Back with last week's and today's...

Wed: spin
Thurs: nada, worst cold I have had in 4-5 years
Fri: nada, worst cold I have had in 4-5 years
Sat: 2.5 mile run, massive cold meds
Sun: 1 mile run
Mon: spin, cold on the way out

I did a lot of running and home repair.

Friday - 4.59 miles running at the park
Saturday - working on a closet organizer. Lots of carrying heavy things up and down the stairs for about 2.5 hours.
Sunday - 13.2 miles running (mostly) at the park

Sunday - rest

Monday - rowing warm-up 15 mins; FB workout x 1 set; yoga 20 mins

Still on the antibiotics.

Yesterday I weeded for an hour and a half...does that count?

Today I did my cardio crazy workout (5k of sprint intervals, 5k run).

This morning I did a killer LB workout (45 min), with a 15 minute treadmill warm-up, and a much needed shower after . Then I went and had my hair cut, so I feel good all over.

Tuesday - at the gymn

X-T w/up 0:15
row ints x 6 c 0:15
yoga 0:20

Monday - tried running HIIT for the first time. Oh. My. Goodness.

Walked 5 minutes @ 4mph
10 minutes HIIT alternating between 6-8 mph
Walked 5 min @ 4mph

Abs
Bicycle crunch 3x15
Plank 3x90 seconds
Windshield wiper 3x15 per side

5 minutes HIIT alternating between 6-8 mph
Walked 5 min @ 4mph
(I felt so wimpy but I was DYING)

Tuesday
Benchpress training w/ trainer Tim
Close grip barbell benchpress 80x6, 90x6, 100x6, 90x6, 90x6
Barbell floor press (2x35)x6, (2x40)x6, (2x40)x6
Rear delt row machine 110x6, 105x6, 105x5.5
Stretch band pull-aparts - heavy band, 2 sets x 15
Tricep pressdown 60x6, 55x6, 55x6

20 minutes on stairmaster at varying intensities (I used to think this was pretty good for HIIT, now that I've tried running HIIT I know I was wrong!)

Can I ask, for those of you that do running HIIT what speeds you began with when you first started?

Megan, what is a windshield wiper? You are going to LOVE running HIIT, it is totally the greatest workout ever. Not only do you burn about a million calories, and get the afterburn effect, but you actually improve your running speed while you're at it.

Personally I am a relatively slow runner in general, so my HIIT run speeds are lower too. I couldn't really say what speed I'm going when I run outside, but last time I did it on the treadmill this is what I did:
Minutes 1-5: warmup walk at 3.5-4.2mph
Minutes 5-8: 5.3mph warmup
Minutes 8-20: 1 minute at 6.3mph alternating with 2 minutes at 5.3mph (total of 4 fast intervals)
Minutes 20-25: cooldown at 4.5-2.5mph gradually decreasing

The speed to choose really depends how fast you usually run steady-state. If you can run for about 25 minutes at 6mph steady, I would try doing fast intervals at 7mph and recovery at 6mph or maybe 5.8 or so if it's too tiring.

My Monday workout:
Running OUTSIDE!!!! With the dog!!!! In short sleeves!!!!
5 minute warmup walk
2 mile HIIT run -- steady run for the first 1/2 mile, then 1 min sprint alternating with 2 min recovery. Total time for the 2 miles 21:49, a new PR!
5 minute cooldown walk
5 minutes stretching

When does the love kick in? Right now I'm feeling the opposite of love.

JK, thanks for posting your speeds. I'm also a pretty slow jogger. It's easy to press the whole number mph (e.g. 4 mph, 5 mph, 6 mph) on the treadmill which is why I was doing 6 and 8 mph, but I think I will try lower speeds of maybe 7 and 5 or 6 mph next time and see if I can eek out a full 20 minutes.

To do a windshield wiper: Lie on your back, arms extended to your sides, holding a smallish yoga ball between your feet/ankles straight above you so your body is in an L shape. Slowly lower the ball to your right side, then pull it back up in the air to center, then to the left, then back to center. Maintain the 90 angle between your upper body and legs. Use your arms for balance, but not to push you up, the motion should all be coming from your core. Ow ow ow it really works the abs. 1 set can be 10-15 per side.

March 7: 45 minutes crosstrainer

March 8: 65 minutes boxing boot camp class (boxing, cardio, weights)

Totals:
6 days
355 minutes

Megan - my understanding of HIIT is based on being trained with the rowing machine. And my understanding of the point of it is to train your body to operate anaerobically. (At this point, I'm stopping as cannot check facts on the BBerry.)

The variables are:

Your fast speed (should be going flat out, barely... Able ... To... Squeeze ... Out ... Words
Your recovery speed (on the rower, only just moving to remove the lactic acid building up in the legs)
Length of recovery
Number of intervals

You can play around with these, esp 2-4.

I did intervals on the rower today, and will build up to HIIT when I feel better. I used 45 second recovery today but will be at 30 second when I'm HIIT-ing.

Good discussion. Let's become experts in this. I think that HIIT can be used rather loosely for what's really interval training (fartlek in Swedish running lingo).

Boogie on, friends. (I am so positive today I may have to go to bed before I get a headache.)

Silver, interesting. My impression of HIIT was based on the NRLW interval training instructions for 1 minute hard, 2 minutes recovery. I am usually pushing it pretty hard in my hard intervals and would not be able to carry on a conversation at all (not that I can do that in my recovery period either...).

Today's workout:
3x10 squats with 2 15# dumbbells alternating with
3x10 pushups angled to the bench
3x10 lunges with 2 15# dumbbells alternating with
3x10 rows with a 20# dumbbell
3 planks, 35 sec each

Jessica - not a conversation in the hard intervals, more like half-digested grunts, I suppose! I think I must have used 'words' a bit loosely before.

Hmmm, I could do some snow shoveling cardio - we had 8" overnight, and other 2-3" during the day. So far I've let DH have the workout though. What I am doing is the part of my upper body work that requires only dumbbells, which I have at home. The rest I'll do tommorrow along with a zumba class (assuming we at some point get plowed out!)

1 hour cardio on incline trainer
70 min TB strength routine.