I'll change it up after tomorrow and try to sprint for longer periods of time..
Most people won't be able to sprint for longer than 30-45 seconds. If your fitness level is there then go for it. I can hold about a 85-90% pace for a 800m, which will take me about 2min 30sec to complete. 400m is a 90% pace and its 50-75 seconds. 200m is a 95-100% pace and is 20-25 seconds. 100m is a 100% pace and is 12-16 seconds.
What I am getting at is, if you can hold that pace for more than 45 seconds, you are either in really good shape or your effort is too submaximal. The idea isn't the slow burn, its the fast explosion. Adding more intervals at a shorter rest period is the way to go, especially in the beginning. Work yourself to a 30 second active interval and a 10 second rest interval. Then work to increase the speed you run at or the distance that you cover (increasing intensity)..
Why does everyone always want the biggest most bad ass, all the time? Of course anyone can run for a longer interval - we can run marathons, we already know that. That just does very little for our health and body composition. You should not feel like these workouts are a walk in the park. HIIT workouts are by definition, intended to be far more intense than the "cardio"/LISS workouts. If you feel like you did not exert enough effort - you didn't. The only thing easy here is that the workouts are completed in a much shorter time.
My workout last night...
Strength Training
Deadlift: Warm up sets. 225x5x3, 225x5, 235x5, 275x5, 305x10
Conditioning
1000m row (was slow with my hip, took about 3:40 - should have been 3:20)
40 double unders
20 medicine ball cleans
20 double unders
20 front squats @ 95lbs
10 double unders
400m row
Total time - 12mins 25 seconds. That is not quite eight weeks post surgery. Ideally I would have wanted sub 10 minute time. My rest? Taking about 3-5 seconds to catch my breath before moving from one movement to the next. I could not complete all the work together, so it forced me into those little 1-10 second rests.
That was enough to give me 'crazy eyes'. I.e., I was sucking wind so hard, that I almost took a dirt nap. Had to pour a bottle of cold water on my head to cool my body down because I was overheating.
That is the sort of effort you guys should be looking for - not for how much distance you ran or what weight you lifted. None of that stuff matters when you are talking about conditioning. If you are talking about a strength program - which SHOULD BE DONE but it should be completed PRIOR to conditioning - then the weight you move absolutely matters and you should adhere to principles of progressive overload. I.e., gradually putting more weight on the bar at a time, to give your body new and additional stimulus.
