I’m always looking for ways to spice up working out. If I get bored with my workout routine, I’m the type of person who simply won’t do it, which is why the boot camp classes I go to work so well for me-they’re different exercises and muscle groups every day. However, sometimes going to a class and working out with a bunch of other people sounds like torture….nor do I sometimes feel like running several miles (or have the time!) So when my girl friend, Wendy told me that she went for a run in our local hills, it sounded like the perfect way to combine the running I’ve come to love with the high intensity interval training (HIIT) that keeps me motivated.

Here’s what I did:

-Start at the top of the hill, jog down (count this as part of your warm up)

-Run uphill, for as long and steep as is available to you-it took me about 1:30-2:00 to run up.

-Active recovery for this is some other non-cardio, strength-based exercise. I brought a towel and put it on the ground so that I could do pushups and crunches.

Repeat this as many times as you can. If you don’t have access to hills, you can easily do this at the gym by simply adjusting the speed and incline on the treadmill. Start slow (i.e. 30 seconds of hills, 30 seconds flat) in order to determine your ability-I know from personal experience that going too intense too soon on hill workouts can wreak havoc on your entire body (especially the next day)…which is why it is equally important to STRETCH afterwards!

I ended up doing this enough times to get 30 minutes of a quality workout. Even better, I woke up super early and caught the sunrise-something I’m discovering the value of lately. It’s so peaceful, quiet, and cool at that time of morning, and the view doesn’t hurt either!