Category Archives: Fitness

My 2024 Goals (or Things Already Might Need To Change A Bit)

Posted on January 3, 2024 | Comments Off on My 2024 Goals (or Things Already Might Need To Change A Bit)

Happy 2024! I hope everyone had an amazing New Year’s and the year has gotten off to a good start already. I had a pretty chill and low-key New Year’s (except for one thing) and that’s exactly how I like to do things. Before I went out to celebrate with friends, I set aside some time to work on my goals for 2024 and I came up with 4 that I really want to focus on for this year. But I might have to make a few modifications already.

My first goal for 2024 shouldn’t surprise anyone who has seen my goals over the past few years. I want to do at least 200 workouts this year. This is the same number I have had as my goal for a few years, and I don’t expect that I will ever change this since 4 workouts a week at Orangetheory feels right to me. I know I’ve had random weeks when I’ve done 5 workouts in a week, but I can’t imagine doing that regularly. I hope that I will do a few more than 200 this year, but this number allows me to have some missed classes if I get sick or something else prevents me from getting to a workout. But as long as I get to at least 200 workouts in 2024, I’ll be happy.

My second goal for 2024 might need to be changed. The original goal I had for myself was to find a way to save money so I could finally go on a vacation. I still want to see if I can accomplish this goal this year because it’s been a very long time since I’ve had a vacation. I think my trip to Catalina was my last vacation, which was awesome, but I’d love to get away from LA for a fun trip this year if possible. But on New Year’s Eve, my car was hit by a firework and has some pretty decent damage on the door. My car is drivable and the lock and door work, but it will need to be fixed. And I know that any work I do on my car will be pretty expensive. I’m going to work on getting some estimates soon and I’m going to look into whether I want to go through my insurance or not (going through insurance might end up being more expensive if my premiums go up after making a claim). But the amount that I was hoping to have for a vacation may have to go into fixing my car instead and a vacation might have to wait another year. I’ll just have to see how expensive the repair will be.

My next goal is a continuation of one from last year. I want to go as full force as possible with my acting career this year. I am starting the new year in a good place with a lot of things happening for my acting career. I have a new agent, I’m getting new headshots, I’ve re-edited my reel, and I’ve worked on updating my online casting pages. There are other things I haven’t had a chance to do or look into just yet, but I’ve made a lot of progress in the last month that will help to support things moving forward this year. I know that getting auditions and booking jobs aren’t fully in my control, but I’m doing whatever I can to make sure I’m ready for opportunities and I hope that I see some new progress in my career over the next 12 months.

My final goal for 2024 is another one that I feel like I’ve kind of done in the past, but it’s still important. I want to find the time to enjoy life. It’s so easy for me to wake up early, go to my workout, work my day job, make dinner, go to bed, and repeat. Week to week my schedule is pretty consistent, which isn’t a bad thing, but it also makes time go by without me realizing it at times. I want to enjoy my life as much as possible because that is the point of life. I do make plans with friends when I can, but I need to be more active in reaching out to friends and scheduling things. I have some days that are really difficult for me to do things after work, but that’s not every day. So I should take advantage of the evenings when I do have more flexibility and do things that aren’t just sitting at home and doing nothing.

I know these goals aren’t anything crazy or extreme, but I think they are good goals for me to focus on so that I can make the most of 2024. I still will have my monthly challenges that will push me to do more than just these goals throughout the year. But I think these main 4 goals are things that will really benefit my life in the long run. And I hope in a year, I will be reflecting on these goals and proud of what I have been able to do.

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Wrapping Up My 2023 Workouts (or Still Making Sure I Hit My Goal)

Posted on January 1, 2024 | Comments Off on Wrapping Up My 2023 Workouts (or Still Making Sure I Hit My Goal)

My final week of workouts for 2023 wasn’t my normal workout week. On Monday the studios were closed because of the holiday. And Tuesday had reduced hours since it was the day after Christmas. The reduced hours meant none of the class times would work with my work schedule, and since I wasn’t going to take the day off after having a day off, I just had to miss that day. But I still got in my Wednesday and Thursday workout, plus I got a workout in on Sunday for New Year’s Eve!

I knew this past week was going to be a tough week with pain and nausea, but I kind of got lucky and the worst day of the week for me was on Tuesday. Tuesday was pretty brutal for me and I was struggling a lot while I was working, but at least I didn’t have to go through feeling like that and working out. So it was probably for the best. I still wasn’t feeling great on Wednesday or Thursday, but at least those days were better for me.

