Cardio question!

TheWinman

Trying to make sense of this. The last two weeks I followed the same spin(cardio) schedule and had the same thing happen at the end of the week.
Sunday - rest
Monday - rest
Tues - 5:45am 1 hour spin class and 5:30pm 1 hour spin class (Great energy for both classes)
Wednesday - 6:45pm 1 hour spin class (great energy)
Thursday - 9:15am 1 hour spin class (started off mediocre energy but the second half of class was pretty good energy
Friday - 9:15am 2 hour spin class (dragged *kitten* most of the time, a struggle but still had a real good burn)
Saturday - 9:15am 1 hour spin - (SENSATIONAl energy, one of the best cardio workouts ever. In between every song the instructor does about a 15-20 second recovery. I was only taking 5 second recovery. I mean a quick swig of water and start pushing it again.)

My calorie burns are always in the range of 800-900 calories an hour and I usually have eggs and rye bread with jelly for breakfast.

Here is what's confusing me. I can understand dragging more as the week goes on and having a harder time pushing it on Thursday and and Friday. That seems normal, but what the heck is happening on Saturday? Why the sudden burst of energy and having my best workout at the end of a hard cardio burn week? If there was a rest day between Friday and Saturday I can understand, but this makes no sense to me. Any thoughts on this?

susannahsutton1

Endorphins from the day before?

Also the Friday class being 2 hours is a real push to your system and has probably given your metabolism a boost.

Embrace and enjoy!

Lunatic379

I track all my strength training workouts and rate them from 1-10. I find that 10's seem to stack up on each other. These days don't have rest days between them either. Maybe it's because I feel so good from the day before? Who knows.

As far as cardio goes, it could have something to do with the amount of sleep the previous night, your dinner the previous night, etc. You really have to take all these things into consideration when rating your workouts.

TheWinman

Thanks for the replies.

Lunatic: I ate pretty crappy Friday evening and got a bad night's sleep. lol I don't know.

Susanna: That makes sense. Thanks

SJ46

When you ate "crappy" on Friday did you eat more carbs than usual? If so, you would have more fuel for your workout.

TheWinman

When you ate "crappy" on Friday did you eat more carbs than usual? If so, you would have more fuel for your workout.

No, not really. it was actually a little less than normal.

concordancia

Stress levels?

Sleep?

dave4d

There are too many things to factor in that haven't been mentioned....Work schedule, other workouts, family, sleep, diet, stress, etc.

Most people work Monday, through Friday, so an energy boost on Saturday could be from less stress, or excitement for being off for the weekend. Mental state has a lot to do with energy levels, workout performance, and weight loss. I always get a burst of energy, and become really annoying to my wife, and kids when I am going to be off for a few days.