Slowly, I'm coming to understand that achieving optimal fitness requires sustained maximum effort.

Intensity.

Which is why you don't see elite athletes on elliptical machines. The very design of an elliptical machine precludes intensity.

All those people that kicked my ass at the Spartan Race last weekend? I'd place a substantial wager that none of them spend any time on an elliptical machine.

They probably don't spend much time in a traditional gym at all.

In the book Learning to Breathe Fire, which is about the development, evolution, and rise of CrossFit there is story after story, backed up by data, about the effectiveness of incredibly intense workouts.

If you want to be fit - really fit - I'm learning that you've got to push your body to the edge of its limits.

You can't just exercise.

You have to exercise with intensity.

Looking for that intensity this morning, I came up with this workout, which I invite you to try.

At the Belk-Tonawanda Park in Monroe, there is a big hill overlooking what used to be an amphitheater which is right beside a small parking lot. Start one mile from there and run to the park.

When you get there, do 5 rounds of:

1. Sprint up the side of the hill (there's a path), run across the top, and down through the benches back to the bottom.

2. Run around to the parking lot and do 15 pushups.

3. Using the 8 consecutive parking blocks as balance beams, walk each one and hop to the next one until you get to the end. If you fall off, start over at the one you fell off of.

After the five rounds, run back to where you started and/or far enough to have accumulated 3 miles.

It took me 33:29.

If you do it, post your time in the comments.

I will probably do this again next Saturday if anyone wants to join me.