Monthly Archives: March 2023

I knew going into this past week of workouts that it would likely be one of my bad weeks. I was hopeful that maybe it wouldn’t be as bad as it could be, but I never can predict how I’m going to feel and it can change from day to day. Being prepared is helpful because I can be a bit more mindful of what I do in my workouts to not aggravate the situation, but sometimes there’s nothing that I can do to help and I just have to get through a workout however I can. Fortunately, this past week wasn’t as bad as it could have been. I had some really tough moments, but it was somewhat tolerable.

Monday was probably the day that I was feeling the best. It’s sometimes hard to judge what is the best day because it can vary throughout the workout and the workout itself can affect how I feel. I was dealing with some pain, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be that morning.

For cardio, we had 3 blocks. For each block, we had 3 rounds of a push pace to a base pace with a 1-minute all-out at the end. The base pace was always 30 seconds and the push pace ranged was 30 seconds in the first block, 45 seconds in the second block, and 1 minute in the last block. I was using the new resistance levels for my push pace and all-out, but I went into the workout thinking I would only do that for the first two blocks. But I decided to try it for the longer push paces and it wasn’t as bad as I expected so I just kept going. I am pedaling a lot slower, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

We also had 3 blocks on the rower. In the first block, we had rounds of a 250-meter row and then 20 curtsy lunges between each row. In the second block, we had stroke drills and did 20 strokes each time and regular lunges between each row. And in the last block, we were timed with cardio with the 1-minute push paces and 30-second base paces. I didn’t have any great achievements with my rowing, but I did it and that was good for me.

And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The longer block had 2 mini-blocks in it. The first mini-block had lunges and squats. After doing 3 rounds of those, we had chest presses and push-ups. I didn’t use weights that were any heavier than I normally do for those exercises, but as I have said, I can’t always make improvements in every single workout. But I did use my regular weights even though they felt a bit too heavy for me at times and I wanted to go lighter. And for the last block, we were timed with cardio and the rowers and had a core blast. We did mountain climbers for a minute and burpees for 30 seconds.

When I got to the studio on Tuesday morning, before we had class I signed up for the Dri-Tri. I’ve done 10 of these before and it’s always a challenge. But it’s a good challenge and I’ve never regretted doing it. But I have felt left out when I didn’t do it, even when it was because of something that wasn’t my fault. So I wanted to make sure I got a spot this time before they all filled up and I guess I’ll see how it goes later this month!

For the workout, we had 2 blocks in each section of the room. For both cardio blocks, we had intervals with a base pace at an incline and without an incline before having an all-out. Because I’ve been using higher resistance levels for my push pace and all-out, I thought about also trying to increase my levels for inclines too, but I think I’m going to wait until my base pace level is higher. But the levels I did use were above what I use for my all-out, so they were pretty high and I had to take several breaks when the nausea was really bad.

On the rower, the first block started with a 250-meter row followed by in-and-out steps and lunges. The row decreased by 50 meters each time we were on the rower. And in the second block, the row started at 50 meters and increased each time. And between each row, we had more in-and-out steps and squats to calf raises. I didn’t go as fast as I wanted to on the rower, but I was happy that I didn’t get so nauseous that I had to stop in the middle of a row.

And on the floor, the first block had split-leg deadlifts, chest flys, and seated torso rotations. And the second block had step-ups, concentration curls, and plank toe taps. I had to modify the second block a bit and did lunges for the step-ups because I used the bench for the other exercises and didn’t want to keep lowering and raising the bench and taking up time. And for the torso rotations, I used a heavier weight than I normally do and it wasn’t too much harder so that was a good win.

Wednesday’s workout was a signature workout. This time, it was Infinity. This is considered a Dri-Tri prep workout since the floor block for this workout is the same as what we do in the Dri-Tri. But since I was in pain and dealing with nausea, I knew the floor wouldn’t be easy for me. I would prefer to have to deal with pain and nausea on a Dri-Tri prep day instead of during the actual Dri-Tri, so that made me feel a bit better.

For cardio, we started with a 3-minute push pace followed by a 1-minute base pace. The push pace decreased by 30 seconds each time and the base pace stayed the same. And at the end of the block, we had a 1-minute all-out. And I was able to use my new push pace resistance level for each interval, even the longest one.

