S P R IIIINTS

I smiled when my alarm went of this morning, because clearly, obviously, there was some sort of glitch with my phone! It had only been a few minutes since my head hit the pillow....oh shit...nope, it was really 5:30am.

I needed to hit up some serious cardio today after doing absolutely nothing with my life yesterday, this does not include my 20 minute walk of shame - that counts for something, right? Solution? SPRINTS! I love sprints and you should love sprints too. It's one of the most effective ways to burn cals and it boosts your metabolism for the entire day. And since I hit the snooze on my alarm about five times I was running short on time. You can do sprints in a number of different ways, on a number of different machines. The main point is to go all out for a short burst of time, and then recover with some "active rest". I use the treadmill (duh) and increase my speed with each sprint. Goes a little something like this:

minutes 1 - 5: warm-up @ 4 - 6mph
minutes 5 - 6: sprint @ 8mph
minutes 6 - 7: recover @ 4mph
minutes 7 - 8: sprint @ 8.3mph
minutes 8 - 9: recover @ 4mph
minutes 9 - 10: sprint @ 8.5mph
minutes 10 - 11: recover @ 4mph
minutes 11 - 12: sprint @ 8.8mph
minutes 12 - 13: recover @ 4mph
minutes 13 - 14: sprint @ 9.0mph
minutes 15 - 16: recover @ 4mph
minutes 16 - 17: sprint @ 9.5mph
minutes 17 - 18: recover @ 4mph
minutes 18 - 19: sprint @ 10mph
minutes 20 - 25: cool down @ 6mph

You get the gist. You can tailor this any way you like. I also did similar sprints on the bike. I do 30 seconds "on" and 45 seconds "active recovery" with the bike. Let me add, by the end of your sprint, you should pretty much feel like you're dying. A good kind of dying - but still, dying. If you're not, then turn that shit up!

Then I hit the elliptical - even though I hate the elliptical (I get bored, and need to switch up my machines about every 20 minutes)

FUNNN!! I sweated a lot. Have I mentioned how much I love to sweat when I workout? True sign that you're working hard.

The only crappy thing about my sprints this morning is the annoying effect it had on my annoying shin splint in my right leg. Let me tell you all something. I have smashed my face into the side of a dock during an ill timed backflip, I have had internal bleeding in my arm (you DON'T want to know that story), I have had stitches in my foot (bicycle spokes, ouch!), I just got over a black eye, I have had six piercings and a tattoo....NONE of these things hurt or annoyed me as much as these damn shin splints do. The worst part is that you can't really do anything about it, you just need to "run through them", or "rest" (yeahhh right). Anyways, I'm currently in my bed frustratingly icing my shin.

Moving on.....I found this article by FAVORITE fitness guru/go-to man/author and I'm psyched to try it out....not that I need help in that area ;)

Better Sex Workout