I've had a few too many rest days in the past week, none consecutive, but still, I wanted to blast things into high gear.
I did an easy 15 minute warmup on the elliptical first, and then some stretching.
Then to get things kicking, I opted for a
Tabata Interval. I did this with Sprint Intervals on an elliptical machine... 20 seconds as fast as I could crank, and then 10 secs rest. Repeat this cycle 8 times. Total time for the death-defying event is 4 minutes.
By the end of the 6th interval, my legs felt like lead. My 7th interval was a bit of a cop-out... I probably only gave 60-70% cause I was so winded. On the 8th, I said the hell with it and threw caution to the wind, giving 100% of what was left. No question... this is a
highly anaerobic event!
By end of the 2nd interval, my heart rate was hitting 160-170, and barely dropping during the rest periods.
I think this Sprint Interval is much better suited outside on a bike. That way, you could coast on your 10 second rest interval. With the elliptical, you spend part of the interval decelerating, and putting out effort to do so.
To keep accurate track of time, I'd downloaded a MP3 that someone had created that calls out the start and finish of the 20 & 10 second milestones.
