My sister did a new treadmill workout the other day. It involved walking, running, and some sprinting too. It sounded interesting and a bit challenging all the same so I tried a version of it yesterday. If the sweat soaking my shirt was any indication of this workout's level of difficulty, well, then, it was one hard workout. It was one that altered my perspective on exercise too.

The basis of this workout is to run at a normal pace with sprints and periods of rest sprinkled in. Let's talk normal. For me, normal is running at 6 mph. To get a taste of this strenuous workout, I pumped up my speed to 7 mph in the midst of my running and kept at it for one minute. This was quite a change -- my legs were moving swiftly, and my heart was working harder than usual. Following the one minute at 7 mph, I changed my speed to 8 mph. I spent another minute here as my legs struggled to keep up with one another and my heart pounded away. Back down to 6 mph I went and something odd happened: I felt like I was crawling. My typical pace seemed too easy, effortless even. So I changed my normal to 6.2 mph -- I realize now I could have done even more -- and continued running. Before I was done, I did the 7 and 8 mph thing one more time. Then I walked a mile to cool down.

Now what I did today was nothing compared to what my sister accomplished. It was merely a taste -- and enough to know I want to conquer the whole thing tomorrow. The 30-minute program goes like this:

Run 5 minutes at 6 mph
Walk 1 minute at 3 mph
Run 3 minutes at 8 mph
Walk 1 minute at 3 mph
Run 2 minutes at 8.5 mph
Walk 1 minute at 3 mph
Run 1 minute at 9 mph
Walk 2 minute at 3 mph

Then do the whole thing in reverse, just don't repeat the 2-minute walk at 3 mph.

Once I master this workout, I'm confident my normal 6 mph run will seem like small potatoes. Funny how perspective works.