Posted onSeptember 27, 2023|Comments Off on Time For Another Medical Mystery (or Hoping To Figure Out What’s Wrong)
I feel like I’m generally a decently healthy person. I have a few different ongoing medical issues, but most of those are caused by things out of my control. My hip issues are due to a birth defect that was discovered when I was in my 20s. My liver issues are due to a one-in-a-million side effect from birth control. And my autoimmune issues are things that I have no control over, although I’m trying to manage them. But I do seem to get many random health things that happen to me or I find out something is going on when I’m trying to get information about something else. I don’t have a lot of things that randomly happen that I seek medical attention for specifically.
But for the past month, I’ve been dealing with some very intense foot pain. But this seems so odd because I would expect foot pain to be on the bottom or side of my foot, or even in my toes. But this is pain on the top of my foot. The closest thing I can think of is when you tie your shoes too tight and you feel that pressure on the top of your foot. But for me, it’s a sharp and intense pain that comes and goes depending on how I flex my foot. And I have no idea what caused it.
I have been trying to cut back on things that might make the pain worse. I haven’t been picketing because walking has been painful. I have been careful with some specific exercises in my workouts because I noticed that doing things that have me on my toes makes it worse. And I’ve been trying to rest in the hopes that I could make this pain go away on its own. I figured I might have done something to cause a really deep bruise or something, so rest would be the best way to manage it.
I gave it a month, and things haven’t gotten any better. In some ways, I think the pain has actually gotten worse. I’m glad it hasn’t migrated to another part of my foot, but I’m experiencing those sharp jolts more often. And it’s starting to affect my sleep and wake me up if I move and flex my foot the wrong way. So I knew I needed to do something about it.
I finally started the process of getting this pain figured out. I had a video appointment with a doctor last week to get a referral to a specialist. In my video appointment, I put the camera down so they could see my foot and they had me show where the pain was and what seemed to make it flare up. I knew I wouldn’t get a diagnosis over a video appointment, but they said that it was likely a tendon or ligament issue. There’s a small chance there is a fracture in one of the bones on the top of my foot, but very unlikely.
I got my referral to the specialist, but I haven’t heard back from them yet so I don’t know when my next appointment will be happening. But I’m hoping it will be somewhat soon so I can start figuring out how to make this pain go away. However, I did start the diagnostic testing after my first video appointment. All I’ve done so far is a series of x-rays. They did multiple views of my foot so hopefully, if it’s something that can be caught on an x-ray, they will see it and be able to tell me what it is. I don’t know if I’ll need to do more tests, like an MRI, but I guess I’ll find that out when I have my next appointment.
In some weird way, I’m lucky that I deal with pain already on a regular basis. This new pain isn’t affecting my life too much since I already have to do so much to manage pain normally. But it’s still frustrating when something new pops up and I have to work on figuring out what’s happening. And hopefully, this is something super minor and I’m overreacting. But knowing my history, I could also be dealing with another random and rare situation and I’ll be going down another weird medical rabbit hole to figure out what’s happening and how to take care of it.
Posted onSeptember 25, 2023|Comments Off on Planning For My Next Workout Improvement (or Ready To See How Much More I Can Do)
I’m going to try a slightly different format for my workout recap post this week. I’m debating about changing how I write about my workouts because I’ve been doing the same idea since I started regularly working out at Orangetheory. The workout recaps can be fun to write, but they are starting to feel more like a tracking journal. For some workouts, they can be interesting to write about because they are unique or creative workouts that I love to share with others. But not all workouts are like that and I want to share more about what my plans are for continuing my regular workout plan.
I’ve been in a really good groove with my workouts again. I did struggle a bit after the shutdown but got into a bit of a groove quickly after. I’m grateful that I had so many workouts before things shut down because I was in better shape and used to the routine. But I know that I lost a lot of strength and endurance when working out at home. There’s no replacement for how hard I’m pushed in my workouts with a coach.
