Posted onOctober 16, 2023|Comments Off on Feeling Ok When It Counted (or Ending My Workout Week On A Great Note)
Going into this past week of workouts, I knew they would be pretty tough for me. I expected to be nauseous and in pain for most of the week, if not the entire week. I tried to stay positive and remember that any workout is better than no workout. And I wanted to remember that it’s better to have my bad week now and not at the end of the month when we have Hell Week. I know that there’s no guarantee I’ll feel great during HellWeek, but I have a better chance of that considering this past week was my bad week.
I spent the beginning of this past week really trying to tough it out. I unfortunately did have to leave class a few times at the beginning of the week to get sick, but I was able to return to the workout and finish it out. But it’s always a bit harder coming back from being sick not only physically but mentally. There’s something that feels almost like a bit of a failure of your body when it happens, and that messes with my head. I know that I didn’t do anything wrong or cause it, but it still feels like a failure.
Getting sick during class is tough enough, but I also struggled on the floor with using weights. I wasn’t just feeling a bit weak, but I was exhausted because I wasn’t sleeping well at night. This past week was a bit worse for me with nausea than normal, and I was getting up multiple times a night to be sick. With a serious lack of sleep, I really felt like a fraction of my normal strength during the workouts. Again, I just had to keep reminding myself that I was doing something instead of just giving up and not doing anything.
I felt like this for the first three workouts of the week, and I really just couldn’t get over the feeling. But I was finally feeling a bit more like myself on Thursday, and I’m glad that happened because it was a challenge that I wanted to try my best on. We had Catch Me If You Can, which is a cardio challenge with different checkpoints to get to. You have a specific distance to get to at a certain time. If you get to that distance, you keep going. If you aren’t at that distance by the time, your challenge is done and you track how far you got. Normally, I get caught at the same checkpoint each time. I’ve been getting closer and closer to getting past the distance required to get to the next one, but I’ve just been missing what I need to get to. I was hoping to get further this time, but I also knew that it was going to be hard considering I wasn’t feeling totally better.
I reviewed the checkpoints before the workout started to make sure that I was familiar with each distance so I could do my best. I don’t know what happened, but in my head, I messed up things a bit and thought I had to reach the checkpoint that I usually get caught at by the 8-minute mark. I knew that it was maybe possible for me to get to that distance, but it was going to be a real struggle and I would have to do something similar to my mile benchmark. I’m almost glad I messed up the times in my head because I actually had to get to that checkpoint at the 9-minute mark. So when I thought it hopeless to make it to a checkpoint, I actually was able to get past it for the first time ever! I know I was going a bit too hard on the bike and was starting to hurt a bit, but I really wanted to see how far I could get.
The next 2 checkpoints were a challenge, and I barely was able to make it far enough. But I did it just in time. But for the checkpoint that I got caught on, I knew there was no way I would get far enough. I was still pushing myself to do my best, but I also allowed myself to slow down a bit so I wasn’t hurting as much on the bike. When I was finally caught, I was so proud of myself and how well I did. I did so much better than I had hoped I would and now I have a very impressive PR that will be difficult to beat the next time we have Catch Me If You Can.
I’m glad the challenge was at the end of the week so I was feeling better than I had at the beginning of the week. And it allowed me to end my week on a much better note than I started it on. And hopefully, that means that this coming week and Hell Week at the end of the month will also be positive weeks with some great workouts!
Posted onOctober 4, 2023|Comments Off on Doing More And More Cleanup (or Feeling More Setup For Things To Come)
I made my monthly challenge in September to be working on digital organizing. I probably should do this more often than I do, but I really noticed that I needed to work on it over the summer. I just needed the push to get it done, and setting it as my challenge was what got me started.
I only worked on my phone since that’s where most of the extra apps have been. I do need to work on organizing and cleaning the files I have on my computer, but that’s a much bigger project and might take a few months since I need to see what I have saved in various folders. But there were so many apps on my phone that I forgot about and was easily able to delete.
With the way that you can set up an iPhone now, you can hide apps from your main app folders but keep them so you can search and open them back up. I don’t know if I hid a bunch of apps in the past or if my phone automatically did it when I wasn’t using an app that often, but I had so many hidden apps that I had no clue were still on my phone. Going through the hidden apps made things a lot easier to decide on since I knew if I forgot that I had that app, I didn’t need to keep it. I also did find a few apps that I forgot about that could be useful, so I made a new app folder of apps I want to test out this month so I can decide if I should keep them or not.
I really felt like doing the digital organizing was a success last month. I got more done than I expected, even if I only worked on cleaning up my phone. And I feel like doing that work set me up for being more efficient with using my phone going forward.
And the idea of being efficient and ready for things to come inspired my challenge for October. My challenge this month is to continue to get things set up for myself for the coming year.
This new challenge involves a few things, but I basically want to have some new systems and plans set for 2024. I have said so many years in a row that I want to take a vacation. I haven’t had the time or the money to do it. Now, I’m in a slightly better financial place than I have been in and I have the ability to continue to save money. I want to work on some budgeting and savings plans in order to be able to afford a vacation at some point in the next year. I also want to have some time management plans in place, such as working on setting aside time to make sure I cook more often and use the time I have outside of work better. It’s not easy to do that since I’m usually so tired after work and I have only 1 day off a week between my two jobs. But I need to really work on focusing on creating a plan that maximizes the little free time I have in my week. I have gotten into a routine lately, but it’s not the best routine for me since I’m not accomplishing as much as I know I could.
I also want to work on setting up more reminders and systems for myself so things don’t slip through the cracks. I am pretty good about setting up annual doctor appointments, but sometimes I only remember to call to make the appointments after the time I’d like to do that. It’s easy enough to have a reminder once a year (or however often I need it) so that I don’t forget. And when I’m doing regular shopping, I usually am putting together a list at the last minute and seem to forget one or two things. I’ve been using email drafts to work on creating lists as I go, but I know there has to be a better system for that and I’m going to take some time to figure it out. And yes, that might mean I will be adding more apps back onto my phone, but if they are helping me get through the errands I have to do regularly and make it so I don’t spend as much time focusing on them, then they will be good additions to my phone.