And Thursday’s workout was a day I wanted to feel as close to normal as possible. First, it was a signature workout day. We had Everest, which is always a big challenge to get through and I wanted to see if I could get close to my past PR. But also, Thursday’s workout was my 200th class of 2023! In past years, I have gotten to my year’s workout goal a little bit faster than I did this time. But as I mentioned in my last post, I had a few things that set me back in and cut into my workout plans. But at least I got to my goal before the end of the year!

Everest went a lot better than I had expected. I was able to pedal a lot faster than normal for the beginning of the climb which added to my distance. As the incline/resistance levels went up, I did slow down quite a bit. That always happens and that is why I work hard at going quickly in the beginning. As the incline/resistance levels went down, I really focused on my pedaling speed and making sure I was going faster as the time was counting down. For the 3 group classes, Everest is 14 minutes long, so it wasn’t any longer than I normally am on the bike. But I knew that any breaks I might take could ruin my chances of getting close to my past PR so I pushed myself to try not to take any. I did have to take one quick break when my nausea really kicked in, but that was not that long. And when the challenge was done, I ended up beating my past PR and getting a new one!

I have no clue how I did that, but I also know I might have pushed myself too much because the rest of that class was not nearly as good for me. My nausea was hitting me really hard. But I guess I should be glad I was able to hold off feeling horrible until after the challenge was done!

And my final workout of this week and for this year was on Sunday! I didn’t go too early in the morning since I wanted to sleep in a little bit to stay up for New Year’s Eve. If I didn’t have to work in the morning, I probably would do a slightly later workout since I think my body does better in later classes (but working out after work doesn’t work for me so I have to do early morning classes). I was feeling rested and ready for my last class of 2023 and I had a surprise when I got there. The coach for that class was someone who worked at the Brentwood studio that I hadn’t seen in years! She wasn’t a coach the last time I saw her, so this was my first chance to take a class with her! I had so much fun in that class and it was awesome to see someone I hadn’t seen since much earlier in my fitness journey.

I’m so proud that I was able to get to my workout goal for the year. I don’t think I’ll ever make it higher than 200 classes in a year since going more than 4 times a week is probably pushing it for me. But knowing that I pushed myself 201 times in 2023 is something I am so happy about accomplishing!

Here’s to getting to my workout goal in 2024 and beyond!

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Last Full Workout Week Of The Year (or I’m Glad It Was A Good Week)

Posted on December 25, 2023 | Comments Off on Last Full Workout Week Of The Year (or I’m Glad It Was A Good Week)

I was worried that this past week of workouts would be a really bad one for me. I knew my pain and nausea might kick in at some point, but it never really got that bad. It was affecting some of my workouts, but it wasn’t to the point where I felt like I wasn’t able to do the exercises or that I was going really easy. I know that this week will possibly be a bad one, but I’m not as worried about that as I normally am.

Right now, I normally do my workouts Monday-Thursday. That schedule has been working for me and even though I still hate waking up early, I know that’s the best time for me to work out with my current work schedule. If I worked only until 3pm, I might be doing afternoon workouts again, especially since the studio is so close to me now. But unless something drastic changes with my schedule, morning workouts 4 days in a row is the best option for me.

And for the most part, holidays don’t affect my workouts too much. The main thing is that if it’s a holiday and I have a day off of work, I can go in a little bit later. I’m grateful that my Orangetheory studio doesn’t close for holidays, they just usually do reduced hours. But the only holiday that the studio is closed is Christmas. Since Christmas this year is on a Monday, I’ll be missing Monday this week. And the day after Christmas is reduced hours at my studio, so there won’t be a class that I can attend with my schedule. So this week I’m only doing 2 workouts. I don’t love that, but it’s really the only option I have because I can’t do a Friday workout. And next week, I’m doing a slightly odd schedule since I’m working out on Sunday to get my New Year’s Eve workout in.

Since last week was the last full workout week of the year, I’m glad it was a good week for me. The workouts weren’t anything too crazy, but we did have a special workout on Wednesday that involved crew rows. I’m not a huge fan of crew rows because I know I row slowly. But it’s also a good challenge for me to try to get my rowing speed up and not stress too much about the power or wattage behind each row. I did start to feel a bit nauseous on the rower during those rows, so I did have to take a few little breaks during them. I was glad I wasn’t the leader for any of the rows so I didn’t have the extra stress of having others in class rely on me. But I did try to keep up and do my best since having every in sync is fun to see and also a bit motivating to keep going.