Since the shutdown, I have been really trying to see a lot of the same improvements I felt like I was seeing before the shutdown. I felt like I was reaching for heavier weights and getting better on the rower and cardio more frequently than I am now. There are some issues I deal with that make it harder for me to see improvements, but when I have my bad week or two, that shouldn’t be enough time to have a regression. I should be able to pick things back up quite a bit when I’m feeling better. And I really was noticing the lack of progress in this past week of workouts.
I know I can’t force myself to get better, faster, or stronger; but I can challenge myself to try. I have a fear of failure and that is something holding me back a bit. But I have been getting better at attempting to use heavier weights before going back to what I’m used to. I think I really need to continue doing that and not feel as bad about getting in fewer reps if it means I’m using a heavier weight. Doing that is the only real way that I’ll be able to get used to using heavier weights. I didn’t do that this past week and toward the end of the week, I was starting to feel a bit down about what I accomplished. In the last workout of the week, I did try to use heavier weights, but I had to go back to my normal ones after only a rep or two.
I have a similar struggle on the bike. I know that I should be working on increasing what resistance levels I use for different parts of the workout, but I just haven’t been able to be successful at that yet. I did have a lot of longer push paces this past week, so using my normal push pace level for longer intervals was a bit of a challenge. But I have been noticing that my heart rate isn’t going up as much or as quickly during the cardio blocks so I know that I’m getting a bit used to what I’ve been doing for a while. I try to not let my hip issues stop me, but there are some limitations that my body has that I just can’t force myself to overcome. I still want to try, but just like with using heavier weights, it’s a struggle and I just have to figure out how to get over it.
But not everything has been totally stagnant. I have seen some decent improvements on the rower, especially in this past week. I’m still not where I was when I was doing the best on the rower before the shutdown, but I’m getting a lot better at increasing the wattage and power behind each row. I don’t have the endurance I need to keep that up the entire time I’m on the rower, but getting a bit of a boost when I’m starting each row is good. And I feel like that is an easier thing to work on improving because I’m already starting that process.
I know making improvements in my workouts won’t be something that happens overnight. None of the progress I’ve experienced has been quick. But the work has always been worth it. I just have to get over my fear of failure and being stubborn about not always doing well or being perfect when trying. And once I can do that, I know that I will be seeing improvements in the ways I want to. I just have to be patient and allow myself to work toward those new norms.
I’m still so insanely proud of myself for continuing my workout plan. I’ve kept this up longer than I ever expected, and when I am not able to do my plan for whatever reason I do notice my body craving it. But I also want to experience the joy I had in the past when I was able to do something I never thought I could do. I haven’t had that feeling in a while, and I know that will be such a great motivation for me to keep going when things are not easy.
Posted onSeptember 20, 2023|Comments Off on Still Making Small Upgrades (or Almost Fully Unpacked A Year Later)
When I moved into my condo, I tried to unpack as much as possible as quickly as possible so I could feel settled in my new space. But as I unpacked, I realized that some things I thought would work in my new space didn’t seem to fit the way I wanted them to. It was a crazy adjustment to move into a space that was about 3 times the size of my old home. But I have tried to make things work as much as I could since I didn’t want to buy a ton of new things.
But there were some things that just wouldn’t work no matter how I tried to get them set up. I had to get a new couch because my old one looked so wrong in my living room. I got a new tv because it was hard for me to see the small tv clearly from the distance between my couch and tv (which was probably about 4 times further away than my old home). But that also allowed me to use my old tv stand in my office since I hadn’t found new office furniture that I liked. Things have been moving around in my place and I’ve tried to figure out new ways to use things so I didn’t have to sell or donate a lot, but it hasn’t been easy and it’s been a slow process.
But over the past week, I’ve been able to make a few small changes that seem to have made a big impact on my home. One was a purchase and the other was unpacking things a bit more.
In my living room, I have a lot of empty space. I do like a bit of a minimalistic style, but not quite as bare as things have been. I have slowly been adding things in and trying to figure out what else I could possibly want, but it’s been hard to decide on anything. I would like to maybe add more artwork, but I don’t have anything in mind so I just keep looking around to see if anything inspires me. But one space that has been bugging me is the empty space between my couch and sliding glass door. It’s not really a functional space to use, but I also didn’t want my couch to be off-center to fill it in. So I just kept looking for things that might fit in there like a light or high-sitting end table.
