I never should predict how a workout week will go. In my post last week, I said how I would expect the coming week to be a good week of workouts because my nausea was done. I clearly spoke too soon.
Monday was a weird day for me. I’m not sure if my pain and nausea was due to hormonal things (it should have been over by then) or if I got food poisoning or something, but I wasn’t feeling good that morning. It was not just the pain and nausea that I’ve dealt with for the past 2 years but I was also having hip issues that morning. I don’t know why everything was happening for me, but I went into my workout with the mindset that I was just going to do what I could and that was better than missing my workout.
It was a power based workout and we had 3 blocks with cardio. I was on the bike and used my normal resistance levels since I wasn’t feeling good enough to push myself. Every block was a longer push pace, a base pace, a push to all out, a recovery, and another push to all out. For the first block I was feeling not too bad and didn’t need to take any breaks, but for the other blocks I just had to stop when I felt like it was too much. I was frustrated, but not because of how I was feeling. I was frustrated that I wasn’t mentally prepared for a day like this. I thought I was going to be feeling great and I hated how let down I felt when it was a rough day for me. But I did what I could and that’s all I can hope for sometimes.
On the floor, we also had 3 blocks. The first 2 blocks had 3 rounds of 2 different exercises and then a timed row. We had chest presses, squats to upright rows, push-ups using the bench, and single arm chest presses. And then the last block was rounds of 30 second rows with squat jacks using the medicine ball. I couldn’t do the squat jacks so I did regular squats with overhead presses. My rowing wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t great either. But I was able to use heavy weights for the weighted work on the floor so it felt like that made up for something.
The weirdness continued on Wednesday for me. I started out on the treadmill, but my hip was just bugging me. And since I was going to be going to Disneyland later that day, I didn’t want to do anything that would make me hurt too much while walking around at Disneyland. So after I did my warmup I switched over to the bike for the rest of the cardio.
The goal of the cardio work was to work with a new base pace. I ended up being pretty glad I was on the bike since I know I couldn’t go faster on the treadmill yet. What I did for the bike was use my normal push pace as my new base pace, my normal all out as my new push pace, and then go higher with the resistance level for my new all out. It ended up working out well and it wasn’t as tough as I thought it might be. There were a few times where I was wishing the push pace was shorter because my legs were getting tired, but that is to be expected with any workout.
On the floor, we had a long block followed by a short core blast. For the long block we had deadlifts, shoulder presses, back extensions, and mountain climbers. And after completing a round we went to the rower. The first row was 800 and it was cut in half each time we were back on the rower. I didn’t do my fastest row, but it was one of my more consistent speed rows so I was very happy with that. And we ended the workout with a core blast with different types of crunches.
On Friday I pretty much decided to stick with the bike. I’m doing some thinking about not trying to use the treadmill for a while just to get happier with the bike (more on that when I figure it out) so this would be a good chance for me to work with the new base pace I got to on Wednesday. It was a bit frustrating because this would have been the perfect day to work on running, but that’s exactly why I knew I needed to stay on the bike.
All of the blocks were very short and it was a switch day so we were in each section of the room 3 times. On the cardio all the blocks were a push pace, base pace, push pace, base pace, and all out. Each block the last base pace got a bit longer which was a good chance to work on my endurance with that new base pace resistance level. It was a bit easier than it was on Wednesday which was a good sign to me.
On the rower, we started with a 200 meter row and then had different types of squats each block. Then we went back to the rower and finished the row to 400 meters. And since there was time at the end of each block before we switched, we had to hold a squat to complete the block. The last squat was usually about 30-45 seconds for me which wasn’t too long.
And on the floor every block had some form of a lunge movement and some core work. For the lunges we had speed skater lunges, regular lunges, and lunges knee raises (which I was able to do by using the straps for balance). And for the core work we had sit-ups, side plank crunches, and seated torso rotations. I got through 2 rounds of the movements each block before we switched and the time really flew by.
But I did hit an amazing milestone on Friday. I had the goal to do 199 workouts this year, and my workout on Friday was my 200th workout of the year!
I can’t believe that not only did I make it to my goal but I would pass it! And having that milestone happen really did help me feel better about the workouts.
Saturday’s workout was a strength day and I stayed on the bike. But I felt much better about that decision and that helped me feel much better about the workout in general. I was also able to keep working with my new base pace resistance on the bike and combining that with the hill workout made it so hard, but in a good way!
The cardio workout had 3 blocks with a similar format. There was a push pace, a hill base pace, a regular base pace, a push pace, another hill base pace, a regular push pace, and it ended with a push to all out pace. The difference was that each block the hill (or resistance level for me) went down. It was hard doing that work with my new base resistance level, but I think it was a good thing in the end because that new resistance level doesn’t feel as hard as it did when I was using it as my push pace.
On the floor, we had rowing in the first and last block. The first block had a 1 minute row and the last block had a 100 meter row and then a 300 meter row after a 15 second recovery. The rest of the work had a lot of good weight work. We had single arm snatches, goblet squats, shoulder presses, lunges, uppercuts, and sit-ups. I tried to go with the heaviest weights I knew I could use for those exercises to not go easy on myself. I might have done more weight with the goblet squats, but I’m happy with what I did.
I pretty much just have this week to finish up my workouts for the year (except New Year’s Eve which will be the week after) and it’s a good time to evaluate what I want to accomplish in 2019. The idea of making myself use the bike more often is something I think I need to do, but I don’t have the exact plan figured out. But I also want to set more goals beyond that so I can have something to try to reach for in rowing or with weights. Hopefully this week’s workouts will inspire me so I have a good plan for 2019!
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