And I was glad that during all of my workouts, I felt a lot better while on the floor and lifting weights. I’m still dealing with some soreness from swollen lymph nodes, but they are much less painful than they were before so my workouts aren’t as affected by things. I did notice a little bit of weakness on the side that was swollen, but I was able to just go slowly and not have to use lighter weights. That was nice because I know this week I might have to go lighter with the weights if I’m feeling really horrible.

It will be interesting to see how this week of workouts goes considering I’m taking 2 extra days off of working out and I might be feeling pretty bad. I want to say that I’m going to end the year with my best workouts yet, but I’ll just have to see what happens those days and how I finish this year’s workouts!

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Finishing Up The Last Workout Challenge of 2023 (or Working Around New Issues Again)

Posted on December 18, 2023 | Comments Off on Finishing Up The Last Workout Challenge of 2023 (or Working Around New Issues Again)

This past week of workouts completed the 12 Days of Fitness challenge. I did my normal workout days for this challenge, so I wasn’t going to complete it until the last day. But that was fine with me because I knew I would get it done and I didn’t want to stress too much about trying to change up my schedule. I have to change up my workout schedule for the end of the year, so doing it then is enough for me. I’m really a fan of keeping my routine, so I finished the challenge and earned the blanket on Tuesday.

I didn’t need a blanket, but I like having something as a reward for completing a challenge. I will always do Hell Week to earn my shirt even though I don’t normally wear them. I have done other challenges where I have earned hats and socks even though I don’t use those. If the prize is something I know I won’t use or enjoy, I don’t always sign up since we have to pay for these challenges. But normally, I will do it just to have the bragging rights. And that’s how I feel about earning this blanket!

The workouts for this challenge weren’t extra hard, they were just the top workouts of the year. So it wasn’t as bad as Hell Week is. But I had some extra challenges this past week because of my reaction to the Covid booster shot. I always have strong reactions to vaccines, and this one was no different. I tried to time things out so it wouldn’t affect my workouts as much, so I got my vaccine on Thursday when I would have the most amount of rest days before my next workout. And it was good that I did that because I was feeling pretty awful on Friday and Saturday. But what I didn’t expect was having extremely swollen lymph nodes for a long time.

I’ve had swollen lymph nodes after different vaccines, but this was the worst I’ve ever experienced. For the first few days, I couldn’t fully put my arm down. I actually kept a pillow under that arm over the weekend because it was starting to hurt my shoulder. I didn’t think too much about how this would affect my workouts, but I learned very quickly that having swollen lymph nodes meant that I couldn’t row properly. I had to keep my arms bent in an awkward position to be able to bring the row handle back. I made it work and I’m glad that each day over the week got a bit better and I was a little less swollen. I also had some other side effects I had to deal with in my workouts, like being very fatigued and feeling weak. But those are things that I am more used to dealing with so they were easier to work around.

With all the random issues I had to work with for this past week’s workouts, I just had to go a bit easier on myself than I would have liked to. I have been trying to push myself extra hard when I’m having a good week and this past week should have been one of those good weeks. Unfortunately, it ended up being a bit of a bad week instead, but at least the issues that I had were things that I was able to work with and they didn’t affect me as intensely as the pain and nausea that I work through every month.

Next week should be a normal workout week for me, even if it might be a bit of a bad week toward the end of the week. But at least I should be going in for my workouts on my normal days. Then for the end of the month and year, things will be a little different since I have to work around the holidays. But I’m expecting that I will hit my workout goal for this year by the end of the year and I will be finding a way to work in my traditional holiday workouts so I can end this year and start next year the way that I have for a while.

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Starting The 12 Days Of Fitness (or I’ve Almost Earned Some More Swag)

Posted on December 11, 2023 | 1 comment

Whenever Orangetheory has some challenge, like Hell Week, I try to participate. I don’t do every challenge, for example, I don’t do the transformation challenges since I don’t want the stress of what the scale says to affect me. But I like doing these challenges to push myself and have a little extra motivation. I’m pretty good about going to my 4 workouts a week, but anything that makes them a little easier to get to is a win.