And one day, in my random online searches I happened to find a nice floor lamp that would fit the space and was on sale! And this had glass trays on it that could serve almost like an end table. Because my couch is so tall, only one of the trays would be visible from the couch, but that worked for me. So I ordered it and it arrived only a few days later.
To build the light, I won’t go into the frustration I experienced. I will say that the person who designed it really didn’t think the process through and I had to keep balancing pieces of glass on my feet while I built the other sections. But when it was done and in the space I wanted it to be, I felt like it was the perfect addition!
It’s a really big lampshade, but that’s exactly what I needed to go there. And if I ever want to have light in my living room but not the lights in my ceiling, now I have another option.
After getting the light and putting it together, I was inspired to do some more organizing. I have been putting off working on my office and organizing more because I was hoping I would get a new desk soon. But I have been struggling to find something that fits what I want and need, so I have no idea if I’ll get a new desk any time soon. But I wanted to finally get out the last few things that have been in boxes waiting for my new office furniture so I could finally feel like all my things were out. There are a few things that will have to wait until I figure out my new office setup because I don’t want to hang things on the walls if they might need to move, but that was only a handful of items compared to what was still in boxes.
The first task was going through the boxes and seeing what I actually wanted to keep. And of course, there were things that I realized that if I hadn’t needed them in over a year, I could get rid of them or donate them. These were mainly random things that I had held onto from my old home. For example, I had some old IDs that I had on a corkboard in my old office area, but I have no need to keep them now. I also found some things that went with items that I had previously gotten rid of, such as the extra shelves for my old makeup stand which I think I got rid of almost a year ago. But I forgot that I put those extra pieces in a box and closed them up when I moved.
I decided to use my old tv stand as a combination of a bookcase and a display case. I don’t have a lot of physical books anymore, but I still have some of my favorites that made the move with me. I would like to have more actual books eventually, but I want to work on building an interesting library instead of the random paperbacks that I used to have. Most of the fiction that I read now is on my Kindle, so I don’t buy a lot of books. But there are some collections of classics that I’d love to have in the future. But for now, I just wanted to get the books I had in boxes out and fill in the space in my office that has felt so blank.
This is still a work in progress. I actually want to switch where things are in my office so this would go under the window and my desk would go on this wall, but I can’t move my current desk because it’s starting to crack. So moving things around will have to wait until I finally get a new desk. But at least for now, I have things out and on display and I can feel like my belongings are not just in boxes.
I do still have a few things in an open box that I haven’t decided what to do with or can’t put up just yet, but considering that I got things down from being in 2 boxes and a storage tub, this is a huge improvement.
I know that even in my old place, I was still organizing and redoing things all the time, even after living there for over a decade. And I’m sure I’ll be always redoing things in my current place too. But at least things are finally unpacked and I can feel like I have moved in just a little bit more.
Posted onSeptember 18, 2023|Comments Off on Getting Through A Bad Week (or Being Ok With Skipping The Dri-Tri)
This past week of workouts was a pretty typical bad week for me. I always hate how I feel during these weeks and it’s even worse when I try everything I can to feel better and nothing seems to work. I’m grateful that it’s not as bad as it could have been, but it was close to unbearable at times with the pain and nausea I was experiencing. I even had a few times that I had to leave class because I was worried I would get sick. And because of how I was feeling throughout the week, I made the decision not to go for the Dri-Tri. I know it was the best decision for me because I would have pushed myself really hard and I know I would have regretted it. But I did spend this past week doing my workouts with the possibility that I might do it, so I pushed myself however I could.
Monday’s workout was a Dri-Tri prep day. This workout was focused on the floor work for the Dri-Tri, specifically the floor work for the strength version of the Dri-Tri. The strength Dri-Tri is something that is new and I think it would be a fun challenge to do when I am feeling up for it. It splits up the rowing a bit more so it’s not just a 2000-meter row to start things off. But you have weights for the floor work instead of just doing body weight exercises.
