A Very Rough Workout Week (or Taking Things Easy And Slow)

I knew this past week of workouts might be a tough one for me with pain and nausea, and I was just grateful that it didn’t happen during Mayhem. But even with how prepared I normally am for my bad weeks, I really wasn’t ready for this one. I rarely think about skipping my workouts unless I’m really sick, but there were several times this past week I debated if it was even worth it to try to work out. I know that doing something is better than doing nothing, but I felt like I was close to doing nothing in several of my workouts.

Monday was the best workout for me this past week. I still struggled with pain and nausea, but it wasn’t as bad as it would get later in the week. I also got to sleep in a bit and do a later morning workout since I had the day off work. I think that helped make things a bit better for me. Because I did a different workout time, I was in a 2 group class instead of my usual 3 group class. And I got to have a run/row workout that was themed around choosing your own adventure.

For the first half of class, we had 4 distances for cardio and 4 distances for the rower. We got to pick which distance we wanted to do, but we couldn’t repeat a distance after completing it. I decided to start with the shortest distance for both and work my way up. That seemed to be the best way for me to do it, plus, the longest rowing distance was 1000 meters, and I didn’t want to do that one. I made it through 3 of the 4 cardio distances and was working on my 3rd rowing distance when it was time to switch to the floor.

On the floor, we had 6 blocks. The odd blocks were all the same and the even blocks were all timed blocks with each exercise being 1-minute long. In the odd blocks, we started with 1 rep of a plank jack, a plank pop, and a squat jump. Then we did 2 reps of each exercise and continued working with 1 additional rep each time. I usually got to the 3rd or 4th rep before the block was done. And I did use the bench for my hands which allowed me to do the exercises without getting too nauseous. For the other 3 blocks, they were 4 minutes long and we had 1 minute to do a specific number of reps for each exercise. And there were 2 exercises in each block so we did each one twice. In the 2nd block, we had bridge rows on the straps and side planks. In the 4th block, we had push-ups and lunges and I did chest presses on the straps instead of push-ups which helped me not feel as bad. And in the 6th block, we got to pick which of the previous blocks we wanted to do again and I the chest presses and lunges. It was a lot of work with very little rest, but I was glad I had the day off to rest and recover.

Tuesday’s workout was another signature workout: Everest. The last time I had done Everest was on my birthday and I had gotten a new PR for that workout! But this time, I was feeling really horrible. I almost skipped class that morning because my cramps were so bad I was struggling to sit upright at times. But I wanted to work out with the hopes that it would maybe help me feel a bit better since I know that can sometimes work. But I knew going into the class that I wasn’t going to PR and I wasn’t planning on tracking my distance either.

With Everest, when you have a 3 group class, you increase or decrease the incline on the treadmill by 2% each time. I usually don’t do that on the bike, because the resistance level gets really high even just increasing it by 1 each time. But I normally start the resistance close to my base level to make sure I get it really high for the peak. This time, I started it much lower than my base and the highest the resistance level got was only 2 higher than my normal all-out. Even though the resistance level on the bike was always pretty low compared to what I normally do for Everet, I didn’t get close to even my worst distance in the past. I was pedaling very slowly the entire time and wasn’t trying to do anything too crazy. I knew I wouldn’t have a good attempt, but I was ok with that.

On the rower, we had 2 blocks. In the first block, we started with a 500-meter row and then did lunges before sitting back on the rower and doing a 400-meter row. We continued that pattern by decreasing the rows by 100 meters each time. The second block was similar but we started with a 100-meter row and increased it by 100 meters each time. I did the lunges for the first few times in the first block, but getting on and off the rower was getting painful with my cramps so I spent the rest of the time just rowing and taking breaks when I needed to. It wasn’t exactly what we were supposed to do, but it was something.

And on the floor, we had 1 long block with 2 mini-blocks in it. And as we usually do, we did each mini-block twice before moving on. The first mini-block had plank low rows with weights, tricep extensions, and side plank dips. And the second mini-block had plank single-arm reverse fly, hammer curls, and bicycle crunches. For both of the weighted plank exercises, I did them bent over instead since that wouldn’t make me as nauseous. I was going slowly through the exercises so I didn’t get to the point where you do all the exercises as a single block.

Wednesday was another really horrible day for me with cramps and I debated again about canceling my workout. I spent all day on Tuesday in a lot of pain and it was so much worse than I can remember having in the past. I was staying on top of taking painkillers on a schedule, but that was barely taking the edge off. But I did make it to my workout and just decided that I would do what I could and I told myself I could leave in the middle if things got really horrible. But I know myself and I’m stubborn enough that if I go to class, it’s really unlikely that I will leave.

For cardio, I really tried to do what the workout was supposed to be but I was in a lot of pain when I sat up on the bike. I rarely use the handlebars on the bike and lean over because that makes pedaling much more awkward for me. I like to sit up and bike without holding on. But I couldn’t do that this time and had to lean over and hold on the entire time. The focus of the workout was doing all-outs with recovery after, and I just tried to pedal when I could and took a break when I needed to. I wasn’t exactly following the workout template, but I was trying.

The rowing was timed along with cardio and I did the same thing with just trying to row when I could and resting when I needed to. And on the floor, each block was focused on supersets and doing similar exercises with variations back to back. We had lunges (which I did as the same type of lunges since I couldn’t do the variations), hip bridges, chest presses, and plank taps. I did my best with each exercise and just didn’t go too heavy with my weights which helped me not need as many breaks as I was worried I would need. But for the entire workout, I knew I didn’t do as much as I normally could, even on my bad weeks. I tried to not focus on the negative and just remember that I showed up.

Thursday was still a rough day for me, but it was slightly better than Wednesday so I was happy about that. At least that morning I didn’t debate about canceling my workout so that was nice.

For cardio, we had the same block repeated 3 times. We had a surge cardio challenge, so we were in our push pace for most of the time with a 15-second surge when you were supposed to go just a bit faster twice in each block. I was able to use my normal push pace and was able to pedal a bit faster for those surges. Each block ended with an all-out, and while I didn’t use my normal all-out resistance level, I did use the level between my normal push and all-out.

For rowing and the floor, we had a switch template. When we started the block on the rower, we did rower, floor, rower. And when we started the block on the floor, we did floor, rower, floor. In total, we had 3 segments for each but they were broken up. The rower was the same as cardio with a push row with surges. I tried to make sure my wattage got a bit higher in the surges, but it wasn’t easy with how I was feeling. I did manage to only need very limited breaks in my rowing, so that was something better than earlier in the week. And on the floor, each time we were there we had 2 exercises. We had neutral thrusters and high rows on the straps, single-arm snatches and squats, and hammer curls and skater lunges. The floor went a lot better than expected even though I had to modify a lot of the exercises to make sure I could get them done.

Considering how bad I felt this entire week, I’m honestly just glad I made it to all my workouts and didn’t have to cancel the morning of. It wasn’t an easy week and I know my workouts weren’t that intense or always what we were supposed to do. But showing up is better than nothing and I’m glad that I’m finally starting to feel better. I know this week might still be a bit rough, at least at the beginning of the week. But hopefully, I will be able to challenge myself a bit more and feel like I really am getting in a good workout instead of just showing up and doing something.

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