The rower is the real signature workout part of the Infinity workout. Every row was 100 meters. After the first row, we had 20 squat presses with a medicine ball. And after each row, the squat presses decreased by 2. If we got down to the round of 2, then after the next row we started to increase them by 2 each time. I had a heavier medicine ball than I normally would use, but that wasn’t intentional. It was the only one left so I took it as a challenge and decided to just try to use it. Using the heavier medicine ball did make things take a bit longer for me, so I knew that I wouldn’t have a PR for my rowing distance for Infinity. But I was ok with that since I knew with how I was feeling it was unlikely for me to get a PR even if I had my normal medicine ball.

And the floor was exactly like the Dri-Tri floor with hop-overs, bench tap squats, step-ups (which I did as lunges), push-ups, plank jacks, and burpees. I did have to take my time because a lot of these exercises were making me feel worse, but I still was able to get 2 rounds done before the block was over which was a good sign for how I might do on my Dri-Tri later in the month.

By Thursday, I was happy that I wasn’t having as bad of a week as I thought it might be, and I had a feeling that I could make it through that workout without too many issues. I did have a decent amount of pain and nausea, but I took some medications before the workout and they did kick in during class so that helped quite a bit.

The first cardio block had a 30-second push pace, 1-minute base pace, 30-second push pace, 90-second base pace, 30-second push pace, and 30-second all-out. And the second block did the same thing as the first block but added 2 more all-outs at the end. I continued to use the new resistance levels for my push pace and all-out but kept my base pace the same. I don’t know if I’ll be increasing the level I use soon, but I don’t have to rush into doing it either.

On the rower, the first block started with a 10 stroke drill with squat bicep curls using a medicine ball. We then had a 15 stroke drill and 20 stroke drill with the same exercise after each row. And in the second block, we did the same except we did each stroke drill twice before moving on to the next one. I usually am really good at stroke drills, but I struggled a bit to go as slowly as I know I should go. But I was keeping it under the stroke count that we needed to be under.

And on the floor, the first block was a mini-band block. We had lunges with front raises, walkouts, and plank reaches. I did some modifications for all these exercises. I did the lunges with front raises normally the first time, but after that, I just did the front raises alone since I struggled with my balance. For the walkouts, I used the bench so I wasn’t doing as many steps with my hands. And for the plank reaches, again I used the bench for my hands. The second block was all about cluster sets where we did an exercise for 6-10 reps, rested for about 10 seconds, and then did the same exercise again until failure. We had reverse grip low rows, hip bridges, and Arnold presses. I did go heavier with my hip bridges than I have done recently, but it’s still a bit lower than I was using when I was my strongest. For the other exercises, I didn’t go heavier than normal but tried to get more reps in the second attempt than I normally would do since that would be an extra challenge.

Considering this was a bad week for me with pain and nausea, it wasn’t that bad of a week for my workouts. I think part of that was being prepared for this week and part of it was because it wasn’t as bad as it can be. I also have a new focus for my workouts with trying to keep improving a lot, and I think my stubbornness helped me push through other things that might have affected my workouts. I know that this week might still be a bit of a tough one, but hopefully I’ll continue to push through and have more things I can feel good about by the end of the week.

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Before this past week of workouts, I was worried that it might be a bad week. I knew my pain and nausea might kick in during the week, but I was also hopeful that it wouldn’t be as bad as I know it can be. It’s not exactly something I can predict, I just know when the likely time is for it to happen.

Monday was a tough day for me for nausea, but it was somewhat manageable. I just tried to do what I always do with taking breaks when I needed them to make sure I let the nausea pass.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks. The first block was rounds of a push pace or a base pace for 1 minute each with a 30-second all-out at the end. The second block was rounds of a 30-second push pace with an incline followed by a 90-second base pace without an incline and another 30-second all-out at the end. The incline/resistance level wasn’t too high, but I still tried to keep it above what I normally use for my all-out to make it a bit more challenging.

On the rower, each block was a row and a medicine ball exercise. The first block was a 200-meter row and a good morning with the medicine ball. And the second block was a 30-second row and calf raises with a raised medicine ball. The calf raises were supposed to be single-leg and sometimes I do try to do those, but I knew my balance was not up for it so I did them as regular calf raises instead.

And on the floor, we had 2 blocks that each had 3 exercises. We had single-arm high rows, shoulder presses to stands, and squats in the first block. And we had single-arm chest presses, deadlifts, and pullovers in the second block. I did split up the shoulder presses to stands into 2 movements, but other than that I was able to do a pretty good job with all the floor work and used some good weights.

