Intense Saturday

I get bored easy.  It’s weird to say that because honestly I like routine and am not a huge fan of change when it comes to the big stuff.  When it comes to workouts, however,  I get bored. 

I love to run.  I have been a runner as long as I can remember.  I ran 5 and 10Ks as a kid with my family, track in middle school, track and cross-country in high school, and ran at least 5 days a week all through college.  I had a few years where I was a Body Combat and Body Pump enthusiast, though I still ran several times a week.  Even now with my new-found (within the last year and half) yoga love, I still run 6 days a week.  I may split my hour cardio between running, elliptical, and the bike, but there is always running involved.  

A while back I began to get bored with the steady state cardio.  Even the machine hopping wasn’t helping.  I began throwing in  some weight workouts with shorter cardio sessions (45 min rather than the 60) a couple of days a week and tried some HIIT (high intensity interval training) work too.  I am no exercise expert and wasn’t sure I was doing intervals right, but I just created similar plans to what I had seen on other blogs.  I have to say, I really like HIIT (or love to hate it )  It’s a nice change and really HARD!  I’m a glutton for punishment.

I decided this morning to actually research HIIT a little.  I found a great website with several types of HIIT and I was pumped!  Not only now can I break up the monotony with HIIT, but also can keep from that becoming routine with several variations.  There are four types of interval training according to this site and it gives charts for beginner, intermediate, and advanced workouts within each type.

• 30 second HIIT training – good for beginners.  30 seconds of run-as-fast-as-you-can followed by 30-90 seconds of recovery (90 for beginner and advancing to just 30).  Repeat 6-12 times
• 60 second intervals – longer intervals completely exhaust your muscles.  60 seconds at almost your max followed by 60 seconds to 2 minutes recovery.  Repeat 6-12 times
• Tabata training – the single most effective interval training.  Only 4 minutes long but the most intense.  Push for 20 seconds (10/10) then recover around a 4/10 for only 10 seconds.  Repeat 8 times. 
• Body For Life intervals – 4 sets of increasing intervals.  Each interval is 1 minute and each set is 4 minutes.  Each set begins with 1 minute at an intensity of 6 followed by a minute at 7, 8, and 9.  The last set will add one extra minute at a 10.

This morning I chose to go with the 30 second intervals with 90 seconds of recovery. 

• warm up half mile (2.5 minutes at 6.5/2.5 minutes at 7.0)
• 30 seconds at 9.5 (about 6:20 min mile) foll0wed by 90 seconds at 7.0 (just over 8.5 min mile) Repeated 8 times.
• 30 seconds at 10 (6 min mile) followed by 90 seconds at 7.0.  Repeated 4 times
• cool down half mile (2.5 minutes at 6.5/2.5 minutes at 7.0)

It was a little over 3 miles of the HIIT, 1 mile total warm up and cool down, and then I did a few minutes increasing the incline for a different kind of intensity.  30 seconds at each of the following. 

• 7.5 at an incline of 2
• 7.4 at an incline of 4
• 7.5 at an incline of 4
• 7.2 at an incline of 6
• 7.5 at an incline of 6
• 7.0 at an incline of 8
• 7.5 at an incline of 8
• 6.5 at an incline of 10
• 7.0 at an incline of 10

That was about a half mile and then I jogged at a 0 incline for another half mile to finish. 

Random, all over the place, interval workout totaling 6 miles (with my half mile to and from the gym and 5 on the treadmill).  Sweaty mess!

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