Monthly Archives: January 2022

This past week of workouts was another week where I didn’t do my workout on Saturday but added a Thursday class instead. I did this because of something that was supposed to be a scheduling conflict for Saturday that ended up being canceled. But by the time my Saturday opened up again, I had already completed all my workouts for the week. So even though I didn’t have to get all my workouts in before work, I’m still glad I did them all. But I had an added challenge for most of my workouts this week with some extra pain.

Monday’s workout was a strength day. It was also a bit of prep work for a benchmark row that I knew I wouldn’t be doing, but it was still a lot of incline work for cardio.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks that were similar. We started with a base pace hill climb (or decreasing incline for the second block) before having a base pace without incline. Then we had 3 rounds of all-outs at inclines with walking recoveries between each all-out. The inclines weren’t the highest we do, but because we had a lot of time at incline and not much time without, I think they felt higher than they actually were.

For the rower, we also had 2 blocks that were similar. The first block had rounds of a 200-meter row. Between each row, we had overhead presses with the medicine ball. For the second block, instead of a distance to do on the rower, we had stroke drills with 15 strokes each round. And the medicine ball exercise was bicep curls to overhead presses to tricep extensions. Doing a distance goal and doing a stroke drill on the rower are very different types of rowing, and we were supposed to make sure they each were focused on that particular type of rowing. Even though the rower is still a challenge for me, I think focusing on the different types of rowing is something I’m good at.

On the floor, we also had 2 blocks but we had not as much weight work as we normally do for a strength day. For the first block, we had deadlifts, pop jacks, and bird dogs. For the deadlifts, we had 2 sets of them each round. We had heavy deadlifts for 4 reps and regular deadlifts for 12 reps. I did increase the weight I used for the 4 rep set since I knew we were supposed to challenge ourselves. And the second block had pike sit-ups (which I did as regular sit-ups) and mountain climbers.

For the rest of the week, my workouts had the extra challenge with my foot hurting after my dermatologist appointment. I’ve done this several times since my appointments are always on Tuesdays, but I know the pain was worse this time compared to before. I really struggled every day for the rest of my workouts in each section of the room, but my rowing was the hardest.

Wednesday’s workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power. And for cardio and rowing we had one long block for each.

For cardio, we had 30-seconds of an all-out at an incline, 30-seconds of walking recovery, an all-out at that incline as long as we can go, another 30-seconds of recovery, and another all-out at the incline as long as we can go. Then after that, we had 1-minute of recovery before doing the entire thing again but with the incline one level lower. I’m glad this was the cardio workout because I needed a lot of breaks on the bike. Even though it was only my heel that was hurting, the way my foot moves while on the bike was putting pressure on my heel a bit and making it very painful. I didn’t get that far into this workout because of the breaks I took, but I was ok with that.

For the rower, we started with 3 rounds of a 10 stroke drill with 5 strokes of recovery rowing in-between. After 3 rounds, we had overhead presses with a medicine ball. Then we repeated the same 3 rounds of rowing with a front press with a medicine ball. Because of my foot, I’m glad we had stroke drills and not a distance to get done because it would have taken me so long to get any sort of distance on the rower. The medicine ball exercises were supposed to be single-leg ones, and I didn’t do that since I knew I couldn’t stand on just my left leg.

And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. Each block had 1 cluster set and then 1 regular exercise. A cluster set is similar to what we did with cardio. We had 3 rounds of the exercise. For the first round we had 5 reps and then for the next 2 rounds we did as many reps as we could do. The first floor block had a cluster set of seated low rows and also scaptions. And the second floor block had a cluster set of chest presses and also hip hinge reverse flys. Fortunately, these exercises weren’t too horrible with my foot being in pain.

Thursday was an endurance day, and while I was still in a lot of pain it was a little better than how I felt on Wednesday. I think Thursday felt more like how Wednesdays feel when I’ve had the freezing treatment done in the past. So while I could put my heel down a bit more, it was still difficult for me to do that and I had to make accommodations to not be in too much pain.

For cardio, we started with a 3-minute push pace and then a 1-minute base pace. We then decreased the push pace by 30-seconds each time and ended with a 1-minute all-out. Just like with Wednesday, I had to take a lot of breaks on the bike because of my heel. It wasn’t as frequent as Wednesday, but still a lot. And while I did want to keep them to when we had a base pace, that wasn’t possible with the longer push paces. But I tried my best and I was ok with that.