Orangetheory is doing the 12 Days Of Fitness for the beginning of December. This challenge features 12 of the workouts we had this past year that were determined to be the most popular ones. And if you sign up for the challenge, you have to do 6 of the 12 workouts to earn a fleece blanket. I don’t need a fleece blanket, but I still want to earn it! I can always find a use for it and I want it just like I always want the Hell Week shirts even though I don’t usually wear them.

Fortunately for me, doing 6 of the 12 workouts fits in perfectly with my normal workout schedule. I won’t be earning my blanket until the 12th day, but I was able to get my first 4 workouts done for the challenge this past week.

Of the 4 workouts I had this past week, I had previously done 3 of them. But the only ones that I really remembered were Drop It Like A Squat and Tread Trail.

I remembered Tread Trail because it was very different to not know how long we would be doing different intensities on the treadmill. Normally, I can be mentally prepared knowing a push pace is only going to be a minute or I can take it a little easier if it’s going to be 3 minutes. While I try to do the same thing for my push pace no matter how long it’s going to be, I also know I need to go a bit easier when they are longer so I can be back to a base pace when they are done instead of needing a break. But when you don’t know how long you’ll be doing something, it’s much harder to pace yourself. I know that’s a good challenge to have since I don’t do that normally, but it also meant I was going a bit easier on myself for a lot of the workout because I was prepared for the intervals to be longer. But I tried to push myself harder when I could and I was happy with how I felt when the cardio block was done and I felt like I didn’t go too easy.

And I remembered Drop It Like A Squat because I remember how hard that workout was on my hips. Doing it another time wasn’t any different and I still had some struggles with hip pain during the workout. I know that squats are really good for me and they are also good for my hips, even if they hurt them a bit. I need to build the muscles around my hips in order to support them. One of the reasons I haven’t had more issues with my hips already is because I have built up those muscles around them so the side that has no cartilage is supported and my bones aren’t hitting each other. But that doesn’t make squats any easier on me. I just had to let my body be my guide and take breaks when I was hurting. But I still did so many squats in that workout and I felt that for a few days after!

I will have the last 2 workouts for this challenge this week so I can complete the challenge. I don’t mind that I’m going to be done on the last day possible since it’s just about completing it and not rushing to get it done. And even though this week shouldn’t be a bad week for me, I’m a little worried about how the beginning of the week might go. I’m writing this post on Saturday, and 2 days ago I got another Covid booster. I always have strong reactions to vaccines, and this has been no different. I know that having a reaction like this means my body is building an immune response and it’s a good sign, but it still feels like I’m sick. I’m hoping that I’ll be feeling fine by Monday, but I know that sometimes my reactions last longer than I would like. So it’s not a guarantee that I’ll be back to normal by the start of this week. But I’m used to working out when I’m not feeling my best, so at least it’s something that I know I can push through. And even if I’m still dealing with side effects during the week, it should be not as bad as I feel now, so that should help too. Hopefully, the sleep and rest I plan on getting this weekend will help me be over these side effects and my workouts this week will be just normal ones and I’ll finish out this challenge feeling like myself.

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Getting Through My Bad Week (or Doing Some Solo Challenges)

Posted on December 4, 2023 | Comments Off on Getting Through My Bad Week (or Doing Some Solo Challenges)

Going into this week of workouts, I knew it was very likely to be my bad week. I’ve said this before, but it’s both bad and good that I can predict this. I am glad that I know it’s coming up so I can be as prepared as possible. But I hate that I’m dreading the week and how I might end up feeling. It can be just a little bad or a horrible week. I never know how it will be or how it might change daily. All I can do is manage the various symptoms I have each day and take it easy when I have to.

Unfortunately, this time it was one of the horrible weeks for me. I wasn’t feeling too bad on Monday, so I did try pretty hard that day knowing I needed to take advantage of having a not-so-horrible day because that might be my only chance. I was having a lot of pain that morning, so I was still going easier than I normally would. I was just glad that I wasn’t nauseous that morning because that usually affects me more than the pain does.

On Tuesday morning, I was doing really horribly. I hadn’t slept much the night before due to my nausea and I was exhausted besides being nauseous and in pain. And that workout was a signature workout: Capture The Flag. I do love these challenges and seeing how well I could do, but I knew that it wouldn’t be fair to those I would be paired up with how I was feeling. So I asked my coach if I could work on my own instead of in a 3 person team, and he allowed me to do that. He’s known me long enough to know that when I’m having a really bad day, it’s a struggle to just show up to the workout.

