That was an awesome workout. It really pushed my limits. I needed that!

I am going to start again at the very beginning here. So those in the know can skip paragraphs.

Cardio Coach
If you
-> walk or run (outdoors or on a treadmill)
-> cycle (outdoors or stationary or spin)
-> climb (stairclimber, elliptical or any other climbing machine)
-> skate

And you like music,

Then you will love Cardio Coach.

Cardio Coach mixes music and coaching from an immensely talented and motivational Sean O’Malley to make cardio more exciting and effective than you could imagine. They can be used on mp3 players or CD players. Experiencing is believing how time can fly and you can reach limits you never thought you were capable of. Learn more at the Cardio Coach website..

Choose Living Foundation
Jim MacLaren founded Choose Living Foundation. Jim is a survivor of two near-fatal accidents and a quadriplegic. He created the Choose Living Foundation to contribute his time, energy, resources and exposure to help people in need across the world learn to live beyond their own limitations.

What Cardio Coach did to raise money for the Choose Living Foundation
Sean O’Malley created a special edition audio workout for Press Play Day – Jan 27 2007. All proceeds from the sale of this special edition workout will go to Choose Living Foundation. The workout has been on sale for $ 20 at www.cardiocoach.com since Jan 20. On Jan 27, exercisers around the world who purchased the workout, are invited to “press play and work out” at 12:00 pm in their time zone (or any time that day :) to this special edition workout.

Jan 27, 2007 Press Play Day in the life of Vrinda the Aatmiya Yogini of 43T
The workout went up for sale on Jan 20 2007. I downloaded my workout on Jan 20. I decided not to sneak a peek, but listen for the very first time while I worked out on the 27th.

It took so much will power, but I managed it.

I decided to run through the 60 minute workout.

I got on the treadmill and pressed play. Jim Maclaren spoke first. His voice, his words were so inspiring. They brought home the reality of how much this man overcomes every day of his life. He does more to help than so many of us who have been more fortunate. I fought back the tears as I warmed up.

Then Sean took over. “Right now you are connected to Vrinda in India…” and he followed on, naming people in various parts of the world that he knew were going to participate. The very first name he mentioned to kick start the workout was mine. I knew it would be from a tiny clip he had sent me earlier. Hearing it so early in the workout was heartwarming, joyous, tear-inducing all at once.

This 60 minute workout has 5 Challenges (segments of intense interval training) in all, with intervening Steady States. The first and last Challenge were from the unreleased Cardio Coach Volume 7. The remaining were from existing Cardio Coach volumes. They were my favorite segments from each volume.

The final Challenge was supposed to be sustained Level 3 (high intensity) for 4 whole minutes. Sean asks you to use resistance (incline in the case of a treadmill) and speed in combination to attain and stay Level 3. During the first minute I realized I had achieved 9.5 kilometers in distance. I decided to achieve 10 km by the end of the workout. I was running at 3.5% incline at 10.6 km per hour. I went to 0.5% incline and started cranking up the speed. 11.5…12…12.5 (not going to make it at this rate!...too little time)...12.8…13….13.3….13.6 I managed to cross the 10 km milestone exactly when the Challenge ended!

I was as pleased at punch. I ran through the cool down song at 8.6, doing a dance-jog. Corina Brouder, performed her #1 hit song, ?Another Day? for the cool down, to contribute to this event.

Ooty!

My stats – distance (including cool down) – 10.5 km, calories burned – 742.

Aftermath of Press Play
Jan 27th is the birthday of the best friend I have ever had. Her name is Hema. We were in school together. I bought and emailed her a gift certificate for the Press Play Day workout with a birthday wish. Her birthday is on Press Play Day, so it seemed fitting.

Sean O’ Malley the Cardio Coach
I have never met the man. Yet, I think he is marvellous as a human being and a coach. My fitness has improved so remarkably from doing his workouts. (I am 39 years old. I have never run as hard, as fast as long as this EVER before. My legs have turned so strong I can lift for my lower-body, twice as much, since running with Sean.) The world deserves to know Sean’s magic and Sean’s magic deserves to be known by the world.

What you can do if you wish to contribute to Press Play and the Choose Living Foundation
Go to www.cardiocoach,com and download the Press Play Day workout for $20 for yourself, or get a gift certificate for someone you know who likes cardio.

