Interval running is an excellent way to train your heart and burn calories. The plan on Body For life is quite simple. When I do my running routine I do it on the treadmill. It only takes 21 minutes to do around 2 miles. The first 2 minutes are warm up and the last 2 are cool down, so it’s really only 17 minutes of running. The 17 minutes are compromised of 4 interval reps. Start low for a minute, increase for minute two, increase again for minute three, then again for minute four. Then you go back to the low and repeat 3 more times for a total of 4 reps. That makes 16 minutes – for the 17th you go up one a little more to a fast sprint for a minute, then back down for 2 minutes to cool off.
Right now I am doing 5,6,7,8 for each group, then 9 on the 17th running minute for the high burn. Years ago when I first tried this running routine I was not a “runner” and had to start at much lower and work my way up. For example, if you are not a strong runner, start with something low like 4,4.5,5,5.5 (burn at 6). Then once you are comfortable with that, increase it by just .1 each time, for example 4, 4.6, 5.2, 5.8. You can gradually increase the speeds as you become more conditioned. Here is a chart I created using my mad Excel skillz depicting my routine:
Sometimes after the burn on 9 instead of going straight down to 3.5 I’ll go down to 5 and light jog for 30 seconds, then go down to 3.5 for the last minute and a half. I did this yesterday and this is what my final stats were:
