Monthly Archives: February 2020

I knew this past week of workouts would be a mix of good days and not so good days. I was prepared for that this time and went into my workouts expecting that. Even though I’ve had a few tough weeks recently, I always do so much better when I am prepared for them. And this past week was one of those weeks that I did better because I went into the workout expecting it.

Monday’s workout was a strength-based class and we were supposed to be challenging ourselves by using a new base pace. I wasn’t quite ready to add to my base resistance level on the bike (and this entire month is going to be about adding to base so I have plenty of opportunities), but I did want to make sure I did the hill work the way we were supposed to.

We had 3 cardio blocks with the same pattern. We had 2 rounds of 90-second hills with base paces after them and we ended with an all out. The base paces got shorter and the all out got longer each block. And we also had higher hills each block for the hill work. Doing the hills was definitely challenging because I don’t use the resistance levels as often as I used to and this was a lot of hill work. But it was a good challenge and I’m glad I went for it.

We also had 3 floor blocks and each floor block started with a rowing challenge. The rowing challenge was to see how far we could get in just 15 strokes. Stroke challenges are tough because you have to go slowly and take your time, which seems to be the opposite of what you feel like you should do on the rower. After each stroke challenge, we had regular floor work for the rest of each block. The first block had squats with calf raises and plank leg raises. The second block had goblet squats and Y raises on the straps. And the last block had sumo squats, hip raises, and plank punches. For the squats to calf raises, goblet squats, sumo squats, and hip raises; I tried to go heavy with the weights I used. I didn’t go as heavy as I could for the hip raises, but for everything else, I feel like I was using heavier weights than I normally would grab.

Wednesday’s workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power and it was also supposed to help us get ready for the 12-minute run benchmark later this month. I was feeling fine when I got to class, but unfortunately, my nausea kicked in during the warmup. I wasn’t feeling too horrible, but it still affected things and forced me to take it a bit easier than I was hoping to.

For cardio, the entire focus was preparing for the benchmark. We had 2 rounds of 5.5-minute runs/bikes for distance with a 90-second recovery between them. This is a bit longer than the benchmark will be, but it also had the recovery time which the benchmark won’t. There were no intervals or specific paces to do during those 5.5 minutes, but the goal was to push ourselves. I tried my best to push myself and take a break when nausea kicked in. I know I didn’t do nearly as well as I could, but I did my best and I’m hoping that when we have the benchmark that I will feel better and can really go for it.

The rowing started with a 90-second row for distance. Then we had rotation presses with a medicine ball. We continued the rowing and medicine ball work for the rest of the block, doing 50 meters less each time on the rower. I did that for the first few rounds, but then the rotation presses were making me more nauseous so I just rowed until the block was done. I had to take a lot of breaks, so even though I didn’t stop rowing to do the other work, I didn’t get a lot of rowing done.

On the floor, we had a lot of core focus. We started with 3 rounds of lateral crunches and toe touches. Then we moved on to the other exercises which all had weights. We had suitcase squats, plank pull-throughs, hollow hold chest presses, and single-leg bicep curls. I didn’t go too heavy with the weights and actually went a bit lighter than normal for the bicep curls. But I was able to do the plank work normally instead of using the bench, which surprised me considering how I was feeling. But plank pull-throughs are tough to do on the bench so I’m glad I could do them on the floor.

Friday’s workout was a strength day. And even though I wasn’t feeling nauseous when I went to class, I knew that there was a good chance I would feel that way during the workout so I took some anti-nausea medications that morning. It did help, but I still struggled with feeling off.

We had 2 cardio blocks. Both blocks had a mix of push paces and base paces at inclines. I was using the resistance levels on the bike for the incline work, but I kept them a bit lower than I would have if I was feeling ok. I didn’t have a lot of nausea on the bike, but it was still affecting me from time to time and I had to take some breaks to let it pass.

And unfortunately, the rower at my station broke so I wasn’t able to row. Thinking about it later, it might have been better for me to use the bike instead of the rower. So I did the rowing work on the bike. It was all distance rows so I used the time it would take me to row that distance if I was averaging 200 meters every minute. The first block had a 400, 200, and 100-meter row (so 2-minute, 1-minute, and 30-second bike). And the second block had a 300, 200, and 100-meter row (90-second, 1-minute, and 30-second row). Between each row, we had front raises with the mini-band. And one bonus I found on the bike was that I could do the front raises without having to get off the bike.

And on the floor, every round started with a cluster set. This cluster set was 15 shoulder presses split into 3 rounds of 5 with 10 seconds between each round. After the cluster set, the rest of the exercises were done normally. We had bicep curls, front squats with dumbells, bird dogs, and low rows on the straps. I struggled a bit with the bird dogs because I did them normally even though I felt nauseous, but besides those, I did pretty decently on the floor.

Saturday’s workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power. I was feeling a bit worse than I was on Friday, but still not as bad as I know I could feel. Everything was done in 4-minute blocks and the floor and the rower switched every 4 minutes.

For cardio, every 4-minute block had a push pace, a base pace, a push pace, a base pace, and an all out. The first push pace got shorter each block and the second push pace and the second base pace got longer each block. The blocks were short but some of the intervals felt long. I’m glad they were only 4 minutes long because I don’t know how I would have done if it was longer.

Because we switched back and forth between the floor and the rower, we had a total of 3 blocks on each. Every block on the rower was the same every time and every block on the floor was the same every time. We just picked up where we left off.

I was using the bike for the rower since the rower was still down. Every row was supposed to be a 200-meter row, so I biked for 1-minute. Then we were supposed to do lunges with overhead triceps using the medicine ball after each row. We started with 12 reps and every time we went down 2 reps. And on the floor, we had hip hinge low rows with weights, plank work, pull-ups on the straps (I modified these to be rows on the straps), hip hinge triceps, hip hinge fly, and plank punches. I was able to get through one round on the floor every time I was there so it was easy to pick up each time I was back there.

Overall, considering how I thought I might feel this week I did pretty great. I was worried I’d feel a lot worse, but it wasn’t as bad as expected. Of course, I’m aware that this week might be miserable, but at least I’m ready for that. And hopefully, I can still push myself when I can even if I feel like I am struggling a lot.

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I had 2 weeks in a row that were pretty tough workout weeks for me. First, was a week dealing with pain and nausea. Then it was a week dealing with the same issues that were caused by antibiotics. I usually don’t have 2 bad workout weeks in a row like that, so I wasn’t sure what to expect from my workouts last week. I knew I was going to be a bit weaker than normal, but I honestly didn’t realize it was going to be as bad as it was.

Monday’s workout was a power day. While I was finally feeling better after taking antibiotics, I also was still feeling a bit weak. I know that having so many days where I couldn’t push myself caused that, but having a power day was helpful with working back to my normal self.

For cardio, the first part was all about 2-minute blocks. These 2 minutes were split between push pace and all out. We started with a 90-second push and 30-second all out. Then it was a 75-second push and 45-second all out. Then it was a 1-minute push and 1-minute all out. Then we repeated that again but worked in reverse. We did have recovery time after every all out, but I did have to take a few little breaks during some of the push paces. Then we finished the cardio workout with a 1-minute, 45-second, and 30-second all out. We had 9 all outs during the entire cardio time, which is a lot.

On the floor, we had 3 blocks that mainly focused on upper body. The first block had pull-ups on the straps (I modified these to be high rows on the straps), single-arm low rows on the straps (I modified these to not be single-arm), and side plank rotations. The second block had pullovers with a dumbbell, bench plank reverse flys, and plank pull-throughs (which I modified to be bench plank pull-throughs).

And the final block was a core blast. This workout was the day after Kobe Bryant passed away, and most of the people in class were affected by his death. So the core blast was themed around 8 and 24 (Kobe’s jersey numbers). We had 3 exercises that had 8 reps each (so a total of 24 reps). We had hip bridge toe touches (I modified these to be regular toe touches), sit-ups with rotations, and atomic plank work. While I wasn’t a basketball fan, I know how much Kobe meant to the city of LA. And I could feel the mood in the room being different from a normal workout day. I think dedicating the core blast block was a good choice and the mood of the room was much closer to normal when the workout was done.

Wednesday’s workout was a mix of endurance and power. I was continuing to feel a bit more like myself, but I still could tell I wasn’t 100% back. But I was almost there so I was able to push myself more and worked a lot closer to what I normally do.

Cardio had 2 blocks. The first block started with a 2-minute push pace, then a 90-second base pace, a 90-second push pace, a 30-second base pace, and a 30-second all out. The 2-minute push pace was a bit long but everything else felt like it went by really quickly, especially with having such a short base pace at the end to recover. The second block was a similar pattern but in reverse. So we started with a 30-second push pace and ended with a 2-minute distance challenge.

On the rower, we started with a 600-meter row. Then we had 12 ground to presses with a medicine ball. Each round the row went down by 100 meters and we did 2 fewer squats. I didn’t get that far in the rowing, but I was also using a different rower than I normally do and there was a difference with how that rower felt. It’s weird how I’ve gotten so used to the rower I usually use, but I guess it was an added challenge for me to try a different rower and see how I could do on that one.

On the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had a lower body focus and the second block had an upper body focus. And for both blocks, we were supposed to do all the exercises on one side first and then switch to the other. But for the lower body side, I did each exercise on both sides first since my hips would hurt too much otherwise. The first block had single-leg squats (which I did as regular squats), toe taps on the bench, power step-ups on the bench, and plank kicks. For the benchwork, I did use the bench but held on to the straps to keep my balance. And the second block had hip hinge low rows, low rows with a split stance, low rows on the bench, and plank punches. For all the low rows, we used the same weights and I did use my normal weight even though my arms were so fatigued by the time I switched arms.

Friday’s workout was a power day and it was also a switch day. Both of those things helped me get much closer to my normal workout ability and I was finally feeling like I might not be as weak as I was earlier in the week. It was crazy how quickly I felt weak, but I’m glad that it was almost as quick for me feeling back to my normal strength again.

The first cardio block started with push pace to base pace intervals. The push and base paces were the same amounts of time. We had a 1-minute, 45-second, and 30-second round. Then we did similar intervals but with all outs and recoveries. Again, we had a 1-minute, 45-second, and 30-second round. The second cardio block was just all outs with 30-seconds of recovery between them. We had a 1-minute, 45-second, and 30-second all out.

On the rower, the first block started with a 300-meter row. After the row, we were supposed to do lunges, but I did squats instead. Then it was a 200-meter and 100-meter row, both that were supposed to have lunges. Then we repeated all 3 rows but did squats between each row instead of the lunges. And the second block was the same pattern as cardio with all outs and recoveries.

On the floor, the first block had burpees to reverse lunges (I did the burpees on the bench and did the lunges separately), neutral full thrusters with weights, and sit-ups. And the second block had hip hinge swings with weights and skater lunges. I thought that we should have had another exercise in that second block because I felt like I did a million rounds of those 2 exercises, but at least I was able to get them done!

Saturday’s workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power and it was also a switch day. And just like with Friday’s workout, the combination of workout type and it being a switch day worked for me and I felt the best I had felt in a long time in class.

The first cardio block was a 2-minute push, 1-minute base, 1-minute push, 1-minute base, and 30-second all out. Nothing fancy, but it gave me a lot of time to work on getting back to my normal push pace pedaling speed. I know I haven’t been doing that for a little bit and it felt good to get back to what I usually do. The second cardio block was all all outs, but no matter how long the all out was we only had 30 seconds to recover. We had 1 round of a 1-minute all out, 2 rounds of a 45-second all out, and 3 rounds of a 30-second all out. This second block was much harder because of the limited recovery time, but I loved having so many all outs to work on my pedaling speed.

The rower had the same workout for both blocks, we just picked up where we left off when we went back to the rower the second time. The rowing started with 1 round of a 300-meter row with frogger squats. Then it was 2 rounds of a 250-meter row with frogger squats. 3 rounds of a 200-meter row with frogger squats. And I only did the first round of the 150-meter row when the second block ended.

On the floor, it was a lot of upper body and core work. The first block had pullovers with weights, side plank rotations, and single-arm snatches with weights. And the second block had pull-ups on the straps (I modified this to be high and low rows on the straps), plank pull-throughs, and squats. I thought I’d feel a bit more tired at the end of the workout, but I was feeling good. So I think that was a sign that I was finally better and I might have gone a bit easy on myself.

I want to say that I’m back to my normal self and normal strength now, but I also know that this week is the week that my nausea may be coming back. I’m hoping that doesn’t affect too many of my workouts. And I’m really hoping that I won’t lose as much momentum as I did this last time. I really want to be moving things forward, and it’s hard to do that when I take 1 step forward and 2 steps back.

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