The way that it normally works when you are in a 3-person team is that you have one person in each section of the room. The person on the floor is in charge of the switching and they do one round of the floor exercises before moving to the treadmill. The person on the treadmill and rower just go for distance until the person on the floor switches everyone around. And the overall goal is to see how far you can get on the rower. There are different colored flags based on how far you get, so it can be a really fun team challenge.

What I did doing the challenge alone was to do one round on the floor just like I would in a team, and I went on the bike and rower for about 3 1/2 minutes each, which is the average time it takes someone on the floor. I still got to do pretty much the same workout I would have done if I was on a team, but I didn’t have to worry about taking too long on the floor because I needed to let the nausea pass or that I wouldn’t be getting much distance on the rower. I was grateful to not have that pressure on me and I think that allowed me to do a lot better than I would have expected to do considering how I was feeling.

The worst day for me this past week was on Thursday, but it also had a funny moment in it. I was really nauseous that morning and even after taking my medications, I felt like I was going to be sick. I also didn’t have a lot of sleep the night before because I was getting sick pretty often. I just felt like everything was working against me with being able to work out, but at least I showed up so I was going to do something. But I also felt like I was barely moving while on the bike and the rower.

At one point on the rower, I felt like I was going to be sick. There is a different feeling between nausea and about to be sick, and I rarely feel like I’m going to be sick in a class. I think it’s been fewer than 5 times at this point. I am lucky it doesn’t happen more often considering how often it happens when I’m home. But this time, I knew I had to leave the workout for a minute. And when I rushed out of the room, I had a classic klutzy moment and ran right into the door frame with my shoulder. By the time the workout was done, a huge bruise was already starting to form on my upper arm. And now, as I write this a few days later, I have a really impressive splotchy bruise on my arm that I know will take a while to go away. Maybe not everyone would find this funny, but I do. Because of course, I would have a super klutzy moment while rushing out of the workout, and already having pain and nausea wasn’t enough for me to deal with.

Even with this past week being a bad week, I know it went as well as it could have. It wasn’t ideal when you compare it to my good weeks, but I’ve learned not to compare them since the situation is so different between my good and bad weeks. This week is likely going to be a bit of a mixed week, I might have a few tough days to start but it should be getting better each day. And I’m hoping I make it to all my workouts this week, but I also have jury duty so that might affect things. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn’t but that’s just another thing that is out of my control and I’ll just have to work with it as it comes.

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Another Week With A Holiday Workout (or Continuing My Own Tradition)

Posted on November 27, 2023 | Comments Off on Another Week With A Holiday Workout (or Continuing My Own Tradition)

Even though I did my family Thanksgiving workout during Fake Thanksgiving, that wasn’t going to stop me from still doing what feels like a tradition with working out on Thanksgiving. It’s nice that it fits in perfectly with what is now my normal workout week, so it didn’t feel like much of a change for me. But I’m still proud of completing 10 years of Thanksgiving Day workouts!

My first 3 workouts of the week were my normal workout time before work. I have been dealing with some extra stress due to a few different things happening in my life, so I haven’t been sleeping or eating well. That affected my workouts and I was having more moments of lightheadedness. I know this is something I deal with from some of the medications I take and having poor sleeping and eating habits makes it worse. I still struggle to force myself to eat when I’m not feeling like it because that’s the mindset I’ve had for so long. But when I skip dinner and then work out the next morning, it’s not a good combination. I am lucky that I can make that feeling go away quickly if I just stop what I’m doing and sit down to take some deep breaths. It’s not ideal, but it’s manageable. And when it’s due to something that is somewhat my fault, I’m glad that I don’t have to totally ruin what I can do in my workout that day.

On Thanksgiving Day, I allowed myself to sleep in a bit and do a later morning workout. It was still a morning class, but it was about 2 hours later than I’m used to. This is the class time I normally do when I’m able to sleep in due to a holiday or a day off of work. If I didn’t have my day job to log into in the morning, I probably would take a class at that time because it’s still early enough to get it done and have the rest of the day, but it allows me to get a little more sleep. The only negative with that class time is that I take my morning medications before going to work out, so I have a few side effects that I sometimes have to work around. It’s worse when I do a later class on a Monday since I do my injection on Mondays and that really affects me. But with my other medications, I have things like elevated heart rate and dropped blood sugar which can make my workout a little harder. But just like having lightheadedness, it’s something I’ve learned to work with and it’s manageable.

