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Comment by rorykoehler | Hacker News Reader

A few things that may help. Do 2 months of consistent 3-5 times 1 hour moderate cardio a week. This will prepare your body for the more intense exercise you can start doing after the 2 months are up.

Don't wait until you are thirsty. Drink a mouthful of isotonic drink every 10 to 15 minutes minimum regardless of how you feel. Same for nutrition. Take a protein recovery shake immediately after you work out and then eat your meals normally. Also drink plenty of water after you exercise.

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> Do 2 months of consistent 3-5 times 1 hour moderate cardio a week. This will prepare your body for the more intense exercise you can start doing after the 2 months are up.

Maybe I wasn't clear about this: I don't know how to maintain a consistent intensity when exercising. I don't have any particular awareness of my heart rate or respiration rate going up unless I stop and literally count. I don't have any sense of how fatigued I am until a good 15-30 minutes after I'm done, and even then it's quite vague.

I can relate to that to some extent. A good rule of thumb that I try to apply to weights is to pick a weight where can do 8 reps but where 10 would fatigue me. Same thing, if its cardio, I try to pick a pace where if I run for 10 minutes, I will need to rest. These two tricks help me at least improve my health incrementally.

I have trouble even sensing how fatigued I am, let alone guessing how fatigued a given exercise will make me.

Try paying attention to your respiration while running. Attempt to maintain a pace that is possible while only breathing through your nose. (This pace may be walking, which is fine.) This is less about proprioception and more about paying attention to what your exertion demands from your body and finding a pace/respiration equilibrium.

> Try paying attention to your respiration while running.

As I already tried to explain upthread (this seems to be a pattern), I have tried, and I don't know how to do those things at the same time. I can stop and count my breaths, but the sensation is so indistinct that it becomes difficult to keep track of when I'm doing anything else.

Get a heart rate monitor. Read up on heart rate zones and calculate yours. Biking is easier to maintain than running so if you have a bike use that.

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