Turns out I was not actually that annoyed at myself for leaving my HIIT hill sprints for this evening. I got through nine of them fairly easily, and felt good throughout. I also measured my heart rate after the last one, and then again a minute later, and was pretty pleased with both numbers.
My heart rate was 148 at the end of the ninth sprint, which is about 80% of my heart rate max, meaning I am hitting the nail on the head with the intensity of my conditioning as my goal is to work in the 60-80% heart rate max range. After a minute of rest/strolling down the hill my heart rate was 104, and I'm pretty happy with a 44 beat recovery in one minute. The heart's ability to recover after exercise is a great measure of cardiovascular fitness, and though I can't find any definitive and reliable guides online that tell me exactly where a 44 beat recovery puts me, from what I've seen under 12 beats means you've got major problems and anything over 40 means you're in great shape, so I'll take it!
This also makes me even more confident that yes, heavy weight training with high intensity DOES count as cardiovascular activity, as I don't think I can credit my cardio fitness to the few sessions of HIIT I've done over the past few weeks. Three cheers for heavy weights!
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