On the rower, we also had 1 long block. We started with an 800-meter row and then we had squats to bicep curls and tricep extensions with a medicine ball. Then the row decreased by 200-meters and we repeated the same medicine ball exercises. I was just starting on the 400-meter row when the block was done, which really showed me how slow I was on the rower.

And on the floor, another long block but it was split into 2 mini-blocks. The first mini-block had single-arm high rows, Y raises on the straps, and bicep curls on the straps. We had 2 rounds of that and then moved to the next mini-block with shoulder presses, chest flys, and good mornings to tricep kickbacks. A lot of these exercises needed me to stay balanced on both feet, which was tough. I tried to see if I could put more pressure on my toes than my heel, but I was losing my balance. So I just had to go slowly and take my time.

Friday was another strength day. I was still hurting, but I was glad that each day I was slowly feeling better. I knew this past week of workouts would be tough with the pain I’d be in, but I really wasn’t prepared for how bad it would be.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks. Each block had a push pace, base pace, base pace at incline, regular base pace, and an all-out. With only one incline section for each block, I put my focus more on just trying to keep pedaling as long as I could. I was able to decrease how many breaks I needed in the cardio blocks, but I knew I wouldn’t be back to normal just yet.

On the rower, we had 2 blocks. The first block had rounds of 300-meter rows with medicine ball overhead presses between each round. And the second block had stroke drills for 15 strokes with the overhead presses between each round. For the medicine ball work, it increased by 2 reps each round. Just like most days this past week, I struggled with rowing since I couldn’t press down with my heel. That’s especially tough for stroke drills when you are supposed to explode back on the rower each time. But I did better than I expected even if I wasn’t doing great.

The floor had 2 blocks. In the first block, we had goblet squats, lateral lunges, and crunches on the Bosu. And in the second block we had push-ups, deadlifts, and hip dips. The hip dips were supposed to be on the Bosu, but I knew I couldn’t do that. But for the other exercises, I was able to keep the modifications to a minimum which was an improvement!

I’m hoping that this week I will be in less pain, but I think my heel is going to be hurting through at least the beginning of the week. It’s not fun to hurt this much, but I also know that this is a treatment that could be more painful if I put it off so I just have to be ok with it. But just like always, even in pain I fully expect to get my 4 workouts in this week again!

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This past week of workouts was what felt like a normal workout schedule to me. I was working my normal hours again, I did the workout times and dates I have been doing for a long time, and things felt like a bit of a reset to normal in a time that isn’t really normal because of the pandemic. It was nice to have this type of reset week at the beginning of the new year and I’m glad that this new year had workouts in the studio (unlike the first week of 2021). And overall, it seemed like a normal workout week to me. The only thing a little unusual was that some of my workouts were 2 group classes instead of the 3 group ones I was thinking they would be.

Monday’s workout was a 2 group class and it was a power day. I was still a bit nauseous that morning, but I was doing significantly better than the week before so I was able to do a bit more in class than I thought I would. Because it was a power day and a lot of the intervals were short, we had 4 blocks on each side of the room.

For cardio, blocks 1 and 3 were the same and blocks 2 and 4 were the same. For blocks 1 and 3, we had a 1-minute push, 90-second base, 45-second push, 45-second base, and a 1-minute all-out. And for blocks 2 and 4, we started with a 30-second push and then and 30-second all-out and 30-second recovery intervals. I was trying to not only increase the resistance on the bike but also pedal a bit faster for the all-outs, especially in blocks 2 and 4 since that’s all the work we really had. I know I didn’t do my best, but I was doing more than the week before and I consider that a win.

On the floor, we had 3 regular floor blocks and 1 rowing block. For each of the floor blocks, we had 3 exercises. The first exercise we only did once and then we just went back and forth between the other two exercises for the rest of the block. For the first block we had 1 round of dead bugs and then did skier swings and pop jacks (I did the pop jacks as regular squats). For the second block we had 1 round of side plank crunches and then had single-arm neutral thrusters with rotations and lateral hops. And for the third block we had 1 round of hip bridges and then had single-arm snatches and frogger squats. And for the last block on the rower, we did the same 30-second intervals that cardio had. I was struggling a lot on the rower, as I often do when I’m nauseous, but fortunately we had a lot of recovery time so I never felt too bad.

Wednesday was another day that ended up being a 2 group class. It was an endurance day and I’m so glad I was finally feeling better since this class would have been extremely tough to do when I’m nauseous and in pain.

