Monthly Archives: November 2019

This past week of workouts was a mix of really great workouts and really bad workouts. I knew it was possibly going to be a mix like that, but I don’t know if I expected it to be such a big swing back and forth. But I managed to get through the tough days the best I could because I knew it would be better toward the end of the week.

Monday’s workout was not my best day. It was the day that I wrote my short post about how I was going through a tough time. When I went to my workout, I wasn’t feeling as bad as I did when I wrote that. But I knew I wasn’t doing well. And I knew that the workout had the 500-meter row benchmark and I really wanted to try my best for that.

The workout was a strength-based class, but the cardio work didn’t have inclines. We started with a 2-minute push pace, 1-minute base pace, and 30-second all out before having a recovery. We continued that pattern but took 30-seconds off of the push pace each time until we just had a 30-second all out at the end. I tried to start the workout with my normal base level on the bike, but I wasn’t able to do that. So I had to start a bit lower than that and I worked my way up to my normal base. But I wasn’t pedaling fast or consistent. I just had to do what I could when I could and be ok with that. The nausea wasn’t much worse than I normally have, but the pain was significantly worse and I was struggling to focus on pedaling when the pain was that sharp. I was so annoyed because I felt like I wasn’t really working out, but I just had to keep reminding myself that something is better than nothing.

When I got to the 500-meter row, I wasn’t feeling horrible and was even a bit optimistic that I could do an ok job. And when I started I was shocked at how strong I was rowing. My split time was so low that it would have easily gotten me a PR on the row. And I was feeling great for maybe the first 200-meters. But right around the halfway mark, my nausea hit me so hard and so strong that I was sure I was about to throw up in class. I never felt nausea that strong while working out and it scared me a bit. I immediately stopped rowing and worked on breathing through it and seeing if I had to leave the room. I was able to get through it, but my rowing time was ruined because of it. I was determined to finish the row, but I had to go very slow and easy. For the first half, I was pacing at 1:55 which would have been amazing. The second half I was pacing at over 4 minutes. I think it ended up taking me about 3:30, but I didn’t really look at my time when I was done and didn’t track it.

On the floor, I was able to do most things without modifications. We had swing lunges that I had to do as regular lunges, hollow hold chest presses, plank work which I had to do as high rows with weights while standing up, alligators on the straps, and rollouts on the straps. I did go slow with the exercises and took lots of breaks, but I was able to go heavy with the weights and I did get 2 rounds of all the exercises done.

I was still a bit nauseous going into Wednesday’s workout, but I was doing much better than how I was on Monday. Wednesday’s workout had a mix of endurance, strength, and power and if I was feeling awesome it might have been a day I tried the treadmill again instead of the bike. I don’t mind the bike the way I did before, but there are occasional workouts that make me wonder if I should go for the treadmill. And this one was like that.

For cardio, all we had were all outs. We had 4 all outs that were 1 minute long and 5 all outs that were 30 seconds long. The recovery time after each of the 1 minute all outs got longer each round. Then we went back to a shorter recovery when we switched to 30 second all outs but each round the recovery got longer. It would have been an amazing chance to work on my running and see what I could do, but I knew that my nausea wouldn’t allow me to try that at all. So I focused completely on my pedaling speed on the bike. I didn’t play around with the resistance levels since we were doing such short intervals. But I did try to pedal a bit faster with each of the all outs so it would be like I was increasing the speed on the treadmill.

On the rower, we had 100, 300, and 500-meter rows. Between each row, we had medicine ball exercises. They were supposed to be lunges with shoulder presses and tricep extensions but I modified the lunges to be squats. I struggled a bit on the rower, but since they weren’t benchmarks I didn’t feel the same pressure that I did on Monday to go hard and do them quickly. I took my time and took breaks when I needed to. I was seeing a pattern of needing to let the nausea pass after I rowed about 150-200 meters. It did break up the rowing nicely, but I would have preferred to not need breaks at all.

And on the floor, I had a lot that needed to be modified. We started with lunges (I had to skip using weights for this one to keep my balance), lateral lunges to half thrusters (I modified this by splitting up the movements into 2 different exercises), plank jacks to pop jacks (I modified this by using the bench for my hands), hamstring curls using the straps (I did weighted hip bridges instead), and sit-ups using the straps (I did these on the floor and skipped the straps). It was a bit odd that every exercise had to be changed to work for me, but they felt close enough to what we were supposed to do so it didn’t feel like I was changing everything.

Friday’s workout was better than the other days and I was almost back to normal. It was a strength-based class which meant I would have higher resistance levels on the bike. But it ended up not being too bad so I was able to handle it and my nausea wasn’t kicking in as much as I was afraid it would.

For cardio, the first block was coached and the second block was on our own. The first block was a mix of 1-minute push paces at inclines and 45 seconds of a base pace with no incline. The inclines weren’t that high so I was using resistance levels around my push and all out levels. The second block was .1 miles (.4 for the bike) at inclines with 45 seconds to recover after. .4 on the bike takes me about a minute so it was very similar to the first block for me.