What to do if you want to try Cardio Coach
Sean has a sale ongoing of his workouts at www.cardiocoach.com. You can get a very special deal!

I wanted to promote Cardio Coach Press Play Day at my gym.

Sean O Malley even shipped me Cardio Coach Day postcards for distribution.

The announcement about Press Play is up on the notice board of my gym. The little cards are kept in plastic holders where I have been pleased to notice that people are picking up cards.

I know the person who owns my gym. I told her about Press Play and said I would like to publicize at her gym. She owns two gyms. The place where I workout. And another in an upscale shopping area in my city which is reputed to be a very happening gym. I decided to focus on the latter. I decided to host a Cardio Coach trial by playing Cardio Coach over the gym’s music system, so that gym members could exercise to it and understand what these workouts were all about. I felt this would increase the chances of people going to the website and downloading the wokout. Mp3 fitness is not a concept people are familiar with here.

I made an announcement for the notice board, inviting people for the trial. The gym was suposed to block the cardio room for the trial and register participants. The notice has been up at the gym for one week. Each time I called the gym they assured me there was a lot of interest but could never quite give me specifics.

I was at the gym at the appointed hour, with Cardio Coach Vol 4 on a CD and my smile and my enthusiasm. The notice board had the trial announcement :)! The notice board was not in a very prominent area of the club :( ....well perhaps some had still read it?

I walked into the Cardio Room. A very popular, lovely model was on the treadmill. My spirits lifted. Surely this type of membership would love Sean’s workouts. Then I noticed model worked out with one trainer standing to her left and another to her right. The speed and incline settings were being changed for her by a trainer, amidst a constant stream of encouragement from left and right. Hmmmm….so this specific person was not the right target perhaps.

Next, I learned that nobody had registered. The cardio room had not been blocked. My post on the notice board had asked people to register. But nobody had actually been available to register with.

Surprisingly, a small set of people still showed up for the trial. But since the room had not been blocked, we had to wait for the machines to become free. It took 30 minutes before we had a reasonable number of machines. More than half the people who showed up for the trial disappeared. Everyone wanted to run on treadmill. Only two were free. So they were asked to use spin cycles. Both Balaji and my friend who owns the gym showed up and worked out to the very end. I had all of 4 “real” participants, besides. Two cyclists disappeared before the third Challenge. Only two who had the machine of their choice, stayed until the end.

From the time available (I have a job for instance) this was about as much personal involvement as I could manage in organizing this event. What a flop!

There is probably a very funny side to this whole thing.

I cannot see it.

I finally did Cardio Coach 1(rev.) (I have 1rev.,2rev., &3 downloaded)- my first experience. Awesome!

Does everyone talk back to Sean? “That’s right Sean” “Sean, okay”

I am off to purchase the Press Play experience. I’ll have to distract myself till next Saturday so I don’t sneak a peak.

Looking at the challenges it looks to be quite a doozy- all for a great cause. Thanks for inviting us!

I saw this (in case you have Sirius):
“Join 5 million listeners on ‘The Good Life’ with Jesse Dylan

The Good Life, a Sirius Radio station, with 5 million listeners and 10,000 new listeners every day, will interview both Jim and Sean as they discuss the Press Play Day Event on January 26th “

Cardio Coach (roll your eyes those that have read my posts on my fitness goals here…and then read on) is an awesome, innovative, ultra-effective, motivational and yet simple-to-use fitness solution.

Cardio Coach offers mp3 downloads of audio workouts that you can carry on an mp3 player, or play on your music system while you exercise on a treadmill, cycle, elliptical, stairmaster or any other cardio machine. It will work at the gym or at home. It can even be used for running, skating or cycling outdoors.

These workouts combine music (fabulous, dramatic) and voice over coaching (the best I have experienced) from Coach Sean O’Malley. Here is a link to my review

From Jan 20, 2007 onwards a special edition of Cardio Coach workout will be available at the Cardio coach site. All proceeds from the sale of this special edition workout will go to Jim MacLaren’s Choose Living Foundation. Jim is a survivor of two near-fatal accidents and a quadriplegic. He created the Choose Living Foundation in 2005 to contribute his time, energy, resources and exposure to help people in need across the world learn to live beyond their own limitations.

Jan 27th will be World Press Play Day. Around the world, individuals exercising to the exact same workout at the exact same time, raising money, creating awareness and living with energy.

I am in. Who is with me?