HIIT Me With Your Best Shot

Oh yeah...bringing some old school into this blog!  Hmmm....am I dating myself?

I had an insanely busy weekend - I HAD to get my garden in this week so spent hours on Saturday shopping for plants after our long run.  I was silly and didn't bring any water with me, which I should have as I started getting dehydrated and ended up with a raging headache.  I generally try to drink around 2L of water each day, and find that when I get less I really, really notice it.

Sunday morning was another early day - up around 6am to do the weekly cooking marathon, then out in the garden by 9am.  Nine hours later, I finally finished prepping the bed, edging it, and then getting all the plants in...I have to say - it looks pretty effing awesome!  The plants are still tiny but in three years or so, it should all fill in.  I'm just praying that Bambi and friends don't nibble too much of our plants.  After I was done, I was totally exhausted but hadn't actually "worked out" so did 20 mins HIIT (high intensity interval training) on our stationery bike. 

I slept pretty well but definitely not long enough - and 5am came a bit too early this morning.  I blew off bootcamp - yes, you heard me right!!  I was too tired after all the weekend activities to get up.  The guilt wore on me all day, as my fave instructor Fiona was teaching and I heart her - she is one kickass instructor.  Even Fiona couldn't get me up, that's how tired I was.  I was guilt wracked all day so came home and did another 20 minute HIIT session - I'm starting to really like it these short but super intense sessions.

For those of you who don't know that much about HIIT, it's continous bouts of high and low intensity exercise done for a set period of time, and for no longer than 20 minutes - it's a core principle in Body for Life, which I really like and mentioned before that I used when I was getting ready for my wedding.  Benefits of HIIT include:

1.  Maximum cardio benefit in a short period of time
2.  Turns your body into a fat burning furnace - some studies show it improves fat burning
3.  Improves endurance and stamina
4.  Helps with cardio boredom

I really liked the treadmill HIIT - I was drenched in sweat and if I can get the benefits in a shorter period of time, I like it.  I'd kind of forgotten about HIIT as I'm doing a lot of slow but long distance running.  And any excuse to put some 80's into my blog, I'm there!