There are a lot of things that could make my time and money more efficient and used wiser. I haven’t been taking the time to figure those out because I haven’t really cared as much as I do now. And I think I’m thinking about it more now because there have been a lot of articles and stories coming out about how single people have additional costs and struggles because they are only relying on themselves to get by. I can’t have someone else make dinner because there is only me (but I do order in if I know I don’t have the energy to make something). All tasks that have to be done must be done by me unless I hire someone to do something like clean my home.
It’s a lot that I have put on my plate without realizing that I need to maybe adjust things considering that it’s just me doing all the work. And I’m hoping that working on setting myself up to have the best year ever next year will really help me find out how to make my life better and easier so I don’t have burnout as often. I deserve to have some fun and more than just the day-to-day routine I’ve been doing for a while. I just have to do some work now to maximize what I do have in order to make that happen.
Posted onSeptember 6, 2023|Comments Off on Celebrating And Organizing (or And Yet Another Repeat Challenge)
I set out to make sure that I celebrated my birthday in August as my monthly challenge, and I would say that I accomplished that. I know that some people might do a lot more to celebrate their birthday, especially if it’s a milestone one like mine was, but I did exactly what I wanted to do. I had a party with friends, and it was one of the best nights I’ve had in a long time. I’m not great about planning things for myself, but I am glad I did it and loved seeing different friend groups coming together and having fun. I also got to continue my birthday tradition with my birthday twin and had our dinner out. It might have been a bit different than we thought it would be, but it was still perfect and made us so happy to continue the tradition.
I also just tried to be excited about starting a new decade of life, and I really did feel that way. I know realistically that turning 40 means that I’m not that young anymore or at the beginning of my life, but just because I might be in the second half doesn’t mean my life is over. I still love my life and have a lot of things that I enjoy doing. I’m planning for more fun things in the future and I truly believe that my life is just going to keep getting better as I age. And I feel healthier now than I did in my 30s, so that is helping me really enjoy my new age and new decade.
I’m really happy with how my August turned out and the celebrating that I did. And I know that I will continue to celebrate being in my 40s for a while. But I also want to set myself up for as much success as possible, and that helped to inspire this month’s challenge. I’ve done this challenge before, and it always has been helpful for me. I want to do another digital organizing/detox with the different apps and systems I use on my devices.
I have added a lot of apps to my daily routine over the years. Some of these are from challenges in the past, like using Duolingo to learn French, and some are apps I use to do other sorts of tracking in my personal life. But a lot of these apps or routines are just routines and are not really benefitting me anymore. I’m stubborn and want to continue a streak of doing something just to prove that I can keep it going, but that’s not the best use of my time. And even though most of these apps take minimal time from my day, it can add up and I don’t want to keep doing something that takes time if it’s not really doing much good for me.
When I’ve done this type of challenge before, I’ve gotten rid of apps that I know now were really just taking up time. Like the different food tracking apps that I didn’t use accurately so they weren’t benefitting me. Even though I had the best intentions to use it properly, it wasn’t working for me so I was making a minimal effort to maintain a streak but it wasn’t providing any results or data for me that I could use for other things.
There are a few apps I have in mind for this month. I’ve been doing my habit tracker either on paper or on my phone for over 8 years now. I haven’t changed the habits that much over the past few years and most of the things on there are things that I do on a regular or daily basis. I have reading listed as one of my habits, and the only time I can remember a day that I didn’t read was when I had horrible vertigo and couldn’t keep my eyes open. I have going to workouts on my list, and that’s something I do regularly and don’t need to have on a checklist as a reminder to do it. As much as I love seeing the streak of habits I’ve got going on the app, I think it’s time for me to let that app go since I really don’t use it for the reasons I started it years ago.
That’s probably the app that I use the most that I’m thinking about getting rid of during this month, but there are a lot more that I know I will probably delete. I plan on dedicating time to going through my various app folders because the way I organize apps means I don’t see a lot of what I have on there. And I know that keeping apps on my phone isn’t a big deal or makes using my phone harder, but I just want to streamline things. I want to do something similar on my computer, but with the various documents and things I have saved and not necessarily apps since I don’t put too many apps on my computer. And while I should do this on my iPad too, that device is starting to become a brick and not that useful, so I’m not using it that much. I don’t know if I’ll get another tablet anytime soon, but if I decide that I want one, then I might just start from scratch instead of transferring over all my old apps. So that’s a low priority for me. Working on my phone is at the top of my list and I’ll work on my computer after I feel like that work is done. If it takes me more than just this month, then I’ll continue into next month. But my plan is to really dedicate time so this should be done in the next few weeks.
Hopefully, while I work on getting rid of apps that don’t benefit me anymore, maybe I’ll also discover gaps in what I could be using to make my life better and I’ll find new apps or new routines that I want to add to my life. I just want to do whatever it takes to make sure that I’m not wasting time on unhelpful routines and that I maximize the free time that I do have in my life.
Posted onSeptember 4, 2023|Comments Off on Finishing Out My Birthday Month Of Workouts (or Ending The Month On A Good Note)
I had another good week of workouts this past week. I was back to feeling normal, which always makes the week better. I also was getting more sleep (which I’ve been working on) so that allowed me to push myself a bit harder. There is a Dri-Tri coming up, and I’m going to try to participate in it. But there are a few things working against me right now so I’m not sure if I’ll be able to do it. But I still want to push myself in my workouts as if I will be doing it just in case.
Monday’s workout was a lot of endurance work, which made sense since we were coming to the end of Marathon Month. I don’t regret not participating in Marathon Month, but I wish I had tracked my distance on the bike each day because I ended up being curious. I think next time we have this challenge, I’ll track it even if I don’t officially participate in the challenge.
For cardio, we had 2 blocks. The first block had alternating push paces and base paces. The push paces started at 30 seconds and increased by 30 seconds each time. And the base paces stayed at 1 minute throughout the block. And we ended with a 30-second all-out. The second block was a 6-minute distance challenge with a 30-second all-out at the end. We could do our distance challenge however we wanted to, but what I did was have my resistance level just a bit higher than my normal base pace to make it more challenging for me. I looked at this as a bit of training for the Dri-Tri cardio section so I tried to keep my pedaling steady throughout the entire thing.