For cardio, we had 4 blocks that were close to identical. Each block was just under 3 minutes long and we had a distance challenge to see how far we could get in that time. We started at a higher incline and lowered the incline each block. For me, I started with the resistance level just below what I use for my all-out level and went down by 1 each block. It wasn’t easy because when the resistance level is high, I can’t pedal that fast. So it was easy for me to improve my distance every block.
On the rower, we also had 4 blocks. Each block had a row distance and 2 medicine ball exercises. We did the row distance, the exercises twice, and then rowed for distance if there was any time left over. Every block had bicep curls and overhead presses with a medicine ball, but the reps started at 10 in the first block and went down by 2 each block. The row started at 50 meters and went up by 50 meters each block. I’m glad the row segments were short because I was able to do pretty decently with them and didn’t feel too nauseous on the rower.
And on the floor, we had one long block. We started with doing 4 reps for each exercise and it went up by 2 reps every time we went through them. We were supposed to use the same weights for each exercise, but I had to modify them a bit and wasn’t doing exactly that. We had burpees, hand-release push-ups, tap squats, hammer curls to shoulder presses, and lunges. I only used the weights for the squats and hammer curls to shoulder presses. And I did go lighter with the weights than I normally would do because I knew it was going to get harder as we increased the reps. I think that was the right choice for me and I think I did ok with what I accomplished in that block.
Tuesday’s workout felt a bit more like an endurance workout for me. This was also the day this past week when I was the most nauseous and had to leave class a few times because I was worried I was about to get sick. I’m glad that didn’t happen, but it’s always a horrible feeling when it happens. But I know it’s always better to leave class for a few minutes to let things settle than to do something that might make things worse that last a lot longer.
For cardio, we had rounds of a 3-minute push pace with a base pace in between. The base paces were 1 minute, 90 seconds, and 2 minutes long. I used my normal push pace resistance level for all of them, and I was proud of pushing myself to do that. I did go a bit slower for my base paces than I normally would do to allow myself to recover a bit more, but I think that was the better option than changing my push paces.
On the rower, we started with 3 rounds of a 1-minute all-out row. We were told to rest as long as we needed to between each row so we could really push ourselves for each row. After those 3 rows, we had squats to calf raises. We repeated this pattern but the rows got 15 seconds shorter each time. I was starting to work on the 30-second rows when the block was done, so I got a lot further through everything than I expected I would be able to do.
On the floor, we had both upper and lower body work with back-to-back sets. We had reverse-grip low rows, bicep curls, and tricep extensions for upper body. And we had lunges, pulsing half squats, and hip bridges for lower body. I did pretty decent with the exercises and tried to use my normal weights for all of them, but I did have to go lighter toward the end of the block since I was getting tired.
I was feeling a little better on Wednesday, but not much better so I still had to go easy. I was still debating about going for the Dri-Tri at this point so I was pushing myself a bit. But by the end of this workout, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to do it, and was glad that I at least tried my best in the workout.
For cardio, we started with a 30-second base to push pace, a 1-minute push pace, and a 30-second all-out. Then we had a long recovery before doing rounds of a 30-second all-out with a 2-minute recovery. The idea of the long recovery was to get back to a base pace within those 2 minutes, so I used my base pace resistance level as my recovery and just pedaled slowly and got faster within those 2 minutes. I think that was a good plan for me and I felt like I was at a base pace about a minute into each recovery.
On the rower, we started with a 100-meter row followed by tricep extensions with a medicine ball. We increased the row by 100 meters each time and continued the pattern of rowing and medicine ball work. I was a bit worried about how I would do with the longer rows, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I was slow and didn’t get really high wattage on my rows, but they also were not the worst that I’ve done.
And on the floor, we had shorter timed blocks. We started with lunges and squats to y raises on the straps for a short block. Then had a block with each exercise timed for 30 seconds. We had bench hopovers (which I did as lunges), bicep curls to front squats, and single-arm snatches. Then we did something similar with 30 seconds of uppercuts, single-arm clean to presses, and skater lunges. And we went back and forth with those various timed blocks for the entire time we were on the floor.