I was expecting to still have nausea on Tuesday, but I was doing a lot better so that was a nice surprise for me. I know how much I have to take advantage of the days I feel good when I’m expecting not to be ok, so I tried my best not to go too easy on myself.

For cardio, we had one long block. We started with a 30-second push pace and a 30-second base pace. We continued the pattern of the push and base pace matching, but each time they were increased by 15 seconds. We ended with a 75-second push pace and a 75-second base pace before having a 30-second all-out to end the block. I didn’t change up my resistance levels from what I normally use, but I did pay more attention to how fast I was pedaling so I could try to increase it just a little bit more than what I usually do.

On the rower, for the first 3 minutes, we matched cardio with the push and base paces. Then we had stroke drills with medicine ball work for the rest of the block. We had 20 strokes on the rower and then squats with front presses and lunges. The first 3 minutes were tough since my endurance on the rower isn’t my strong spot, but I did ok. And for the stroke drills, I really made sure I took my time since that’s the best way to maximize distance for those.

And on the floor, it was another long block but there were 2 mini-blocks in it. The first mini-block was all mini-band work. We had torso rotations, scissor kick crunches, and toe taps. I did change up the order so that I did all the toe taps at one time since I was a bit worried about being face down during exercises, but it was ok. And the second mini-block had skier swings, lunges, single-arm snatches, and standing wood choppers. I didn’t go too heavy with these weights, but I never do so it was pretty much my normal ability.

Wednesday was also a pretty ok day for me. I was surprised I didn’t have nausea in the morning since I really expected it after Monday, but I wasn’t going to complain too much. Especially since this was right after I decided my monthly challenge was going to be all about making improvements in my workouts.

For cardio and the rower, we had an interesting switch format. Every block was 4 minutes long and if you were on cardio, you did the first and last block on cardio and the middle block on the rower. And if you were on the rower, the first and last blocks were on the rower and the middle block was on cardio. So we were switching every 4 minutes. Every block on cardio was 3 rounds of a 1-minute all-out with a 30-second recovery in between. And every block on the rower was a 3-minute push pace with a 1-minute all-out. I did increase my all-out resistance level for cardio and it was a lot harder than my usual level, but also a good challenge. And on the rower, I tried to not take breaks but I did need to take a few.

And on the floor, we had a lot of Bosu work but I had to modify some of it to make it work for me. We had lunges (which I did off of the Bosu), kneeling tricep extensions, crunches, kneeling single-arm bicep curls, push-ups (which were also off of the Bosu), single-arm chest presses, and hip bridges. It was a lot of work, but also another good challenge. I wanted to try heavier weights, but for most of the weights I use, going heavier is a 5lb difference which is a bit more than I’m ready for. But I did try each weighted exercise with the heavier weight before just using the weights I normally do just in case I was able to do it.

And my surprise continued on Thursday when again I didn’t have nausea. I really felt lucky that I only had one day of nausea, but I also know that I might have a lot more this week. But I enjoyed having a much better week than I planned.

For cardio, we had 4 blocks. Each block started between our base and push pace and then went to a push pace, push to an all-out pace, and ended with an all-out pace. In the first block, we didn’t have any inclines, and in each block after that, we increased the inclines but the times for each interval decreased. I did try to use higher resistance levels than normal. So for my first base to push pace, I used my normal push pace. And that meant my all-out level was 1 higher than I normally use when we had no incline work. And each block everything went 1 level higher which was a big challenge by the last block.

On the rower, we started with a 500-meter row. Then we had lunges and deadlifts with shoulder presses using a medicine ball. We continued the pattern of the row and exercises and did 2 rounds of a 250-meter row next. We were supposed to do 3 rounds of a 125-meter row at the end, but I only made it through 2 rounds before we were done on the rower.

And on the floor, we had 1 long block. We had step-ups to knee raises, shoulder presses, step-downs, reverse fly with weights, bear planks, and double crunches. I did a few modifications on the floor such as lowering the bench so I could do the step-ups and step-downs, but I was able to do them with the lower bench. I also skipped the bear planks because I was struggling a lot with my balance once I got to those. But I did use a heavier weight than normal for my double crunches which I was very happy with.

I’m so glad that this past week went a lot better than I thought it would. I was able to have some really good workouts and start working on my monthly challenge toward the end of the week. This week might be a tough one for me or I might be surprised again. But either way, I’m going to keep going and hopefully I can find more ways I can still work on improving things.

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