For cardio, we also had 2 blocks. The first block had rounds of a 200-meter row with medicine ball exercises between each row. We had front presses, tricep extensions, and bicep curls between the rows. And in the second block, the rows were 100 meters and the exercises changed. We had squats, squat pulses, and squat jumps (which I did as squats to calf raises). I liked that the rows were short so they were fun for me to do. And I did challenge myself to try to increase the wattage of each row and I noticed that it was going up throughout each block.
And on the floor, we also had 2 blocks. In the first block, we focused on strength and stability. We had swing lunges, single-leg squats using the straps, high rows using weights, and single-arm low rows on the straps. For the swing lunges, I held on to the wall but I was mostly able to do the exercise. And in the second block, we picked to do either the strength exercises or the stability exercises. I picked the stability exercises so I did the exercises on the straps and we added rollouts on the straps too.
Tuesday’s workout was a themed workout. It was a PSL workout, which stood for Press Squat Lunge. So we had a lot of those in our workout!
For cardio, we had one long block. The focus on that block was 3-minute base paces, but we also had 90-second push paces. The long base paces were nice, but we also had to challenge ourselves to make sure we weren’t going too easy. There are always ways to modify a workout to be easier if you need it, but you also need to modify things to push yourself if you think it might not be tough enough. And if I had gone easy on the base paces, this cardio block wouldn’t have really been much cardio. But I tried to pedal faster than normal for my base paces at my base resistance level to keep things going for me. I think I did a pretty good job making sure I didn’t make things too easy, but I’m sure I could have also gone harder if I really tried.
On the rower, we were supposed to keep all of our rows close to 24 strokes per minute. I know this is supposed to be a challenge because so many people row faster, but that’s a good pace for me so I was happy that was the challenge. We started with a 300-meter row with a medicine ball front press. Then we did a 200-meter and 100-meter row with a medicine ball front press. After that, we had a 300-meter, 200-meter, and 100-meter row with a bicep curl using a medicine ball. And things ended with those 3 rows again but we had lunges between each row. I only got to the 300-meter row with the lunges, but I was very happy with how I did with the rows and I did keep my rowing between 22 and 24 strokes per minute for the entire thing.
And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had pivots to single-arm presses, squats to shrugs, and lunges. The second block had chest presses, sumo squats, and lateral lunges. I did have to modify things a bit and not use weights for the lunges, but those are my standard modifications so it didn’t feel like I changed that much. And we did 1 minute of any of the exercises to end the block, and I did a minute of sumo squats.
Wednesday was an odd day for me with some weird hip pain, but it wasn’t anything too bad. I think I had slept weird and that’s what caused it, but I had to do some extra stretching and rest throughout the workout just to help the pain go away. The pain and stretching is a normal part of my life, but it doesn’t always affect my workout as much as it did this day. But even with the extra pain, I was very happy with how I did.
For cardio, we had 2 blocks. The first block had rounds of a 1-minute push pace, a 30-second all-out, and a 1-minute recovery. I was using my normal resistance levels even though they felt harder than normal. And I think I was pedaling a bit slower than I usually would, but I was happy that I only took breaks to stretch my hip during the recovery time. And in the second block, we had rounds of a 30-second all-out and a 1-minute recovery. I felt better about how I did in the second block compared to how I did in the first block. And I needed less rest time, which is always a win for me.
On the rower, we had one block. First, we had a 600-meter row followed by step-out squats. Then we had a 400-meter row followed by side-to-side hops and step-out squats and did that row with the exercises twice. After completing that, Â we had a 200-meter row with good mornings, side-to-side hops, and step-out squats. The plan was do to the last set four times, but I only got through 2 of them when the block ended. I was happy with how I did with the step-out squats because those usually are tough for me. But this time, they almost were like a stretch so I enjoyed them a lot more than normal.
And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block was the main block for exercises. We had 5 exercises, but we started with just doing exercises 1 and 2. Every round, we added on another exercise so then we had exercises 1-3, then 1-4, and finally 1-5. The exercises were a split squat, kneeling alternating shoulder press, bridge hold pullovers, side plank hip dip, and reverse hyper extension. All of the exercises were supposed to be on the Bosu, but I only did a few of them on it. I never can do split squats on it, so I didn’t use it for that. And for the shoulder press and hip dip, I knew it was better for my hips not to push things with my stability. But I was happy with how I did. And the second block was a short block that had burpees, plank jacks, and push-ups. We started with 1 rep of each exercise. Then we did 2 reps of each exercise, and so on. We only had a few minutes to do them, so I didn’t do too many and the exercises did take me longer because it’s always hard to get up and down like that.
Thursday’s workout was another heavy endurance day since it was the end of Marathon Month and they wanted everyone to have a chance to get in all the mileage they could before the challenge ended. And it happened to be a repeat of the workout we had on the first of the month, so it was nice to have bookends like that.
For cardio, we had a long distance challenge where we set what we wanted to do to maximize our time. We had 2 90-second surges in the block when we were supposed to go just a bit faster like we were trying to pass someone in a road race. For the challenge, I set my resistance level to be just above my base level, as I did at the beginning of the week. For the surges, I pedaled faster but didn’t change the resistance level. I think this strategy worked out well and I was tired at the end of the block but not so tired that I felt like I overdid it.
On the rower, we had 4 blocks total. For blocks 1 and 3, we had 30-second rows. After the rows, we had lateral hops. We started with 10 hops and every time we got off the rower, the hops increased by 10. I had to do side-to-side steps instead of the hops, so I didn’t get as much time on the rower since the steps take longer. But I got almost to the same distance for each block and I was happy about that. Blocks 2 and 4 were 90 seconds each, and they were at the same time as cardio did their surges. For those blocks, we had a 90-second row for distance. I focused more on my split time and tried to keep it under a 2:30/500 split. I’ve been struggling with rowing endurance for a while, and I really want to get back to where I used to be. It wasn’t easy to keep my split time where I wanted it to be and I didn’t always succeed, but I’m glad I pushed myself to try.
