Day Off Mild Workout ~ Playing with the Resistance on the Elliptical

So today is my scheduled day off from the C25K workout. I decided I would "walk" on the elliptical for a few minutes. I wanted to see the effects of changing the resistance of the elliptical. I decided my speed would be "35" with a resistance of "5". I really need to read the user manual to see what these values equate to, but for now I will remain lazy and just post the values.

Well after 18 minutes at a speed of 35, I burned 250 calories. Typically a complete workout has been around 250 to 275. This is based on the calorie counter on the elliptical. I am unsure of how accurate this calorie counter is, however it gave me a method of comparison. With this in mind, I think I will do the next workout at a resistance level of 2. I think 5 is a bit high for the jogs, so I will settle for 2 and see how difficult it is. It seems that walking with the resistance increased, increased the amount of calories burned. This makes sense because the walking was more difficult, however I did not expect it to have that big of an impact.

In other news, I got some Kinesio tape in the mail today. I have had some residual swelling in my one knee. This has been fairly common since I have had surgery on it (10 years ago). So I don't think it is solely tied to my workout. However, upon reading online this tape is supposed to improve circulation and reduce the swelling. It has been seen on a couple Olympic athletes (more noticeable in the summer games when athletes are not bundled from head to toe). I ordered this from Amazon, with my Amazon cash. Upon placing the tape on my knee, I can feel it on the skin (ya I am sure you are thinking that is an obvious statement). However, it feels different than typical tape. Being an accident prone athlete from the time I could walk, I know a thing or two about how tape typically feels. This doesn't seem to provide any sort of support. It is highly flexible. In a way it feels like it is lifting the skin up off my knee a bit. It isn't painful or annoying, however it is noticeable. I will wear it for awhile and see how it works....