This past week of workouts was even tougher on me than the week before. I had pain and nausea and I was moving even more stuff every day after work so I felt like I was double workouts almost every day. I also felt a little bit thrown off in my routine because I was sleeping and essentially living in the condo, but not all my things were unpacked so I felt like I was always trying to find things. But I made it work.
Monday’s workout was a 2 group class, which is unusual for me but I knew I could do it. I was expecting my pain and nausea to be worse for that workout, but I think the stress of having movers come the day before might have thrown things off for me. But I was sore from all the boxes I had moved the day before and a bit out of sorts because Sunday night was the first night I had slept at the condo.
For the workouts in April, not only are they all a mix of endurance, strength, and power but the workouts repeat during the month. And now that we are in the second half of the month we are repeating the workouts we did in the first half. But because of how the month went, this workout was one that I had not done before.
For cardio, it was different from what we normally do. We don’t usually have long base paces in our blocks, but this time we did for the first block to set up what we would do after them. So in the first block, we had a 3-minute base pace to start and then a 2-minute push pace and a 1-minute all-out. We had a minute to recover before doing the same pattern but we had a 2-minute base, 1-minute push, and 45-second all-out. And to end the block we had a 1-minute base, 30-second push, and 30-second all-out. And for the second block, we only focused on the all-outs. We had a 1-minute, 45-second, 2 rounds of a 30-second, 45-second, and 1-minute all-out in that block. And between each all-out, we had 45-seconds to recover.
On the floor, we also had 2 blocks and the first block also had a bit of rowing in it. We started the first block with 3 rounds of 350-meter rows and between each row, we had lateral hops. For the rows, we were supposed to focus on strength rowing which meant having fewer strokes per minute. And each time, we were supposed to decrease the strokes more. After the 3 rows, we had mini-band work for the rest of the block. We had mini-band deadlifts to low rows, mini-band bird dogs, and mini-band toe reaches. And in the second block, we had plank blastoffs, shoulder presses, and deadlifts. For the shoulder presses and deadlifts I had to go lighter than I wanted to because I was sore from moving, which was a bit frustrating. I felt like I had done really well for most of the workout and it wasn’t fun to realize I had to take it easy at the end but I know if I hadn’t done that it would have been worse for me.
Wednesday’s workout was another one that I didn’t do in the first half of the month. I was feeling a bit better than I was on Monday when I got to the workout, but things hit me hard right as we were starting the class and I was feeling very nauseous. I have only had to leave once during a class to get sick (although I did return to the class after to finish it), and I was worried that I would have to do that again for this class.
For cardio, we were doing things at our own pace for the entire time. It was 1 block of work with decreasing inclines. We started at the highest incline and had a .1 mile (.4 miles for me) interval. Then we had a .1 or .4 mile walking recovery. All the recoveries were the same, but as the incline went down the distance went up. Because of how high we were supposed to be with the inclines, I was above my all-out resistance level for all the non-recovery intervals. That plus how nauseous I felt made this workout a real struggle.
On the rower, we started with a 500-meter row but we were supposed to be at a base pace row so we didn’t burn ourselves out. Then we had 5 rounds of a 100-meter row with squats and jumping jacks between each row. I didn’t do the jumping jacks, but I did do extra squats to make up for that. We were supposed to go all-out for each of the 100-meter rows and allow ourselves to recover so we could continue pushing as hard as we could, and I really tried. I know I didn’t do the best I could do if I was feeling ok. But I feel like I did the best I could do considering the situation.
And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first one was on our own and the second was timed out. In the first block, we started with a goblet squat. We were supposed to go heavy and then rest after doing those reps before moving on to the next part. When we were ready, we had 3 back to back shoulder movements. We had front raises, lateral raises, and hip hinge reverse flys. Because of how many reps we were supposed to do in a row, we were told to go light with the weights. And I definitely did. I usually would use 12 or 15-pound weights, but I started with 10 pounds and had to go down to 8 pounds. It was still very tough and my shoulders were really feeling it. And for the second block, we had rounds of neutral half thrusters and burpees. We always did the thrusters for 30-seconds and the burpees were either 20-seconds, 40-seconds, or 1-minute. And between each exercise, we only had 15-seconds of rest. It was only 5 minutes of work, but it was one of the hardest things!
Thursday’s workout was the first of the repeating ones that I had done before and I was interested to see how I would do this time. I knew that I couldn’t really compare how I did before to this time since I was still feeling nauseous, but I still wanted to see how I was feeling since I knew how it felt the first time.
This was a repeat of the “Construct or Deconstruct” workout we did on April 6th. Each section of the room had 3 blocks. In the first block, we did things in one order. In the second block, we did them in the opposite order. And in the last block, we got to decide which of the previous ones we wanted to repeat. And every block was 4 1-minute intervals.
For cardio, the first block had a 1-minute base pace, 1-minute between our base and push, 1-minute push pace, and 1-minute all-out. The second block started with the all-out and ended with the base pace. And for the last block, I repeated the second block again so I ended with the base pace.
For the rower, it was the same idea as cardio. But doing different paces is always tough so I knew I would just have to try and see if I could make small changes to my wattage on the rower. For the last block, I started with the base row and went up since I knew I could control that a bit more. I didn’t get a huge change in the wattage, but I did see a difference from one minute to the next which was important to me.
And on the floor, the first block had a seated torso rotation, alternating shoulder presses, squats, and squats to upward rotations. For the last block repeated the first block again since I was already sitting on the ground from ending the second block with the torso rotations and it was easier for me to stay seated instead of getting up and down.
And Friday’s workout was another one that I had done in the first half of the month. I was starting to feel better by this workout and I didn’t move as much stuff on Thursday evening, so I feel like this was my best class of the week even though it wasn’t the best that I know I could do if I was feeling great.
We had 2 blocks for cardio and in each block, we had 3 intervals of a push to a base pace and a 1-minute all-out at the end. In the first block, all the base paces were 1-minute and the push paces started at 1-minute and went down 45 seconds each time. And in the second block, all the push paces were 1-minute and the base paces were the ones that changed. Because I wasn’t doing anything too crazy, I didn’t notice a huge difference in the two blocks for how they felt for me, but I was trying.
On the rower, we also had 2 blocks. The first block started with a 250-meter row with medicine ball jumping jacks after. I did the medicine ball exercise as squats to overhead raises. And each time we got back on the rower we decreased the row by 50 meters. And the second block always had 150-meter rows and the medicine ball exercise changed how many reps we did each time. The exercise was supposed to be front press power jacks, but I did them as squats to front presses.
And on the floor, both blocks had a mix of chest and lower body exercises. The first block had lunges, close grip chest presses, and leg lifts using the straps. And the second block had lateral step-ups (which I did as lateral lunges), chest flys, and single-arm low rows on the straps.
I have had a lot of challenges the past few weeks in my workouts between feeling sick and the stress of moving. But I am hoping that I’m starting to get past that now. I’m not fully moved into the condo yet, but I worked a lot this weekend on getting things out of boxes and into where they make sense to me. So I hope that helps me feel a bit more put together when I’m getting out the door super early for my workouts!
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