And on the floor, we had one block. It was a mix of upper and lower body work and we were supposed to try to challenge ourselves by increasing the weight if possible after each round. We had sumo deadlifts, kneeling wood choppers, single-arm high row to low row, and tricep kickbacks. We had a rep range so we were supposed to do 6-10 reps each time. I did go heavy with my deadlifts, but I wasn’t able to increase my weights when I did the exercises a second time. I think I might have gone a bit too heavy the first time, so I made my challenge to get more reps done the second time compared to the first and I was able to do that. And we ended the workout with a 30-second plank hold, which I was happy to do since it was a break from using weights.
After completing all my workouts this week, I reflected a bit on how I did throughout the month. I still love how I’m now 40 and I feel so strong. I think I took on each workout the best way I could. I didn’t always do an amazing job in every workout, but I did what I could and I pushed myself whenever it was possible. And even with the pain I had to deal with, I think that this past month was better than a lot of other months. I just had extra motivation with my birthday and knowing that age is just a number. I think that made every week this past month exactly what I needed to do with my workouts.
And hopefully, that motivation and feeling just continue with the challenges that I know will be coming up with Orangetheory. Even if I can’t do Dri-Tri, I know that Hell Week is just around the corner and I’m excited to push myself with those classes. Every month adds in more challenges, and I’m ready to take those on and see what other improvements I can continue to have in this new decade of life!
Posted onAugust 2, 2023|Comments Off on A Few Months Of Celebrating (or Enjoying Each Age)
I set my monthly challenge for July to be to celebrate the last full month of my 30s. I know that’s not really a challenge like some of the ones I’ve done in the past, but I did want to make an effort to celebrate my age because I think it’s important to do so. Age is such a weird thing and I hate the stigma that seems to come with certain ages.
I didn’t stress as much as I thought I would 10 years ago about turning 30. I think turning 29 was almost a harder birthdate. For some reason, there was a block in my mind about what I was supposed to accomplish before 30 and I saw my 29th birthday as the cutoff to get those things accomplished. I don’t know why 29 was as tough for me as it was, but I was grateful that turning 30 wasn’t as bad as I feared.
I haven’t had a big issue in my mind about turning 40. I find it a bit tough to believe because I don’t feel like I’m 40. I think the pandemic made a few years feel like they didn’t happen, but also there was an idea in my mind when I was a kid about what 40 meant. I remember seeing all those over-the-hill gag gift things for someone turning 40, and I don’t feel like I’m headed toward the end of my life. I actually think that my life has been so much better in my 30s than in my 20s had been. I think I really stopped caring about some things that don’t really matter, and that made things a lot better for me. I also had some really great steps with improving both my mental and physical health and that helped this past decade a lot too.
I think every age is important, and it was extra important to acknowledge all the things that happened to me in my 30s. I had so much growth and celebrating that felt like the right thing to do. I didn’t do anything in particular, but I did make sure that I got out and spent time doing fun things with my friends to enjoy the last full month of my 30s.
And my challenge this month is kind of the same as what I did last month. Turning 40 is a milestone birthday, even if it doesn’t have the same feeling now as I thought it might when I was younger. I think it’s awesome that I’m turning 40 and I think that this coming decade will be even better than my 30s. I never knew how amazing my 30s could be, and I am so excited to see how my 40s surprise me. I don’t fear growing older or a specific age, so I want to celebrate how cool it is that I will be 40!
I am planning a casual birthday gathering since I haven’t really celebrated my birthday in the past few years. And I have the usual birthday traditions that I’m planning on doing again this year. I want to start off this decade by trying to spend time doing things I want to do, which I don’t do often enough. I’ve been doing better about getting out of my house and seeing friends, and I want to keep doing that. I want to make sure I take advantage of this month and enjoy as much time as I can. I know that I won’t be able to do that all the time, but making the effort to celebrate my birthday and my new decade is important to me.
I know this is another easy challenge to do, but I think it’s the perfect one for me this month. I haven’t had other life milestones yet that a lot of other people have that they celebrate (like a wedding), so celebrating a big birthday is an important one for me and I want to make sure I start off this decade in the best way possible!
Posted onJuly 31, 2023|Comments Off on Not What I Planned For (or Another Unexpected Workout Week)
This past week of workouts was not what I planned for or expected. It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it did make things different than what I thought I was in for this past week. I was expecting to be dealing with a lot of pain and nausea, and I was so grateful that I didn’t have that. I did have a little bit to deal with, but it was so minor compared to what I was prepared for. But that also meant the moments that I did have to deal with it, I was thrown off a bit because I was getting comfortable with being ok.
I also had an unexpected start to my workout week because I didn’t have a Monday workout. I’m pretty good about going to work out Monday through Thursday. And I woke up on Monday and was ready to go. But due to something at the studio, they had to cancel the class I go to. I know that it wasn’t anyone’s fault and they weren’t happy about having to message us. And I thought about trying to go to a different class time, but there wasn’t another class that would work for me. It’s ok because it’s not the end of the world if I don’t get 4 workouts in for the week. So I used my morning to get some other work stuff done instead of working out.
But I was back to my normal schedule on Tuesday. I know I’ve said this before, but I’m so used to my routine and my workouts are something I have craved when I missed them, so I was glad that only my Monday workout was affected by what happened at the studio.
For cardio, we had one long block. We had rounds of a 30-second push pace with increasing base paces. We started with a 30-second base pace and it went up to a 3-minute base pace before we ended the block with a 30-second all-out. Because the push paces were short and the base paces were long, we were encouraged to push ourselves a bit more in our push paces. And as long as we could get back to our base pace without having to walk, we were doing the right thing. I did try to pedal faster since I wasn’t going to use a higher resistance level than my normal one and I think that helped to make the cardio block a good challenge.
On the rower, we had 2 blocks that were similar. Both blocks started with a 250-meter row and we decreased the rows by 50 meters each round. In the first block, we had lunges between each row. And in the second block, we had frogger squats between each row. Both blocks were equally challenging since it’s hard to get off of the rower quickly and both exercises weren’t the easiest on my hips. But I’m glad the rows were short.
