It's been months and months since I've had the motivation or drive to do any sort of morning workout. I honestly can't remember the last time I set an alarm to drag myself out of bed to run early.

But lately with my schedule being so out of control between my job and teaching and the rest of life, early morning seems like the only time I have for me.

So yesterday, I took advantage of that and got in an intense interval workout before work.



My running has been a little stale lately, so I thought intervals would be a good way to spice it up.

I found a fun-sounding interval workout from Self Magazine and decided to give it a try.

Here's what the workout looked like:

• 5-minute warm up


• 3-minute sprint at 7-9 mph


• 3-minute hill walk (I did 4.2 mph with a 5 percent incline)


• Repeat 5 more times


• Cool down for four minutes

In total, the workout was 45 minutes, and I was dripping in sweat at the end. Seriously, it was such a good butt kicking and a really, really good way to mix up my otherwise ho-hum running routine.

Plus getting the workout out of the way first thing in the morning made me feel insanely productive the entire rest of the day.

It was a nice reminder how much I love morning workouts. Yes, dragging yourself out of bed early sucks, but the feeling afterward totally makes up for it.