For cardio, we had 1 long block. We had a 3-minute push pace, 1-minute base pace, 90-second push pace, and 90-second base pace. And we repeated this for a total of 3 rounds before ending with a 2-minute distance challenge at the end. We were encouraged to try to do a bit of an all-out at the end of the distance challenge, but I didn’t have it in me to increase the resistance on the bike at the end. But I did try to pedal a bit faster. But it was a lot of work with no recovery time, so I was exhausted. I did have to take little breaks so I could sip water, but I tried to keep those to when we had base paces.

On the floor, we had 7 little blocks. 4 of those blocks were on the floor and 3 were on the rower. We had 2 exercises for each of the floor blocks. We had shoulder presses and hip hinge low rows, bicep curls and rollouts on the straps, hip hinge tricep kickbacks and upright rows, and plank and squat holds. And every time we were on the rower, we had a 90-second all-out row. I really enjoyed this workout on the floor because it felt a bit more like a power day than an endurance day because we were switching things up so often. So while I was exhausted and I know I worked hard, I wasn’t feeling as sore as I sometimes do in an endurance workout.

Friday was a power day and it was also a 3 group class so I knew I’d have more rowing. I still have a bit of a love/hate relationship with the rower. I know how good it is for me and I know how I can do some really great work. But I also have struggled the most with getting my rowing back after being away from the studios. I know I need to be patient and I have made good improvements this past year, but it’s tough when I still feel like I’m not back to where I was before.

For cardio, we had 1 long block. We started with a 1-minute push pace, 1-minute all-out, and 30-seconds to recover. The push and all-out stayed at 1-minute but for the rest of the rounds we added in a base pace (starting at 30-seconds and increasing by 30-seconds each round) and the recovery increased by 30-seconds each round. The first round might have been the hardest, even though it was the shortest, because we only had the 30-second recovery.

On the rower, we also had 1 long block. We started with a 300-meter row and then we had squats with rotations using the medicine ball. Then we did another 300-meter row and had squats with front raises using the medicine ball. After those 2 rounds, the row decreased by 50 meters and we did 2 more rounds with one medicine ball exercise in-between each row. Getting on and off the rower is always a bit hard for my hips, so I was moving slower than I would have liked. So I didn’t get that far down the row before the rowing block was done.

And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had single-leg deadlifts (which I did as regular deadlifts), hip hinge swings, lateral lunges, and skater lunges. And the second block had hip bridges, toe reaches, and pop jacks. The floor work after the row block was really hard because my hips were hurting a lot. So I had to do more modifications than I would have liked. Besides switching the deadlifts, I had to do the skater lunges with steps instead of jumps. I also did the upper body/core part of toe reaches but I kept my feet on the ground instead of in the air. And I didn’t do the pop jacks at all and just went back and forth between the two other exercises in the last block.

Saturday’s workout was a 2 group class, but I expected this one to be a 2 group one (I’m not sure if my weekday classes will stay 2 groups or will go back to 3). And this workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power. We had 3 blocks on each side of the room to represent each type of workout focus.

The first block for cardio was the power block. We started with a 1-minute push pace into a 30-second all-out with a 45-second recovery. Then we just had intervals of a 30-second all-out and 45-second recovery for the rest of that block. The second block was the strength block. We had rounds of 45-second push paces with base paces in-between. But each time we had a push pace, the incline/resistance level went up by 1 and the base pace got 15-seconds longer. And that block ended with an all-out at an incline. And the last block was the endurance block and we had a 3-minute push pace, 1-minute base pace, and 2 1/2-minute distance challenge. It was a great mix of all the types of workouts, and I was able to focus on different goals or ideas for each of the blocks. I really enjoyed this one!

For the floor, each block again represented each type of workout. The power floor block had single-arm low rows and overhead tricep extensions. After 2 rounds, we had one 200-meter row before going back to the exercises. For the strength block, we had single-arm clean to presses, high rows on the straps, and chest presses on the straps. And again, after 2 rounds of those exercises we had a 200-meter row. But this time, the row was supposed to be between 20-24 strokes per minute which is slower than most people naturally do so we had to focus more about pushing with our legs. And for the power block, we had front raises and hip hinge reverse flies. And after each round of the exercises, we had a 200-meter row.

I really did enjoy this past week of workouts. Even with the struggles and challenges I had, it was a great week for me. And I felt like I was back into the groove of things after having a lot of variety during the holidays. I needed this past week and I’m glad it went as well as it did. I’m still playing around with the idea of only doing weekday workouts, and I likely will have that type of week this week. But I also don’t feel pressure to decide one way or another because I can always switch it up based on how I feel or what my week looks like. And I guess I’ll see how this week goes before I make any other decisions about it.

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