And on the floor, we had one long block. We had 5 exercises and we started with 4 reps for each exercise. Each time, we increased the reps by 2. We had low rows on the straps, neutral grip thrusters, bicep curls, lateral lunges, and hollow hold single-arm chest presses. I did try to go heavy with the weights for the weighted exercises, but as the reps increased I did have to use some lighter ones.
Wednesday’s workout was a signature workout. This was Inferno, which I’ve done a few times in the past. It’s a rowing-focused challenge, so the other sections of the room were a little easier so we could put as much effort as possible into our rowing.
For cardio, we had 2 blocks. The first block had 1-minute push paces and increasing base paces. The base paces started at 30 seconds and went up to 1 minute with a 45-second all-out at the end. The second block was similar but the push paces were 30 seconds long and the base paces went up to 75 seconds and a 1-minute all-out at the end. I didn’t push myself too hard because I was getting ready to row, but I also tried to not go too easy on myself either.
The Inferno challenge is all about increasing rows with an exercise between each row. We started with a 100-meter row and 20 lateral hops. I do side-to-side steps instead of lateral hops, but they are essentially the same thing. The row increases by 100 meters each time and the challenge is to get as many meters as you can in 14 minutes. It starts off not too bad, but as the rows get longer and you get tired, it’s harder. I know that from past attempts and I was trying to pace myself a bit more in the beginning with the hopes that I wouldn’t get too tired by the end. I didn’t check my past attempts before this workout because I didn’t want to stress myself to try to get a PR. And I didn’t know if I got a PR or close to my past attempts until after class, so I was very happy to see that I did PR!
It was 16 meters further than my previous PR, but that’s still a good improvement for me! And I felt a lot better about this attempt than I did for past ones, so I consider that a bigger victory than my PR.
On the floor, we had 2 blocks. Both blocks were more focused on upper body work since rowing is a lot of lower body work. The first block had alligators on the straps, chest flys, and shoulder presses. And the second block had high rows to bicep curls on the straps, reverse flys, and plank pull-throughs. I did end up modifying the high rows to bicep curls to be separate exercises because I was struggling to switch my arm positions that frequently. But that isn’t that bad of a modification for me. And I was trying to push myself on the floor more than it was designed since I was already done with my rowing, but I was also tired from the rowing so I couldn’t do as much as I would have liked.
On Thursday, I was having the most trouble with pain and nausea, but it was still minor compared to what I was thinking I would have during this past week. But it did make me a bit anxious because I was worried it would kick in during the workout and be pretty bad. But I was glad that it didn’t happen that way and I was able to focus more on my workout than any pain that might have happened.
For cardio, we had a newer type of challenge. We had 3 blocks that were the same, but I’m glad they were the same so I would work on this challenge. We started each block with a base pace. Then we increased the incline. After that, we increased the speed without bringing the incline down. We alternated increasing incline and speed without going back to where we started in the block. So in the end, we had a higher incline and speed than normal and that counted as our all-out. I did work on increasing my pedaling for the speed work since I didn’t want to just use increases in the resistance levels. I struggled a bit in the first block to figure out a good plan, but I was able to do a lot better in the second and third blocks.
On the rower, we also had 3 blocks. For the first block, we started off the rower with medicine ball exercises. We had squats with front presses, tricep extensions, and low rows. After doing 2 rounds of the exercises, we got on the rower and rowed until the block was done. For the second block, we looked at how far we rowed in the first block and rowed that distance first. Once we got to that distance, we got off the rower and did 2 rounds of the medicine ball exercises again. And the challenge was to get back on to the rower to get further in rowing distance than you did in the first block. And for the last block, we got to choose if we wanted to start with the exercises or the rowing. I picked to start with the exercises so I could challenge myself more with getting the furthest distance on the rower and I was able to do that.
And on the floor, we had one longer block and one shorter block. For the longer block, we started with lunges and split squats with rotations. The split squats with rotations are really tough on my hips, but I just tried to do whatever I could. my split squats looked more like I was just standing, but it was better than doing nothing. Then we had single-arm clean to presses and sumo goblet squats. I didn’t go too heavy with the weights for those exercises but that ok with me. I did try to go slower with the sumo goblet squats than I normally do because I know that made it extra challenging. And the short block was a core blast with two exercises. We were supposed to do bicycle crunches and crab toe reaches. We didn’t have a set number of reps, it was just as many as possible before we had to switch to the other exercise. I can’t do crab toe reaches, so I did side-to-side crunch reaches since that has some of the same movements. The short block was about 4 minutes long, and my core was dead by the time the workout was done!
Overall, this past week felt so successful for me. I might not have gotten 4 workouts in, but I did so much better with each workout than I expected and I felt like I really challenged myself where I could and I saw a lot of great results from that. I only hope this week is just as great for me!
Posted onJune 7, 2023|Comments Off on Giving Myself Some Breathing Room (or Just Getting Ready For Other Things This Summer)
I feel like I’m picking the right monthly challenges at the right time. I seem to know that I will need to do something in the coming month and focusing on it really allows me to make sure I do what I need to do. Sometimes I don’t know why I need to do something until the month is over, but it’s always a great lesson for me. And this past month was no exception.
The overall challenge I set for myself was to be ok with not being perfect. I wanted to let myself use that idea for different things throughout the month, but it mainly concentrated on one part of my life. And that was how I plan out my blog posts. I’m almost 11 years into writing and until May I wrote a post every weekday. Coming up with 5 posts a week is not easy. Sometimes I have ideas for each day and I can be excited about what I want to write about. But more often, I struggle to come up with ideas and I know that my posts can become repetitive. So my challenge with not being perfect was about being ok with not writing every single day.
As you can tell from the posts I posted last month, I did go down to 2 posts a week. My Monday post was my workout recap and then my Wednesday post was about something else. I debated if I wanted to also do a Friday post because I did have things that I wanted to write about, but I knew that it would be a better challenge if I did limit myself to just 2 posts a week. Sometimes I didn’t write about things as quickly as I normally would. For example, this post would have been on Thursday or Friday last week if I had my old writing schedule. I had to be more selective about what I was going to share, but that also allowed me to not focus on turning things I do into posts. I liked not having that stress and I know that this was the exact thing I needed to do for myself.
