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!
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