Tuesday, June 14th, 2011 - Hill Sprints

THE HILL 

(Click to expand pictures)

This hill is located in Forest Park in Saint Louis. The building you see at the top of the hill is the Saint Louis Art Museum.  www.slam.org/

THE WORKOUT

5x Sprint up at 90%.  

Fast walk down.

2 Min Rest

Total Workout Time: 17 mins

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

I noticed a definite improvement in speed this week over last week.  I added 1 more sprint today (last week was 4 hills).  Performance definitely took a hit on the 5th sprint.

Each one of the large humps on the graph shows my heartrate while sprinting up and walking down the hill.  The lighter colored sharp spikes show my actual speed up and down the hill. Notice how my speed dropped on the last run, yet my heartrate still reached the same level as previous sprints.  Hopefully next time I do these sprints I won't see that drop in speed.

This graph does a great job illustrating the affects of High Intensity Interval Training (H.I.I.T.) on the cardiovascular system. The high sharp spikes are when I am literally sprinting up the hill.  Notice that my heartrate doesn't peak until well after I am done sprinting (when I am actually walking down the hill).  This is what makes sprinting and other High Intensity Interval Training (H.I.I.T.) so tough... Sprinting is anaerobic, however the cardiovascular system cannot keep up with the intensity of the exercise.  I am in a state of oxygen debt while sprinting up the hill.  My heart doesn't catch up until after the exercise is complete.

Basically, hill sprints done correctly are hard as hell.  This hill is a beast.  It is about 250 yards.  Long enough and steep enough to completely destroy your legs and lungs.  The only better H.I.I.T. workout I have done is on the Prowler, and even the Prowler doesn't beat this hill by much.