Giving myself permission to not feel perfect really did release something from me that I didn’t know I seriously needed. And my plan is to continue to not worry about posting every day. Right now, I think keeping it to twice a week is a good option. Later, I might want to add in a third day, but I want to do another few weeks with just 2 posts a week to see how I feel about it. And maybe it’s something I keep flexible and I write 3 posts if I have things I want to share but only do 2 posts if I don’t feel like I need that third post.
Releasing the stress of having to always think of posts has been great for my mental health. And I think I will need as little stress as possible as I get prepared for a potentially stressful summer. This summer is election season for my union, and that’s what inspired my challenge for June. This month, I challenge myself to stay involved in union things as much as I can and try to help others be involved as well.
I’ve already been working on this with the strike authorization vote. I worked on making sure all the people I knew voted and understood what the vote meant. Most people understood that the authorization vote didn’t mean we were going to strike, but we were giving the negotiating committee the ability to call a strike if necessary. And I’m so proud of the union because we had a really good voter turnout (at least for us) and almost 98% of the members who voted approved the strike authorization!
Union elections are always stressful, but adding in contract negotiations adds to that. We will have our regular elections plus we could be voting on a new contract if one is presented to the members. And if we don’t get a contract, there is a chance that we will strike. This is a lot of information for members to take in, especially if they haven’t been involved in the past. Even for me, things can get overwhelming with staying on top of all the things we should know to be informed voters.
But with all the craziness and potential stress, there are so many ways for me to stay involved and connected with my acting career. I know that I will be stressed (and not having to write as many blog posts will help to not add more stress), but it will be worth it. I know I feel better when I’m involved and active with the union. I look forward to the different opportunities that will be coming during this election season and contract negotiations. I might feel like it’s too much in the moment, but once I get through this summer I know I will be grateful that I did whatever I have the ability to do.
This past week was Mayhem at Orangetheory, a fun and crazy week of workouts. This is a challenge that I’ve done before and I’ve always enjoyed it. It’s similar to Hell Week, with extra tough workouts. And you can officially sign up for the challenge and earn swag like a t-shirt. I don’t always sign up for the challenge as I do for Hell Week, but I always try to complete the challenge. And that’s exactly what I did this past week. You need to complete 4 of the 7 workouts, and I got all 4 done back-to-back.
Monday’s workout was a 3 partner workout and it was divided into 3 separate blocks. In each block, one partner was the leader so each partner was the leader once. And if you weren’t the leader in that block, you did work at whatever station you were in until the leader had everyone rotate.
If you were the leader, when you were on cardio you had a .15 mile (or .6 mile on the bike) distance. When you were on the rower, you rowed 400 meters. And when you were on the floor, you had one round of body weight work with hop-overs, leg raises, sit-ups to squats, and bridge rows on the straps. And as the leader, whenever you finished your work you had your group rotate around the stations.
If you weren’t the leader, when you were on cardio or the rower you just went for distance until the leader had you rotate. And on the floor, you had weighted work with bicep curls, skier swings, and plank rows and repeated those until you rotated.
I think my group was pretty similar with how we all did as the leader and we usually rotated about the same number of times within each block. It wasn’t an easy workout since there was only minimal rest during the entire class. Between each block, we had about 90 seconds to make sure we all knew who the new leader would be and get everything set. But that’s not a lot of time during an hour-long class!
Tuesday’s workout was a switch class, so we had 2 blocks in each section of the room and we rotated between blocks. So we had 2 rotations around the room to complete the workout.
Both cardio blocks were the same with 30-second intervals. We started with an all-out to a walking recovery. Then we had a push pace, all-out, and recovery. Then we added a base to push pace at the beginning before doing the rest. And finally, we added a base pace before everything. So the longest segment we had was about 2 minutes long but since the recovery was limited, it felt like we were working much longer than that.
On the rower, the first block started with a 200-meter row. Then we had lunges and a ground to press with a medicine ball. Each time we did the exercises, we increased the reps by 2. When we got back to the rower for the second block, we still had 200-meter rows and the same exercises. But the reps for the exercises started at whatever number of reps we left off at in the first block and we reduced them by 2 reps each time.
And on the floor, we were timed with cardio with 30-second intervals. In the first block, we started with squat jacks and then had a rest. Then we did push-ups, squat jacks, and had a rest. Then it was toe taps, push-ups, squat jacks, and a rest. And finally, we had pulsing half-squats, toe taps, push-ups, and squat jacks. In the second block, we started with cleans with weights. Then we added arnold presses. Next added reciprocating rows. And the last time we did all the exercises we added in pulsing half squats. Just like with cardio, even though we did have time to rest, it was really quick and didn’t really give us the time to recover.
On Wednesday, I had the added struggle of starting to deal with pain and nausea. It wasn’t too horrible since it just kicked in, but it was something that affected my workouts. But since the workout was going to be extra challenging anyway, I figured this was just adding to what the challenge was all about.
For cardio, we repeated the same pattern throughout the workout. We had a 1-minute base pace, a 1-minute base to push pace, and a 30-second push pace. After the push pace, we were back to the base pace but we increased the incline/resistance level by 1. I started the workout a bit lower than my normal base pace resistance level so I would be able to increase it each time. And at the end of the cardio block, my push pace was a few levels higher than what my normal all-out would be.
On the rower, we had rounds of a 2 1/2-minute segment so we were following cardio. In those segments, we had an exercise and then a 350-meter row. And if you finished the row, you could rest until you had to get up to do the exercise again. We had 2 rounds of the exercise being froggers and 2 rounds of the exercise being lunges. And for the last round, we could choose which exercise we wanted to do and I went with froggers. But I never really got a break because I was always working on the row when we had to get up to do the exercises again.
And on the floor, we also had rounds that were each 2 1/2 minutes long. We had 4 exercises to get done and if we had time remaining we would rest. We had 2 rounds of froggers, bicep curls, high pulls, and reverse grip low rows. And then we had 2 rounds of lunges, sit-ups to stands with shoulder presses, incline chest flys, and chest presses. And for the last round, we got to pick which set we wanted to do and I did the last set. This time, I did have some time to rest at the end of each segment, which helped me not feel too nauseous on the floor even though we were moving a lot.
