45 by 15s. Love them.

I think going all out for 45 seconds on the stepper, followed by a relatively easier 15, really works for me. (Of course, that is repeated for 20 minutes.) Last night I got my heart rate up to 180 beats per minute using this method. It also took away the need for pressups/weights in between, because there was no time to get bored. It was 45 seconds all out, then I spent the remaining 15 seconds measuring my heart rate at 6 seconds, 10 seconds and 15 seconds, and trying to work out if they all equalled the same MHR %age on a per-minute basis. Then did that all over again.

I read somewhere that ice-hockey players did 2 minutes all out on the stepper, followed by one minute of recovery, because that simulated the same experience on ice, with the line substitutions and all. But personally I think it isn’t possible to go all out for 2 minutes and get your heart rate at a high rate – mine pleateaus after one minute at 80-85% max (170 bpm - guess my age there), and no matter how long I step at that intensity it never goes above that.

On to diet issues - I've probably ranted about this before ... I think. In the UK it is advised that the daily caloric intake for a male adult is 2500 calories, and for a female, 2000 calories. The recommended fat intake is limited at 90g and 70g respectively. Since 1g of fat = 9 calories, this means that, by observing these guidelines, a man would derive 810 calories per day from fat; a woman, 630 calories from fat.

Percentage of daily calories obtained from fat: Man 32.4% (810/2500). Woman 31.5% (630/2000).

When you consider that having more than 30% body fat is “obese”, surely one can see that to follow these recommended guidelines is to embark on the lard brick road. I wonder who recommended these high fat guidelines. Probably a Rent-a-Scientist who works for the chocolate and fast-food industry, of the same mould as the people who insist smoking doesn’t cause cancer.

And moving on, I’ve been scrutinizing the Mercier-Leger-Desjardins nomogram, which predicts running performances from 3km to 42km. You can use this version to estimate your VO2max based on two personal bests at different distances, as well as predict your times for various distances. I know there are a lot of things out there that do the same, but I’ve found this nomogram to be pretty accurate. If anyone would like a JPEG graph of the nomogram (for some reason, it keeps showing up as blurred lines when I upload) - which shows you your predicted race times instantly - let me know and I'll happily email it to you.