Spidey Senses and My Big Blue Watch

Needing a reason to see Spiderman 3, I took the opportunity to complete one portion of the senses assignment. I thought I would take the assignment one step further and add another sense to my list - my heart. Since I started training for small triathlon, I have really paid attention to my heart rate. When I work out, it's the best indicator of how hard to push myself. I was curious to see what my heart rate would be during an activity like watching a movie. I have often heard movies called 'heart pounding' -- so this was my chance to really see how true that is.

As I left my house, my heart rate was at 92. A little high for not doing anything, but I thought perhaps in anticipation of getting out and seeing a movie.

As I arrived at the movie theatre, my rate was still up at 91. Walking into the parking lot, I began to think about what I was smelling. A hot afternoon, the smell of warm pavement was abundant. I looked at my Big Blue watch and saw my heart rate was now at 111. Still low compared to when I run, which usually averages about 150 -160. As I passed the slight bit of landscaping in the parking lot, I could smell the burnt scent of woodchips from the mulch roasting in the sun.

Approaching the door, the cigarette smoke from the nearby ash tray distracted me, and as I walked through the door, encountered my first New Media Eye-related injury. So here I am waiting in line, bleeding, trying to decide if I should see the 3:20 Spiderman, or hold out for the 3:50 Imax version. Being cheap and impatient won out, and I went for the matinee-priced Spidey. I got my ticket, asked for a band-aid, was denied and went on my way. My average heart rate clocked in at 90.

Of course, thinking about the smell at the movies immediately honed me into the popcorn. I knew it would smell better than it tasted, but I figured that's what this experience was about, so off to the concession stand I went. $8 later, I found my seat in the pretty empty theatre, and focused in on the smells again. I was hoping that my popcorn would smell good, but my popcorn had very little smell. It was difficult to smell much as I stuffed the popcorn into my face. I had noticed a kind of stale carpet smell as I walked in, but as long as I was stuffing popcorn in my mouth, I couldn't smell much.

Hoping that I would have some interesting results, I paid close attention to my heart rate throughout the movie. As it started, my heart rate was at about 80 bpm, about what I would expect. However when the Pirates premiere came on, I saw a little blip go up to 85! Woohoo Johnny Depp. Grrr....

I kept looking down at my watch through out the movie, hoping to see some big variances during different scenes. Alas, no. For the most part I hovered in the 70's, an occasional dip into the 60's, and didn't make it into the 80's at all. Average was 72. I figured I would be affected more by the movie, but like the movie, the results were only so-so. Hopefully one of the other senses will kick my heart rate around.