I was still dealing with pain and nausea on Thursday, but it wasn’t that much worse than Wednesday so that was helpful. I was really expecting it to be a lot worse and I was grateful I didn’t have to work through some of the really high levels of pain I can sometimes be in.
For cardio, the focus of the workout was doing a push pace and then a surge of speed during the push pace. We had a 45-second push pace followed by a 15-second surge 3 times in each block. I kept my push pace resistance level the same as I normally do and just tried to pedal faster during the surge. I thought about trying to add a resistance level during the surge too, but it was enough of a challenge for me just to pedal faster.
On the rower, we also had 3 blocks. Each block started with a row and then we had rounds of a front raise and front press with a medicine ball before rowing for distance until the block ended. The first block had a 250-meter row and each block decreased by 50 meters. And the goal was to match your distance each time since you should have more time to row after the exercises in each block. I was able to increase my distance in each block and got my furthest distance in the last block.
And on the floor, we had similar timing to what cardio had with 45-second and 15-second intervals. In the first block, we had 45 seconds of clean to front squats and 15 seconds of a squat hold with 45 seconds of a v-up at the end. In the second block, we had 45 seconds of a hip bridge and 15 seconds of a bridge hold with 45 seconds of a boat hold at the end. And in the last block, we had 45 seconds of side-to-side push-ups and 15 seconds of a push-up hold with 1 minute of v-up and 15 seconds of a boat hold at the end. I did have to modify a few exercises so I did weight squats instead of clean to press and I just did regular push-ups instead of side-to-side ones. But I did try to use a heavy weight for my hip bridges even though we had the option of doing them without weights. And I used the weight for 2 of the 3 times we had to do a bridge hold as well.
It wasn’t easy to do all the Mayhem workouts in a row, but it was a good challenge! And I am so glad I completed it because I really like to take on the challenges that Orangetheory sets out, even if they do sometimes happen when I’m not feeling my best. I proved to myself I could do it, and that’s a great feeling!
Posted onMay 22, 2023|Comments Off on A Very Good Workout Week (or I Love When My Good Weeks Match With Good Workouts)
When I have my good workout weeks, I always try to make the most of them because I know I will struggle during my bad workout weeks. I do whatever I can during those workouts so I can feel good about myself. But sometimes, those good weeks match up with when we have fun workout challenges or benchmarks and it makes the week even better than a normal good week.
Monday’s workout wasn’t anything spectacular, but it was still a good workout and I was feeling really good after celebrating my milestone workout the week before.
For cardio, we focused on long push paces followed by walking recoveries. We usually don’t have recoveries after a push pace, but that just allowed us to go harder on those push paces than we normally could. The push paces started at 3 minutes and went down by 30 seconds each time. And the recoveries were always 1 minute long. The block ended with a 30-second all-out, which was a good way to end a long endurance block.
On the rower, we were kind of timed with cardio. When cardio did their push paces, we had 2 rounds of rowing with 30 seconds to rest between them. So when cardio had a 3-minute push pace, we had 2 rounds of a 75-second row. It was a lot of rowing without a lot of rest, but I did pretty well with limiting taking a break in the middle of it.
And on the floor, we had 3 mini-blocks and we did each one twice before moving on to the next one. The first mini-block had lunges and hip bridges. The second mini-block had kneeling shoulder presses, bridge holds with pullovers, and push-ups. And the last mini-block had knee tucks (which I did as sit-ups) and back extensions. I had to make a few modifications to some of the floor exercises because of my hip, but those were just the normal modifications I make and nothing more than that.
Tuesday’s workout was a pretty typical workout, but I was going to do my best since it was just a good morning for me. I don’t know why I was feeling really great, but it worked in my favor and I went with it.
For cardio, we had 2 blocks. We had rounds of a base pace with an incline and a base pace without an incline. In the first block, the inclines were a bit lower than in the second block. I use the resistance level between my base and push paces for the first block and between my push and all-out for the second block. It wasn’t easy, but I knew that the struggle I was feeling meant I was working and I was happy with that.
On the rower, both blocks were focused on doing a 150-meter row. In the first block, we had either a front press or a shoulder press between each row. And in the second block, we had calf raises between each row. It was a lot of getting on and off the rower, so that slowed me down a bit. But since I didn’t have to rush anything, that was ok.
And on the floor, each block had 3 exercises. The first block had lunges, single-arm clean to press, and hip hinge swing. And the second block had single-arm reach to rotation, single-arm close grip chest press, and a plank punch. I did struggle a little with the hip hinge swings because I started to feel a bit of a pull in my hip, but considering how much I did before I had gotten to that exercise, that seemed pretty normal for me and I just took my time with making sure I kept good form for all the exercises.
Wednesday was a benchmark day. It was the mile challenge, which is one of the benchmarks I have enjoyed in the past. Even though I’m not using the treadmill anymore, I can be very competitive with myself on the bike and I like to see improvement when I can. I had checked my past benchmark times, and I knew my last one was really fast. I didn’t set a goal to PR, but I wanted to be close to my PR to feel like I could still do that.
Even though it’s the mile challenge, things are a bit different on the bike and it’s actually 4 miles instead. That’s how it always is so it’s nothing new to me. For our cardio block, the only thing we had was our benchmark to do. I reset the bike before we started so I could get the most accurate time and I set the resistance level to be one lower than my current base pace. I like feeling like I’m flying when I do challenges like this. I knew to be close to my benchmark, I had to be as close to 2 minutes per mile as possible. I tried to keep my pedaling really fast and every 90 seconds or so I did a little burst of sprinting for about 15 seconds. I wasn’t being too strict about those intervals, but I kept them in mind to make sure I was still doing them somewhat regularly.
Once I got past the halfway mark, I knew I was currently ahead of what my last PR was. I know that sometimes I slow down a bit in the second half, but I was so happy to see I was making good time. I don’t know how I did this, but once I finished the challenge, I managed to get a new PR!
