am i doing it wrong?

msange727

this is a hiit question -- i've been doing 25 minutes of treadmill hiit, running two minutes at 7mph (i'm a slow runner lol) and 1 minute recovery at 4.5mph. i used to recover at 6mph for a minute, but then i got it into my head that the recovery should be more of a walk and less of a slower jog. should the speeds have a big difference, or a small one for best results? thanks!

anaeser1

I'm by no means an expert, but I always thought you dropped to a "start to catch your breath" pace, so 4.5 sounds good. The point is basically to keep your body guessing what's going on and working harder instead of settling into a certain pace.

And let me just say, 7 mph is not slow, lol. i'm happy to get up to 6 mph for a few minutes. good luck! Keep it up!

kmjarvey

I do a lot of interval training and your recovery all about that, recovery. You want to feel at least somewhat rested and ready to go at the end of it, not still panty from the last one. So if jogging at 6 mph gets you there, you're fine but if you need to dial it back to 4.5 mph to go longer at your intensity pace, that's what you need to do. Your focus should be on being able to go longer/faster at the intensity and not on keeping your recovery pace close to that. Hope that makes sense. Good Luck!

jenb1205

I am also pretty darn slow.  If you were doing a 7/6 recovery before and comfortable at that pace, I would kick up the 7mph if you feel you can do that safely.  From all I've read about HIIT, your sprint should be the absolute highest that you can go to the point where you feel like you can't take one more step when that interval is finished.  The slower recovery pace (I do either 4.5 or 4, depending on how I feel that day) allows you to recover from that "I can't go one more step" feeling.  In my personal HIIT, I usually start my first interval at 7 and work my way up to 9mph or so.  

jenb1205

msange,  I forgot to also mention that I usually only do 18 to 21 minutes so I am also doing less intervals than you.  (not that I'm right, just wanted to make sure I didn't leave out that important detail).

raynes

Yup, you're doing it wrong. 

There's a lot of different info out there about HIIT, but, from what I can tell, the generally consensus is as follows:

Do 15-20 minutes.  If you can go for longer, you're not working hard enough. 
High intensity - shorter periods, like 1 minute, as fast/hard as you can
Low intensity - double the length of the high intensity periods, at a true and honest recovery pace

I do 3 minutes of warm up, gradually increasing the pace then 5 high intensity intervals of 1 min each with 2 mins of recovery.

If I'm on the treadmill it looks like this:

Inline: 1.0-1.5
Warmup: 1 min at 3.0, 2 min at 3.5
Intervals: alternate 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 7.6 w/ 3.5 for recovery.

Each time I do it, I try to start my first interval a bit faster.  When I was getting ready for a 5k and only running for my intervals, I got up to 7.9 when doing only 4 intervals in a session.

By my HRM, I'm usually to 90-95% of my max HR on a high intensity interval, then back down to around 70% during recovery.  For me that means 180 ish bpm for high, and back down into the 140's or 150's during recovery.

Shtallionchick14

Thanks for listing your workout. This was very helpful for me too!

msange727

haha raynes, i knew it! :]

thanks everyone! i'm going to bump up my sprint speed and probably cut it back to a 1:1 ratio or 1:2 with a walking recovery. and then i'll come post about how sore i am!

raynes

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_getting-shape_am-doing-wrong?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:238Discussion:523f38e0-bfdc-4cdb-9d6c-7e81817da688Post:6b54a78f-3bae-462c-9dff-0297039c0ea1">Re: am i doing it wrong?</a>:
[QUOTE]haha raynes, i knew it! :] thanks everyone! i'm going to bump up my sprint speed and probably cut it back to a 1:1 ratio or 1:2 with a walking recovery. and then <strong>i'll come post about how sore i am!</strong>
Posted by msange727[/QUOTE]

I'm never really sore after, but that might be because my HIIT always comes after a fully body workout, so perhaps the HIIT sore it just hidden. 

I am, however, usually very salty after!

msange727

salty, yes - always. when i get done doing cardio, i typically look like i need wrung out!

newbiebride83

If I could put in a plug for HIIT, there are a variety of ways to perform this type of workout and with good reason. Your body gets used to the same type of workout, so you definitely want to switch it up. And your fitness level will dictate how intense your HIIT should be. Less intervals, longer rest periods for beginners and then increase the amount and/or length of intervals while decreasing your rest periods as you progress. But as a general rule of thumb, you are going all out... 90%-95% of your max heart rate and then recovering. Eventually your body becomes more efficient and adapts, which is why you increase the intensity.

Also try HIIT on the stepmill...amazing results!