get my heart to that level? If I smoke two packs a day, I'm thinking you may be a tad off, and if I do other exercise and have for a long time, you could be off that way too.

So, I guess I won't even know zone four if I find it. And I'm not sure what to do with it, if I do.