It's great to have a recumbent bike in my house

Having just upgraded to a place with central air, I recently traded my now unnecessary room air conditioner for a very necessary recumbent bike. It's not very fancy and it only uses magnetic resistance controlled by a knob (as opposed to the hydraulic-based computer-controlled bikes at the gym), but it gets the job done.

Tonight I did 30 minutes on the bike, getting my heart rate up to 182 at one point - up around 95% of my max! As you can see from the graph, I generally like to keep my pulse around 70% of max, but it's crucial for me to really push myself a couple times in a half-hour workout. I learned the importance of pushing hard during my Body for Life workouts, when I had to hit an intensity level of 9/10 for several minutes, and 10/10 for at least a minute, to achieve the best results and the longest afterburn (body burning calories after I get off the bike). Any time I get my pulse over 180, my energy levels go through the roof for days or weeks afterward. It's awesome.

I'm already feeling very energetic -- it's like a shot of caffeine but without the jitters!