But the Thanksgiving Day workout was probably the toughest workout of the week. It was a 2 group class, which doesn’t necessarily mean it’s harder or easier. This time, there was a lot of going from cardio to rowing, so that was an added challenge. I also pushed myself a little too hard on the rower the first time I was on it because I didn’t know what other rowing I had coming up. I still think my rowing is getting stronger, but my last row of the workout was a lot worse than how I started off the block. I don’t believe in the idea that you have to work out in order to “earn” certain foods on holidays, but I do like how I feel when I work out before a celebration like that compared to not working out before. And my workout was early enough that I had some time to be lazy at home before I started cooking dinner.

As much as I would have loved to work out with my family on Thanksgiving Day, I think this workout would have been harder for them than the class we did a few weeks ago. So I think that Fake Thanksgiving was the better workout choice for us.

I’ve got 2 more holidays that I can do some workouts around, but I’m not sure yet if I’ll do a Christmas Eve workout. That’s a day that I usually don’t work out, so I might not go in. But I’ll find a way to make it work for me to work out on New Year’s Eve, even though that is normally a rest day too. That’s one of those traditions I’ve created around Orangetheory that I will go out of my way to make sure it continues.

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Default ThumbnailThanksgiving Workouts (or Continuing A Tradition) Default ThumbnailNot My Usual Thanksgiving Week Workouts (or Trying To Keep The Tradition Going) Default ThumbnailA Holiday Workout Week (or Kicking Off The Second Half Of The Year) Default ThumbnailA Thanksgiving Week Of Workouts (or Still Keeping Up A Tradition) Default ThumbnailBirthday Workout Week (or Continuing My Progress) Default ThumbnailA Very Weird Workout Week (or Food Poisoning And Holiday Workouts)

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A Normal Week With A PR (or The Break Between Holiday Week Workouts)

Posted on November 20, 2023 | Comments Off on A Normal Week With A PR (or The Break Between Holiday Week Workouts)

This past week of workouts was a normal workout week for me. The week before was a bit different because of my family workout. Next week will be almost a normal workout week but slightly different because of the holiday. So having a regular workout week was a nice break, especially since I know I’ll also have a few odd weeks in December.

And not only was it a normal workout week, but I was feeling pretty good throughout the week. I did have some issues with being lightheaded a few times, which is something I experience from time to time and usually is because I don’t eat enough the day before or I eat my dinner too early. But because I’m used to it, I know that I just need to sit down and catch my breath. It’s the same thing I do when I get lightheaded at any other time of day (sometimes I experience that when I’m just sitting and working).

I really have been trying to increase the weights that I use on the floor, but I’m still struggling with it. I did have a bit of success, but most of the time I couldn’t use the heavier weights. I know that just trying to use something heavier and then going back to what I normally use is still a bit of a success, but I don’t know what it’s going to take for me to be able to use the heavier weights for all my reps. Maybe it’s just continuing to do trial and error with the heavier ones? I was able to use slightly heavier weights once for an upper body exercise, which made me really happy. And having that feeling when using the heavier weights just convinced me more that this is the right thing to focus on. I think I felt almost more accomplished by using those heavier weights than I do when I get most of my PRs.

But speaking of PRs, I got a new one this past week! We had the 12-minute distance challenge on Thursday. This benchmark is tough because it will always last 12 minutes no matter how fast or slow you go. When it’s a distance challenge, you can be done sooner if you go faster. But you have to pace yourself for 12 minutes for this one and that’s not a short time. I have had attempts in the past where I went too hard at first and burned out and really couldn’t do much for the second half. But I’ve been doing better at pacing myself and making sure I don’t go too hard in the beginning.

I knew that I PRed the last time I did this and that was hard enough to do. And it can be harder to PR on the bike than on the treadmill because the treadmill tracks smaller distances than the bike. So while on the treadmill you can see a new distance every few seconds or less, on the bike I see a new distance every 15 seconds or so. So that means I might have gone just a tiny bit further, but the distance on the bike computer would be the same as the last time. I am crazy competitive with myself, but I also know that when I’m doing bike challenges and tying my PR, sometimes it doesn’t mean that. It’s not an excuse, but something to help me not be too frustrated.

