Halfway Through Hell Week (or Finding Lots Of Moments To Be Proud Of Myself)

I’ve made it through over half of my Hell Week workouts! Of my 4 workouts this past week, 3 of them were Hell Week classes. This week I’ll be doing 2 more so I can earn my shirt for being a Hell Week Survivor. I would be doing all these workouts even if I didn’t get a shirt, but getting some swag is an added bonus! I had heard rumors that this Hell Week was going to be much easier or much harder than the past few years, but I tried to go in with an open mind and see what would happen.

Monday’s workout was my one non-Hell Week workout of the week. It was a strength day, but the way it was set up it didn’t feel like a strength day the entire time on the treadmills. So I got to continue working on my running during some of the blocks which was nice.

For the treadmill, the first and third block were the same and the second and fourth block were the same. Blocks 1 and 3 were the blocks that didn’t feel like strength workouts to me. We had a 1 minute push pace, 1 minute base pace, 1 minute push pace, 30 second base pace, and 30 second all out pace. I was able to run my push and all out paces for both blocks and it didn’t seem as hard as I thought it would. 1 minute seems to be the sweet spot for me with running right now. I’d like to get my endurance back up to where it was, but this is better than not running at all. Blocks 2 and 4 were incline based with short intervals followed by single arm snatches using weights between each round. I wasn’t going to run on an incline so I did those as a power walk and I got 2 rounds in each block.

For the floor, we had 3 blocks and they all felt like strength workouts. In the first block, we had single arm low rows with weights and bench sit-up to stands. I wasn’t using my heaviest weights for the low rows, but I was using one heavier than I did earlier this year. And for the bench sit-up to stands, I usually don’t do those with weights but we were encouraged to do so this time so I tried it. It was tough, but I could feel how much harder I was working doing it that way. The second block had one exercise that included lunges, bicep curls, and shoulder presses as one move. I didn’t go too heavy with the weights for that because I knew it would require a lot of balance for me. We also had goblet squats. And the last block had single arm high rows and knee tucks. With all of the blocks, we were supposed to do rowing for distance if we finished the exercises, but I never made it that far.

Wednesday was the first day of Hell Week and the workout was called The Burpee Ring. And that was a pretty fitting name for it. I started on the treadmill but the cardio and floor had the same timing which was an interesting change.

On the treadmill, we had 10 rounds of 90 second run for distance followed by a walking recovery. Half of the walking recoveries were 45 seconds and the other half were 1 minute. My goal was to see if I could run all 10 of the 90 second run for distances, but I also knew that 90 seconds was a bit long for me at this point in returning to running. But I still wanted to try. I made it through the first 4 rounds as a run and then I had to go to a power walk. To continue working hard, when I did the power walking I didn’t do a walking recovery but just brought my incline back to my base incline. I did 4 rounds of power walking and then did the last 2 rounds as a run again. So at least I did more than half of the rounds as a run.

On the floor, we also had 10 rounds of 90 seconds on and a recovery after. For the floor, we had different types of burpees to do and then we had exercises to do during the recovery time. The recovery exercises were pop squats, pop jacks, and squat jacks. I did the pop jacks and squat jacks just as regular squats. We had one exercise per recovery for the 45 second recoveries and all of them combined for the 1 minute recoveries. I usually had about 15 seconds to actually recover each time. And the burpee types were one per round and we had ultimate burpees, rolling burpees, hand-lift burpees, burpees to bench hops, and burpees with palms to elbows. I did all of these with using my bench for my hands so I could jump back and forth and made some minor modifications with a few of them. But for the most part I did them as we were supposed to do. It was exhausting, but that’s the idea behind Hell Week. And my friends and I were so proud of ourselves for finishing the first Hell Week class!

Friday’s workout was called The Haunting Hills, so I knew it was going to be a hill based workout. But it was also a 3 group workout so I was only going to have to tolerate hill work for about 15 minutes before being able to move to the next part of the room.

