Last week, I wrote about how I was hoping this past week of workouts wouldn’t be a week where I felt nauseous. It seemed like I would be feeling back to normal by Monday, and I really was optimistic. But it didn’t end up being that way. But with the issues I had, I found new ways to make progress and ended the week on a high note.
Monday’s workout was a power day, but I decided to stick with the bike again. I wasn’t feeling nauseous before the workout, but I was scared it might kick in during class. And I’m working on what I can do to help keep the nausea away when there is a chance I’ll have it but not experiencing it. And I think using the bike instead of the treadmill is one of those things that is a good option to do.
We had 5 blocks on cardio and they all had a similar pattern with a push pace, base pace, and ending with a push to all out pace. Each block the push pace before the all out got longer so it became a bit more challenging to do an all out after it. I was using my normal resistance levels for all the bike work but tried to do some faster pedaling with the push and all out paces. When we got to the longer push paces, I tried to do almost like my run/walk intervals with the pedaling. I would do some speedy pedaling and then recover a bit with pedaling slower but still being at the same resistance level. It was a new challenge and made working on the bike different and fun. And I did feel like I was working much harder!
On the floor, we had one long block with adding on exercises. Each round started with a row, but as we added on exercises the rows got shorter. The exercises included neutral full thrusters with weights, Y raises on the straps, bench tap squats, plank jacks to push ups, and lunges with weights. The rows were all pretty short starting with 300 meters and going down 50 meters each time, so I was able to do those easily and within my time goals. And the floor work was going well for the most part until I got to the plank jacks to push ups. When I’m nauseous I don’t do things that make me face down and parallel to the ground. I was feeling pretty good so I wasn’t thinking about that until I started the plank jacks. Then my nausea came back and it was lasting longer than I thought. So I had to switch to doing them with my hands on the bench to not be totally parallel to the floor. I made it through the lunges which was the last exercise just as the workout ended. There were bonus rounds I was hoping to get to, but I was happy just to finish everything that we were supposed to.
Wednesday’s workout was an endurance day. While my nausea was almost gone, I was dealing with a queasy stomach and was being extra cautious. I don’t know what caused the queasiness, but I was going to do what I do when I’m nauseous to make sure that I was going to be able to do the workout to the best of my ability.
I was on the bike for cardio and we had 3 blocks. The focus of all of the blocks was coming back to base pace after a push pace so most of the push paces were a minute or under. It was nice to not have all 3 minute push paces like we do sometimes for endurance days. I kept my resistance levels at the usual levels and I didn’t do the intervals like I did on Monday since the push paces were shorter. But I did try to keep pedaling faster to make up for the shorter segments. I did have a few moments of nausea hitting me when I had to stop on the bike to let it pass, but I was just so glad that it was even less frequent than Monday because it felt like my nausea was lasting forever this time.
On the floor, we had 2 regular blocks and 1 rowing block. The first floor block was all mini-band work. We had weighted squats, hip bridges, and weighted ab twists. I used 20lb weights for all the exercises which is normal for the squats and hip bridges but a bit heavier than I normally do for ab twists. I’ve struggled in the past with the mini-bands getting really twisted on my legs, but this time they stayed where they were placed so I didn’t have to waste time fixing them. The second block was weighted squats to upright rows, mountain climbers, and half get ups. I had to go to a lighter weight for this block for the squats and half get ups because I was dealing with some shoulder soreness that I’ve had from time to time the past month or so, but that also allowed me to be slower with my movements and in turn that made them feel harder.
The row block was an interesting one. It was using the rowing as the recovery but it didn’t feel like recovery. We had 3 rounds of doing 30 seconds of squats followed by 1 minute to do a 150 meter row. That row should take under 45 seconds, but you also have to consider the time it takes to get strapped into the rower. If you finish the row before the minute is done, then you get to have a full recovery. For me, I was finishing the row with maybe 5 seconds to go so it wasn’t really a recovery at all. The end of the rowing block was a 30 second push row to a 1 minute all out row. I did try to increase my wattage for the all out row, but it wasn’t easy with it being at the end of the workout. But I did my best and got the wattage up a tiny bit by the end.
