Diary of MNexercisegirl

The real HIIT

So being inspried by TomO and Steve, I took my HIIT session outside. I was planning on running the hill, but opted for a slight hill that wasn't as long. I did a 5 minute warm up jog and got my HR upto about 150 when I got to the hill. There was a driveway at the bottom of the hill so I used it as my starting point. I told myself "balls to the wall" and I seriously ran like someone was coming after me with a hatchet.

I don't know how long it took for me to get to the top, 20-15 seconds, maybe? Anyhow I thought, "Hmm, not bad", I jogged down. The 2nd time, I did the same thing, hard, and started to job back, then halfway decided to walk:D . 3rd time, I got up that hill and was so out of breath. I walked down and had to hype myself up to do the 4th one. Holy moley! I thought, let's just do 1 more. Hell why not, I haven't felt the need to hurl yet and that was my goal. The fifth one I A-B-O-U-T D-I-E-D, but no chucks flew out of my mouth, didn't have quite the urge, but pretty close. This whole ordeal lasted 5 minutes, take or leave a couple of seconds.

I walked down that hill and realized that for the past 2 weeks what I thought was HIIT was a bunch of bull, well not really, but it was not HIIT at all. I wasn't sweating. But my saliva was so thick i couldn't spit because my throat was burning and my legs - MY LEGS - felt like I had ran a marathon at tempo pace. My heart rate stayed up for the next 10 minutes as I walked home - WALKED. I tried to jog, but NFW. Mu HR didn't get down to 100 until I got in the house and bent over to stretch. It took that long to recover and then I started sweating.

My legs are sore, especially my hamstrings and oddly, my muscles feel solid. I had to stop in the mirror and admire my shoulders...they're coming a long just fine...*teehee*
 
LOL, it sounds like you discovered the real HIIT! But I would not call what you were doing before useless. I think heavy interval training, while not the same as HIIT, has been extremely useful for me. In fact, it is what prepared me to do HIIT in the first place.

I keep a pretty close eye on my HR monitor when I do HIIT, and I find that on the first sprint, I get to about 90% of my max HR (starting from about 80%). On the 2nd, it gets to about 94%, and by the third, it's all the way up to 95%-96%. By the 11th or 12th, it can get up to 97%. At 97%, I really can't sustain more than 30 seconds -- just not used to all that lactic acid.

I'm also trying to pay a lot of attention to my recovery rate. Right now, I'm still at a work:rest ratio of about 1:2. Even with that, I'm only dropping to around 85% of max between the sprints. As I drop below 85%, I'll try to lengthen the sprints by 5 seconds.

I read an article that talked about one of the main effects of high intensity exercises. One of the reasons it's so good is that during the sprint, your body is drawing oxygen from every conceivable place. It turns out it takes a lot of energy to replace that oxygen debt, even after the session is done, which is one of the reasons it's so effective.
 
TomO said:
LOL, it sounds like you discovered the real HIIT! But I would not call what you were doing before useless. I think heavy interval training, while not the same as HIIT, has been extremely useful for me. In fact, it is what prepared me to do HIIT in the first place.

I keep a pretty close eye on my HR monitor when I do HIIT, and I find that on the first sprint, I get to about 90% of my max HR (starting from about 80%). On the 2nd, it gets to about 94%, and by the third, it's all the way up to 95%-96%. By the 11th or 12th, it can get up to 97%. At 97%, I really can't sustain more than 30 seconds -- just not used to all that lactic acid.

I'm also trying to pay a lot of attention to my recovery rate. Right now, I'm still at a work:rest ratio of about 1:2. Even with that, I'm only dropping to around 85% of max between the sprints. As I drop below 85%, I'll try to lengthen the sprints by 5 seconds.

I read an article that talked about one of the main effects of high intensity exercises. One of the reasons it's so good is that during the sprint, your body is drawing oxygen from every conceivable place. It turns out it takes a lot of energy to replace that oxygen debt, even after the session is done, which is one of the reasons it's so effective.
Click to expand...

I'm addicted to my HR monitor! But somehow, when I was was sprinting, as I got to the top, there was a delayed effect. Not until I started to walk down did I see the number. I think i got up to 171, I think. But haven't seen the file to see how high it actually went.

Speaking of drawing oxygen from every place - uh yeah - totally felt that!
 
mnexercisegirl said:
I'm addicted to my HR monitor! But somehow, when I was was sprinting, as I got to the top, there was a delayed effect. Not until I started to walk down did I see the number. I think i got up to 171, I think. But haven't seen the file to see how high it actually went.

Speaking of drawing oxygen from every place - uh yeah - totally felt that!
Click to expand...

Yeah, I think that's totally normal. I actually see my HR max out about 5 seconds after the sprint is done.
 
Measurements from 03/01/07:
Left Arm: 12.5 in
Right arm: 12.25 in
Left thigh: 23.5
Right Thigh: 23.5
Waist (1 inch below my bb): 33.5
Hips (widest part): 38.5

03/08/07
Left Arm: 11.5
Right Arm: 11.5
Right thigh: 24
Left Thigh: 23.75
Waist: 34
Hips: 38.25

Today
Left Arm: 11.25
Right arm: 11
Right thigh: 23.5
Left thigh: 23.25
Waist: 32.5
Hips: 37.5
Weight: 134.5

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D

Loving the numbers...
 
hmm outdoors and hills. now that sounds like a good idea.

Usually i try and do a hill program on the exercycle which just about does me in on the high end of it. but i may try doing some hills which we have here for fun :)
 
Ahhh, welcome to the wonderful world of HIIT!!!!:) Isn't it funny when you actually do it, and then look back at what you were doing when you thought you were doing it? (okay, read that three times and I promise it makes sense!)