On Thursday, I was feeling like I was finally over the hump of feeling horrible. I was mainly dealing with pain and not nausea, so that helped me feel a bit more normal. I still was struggling a bit, but it’s always nice to feel like you are doing the best you have done in several days.
For cardio, we had 2 blocks. The first block had increasing push paces with 1-minute base paces in between. The push paces started at 30-seconds and went up to 75-seconds. The second block was similar but all the base paces were 45 seconds and we decreased the push paces each time. I was worried that the second block would be a bit tough for me with the pain I had, but it went really well and I didn’t feel like I had to take too many breaks within the block.
On the rower, we also had 2 blocks. The first block started with 3 rounds of a 200-meter row where we could rest as long as we needed between each row. I ended up resting for about 45 seconds each time. After the row, we had lunges and front and back hops until the block was done. The second block started with 3 rounds of squats and lateral hops and then we did rounds of a 30-second all-out row and rest as long as you need between each row. I think I liked the second block a bit more because it was nice to end things with the row and not the exercises.
And on the floor, we had work and rest mini-blocks. We did each mini-block twice before moving on to the next one. We started with low rows and close-grip chest presses on the bench. Then we had sumo squats and sumo deadlifts. The last mini-block was with mini-bands and we had knee tucks, side plank leg lifts, and high plank toe taps. I struggled a bit with the mini-band work, but I think it was more about feeling awkward and weird and not an issue with the exercises.
At the end of the week, I felt more settled about my decision to not do the Dri-Tri this time. I do feel a bit like I’m missing out, but I also know how frustrated I would be with myself trying to do it and not feeling like I could do my best or really push myself. I’ve experienced that before and I know I always feel accomplished but sometimes I feel like I really didn’t go for things the way I should. And I’m okay with allowing myself to miss something when I know that is probably the better option. There will be more Dri-Tri events for me in the future, and I know that I will do them when I can and hopefully, I will feel so amazing when I get those done.
Posted onSeptember 13, 2023|Comments Off on Finishing Up Election Season (or This Was Very Different From The Norm)
The SAG-AFTRA elections ended last week. I’ve been a part of 5 election seasons now, and this one was so different from what I’m used to. It was so different that it doesn’t feel right that it’s over now. But I am glad it’s done so the union can move on to the next thing. I tried to enjoy every moment of the election season because I feel it might not be like this again.
The first 3 election seasons I was a part of were pretty similar. There were 2 major parties running for the various positions, so it felt similar to what national politics are like. The slate I’m a part of, Unite For Strength, would help to organize things so we could campaign as a group. There were different events that we would go to and pass out flyers. And things could get very intense from time to time, but I didn’t mind that too much since I was passionate about what I believe in and I wanted to help the cause. Our election in 2021 was different because nothing was happening in person. The events we would pass out flyers at weren’t happening. So much was happening on social media, which made my volunteer position with the slate a little extra stressful. But again, my passion helped me to continue working on things, and I was proud to be a part of something I really believed in.
This year, things changed even more. Some things stayed the same, such as not having a lot of in-person campaigning opportunities. Most of the work we did this election season was done either online or by us as individuals reaching out to people we knew personally. I think a lot of us got to meet more members than normal because of the strike, but because of election guidelines, you could not discuss the elections while picketing.
But the biggest change we had this year was having a unified slate between the 2 major parties. Having a unified slate was so important for a lot of reasons. Our focus should be on the strike and not the election, so not having the usual back-and-forth between candidates wouldn’t be the most productive use of our time. I also think having a lot of leadership changes in the middle of a strike would weaken our position, so keeping as many people as possible in their previously election positions was important. And I think many of us were starting to feel like the way elections had been going and how divisive they have been was wearing us down and not benefitting us or the union as a whole. I know that we can’t always agree on everything, but to have as many disagreements as we have had the last few election seasons was not something that needed to continue.