Friday’s workout was really working in my favor. I was finally not nauseous, it was a power day, it was a switch day, and it was a 3 group workout. So I knew I could be on the treadmill and really do my best. I was never going to be on the treadmill for that long and there would be a lot of opportunities for me to work on my running. I had been craving running (even when I was nauseous) recently and I was so happy that I’d get to do that.
For the treadmill, the first and last block were the same and the middle one was different. The first and third block were really short and since I knew I’d be coming off the treadmill when the block was done I really went for it. Those blocks were a 45 second push pace, 45 second base pace, and a 30 second all out. For the first block I ran my push and all out at my normal running speed and walked my base pace. But for the last block I wanted to try to do more so I increased my speed for the all out and ran the fastest I’ve run in probably a year! The second block was a little longer with a set of 1 minute intervals with push paces, base paces, and all outs followed by a set of 30 second intervals doing the same. I was using my normal running speed for all the 1 minute push and all outs and for the 30 second push paces. But I increased my speed for the 30 second all out (which is what inspired me to do more in the last block) and I was just so happy.
On the rower, the first and third block were the same with 3 rounds of a 30 second all out pace followed by 15 seconds to recover. 15 seconds of recovery feels like nothing so it just felt like a few minutes of rowing. I wasn’t getting my wattage as high as I would have liked, but I tried. The middle block was rounds of rowing with lunges between each round. We started at a 100 meter row and went up 50 meters each time. My hips were feeling a bit tight when I was doing the lunges (probably due to the running), so I didn’t have the easiest time with them. But I used the rower for balance and almost used them more as stretches.
And on the floor, just like with the treadmill and rower, the first and third blocks were the same. We had timed exercises with squats with medicine ball presses, sit up with shoulder presses using the medicine ball, and atomic mountain climbers. Each exercise was for 30 seconds with 15 seconds of recovery between to get ready for the next exercise. The second block had good mornings to tricep kickbacks, single arm clean to press, bear steps, and singe arm chest presses. I used my normal weights for the weight work because I was getting a bit tired and didn’t want my form to suffer. But I could feel how hard I was working even though I didn’t use super heavy weights.
Saturday’s workout was endurance, strength, and power based and it ended up being the highlight of the week for me. I was feeling so great after running on Friday that I wanted to do it again. And I had a great opportunity to do that during the treadmill portion of class.
The first block was endurance based with a 3 minute push pace, 2 minute base pace, 1 minute push pace, and 1 minute all out. I did the long push pace as 1 minute run/walk intervals, walked the base pace, and ran the last push and all out pace. 2 minutes of running felt long, but I felt awesome after doing it! The next block was focused on strength so we had incline work, and I walked for all of that. But we still ended with a 1 minute push pace to a 1 minute all out and I ran those 2 minutes again. And the last block just had 2 rounds of 1 minute push paces to 1 minute all out paces and I ran those too! The last few were tough and I think I might have overdone it a bit with the running, but I really just wanted to do it and I’m glad I did.
For the floor work, we started with a block on the rower. We had rounds of rowing with body weight exercises between each row. For the first 2 rounds, we had 100 meter rows. The next 2 rounds were 10 pulls on the rower. And the last round was 30 second rows. I only got through 1 of the 30 second rows. And between each row we had either squats or lunges. The next block was weighted work with lateral lunges and plank rows. And the last block was a partner core blast where one partner held a side plank while the other had bicycle crunches and leg raises. For some reason my heart rate was so high during this workout and it wasn’t coming back down like it normally does, so I was using the time I was supposed to be side planking as a little bit of a rest. I didn’t want to be slacking while I was doing the core work because my partner was waiting on me!
I’m so glad that this past week of workouts ended on a high note. I have needed this victory feeling and I’m feeling much more optimistic about my workouts than I was the week before. And I’m glad I’m in a better workout mindset because this week is the beginning of Hell Week! I’m doing 3 days of Hell Week this week and 2 days of it the week after, so I’ll be writing all about it over the next 2 weeks!
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