My plan this time for the challenge was to keep the resistance level at my normal base pace level so it wouldn’t be too heavy. I wanted to pedal really fast, but not so fast that I would feel out of control. And I wanted to maintain about the same speed for at least the first half. Then, after the 6-minute mark, my plan was to do little sprints every minute. I alternated between a 20-second and 30-second sprint every minute and when I wasn’t sprinting, I was trying to keep my speed the same as I did for the first half. And I was able to pretty much do my exact plan.

At the last minute, I knew that I was going to at least tie my last PR. It just came down to whether I could get the computer distance to change in time or if I would just appear to be at the same distance as the last time. And by some miracle, at 11:59, the distance went up by .1 and I was able to get a new PR!

The rest of my workout on Thursday suffered a bit from how exhausted I was from the challenge, but it was worth it to get the new PR!

I know not every week can be a winning week like this past one was, but I am so happy I had such an incredible week. I know it’s just a matter of time before I have another tough workout week, but I feel like those weeks aren’t getting that much worse than they normally are but my good weeks are getting better than they have been! So things are balancing out more in my favor than they have done before and that’s something to celebrate!

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Default ThumbnailKeeping Things Normal For A Holiday Week (or Steady With My Workouts) Default ThumbnailSome Holiday Workouts (or Back On The Treadmill This Week) Default ThumbnailBack To My Normal Workouts (or Another Challenge Switch) Default ThumbnailWorking Hard (or Some Normal But Tough Workouts) Default ThumbnailJust A Normal And Good Workout Week (or Using My Workouts To Get Out My Stress) Default ThumbnailA Very Weird Workout Week (or Food Poisoning And Holiday Workouts)

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One Of My Favorite Workout Weeks Of The Year (or Another Family Workout)

Posted on November 13, 2023 | 3 comments

This past week of workouts, I had 3 of my regular workouts at my normal studio. I usually go Monday-Thursday, but this week I was there Monday-Wednesday. Those workouts were pretty good for the most part. I struggled a bit more than normal on Monday because I was still dealing with pain and nausea, but it was a lot less than what I had dealt with the week before. And I was feeling almost back to normal by Tuesday, so my workouts weren’t affected that much after the first day.

Even though I love those challenges, it was nice to be done with Hell Week. I don’t feel like I can push myself as much during Hell Week by using heavier weights or doing new things on the bike or rower because I’m just trying to get through those workouts. They do challenge me, but because I have had goals to see improvements in my workouts, my goals and how I push myself are different. That meant I was able to get back to trying to improve in normal workouts. I’m still testing out if I can increase the bike resistance level and I think I might start trying to change one of the levels I use instead of trying to change them all at once. And I have noticed my rowing continues to get stronger and faster, so that’s awesome. I still have some issues on the rower because of my foot, but I’ve been adapting more to what I need to do and I’m glad that’s not setting me back too much. I still have a lot of work to do on my rowing endurance, but it’s baby steps towards what I want to do.

But the best workout of this past week was the one workout not at my normal studio. My family had our Fake Thanksgiving this past week, so I did a workout on Friday at the studio in Santa Barbara since that’s where our Fake Thanksgiving was held this year! This was the second time we worked out at that studio, so it was fun to have another repeat studio for our tradition. And this was the 10th time our family had a workout before Thanksgiving or Fake Thanksgiving! Our first family workout was in 2014! And now we’ve gone to 4 different Orangetheory studios and had 1 year with each of us doing a workout at home. I love that this tradition has continued for 10 years now and that my family still joins in for a workout. Sometimes it’s a bigger group and sometimes it’s a small group, but it always happens!

This time, my dad and aunt joined me for the workout. It was a 2 group class, which is something I don’t usually get to take. And it was also a run/row, which is even more rare for me since those only happen in some 2 group classes. I do like that the run/row workouts almost feel like a 3 group class to me a bit since there is a lot of rowing, so I was happy that was the workout we happened to go to.

My dad and aunt kicked butt in class. I know it’s not easy for them since they don’t normally go to Orangetheory so they aren’t used to the pattern and rhythm of class. But the coach was really good about helping to guide them to the right things and I also checked in with them to make sure they knew what to do next. Sometimes in these workouts, my dad and I challenge each other a bit, but this time we were both just focused on getting in a good workout. And I thought it was a really good class with a nice mix of upper and lower body work. I also was able to challenge myself by using heavier weights for chest flys. I felt sore after doing that, but it was a good sore feeling.