The treadmill block was one long block that was at our own pace. For power walkers, we started at 12% incline and had a .125 mile walk. When that was done, we had squats with calf raises and then back to the treadmill to do the same distance but we got to bring the incline down 1%. I rarely use higher than 10% incline when I’m power walking, so doing the 12% and 11% rounds were tough on me. But the distance was short enough that by the time I was wondering if I should bring the incline down the round was done.

On the rower, we had a similar format to the treadmill. We started with a 400 meter row and then pulsing half squats. We round we went down 50 meters on the rower and continued to do the squats between each row. I was more focused on form than pace, but I did get all my rows done in below the goal time. I think my form has gotten really solid lately, so I probably should switch to working on my power and speed so I can get my rows done faster. But I also want to make sure that I don’t sacrifice my form for speed when I do that.

The floor block ended up being the toughest for me. I really thought the treadmill would be, but on the floor we had back to back exercises that used the same muscles. The first block started with bicep curls on the straps followed immediately by seated bicep curls using weights. After 2 rounds of those we had 2 rounds of hip hinge low rows with weights and bridge rows on the straps. Doing the second exercise each time was so hard because my muscles aren’t used to having to be used the same way for 2 things in a row. The second block was triceps on the straps followed by triceps with weights for 2 rounds. And we ended with chest fly followed by chest press. For that last round, I had to go much lighter than normal with my weight. But I still felt like I worked just as hard as if I had the heaviest weight I have used.

Saturday’s workout was called The Carnival of Burning Souls, and it was a crazy one! We had 3 sections that had 3 blocks in each one and we switched every time. Each second had a block that was 1 minute, 90 seconds, and 2 minutes. So we would be on the treadmill for a minute, then the floor for a minute, the treadmill for 90 seconds, the floor for 90 seconds, the treadmill for 2 minutes, and finally the floor for 2 minutes. And we did that rotation 3 times!

On the treadmill, everything was basically an all out pace or a run for distance. So I ran for 1 minute 3 times, 90 seconds 3 times, and 2 minutes 3 times. I did run all of it and I was surprised that the 2 minute rounds didn’t feel as bad as I expected them to be. That might have been because I was on the floor right before doing it. We also had 1 last block at the very end which was 90 seconds long that had 2 30 second all out paces with a walking recovery in between. For all the running except those 30 second all outs were at my normal running speed. For the 2 30 second ones, I increased my speed and I think all my previous running that workout helped to loosen up my body because it just felt great to do it!

All of the segments that I ran were a pretty short distance so I didn’t feel like I had run that far. But I am still tracking my mileage in my workouts when I can, and I have never been more grateful for that! When I got home after the workout and added up every segment that I ran, I did just over 1.5 miles in class! It didn’t feel like that at all and I know I ran almost all of that. There was the warmup in the beginning of class for a couple of minutes and some cool downs each round that had walking, but a majority of the time I was on the treadmill I was running and I can’t believe I did that much distance in my cardio!

On the floor, each segment was just one exercise. So we would do that exercise for 1 minute, 90 seconds, and 2 minutes. Doing just one exercise for that long is not easy, but I I tried my best. The first segment was neutral thrusters. I started with a lighter weight than I usually use, but for the 90 second round I had to go even lighter. I didn’t realize how long 1 minute would feel doing the same thing the entire time and I didn’t want to have issues for the other rounds. The next segment was lunges, which I modified by using the bench for stability. And the last segment was push-ups which I modified by doing them on my knees. And at the very end, we had a 90 second block that was doing each of the exercises for 30 seconds. That felt so easy compared to what we had been doing before!

Comparing this Hell Week to previous ones is a tough thing. I think some of the workouts felt easier and some felt harder. And I’m sure I’ll feel the same way about the workouts I have this week. They might be easier because I’m much stronger than I was before and they might be harder because I’m pushing myself more. But either way, I feel like I did some amazing work this past week in my workouts and as silly as this sounds, I’m really proud of myself!

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