I tried it on the treadmill...once...put the speed up on 9 or 10 or something equally crazy that I would have to go balls to wallls just to keep from sliding off...then, rather than resetting the speed between cycles, I just grabbed the rails and jumped off during the slow down period, ran around the treadmill for 40 seconds, jumped back on, etc. for all 15 cycles...it was as dangerous and silly as it sounds:D Logic and common sense do not always rule in my world.
 
wishes said:
hmm outdoors and hills. now that sounds like a good idea.

Usually i try and do a hill program on the exercycle which just about does me in on the high end of it. but i may try doing some hills which we have here for fun :)
Click to expand...

Funny thing is, when I was running them, around 530, people were coming home form work in their cars and I'm sure a few were like, "WTH?" :D

I love hills because I can feel my hamstrings work. You should definitely try it!
 
cym said:
Ahhh, welcome to the wonderful world of HIIT!!!!:) Isn't it funny when you actually do it, and then look back at what you were doing when you thought you were doing it? (okay, read that three times and I promise it makes sense!)

I tried it on the treadmill...once...put the speed up on 9 or 10 or something equally crazy that I would have to go balls to wallls just to keep from sliding off...then, rather than resetting the speed between cycles, I just grabbed the rails and jumped off during the slow down period, ran around the treadmill for 40 seconds, jumped back on, etc. for all 15 cycles...it was as dangerous and silly as it sounds:D Logic and common sense do not always rule in my world.
Click to expand...

With the treadmill, it's had to go that sprinting speed because it takes long for it to speed up and then you're not increasing and trying to get faster. It's at this consistent speed. I'll probably still do my current routine on the treadmill but once a week I'll take it ouside and try to conquer that hill again. But yeah, what I thought was HIIT was so not.
 
Another weekend

My biggest downfall: boiled crawfish and we're hainv some tonight. I rodered online and got 100 lbs and we're having a feast at the house - an early birthday present for the husband and he's cooking it! I looked at the nutritional information for crafish last night and saw that 5 lbs = 1800 calories and yes, I can eat 5 pounds of crawfish. I think at one point when we were in Dallas, I was the first to sit and the last to leave. LOL! But today, I'm gonna try and be sly and not sit and eat so much. I know that if I sit, I'll eat. I'll have to keep busy by cleaning up, since we're gonna have a ton of poeple over. 100 lbs of crawfish, some - ok, a lot - of beer, some bad karaoke, a binful of trash. I'll probably see some extra guests the morning after on my couch also.

Saturday we're headed to a birthday party where the food I know will be healthy. The couple is very health conscious so boiled chicken laab, vegetables, grilled meats are all gonna be on the menu.

As for exercise, hopefully I can get some lifting in today and some volleyball. Saturday maybe some spinning or a run outside. Sunday: Total rest.
 
Just curious...is that 5lbs with shells, raw, yield after cooking? or just 5lbs of the meat itself? The first I could do with easily, the second - you'd need a wheelbarrow to roll me away from the table....I love those ugly little mudbugs.
 
1. Welcome to the wonderful world of HIIT. Build upon it. Remember, it is an anaerobic workout, just as if you were lifting weights.

2. Sounds like it will be a fun weekend. I hope you have a blast.
 
cym said:
Just curious...is that 5lbs with shells, raw, yield after cooking? or just 5lbs of the meat itself? The first I could do with easily, the second - you'd need a wheelbarrow to roll me away from the table....I love those ugly little mudbugs.
Click to expand...

You know, I bet it's the latter - just the meat itself. My plan right now is before everyone comes over, I'm going to measure how many crawfish it takes to = 1 oz. That way no one will think I'm anal and I'll be able to know how much I'm eating and not feel guilty the next day.
 
Steve said:
1. Welcome to the wonderful world of HIIT. Build upon it. Remember, it is an anaerobic workout, just as if you were lifting weights.

2. Sounds like it will be a fun weekend. I hope you have a blast.
Click to expand...

I'm glad to finally be in the HIIT world. When I was sprinting, memories of grade school PE and running like a banshee across the gym flashed through my head.

Weekend SOUNDS fun...
 
1 oz of crawfish = 7 crawfish

Not too bad with food last night. Had a couple pieces of sausage.

This morning though is a different story. I had a craving for some chinese sausage and cooked some up. Ate and realized that one link had 21 grams of fat. *blah* Already half of what I ate is fat. double *blah*

Today, heading to the birthday party and I'm gonna get some lifting in.
 
mnexercisegirl said:
I'm glad to finally be in the HIIT world. When I was sprinting, memories of grade school PE and running like a banshee across the gym flashed through my head.

Weekend SOUNDS fun...
Click to expand...

Even though I don't sprint on a track anymore, when I do HIIT on the elliptical, it brings back exactly those memories. A great way to recapture a bit of one's youth. Have a great weekend!
 
I have such bad habits during the weekend. I went back to some of the bad habits that I've been desperately trying to change. Eating just because everyone else is, eating because there's nothing else to do, eating too many sweets. The thing is, all the times that I did eat, I knew it was wrong, but I didn't stop myself. It's such a sad cycle. I do great during the week, then Friday night til Monday morning it all goes to shit.

So my goal this week is to tackle one day of the weekend at a time, make healthy choices with food, and bring my own water.

Today, lifting and maybe 30 minutes on the treadmill.
 
Don't beat yourself up to much about your weekend. I have the hardest time at parties myself. The only thing that makes it easier is that all the members of my wife's family are around my age and having to watch what they eat as well. But it's still so hard to resist the desserts. All you can do is get back in the saddle on Monday, though.

I'm going to do HIIT today, are you?

Have a great week!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top