The rower was also 2 blocks. The first block was rounds of 200-meter rows and 6 squats between each row. 200 meters was a good distance for me to work with and I was able to handle it without needed to take breaks. We weren’t supposed to reset the rower during that first block because for the second block we were supposed to do the distance we got in that first block and then 25 squats. The distance for the second block was a challenge for me and I did have to take breaks every 250 meters or so. But I did make it to the squats so I was proud of that.

And the floor work was 1 long block but we had drop sets within the block. We had drop sets of bicep curls and hip hinge low rows as well as regular sets of plank work and triceps on the straps. I tried to go heavy for the drop sets since that is the goal, but after one round I realized I couldn’t go as heavy as I wanted to without my nausea kicking in a bit. I was still using 2 different sets of weights, but it wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be.

Saturday’s workout was really amazing for me. I was shocked by how much better I was feeling compared to Friday. But that also meant that I would have a great workout and not worry too much about it. The workout was endurance-based, but it felt more like a power day for me. We had 2 blocks at each section of the room and we switched after each block (so we did 2 laps around).

For cardio, the first block had 2 rounds of push paces followed by a base pace and then we ended with a 90-second distance challenge. The second block was the same pattern, but the push paces were shorter and the base paces were longer. The goal was to get to the same distance on the second block even though we weren’t in a push as long. For me on the bike, I knew that wouldn’t be too tough to accomplish because I don’t really have a huge difference between my base and push speeds. I kept my resistance level at my base level the entire time and I ended up going further in the second block which was awesome!

On the rower, the first block started with a 150-meter row followed by squats. We then had a 250 and 350-meter rows with squats between and if you got through all that then you rowed until the block was done. The second block was the same except we started at the 350-meter row and went down. Just like with the cardio, we were supposed to get to the same distance in the second block as we did in the first. I struggled a little with the 350-meter row, but I think that was more due to being tired than anything else. And I was just about at the same distance between both blocks.

On the floor, the first block had single-leg squats, lateral squats, and hip hinge reverse flys. The second block had sit-ups to squats (which I had to split into 2 different moves), scaption raises, and plank low rows. The modifications I had to do for the floor work was more about my hip issues and not nausea. And I was able to go a bit heavy with the weights even though it wasn’t a strength day.

I loved that I ended on such a good workout. I felt like I made up for the bad workout days and that I am ready to go for this week. I might have 4 workouts in because I might be adding in an extra day, but if I go with what I have planned I’ll have 3 workouts this week. But one of them will be my family workout on Thanksgiving and I’m really excited about that!

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I knew this past week of workouts were going to be tough for me because my nausea was going to start at some point. I try not to stress out about this happening because I know I can get through it. But it doesn’t necessarily make it easier when I’m dealing with it. All I can do is work hard where I can and modify what I can’t do so they are things I can do.

Monday’s workout was themed for Veterans Day, so we covered all the sections of the room to celebrate the strength of different military branches. So even though my class was a 2 group class, it really felt like a 3 group one. It also felt extra tough, but I think it was designed to be that way.

For cardio, we had a 12-minute distance challenge. But instead of going at our own pace for the challenge, it was coached and we had different push paces or incline work. I kept the resistance at my base level for the push and all outs, but I did work with it for the incline work. And the end of the 12-minute challenge was 90 seconds on our own so I did try to go extra fast for that section. Then we moved to the rower to finish our cardio work.

The rower was essentially a 9.5-minute row for distance. We did have different times that we did the rowing together as a group and then we had a break to do squats. But whenever the break is doing more exercise, it doesn’t feel like much of a break. I tried to not rest during the rowing, but I was getting tired toward the end and was starting to feel my form getting sloppy. So when I noticed that, I took a quick break to catch my breath and refocus so I could get back to my rowing with the correct form.

And on the floor, we had the same exercises for each block. We had low rows on the straps, squats, sit-ups, plank jacks, and leg raises. Each block had a different number of reps that we were supposed to do, but it was always the same exercises. And at the end of each block, we had a 1-minute plank hold. I did change up the order I did the exercises (sometimes doing them in the regular order and sometimes doing them in reverse order) so I was able to do all of them at least a few times. But it was still hard with the high rep counts and having the same muscles getting sore each block.

Wednesday’s workout was a power day, and I was glad because that’s when my nausea started. Power days have the most recovery time for me and I really needed it. Fortunately, my nausea wasn’t too bad that day, but it was still causing issues for me from time to time.

The cardio was really interesting. We started with a 1-minute push pace to a 1 minute all out and then a recovery. Then we kept the push pace at a minute and did rounds with a 45 second and 30 second all out (with recovery after each all out). Then we repeated the round with a 1-minute push pace and 30 second all out before working the push pace down 15 seconds each round. It was fun working with the push to all outs so many times in a row. I kept my resistance level the same each time and focused on pedaling. And I did try to keep my breaks to when we were in a recovery minute since the active time was so quick.