We did still have other candidates running against the unified slate. They called themselves independent, but they worked as a slate together so they weren’t exactly independent. But even with them running against us, it didn’t feel like it did in the past with 2 major slates running against each other. They did put out some press and articles that weren’t kind about us, but it wasn’t getting a lot of traction so there weren’t arguments that I heard coming from other members who were deciding on who to vote for. Everything seemed so much more calm and simple.
And when the ballots were counted this past Friday, almost all the seats that our Unity slate ran for won! There were a few spots that we didn’t win, but it was only a handful. We didn’t get one of the National Board seats and 4 of the Local Board seats. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t get the Local Board seat I ran for. I am sad about this because I really did want this, but I know that we couldn’t win everything. The 4 independents who won those Local Board seats are all very well-known actors, and many members vote for people they know. But I did win my delegate seat again so I will be a part of the National Convention! I’m so happy that I get to be a part of Convention again and I hope that I will also get a chance to be on some more committees.
I’m so glad that things turned out as well as they did for this election season. It wasn’t everything I wanted, but it was so close to that. And I really am grateful for how calm things were. It did feel weird and it almost doesn’t feel like we just had an election, but it was so nice to have things this way compared to how they have been in the past. And who knows, maybe in 2 years we will have a calm election again!
Posted onSeptember 11, 2023|Comments Off on A Week Of Nauseous Workouts (or Still Unsure About Doing The Dri-Tri)
This past week of workouts wasn’t a great one for me. I was hoping it wouldn’t be too bad, but my nausea kicked in throughout the entire week when I thought I might have a week without nausea. I know this is a recurring issue for me, but it’s always a little extra frustrating when it’s not when I expect it to happen. And this issue with nausea is why I’ve been hesitant to sign up for the Dri-Tri. That’s happening this coming weekend, but I don’t want to do it if I’m feeling horrible. And I’m even more unsure about signing up after how this past week went.
Monday was slightly different than normal for me since I had the day off work and I was able to take a later class. And the later class was a 2 group class instead of a 3 group class like I usually take. But because of the format, I still got some rowing in. This workout had a lot of blocks, and every block was 3 1/2 minutes long.
For cardio, we had 5 blocks. Blocks 1, 3, and 5 were the same and blocks 2 and 4 were the same. The odd number blocks had a 1-minute push pace, a 2-minute base pace, and a 30-second all-out. And the even blocks had intervals of a 30-second all-out and 1-minute recovery. Even though I was dealing with nausea that morning, the blocks were short so they weren’t affected too much. But toward the end of cardio, I was feeling it more since it was a longer time on the bike than I normally do.
On the floor, we alternated between the floor and rower. So the odd number blocks were on the floor and the even number blocks were on the rower. Each floor block had 2 exercises back to back. We had goblet squats and calf raises, reverse grip low rows and hammer curls, and double crunches and torso rotations. I went a little lighter with the weights because of how I was feeling, but I got a lot of reps in even with the limited amount of time in each block. And on the rower, we matched cardio with the rounds of all-outs and recovery.
I was hopeful on Tuesday that the nausea I felt on Monday was a fluke, but unfortunately, it continued and I started to accept the fact that this might be how my week goes. So I just had to try my best for the workout and hope things didn’t get too bad.
For cardio, we had one long block. We started with a 4-minute base to push pace. I used a resistance level between my base and push for this since that matched what we were supposed to do. Then we had a 1-minute base before a 3-minute base to push pace. Then it was another 1-minute base before a 2-minute push pace, 1-minute base pace, 1-minute push pace, 1-minute all-out. It was a long block and the base paces didn’t seem to really allow us to recover. But I was happy with how I did and I thought it was one of my better cardio workouts when I have to deal with nausea.
On the rower, we had 2 blocks. Each block had a row distance with an exercise in between. The first block had 500-meter rows with lateral hops and the second block had 300-meter rows with quick feet. Both of the exercises that we had between the rows were ones that I can’t really do when I’m dealing with nausea. So I had to modify them a bit. I basically did side-to-side steps or front and back steps. But those also take longer to get done so I didn’t get as many rows in as I might have been able to do.