I actually took 13 seconds off of my last time which is a lot! I probably went a bit too hard because I could feel my hip out of place as soon as I got off the bike. But I think I would have felt that no matter what since I’m pushing myself a lot in that benchmark. So at least I got a PR along with my pain.
On the rower, we had endurance rowing starting with a 600-meter row. We were supposed to do jumping jacks after the row and then take 100 meters off of the row every time we did it. I knew I couldn’t do jumping jacks, so I just focused on trying to row through the entire block. I took plenty of breaks, but I tried to be aware of each distance I was supposed to do and limit the breaks within those. And once I completed a distance, I took a bit more of a break before getting back to rowing.
I was feeling a bit better when I got to the floor, but I still was sore so I had to go easy and slow. And a few exercises did need modifications from me to be able to do them. We started with doing low rows with weights and then step-ups on the bench. As always, I lowered the bench to do them but I also made sure I put both feet down instead of trying to just tap my toe during the steps. Then we had chest flys and single-leg deadlifts. For the single-leg deadlifts, I held onto the wall for balance but I was able to do most of the reps without putting my foot down so that felt like an accomplishment.
I was a little sore from the benchmark on Thursday, but not too bad so I was able to finish out my week with another really good workout.
For cardio, we had 2 blocks. The first block had rounds of a 1-minute push pace to a 30-second all-out with a 1-minute recovery after. And the second block had rounds of a 30-second push pace to a 30-second all-out with a 1-minute recovery after. Having short cardio bursts was nice after the benchmark the day before and I did try to pedal quickly. But I realized that the soreness I was experiencing was affecting my speed so I was not able to go quite as quickly as I would have liked.
On the rower, we had one long block. We had a 300-meter row with front presses using a medicine ball in between each row. I’m glad we had shorter rows since Wednesday had longer rows. I wasn’t going too crazy with the rows, but I was happy that I was pretty consistent with how long it took me to do each one and I didn’t slow down too much.
And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had a squat to press, lunges, a y-raise on the straps, and crab toe taps. I can’t do the crab toe taps, but we were given bicycle crunches as an option so I went with those instead. The second block also had squat to presses and then we had deadlifts, plank low rows, and double crunches. And I was able to do all those exercises without any modifications so I was happy.
I’m so glad that not only did I have a good workout week, I had a huge win with my new PR. And I’m glad I had that last week because this week is going to be a tough one. It’s Mayhem, which is similar to Hell Week. I’m going to do the 4 workouts required to complete Mayhem, but I didn’t sign up for the shirt so I won’t be earning it. I’m ok with that since the most important thing to me is completing the challenge and not always getting the stuff. But it’s going to be a challenging week and I’m feeling ready to get the hard work done!
Posted onMay 3, 2023|Comments Off on I’m Picking Some Good Challenges For Myself (or Being Ok Not Being Perfect)
I’ve been doing monthly challenges for several years now, and sometimes I pick really good challenges and sometimes I struggle to figure out what I want to do. It’s ok that it’s a mix, I know they can’t all be exactly perfect with the challenge I pick. But I’m always so happy when I pick a challenge and something just clicks with me and I feel like I’ve started a new habit that will continue for a while.
For April, I set the challenge to have less food waste. I knew I needed to do this challenge because I was getting lazy and wasteful with the food I bought. I might have all the best intentions when I go grocery shopping, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that I feel the same way when it’s time to cook things. And while I have no issues eating leftovers, I also don’t want to eat leftovers several days in a row of the same thing so sometimes portions go back. Whenever I throw out food, that’s wasting money and I’ve been trying really hard to improve my spending. So I wanted to see how much I could reduce food waste to save money and be better about planning meals and making sure I don’t just order in if I get lazy.
I was surprised at how well I did with this challenge. I did still have things I had to throw out if they expired, but it was significantly less than what I normally would do. I was very careful about what I was buying from stores and opted to buy more frozen things like vegetables so I didn’t have to worry about things going bad quickly. I also started to make easier meals so they were only one or two servings. So I might make something like meatballs and some vegetables, but only make enough to have something for the next day instead of having it for 3 more days. I did still occasionally order in or go out to dinner, but with what I bought and made at home, I really reduced how much I wasted. And after last month, I feel like this is something I can continue to do and improve upon.
And for May, this challenge I feel has already started for me. This month, I want to work on being ok with not having perfection with things in my life. There are some parts of my life where I’m ok not always being perfect, but there are others where I really stress and get anxious if things aren’t exactly how I feel like they should be. One example of this is the frequency of my blog posts. I know I wrote last week that I was reducing how often I post on here, but I also really debated about doing a post yesterday because it felt so odd not to have something up when I’ve written every weekday for years. But I knew that I wanted to try to post less and had to be ok with the anxiety that brought me. I’m not being perfect with my writing the way I’m used to. I know it’s for the best, but that doesn’t always make it easier.
And there are other things that I know I only want to do if I can do them right. Sometimes the fear of not being perfect stops me from trying and I want to work on that feeling. I know that I won’t fail with everything I try, but I need to remember that it’s ok. I have failed at monthly challenges before and that has been ok. I have had bad workout days and that’s ok. I don’t know why I’m ok not being perfect in those ways but then with other things I just can’t get over it. And it’s not just being perfect, it’s also the fear of starting a task that I might have to split over a few days instead of getting it done in one. If something isn’t accomplished in the way I feel is right or perfect, sometimes I just can’t get started with it. And that’s not a good way to be.
I’m not going to try to deliberately fail at things, but I’m going to try to be more flexible with how I can do things and what accomplishing a task or idea means to me. If I want to get my whole house cleaned in one day but have to split it up in 2 because of time constraints, that’s ok and I need to remember that. I can’t necessarily predict what I will need to let go of the idea of perfection with, but I know that I will encounter that feeling several times over the month.
This is a challenge that I also have to accept will not necessarily be perfect since there will be times I let this feeling stop me. But all I can do is hope that I can overcome it more often than not and see some positive results by the end of the month.
Not My Normal Workout Recap (or At Least I Was Feeling Ok During The Week)