The rower worked along with the treadmill but we didn’t do the same thing. We started with a 300-meter row and then 15 squats after that. If we finished those and the treadmill was still not to their recovery we had to hold a squat. Each round we went down 50 meters on the rower but the plan with the squats stayed the same. I got to the squats each time, but I never finished them before the treadmills were in their recovery. So I never had to hold a static squat. But it was a lot of fast work and fast rowing and I enjoyed it.

And the floor was 1 long block with mini-blocks in it. We repeated each mini-block twice before moving on to the next one. The first mini-block had push-ups and hip hinge low rows with weights. The second mini-block had push-ups with plank work and skater lunges. And the last mini-block had child’s pose push-ups and sumo squats to high rows with weights. I did all my push-up work using the bench and I had to break up the sumo squats and high rows into 2 different moves. But for some reason, it didn’t feel like that much modification even though I had to modify over 50% of the exercises.

Friday’s workout was a signature workout. This one was Catch Me If You Can. The goal is to hit certain distances at specific times to keep going. If you are on the treadmill and you don’t make it to that distance (aka get caught), then you power walk at a high incline for the rest of the time. You want to keep running because you want to get as far as you can over the entire block.

The odd thing about doing this on the bike is that if you don’t get caught you are pedaling for distance. If you do get caught, you are doing the same thing. I was very nauseous that day and I would have worked harder to hit the distance goals if I was feeling better. But it was nice to know that I could pretty much do the same thing either way on the bike. I made it to about the halfway mark with the distances before I wasn’t hitting the goal anymore. I wasn’t trying to take too many breaks while I was still hitting the distances because each break got me closer to being caught. But once I wasn’t worried about it anymore, I allowed myself to relax a bit and go easy on myself when I needed to. I think pushing myself might have been a bit too much because the rest of my workout was harder than I thought it would be.

On the rower, we started with a 600-meter row and then 20 squats. Then it was 2 rounds of a 300-meter row and 10 squats. There were supposed to be 4 rounds of a 150-meter row with 5 squats, but I only made it through 2 rounds before the block was done. Doing the 600 and 300-meter rows were so tough on me. I really couldn’t do more than a minute of rowing before I had a really bad wave of nausea or a horrible cramp. I had to take so many breaks to let them pass before I could start rowing again. But I knew that I still had the floor work to do and I didn’t want to push myself to a point where the floor work felt impossible.

I had to do a lot of modifications on the floor. It was supposed to be a day with lots of Bosu work and I didn’t use it at all. The only things I did without modifications were skier swings with weights and y raises on the straps. We were supposed to do plank jacks and crunches on the Bosu and I did them both on the bench. And we were supposed to do back extensions, but I can’t do face down work when I’m nauseous. So I asked my coach what a good modification would be for those and he told me to do lunges instead. I was glad when this class was done because I really needed to rest and recover after it.

Saturday’s workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power. I was having another bad nausea day, but I was trying to be hopeful that maybe this would be the end of the really bad nausea days and the rest of them would be a bit easier (I guess we’ll see if that’s true this week).

For cardio, we worked with both push paces and base paces at inclines. The goal was to feel the same way with pushes and inclines because they are supposed to be equally hard on us. The first block had a 2-minute push pace as well as a 2-minute base pace at incline. The second block had the same idea but they were 1-minute intervals instead of 2. I kept the resistance level at my base level for any work that didn’t have incline and used the level between my push and all out for all incline work. I didn’t worry too much about changing up the resistance levels for the hills to feel the same throughout because the nausea makes it hard for me to judge how I really feel.

On the rower, we started with a 450-meter row. We were supposed to do lunges with hops between each row segment, but I did squats since that’s easier for me. I really don’t like having to hop out of the rower and I can do the squats by just unstrapping my feet and standing up. After the squats, the row went down 50 meters and that pattern continued the entire block. The goal was to get down to the 100-meter row before the block was done, but I was working on the 300-meter row when we were done on the rower and moving to the floor.

The floor work had 3 main exercises and then add on exercises. The 3 main ones were full thrusters with weights, plank rows, and burpees. I modified the plank rows and burpees to be using the bench and I didn’t go as all out with them as I can when I’m feeling ok. The first round we added on sit-ups which I modified to bicycle crunches. In the second round we did the sit-ups (or crunches for me) and also straight leg hip raises. I didn’t finish the third round so I never added on that exercise, but that’s ok because it was back extensions and I knew I couldn’t do those.

I know we have a benchmark coming up this week and I’m hoping I’m feeling a little better for that. And I know the nausea should be ending this week so that is something for me to look forward to. But if it’s still bad through the entire week, I know I can just do what I can and I will get through it one way or another.

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