1st Full Month Of Hill Sprint Training

 When you set new goals, certain things may not show up right away and they say the big results don't show until the 3 month mark. Well, I started Hill Sprint Training on May 17th and I think I've made some pretty good progress but still have a good journey ahead of me. I have been eating a bit differently and because of doing Hill Sprints, doing less intense workouts the rest of the time and getting the most of what's possible to do. 

I just decided that after a few years and wanting to test myself in hard sprints again, they've become a joy to do. I mainly do them in the morning or early afternoon 3x a week and keep the afterburn effect going the rest of the day which is a hell of a perk. I have also come up with a little progression system where I started out with 4 Sprints the first month and each week add 5-10 seconds per burst so the first week was 10 seconds, second was 15, third was 20 and the final week was 30 seconds. This is to help progress to go a little longer on the hill each week until I can practically do the majority or the full hill in 30 seconds. Each month I would add one sprint and use the same progression system of timing.

I am also training on two different hills in my area which gives a different feel in incline and to see what speed I'm best at depending on the time needed to maintain that speed. Soon I'll just be doing only one hill but for now, each one is fun to walk to. One is steeper than the other yet just as awesome to do. When I sprint, I do what's possible to run as hard as I can to maintain speed for a specific amount of time. That doesn't mean I sprint at 100% capacity, that's nearly impossible regardless of how good you are. Even the legendary Walter Payton could only maintain speed on a sprint for the amount of bursts he did in his prime. You can't run nearly as fast on a hill as you could on flat ground but it does still kick your ass.

Say you ran a sprint for 10 seconds, you could probably do close to your maximum capacity of speed which would be around 70-80% at best which on a hill is more than the average person can do. Now if you did a 30 second burst, your speed might go down to maybe 30-40% at best because to keep the pace for that long is something a lot of people don't realize. If you tried to do the absolute maximum of speed like you would in a 10 second sprint, you would start to slow down dramatically those last 20 seconds of a 30 second sprint and within those last few seconds you have, you might as well be jogging. If you knew how to maintain speed for 30 seconds, you'd be jacking up the heart rate and you'd be burning calories and fat like crazy. Whether it's 10 seconds or 30 seconds, go at the speed that is meant for that amount of time needed for that sprint. When I realized how to do that, it made a huge difference in how I sprinted and felt afterwards. 

For all intents and purposes, Sprints are by far the best exercise to burn fat like no tomorrow and burn calories over an extended period of time, even long after a sprint session. Regular cardio such as running on a treadmill does burn calories but only burning from the session and that's it. If you look at Sprinters as opposed to a marathon runner or Olympic Runners in the 1500 meters, there's a world of difference in physique and muscle to fat ratio. 

The first month may not have a huge difference in my physique but I do feel like I've dropped some fat and put on a bit of muscle but like I said, I think I've made some good progress and making small changes along the way. There's still some work to do but this is something I want to pursue at least right now for the summer and fall before winter hits.