And on the floor, we had one block. We started with deadlifts, reverse crunches, deadlifts, crunches with cross punches, deadlifts, and back extensions. Then we repeated this pattern but instead of deadlifts, we had squats to high rows. And the last time through the exercises had tricep extensions instead of deadlifts. I switched up how I did these quite a bit because I knew getting up and down was going to take up a lot of time. So I did all the reps for the repeating exercise first and then did all the core exercises after. I know that wasn’t really the point of the workout, but it made it work for me.
Wednesday’s workout was a switch class, so we moved around the room 3 times. Switch classes can be really fun or they can be extra challenging because you feel like you have to rush. I think that feeling nauseous helped me not rush too much, but I still felt like I needed to be faster than I wanted to.
For cardio, the first block had a 2-minute push pace, 30-second base pace, 1-minute push pace, and 30-second all-out. The second block shortened the first push pace but increased the second one. And the last block shortened the first push pace again and increased the second one so the last block was the opposite of the first one. These weren’t very long blocks, so that helped me a lot with getting through them. And I probably would have done worse without the switch format since I didn’t stay on the bike for the entire thing at once.
On the rower, each block had a stroke drill and a medicine ball exercise. The first block was 20 strokes on the rower and front presses with the medicine ball. The second block had 15 strokes on the rower and bicep curls with the medicine ball. And the last block had 10 strokes on the rower and tricep extensions with the medicine ball. I usually really enjoy stroke drills since I do really well with those and make sure I go slowly enough on the rower. But my nausea was making it harder to pause on the rower like I normally do. I didn’t do too badly with the rows, but they weren’t as good as I like them to be.
And on the floor, each block had 2 exercises. The first block had front squats and plank kick-throughs. I did a little modifying on the plank kick-throughs and made them a bit more like mountain climbers. The second block had shoulder presses and bicep curls. And the last block had woodchoppers and plank pull-throughs. With the second and third blocks, I surprised myself with how well I did because I didn’t have to modify much for either.
Thursday’s workout was an interesting one. We had a specific amount of time to get the work done and if we had any extra time after, we could rest. It did make it seem a bit like a race, but I was able to have a good amount of time to recover which helped a lot.
For cardio, we had 2 blocks but each block had 3 of the timed challenges. In the first block, we started with 90 seconds to complete the distance. Then we had 2 1/4 minutes to get to the distance with some incline. And the block finished with 3 minutes to get to the distance with more incline. The second block had the same challenges, but we started with the longest one and ended with the shortest one. I really liked these and the distance wasn’t too hard for me to get to each time. The hardest one was the shortest time but I still had about 15 seconds when I was done to be back at base pace.
On the rower, it was very similar to cardio. We had 90 seconds to do a 150-meter row and then quick feet, 2 1/4 minutes to do a 200-meter row and then quick feet, and finished with 3 minutes to do a 250-meter row and then quick feet. For the quick feet, I had to modify it to be steps so that added to how long it took me to do everything. But I still finished in time. And just like with cardio, we did the same thing again in the reverse order for the second block.
On the floor, only the first block was timed. They were still 90 seconds, 2 1/4 minutes, and 3 minutes long. Each of those was split up into 3 exercises. We had cleans with weights, bicycle crunches, and knee tucks. First, we had 30 seconds for 8 reps of each exercise. Then we had 45 seconds for 10 reps of each exercise. And finally, we had 1 minute for 12 reps of each exercise. I didn’t get any rest for the 30 seconds of each exercise because that moved so quickly. But I got a little rest for the others. The second block was just timed on our own. We had bridge hold pullovers, tricep extensions, and goblet squats. I liked not having to rush as much to finish out the workout since I was getting really nauseous by the end.
I wasn’t planning to have this bad of a week, but I survived. And I’m going to keep seeing how I feel this week about maybe going for the Dri-Tri. I really do want to do it, but if I’m feeling really horrible I know I won’t enjoy it and will be frustrated with how I do. But maybe if somehow my pain and nausea subside toward the end of the week, there will be space for me to sign up at the last minute!
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!
Hoping For Some Normal (or Fingers Crossed That This Was This Easy)