And of course, after class, we had to take a family photo with the coach so I could add it to our collage!

There have been a lot of things that I have celebrated about working out at Orangetheory, but this is one of the things I celebrate that involves others. My family doesn’t have to join me for these workouts and I would go on my own if nobody else wanted to go. But for 10 years (technically 9 since one year we all worked out at home on our own), at least some of my family has decided to keep up this tradition and that’s something I’m so happy about and proud of!

Now I just have to figure out how to be the host of my family’s Thanksgiving (or Fake Thanksgiving) so that we can do our family workout at the Culver City studio and my family can see how awesome my coaches at my home studio are!

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Default ThumbnailMy Short Workout Week (or 6 Years Of Family Workouts) Default ThumbnailThanksgiving Workouts (or Getting My Family Involved) Default ThumbnailAnother Full Workout Week (or More Family OTF Time) Default ThumbnailA Short Workout Week (or 3 Workouts In 3 Different Locations) Default ThumbnailA 4 Workout Week (or Only A Few More Weeks Of 2015 Workouts) Default ThumbnailNot My Usual Thanksgiving Week Workouts (or Trying To Keep The Tradition Going)

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A Week Of Celebrations (or Finishing Hell Week With Lots Of Awesomeness)

Posted on November 6, 2023 | Comments Off on A Week Of Celebrations (or Finishing Hell Week With Lots Of Awesomeness)

This past week of workout was half Hell Week and half regular workout week. I also realized at the beginning of the week that this past week might end up being a rough one for me with pain and nausea. But I was hoping that wouldn’t happen until the end of the week so I was hopeful I would finish out Hell Week without too many issues. And I’m glad that was what happened to me.

I started out my workout week by completing my 4th Hell Week class. I was glad to have the weekend off so I could relax a bit and get ready for some more hard workouts. And I think that Monday’s workout was the one I felt the most ready for and had the best time with. But that also might have been because I was ready to earn my shirt since I’ve done that every year since my first Orangetheory workout! I’m missing a shirt, but my collection is looking pretty nice.

On Tuesday, it was the last day of Hell Week and Halloween. I’ve worn random costumes occasionally, but I didn’t have a good idea for a costume this year. Although I did realize a good costume idea for the future after this class was done, so hopefully next Halloween I’ll have something better. But I decided to be a bit silly and I wore my strike shirt so I could go as a striking actor for my costume in class.

The workout was tough, but I still think the first class the week before was the hardest of all the Hell Week workouts. I did have a little extra challenge on Halloween because I didn’t realize the difference between performance fabric and normal fabric would be so much. I normally wear a workout tank top in class. I do sweat, but the performance fabric does not make me feel overheated or gross. But my strike shirt is normal fabric, so I felt so much warmer and icky while I was sweating in class. I guess I decided to make Hell Week a little harder on myself for a little extra challenge. But I got through it and learned that wearing non-workout tops in class is probably not a smart idea.

And I had another awesome thing happen this past week. The Orangetheory app tracks how many workouts we’ve done in the studio, and I noticed that I was about to get to another milestone class. Because the app can take a day or so to update, I’m not exactly sure when I got to this milestone, but it was either on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Because I average about 200 workouts a year, this means that I’ll be taking my 2000th class right around Hell Week 2025. That’s so crazy to think about! And I know that this tally doesn’t count the workouts I did at home with the app, so I have actually done closer to 1800 workouts if you could those. But I also know the workouts I did at home were not nearly as tough as the in-studio ones, so I’m ok counting them separately. I know that I probably shouldn’t be as shocked or impressed by myself since these workouts are a regular part of my life now, but I still remember how hard it was to find a workout that I really clicked with. And to know that I’ve not only clicked with these workouts but really have thrived in class and have achieved so much still amazes me. It’s been a long journey to find my fitness home, and I’m still so grateful that I’ve found it.

I love that I had so many positive things happen to me this past week. I ended things on a rough note with some really horrendous nausea, but I just kept remembering that I had done some awesome things at the beginning of the week to balance it out. I might still be a bit off at the beginning of this week, but I have a feeling I’ll be ending this week on another high!

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