This past week of workouts was a mix of really great workouts and really bad workouts. I knew it was possibly going to be a mix like that, but I don’t know if I expected it to be such a big swing back and forth. But I managed to get through the tough days the best I could because I knew it would be better toward the end of the week.
Monday’s workout was not my best day. It was the day that I wrote my short post about how I was going through a tough time. When I went to my workout, I wasn’t feeling as bad as I did when I wrote that. But I knew I wasn’t doing well. And I knew that the workout had the 500-meter row benchmark and I really wanted to try my best for that.
The workout was a strength-based class, but the cardio work didn’t have inclines. We started with a 2-minute push pace, 1-minute base pace, and 30-second all out before having a recovery. We continued that pattern but took 30-seconds off of the push pace each time until we just had a 30-second all out at the end. I tried to start the workout with my normal base level on the bike, but I wasn’t able to do that. So I had to start a bit lower than that and I worked my way up to my normal base. But I wasn’t pedaling fast or consistent. I just had to do what I could when I could and be ok with that. The nausea wasn’t much worse than I normally have, but the pain was significantly worse and I was struggling to focus on pedaling when the pain was that sharp. I was so annoyed because I felt like I wasn’t really working out, but I just had to keep reminding myself that something is better than nothing.
When I got to the 500-meter row, I wasn’t feeling horrible and was even a bit optimistic that I could do an ok job. And when I started I was shocked at how strong I was rowing. My split time was so low that it would have easily gotten me a PR on the row. And I was feeling great for maybe the first 200-meters. But right around the halfway mark, my nausea hit me so hard and so strong that I was sure I was about to throw up in class. I never felt nausea that strong while working out and it scared me a bit. I immediately stopped rowing and worked on breathing through it and seeing if I had to leave the room. I was able to get through it, but my rowing time was ruined because of it. I was determined to finish the row, but I had to go very slow and easy. For the first half, I was pacing at 1:55 which would have been amazing. The second half I was pacing at over 4 minutes. I think it ended up taking me about 3:30, but I didn’t really look at my time when I was done and didn’t track it.
On the floor, I was able to do most things without modifications. We had swing lunges that I had to do as regular lunges, hollow hold chest presses, plank work which I had to do as high rows with weights while standing up, alligators on the straps, and rollouts on the straps. I did go slow with the exercises and took lots of breaks, but I was able to go heavy with the weights and I did get 2 rounds of all the exercises done.
I was still a bit nauseous going into Wednesday’s workout, but I was doing much better than how I was on Monday. Wednesday’s workout had a mix of endurance, strength, and power and if I was feeling awesome it might have been a day I tried the treadmill again instead of the bike. I don’t mind the bike the way I did before, but there are occasional workouts that make me wonder if I should go for the treadmill. And this one was like that.
For cardio, all we had were all outs. We had 4 all outs that were 1 minute long and 5 all outs that were 30 seconds long. The recovery time after each of the 1 minute all outs got longer each round. Then we went back to a shorter recovery when we switched to 30 second all outs but each round the recovery got longer. It would have been an amazing chance to work on my running and see what I could do, but I knew that my nausea wouldn’t allow me to try that at all. So I focused completely on my pedaling speed on the bike. I didn’t play around with the resistance levels since we were doing such short intervals. But I did try to pedal a bit faster with each of the all outs so it would be like I was increasing the speed on the treadmill.
On the rower, we had 100, 300, and 500-meter rows. Between each row, we had medicine ball exercises. They were supposed to be lunges with shoulder presses and tricep extensions but I modified the lunges to be squats. I struggled a bit on the rower, but since they weren’t benchmarks I didn’t feel the same pressure that I did on Monday to go hard and do them quickly. I took my time and took breaks when I needed to. I was seeing a pattern of needing to let the nausea pass after I rowed about 150-200 meters. It did break up the rowing nicely, but I would have preferred to not need breaks at all.
And on the floor, I had a lot that needed to be modified. We started with lunges (I had to skip using weights for this one to keep my balance), lateral lunges to half thrusters (I modified this by splitting up the movements into 2 different exercises), plank jacks to pop jacks (I modified this by using the bench for my hands), hamstring curls using the straps (I did weighted hip bridges instead), and sit-ups using the straps (I did these on the floor and skipped the straps). It was a bit odd that every exercise had to be changed to work for me, but they felt close enough to what we were supposed to do so it didn’t feel like I was changing everything.
Friday’s workout was better than the other days and I was almost back to normal. It was a strength-based class which meant I would have higher resistance levels on the bike. But it ended up not being too bad so I was able to handle it and my nausea wasn’t kicking in as much as I was afraid it would.
For cardio, the first block was coached and the second block was on our own. The first block was a mix of 1-minute push paces at inclines and 45 seconds of a base pace with no incline. The inclines weren’t that high so I was using resistance levels around my push and all out levels. The second block was .1 miles (.4 for the bike) at inclines with 45 seconds to recover after. .4 on the bike takes me about a minute so it was very similar to the first block for me.
The rower was also 2 blocks. The first block was rounds of 200-meter rows and 6 squats between each row. 200 meters was a good distance for me to work with and I was able to handle it without needed to take breaks. We weren’t supposed to reset the rower during that first block because for the second block we were supposed to do the distance we got in that first block and then 25 squats. The distance for the second block was a challenge for me and I did have to take breaks every 250 meters or so. But I did make it to the squats so I was proud of that.
And the floor work was 1 long block but we had drop sets within the block. We had drop sets of bicep curls and hip hinge low rows as well as regular sets of plank work and triceps on the straps. I tried to go heavy for the drop sets since that is the goal, but after one round I realized I couldn’t go as heavy as I wanted to without my nausea kicking in a bit. I was still using 2 different sets of weights, but it wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be.
Saturday’s workout was really amazing for me. I was shocked by how much better I was feeling compared to Friday. But that also meant that I would have a great workout and not worry too much about it. The workout was endurance-based, but it felt more like a power day for me. We had 2 blocks at each section of the room and we switched after each block (so we did 2 laps around).
For cardio, the first block had 2 rounds of push paces followed by a base pace and then we ended with a 90-second distance challenge. The second block was the same pattern, but the push paces were shorter and the base paces were longer. The goal was to get to the same distance on the second block even though we weren’t in a push as long. For me on the bike, I knew that wouldn’t be too tough to accomplish because I don’t really have a huge difference between my base and push speeds. I kept my resistance level at my base level the entire time and I ended up going further in the second block which was awesome!
On the rower, the first block started with a 150-meter row followed by squats. We then had a 250 and 350-meter rows with squats between and if you got through all that then you rowed until the block was done. The second block was the same except we started at the 350-meter row and went down. Just like with the cardio, we were supposed to get to the same distance in the second block as we did in the first. I struggled a little with the 350-meter row, but I think that was more due to being tired than anything else. And I was just about at the same distance between both blocks.
On the floor, the first block had single-leg squats, lateral squats, and hip hinge reverse flys. The second block had sit-ups to squats (which I had to split into 2 different moves), scaption raises, and plank low rows. The modifications I had to do for the floor work was more about my hip issues and not nausea. And I was able to go a bit heavy with the weights even though it wasn’t a strength day.
I loved that I ended on such a good workout. I felt like I made up for the bad workout days and that I am ready to go for this week. I might have 4 workouts in because I might be adding in an extra day, but if I go with what I have planned I’ll have 3 workouts this week. But one of them will be my family workout on Thanksgiving and I’m really excited about that!
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