Another Good Workout Week (or Another Week With A PR)

I had a pretty great workout week this past week. I was feeling good, which really helps everything in life. But it especially helps my workouts. I’ve also been doing better with getting more sleep, so I’m not dealing with the same tiredness I had before. The only time I didn’t get enough sleep was when we had an earthquake and I struggled to get back to sleep. But only 1 night of bad sleep is so much better than every night with bad sleep.

Monday’s workout had a good mix of endurance, strength, and power. And I was ready to push myself in each type of workout.

We had 3 blocks for cardio and each one had a different focus. The first block was about endurance and we had rounds of a 45-second push pace and a 90-second base pace. The second block was all 30-second intervals and the incline changed every 30 seconds. I used all resistance levels higher than my normal all-out so that made it more of a challenge. And the last block was all 30-second all-outs with recovery between each one.

On the rower, we also had 3 blocks. For the first block, we rowed for 5 minutes and then checked our distance. For the second block, we did 15 stroke drills with lunges between each row. And the goal was to get to half of the distance from the first block. And in the last block, we had rounds of 100-meter rows with 10 seconds to rest between each row.

And on the floor, we had one long block. We had 3 mini-blocks and we did each one twice before moving to the next one. We had lunges and bicep curls, lateral lunges and hammer curls, and squats and clean to presses with weights. It was a good variety of exercises and really liked how the floor work was organized so I didn’t feel like any part of my body was getting overtired.

Tuesday’s workout was a tough one, but it was a good and tough one. Each section of the room was a single block, so we didn’t have a lot of time to rest. But it was a challenge and I’m glad I got to do it on a day I was feeling good.

For cardio, we had rounds of a push pace and a base pace. The time matched for the push and base paces each round starting at 30 seconds and then increasing by 15 seconds each time. Even though it got harder as the push paces got longer since the base paces were also longer it helped me get ready for each one.

On the rower, we started with a 200-meter row followed by a front press with a medicine ball. Then we had a 400-meter row, the front press, and a lunge. Next was a 600-meter row with those exercises plus overhead presses with a medicine ball. I was working on the 800-meter row when the block ended.

And on the floor, we started with reverse rows with weights. In the second round, we added sumo squats to upright rows. In the third round, we added squats. And in the last round, we added rows on the straps so we did all 4 exercises. We were supposed to go slowly and use heavy weights, so even though this doesn’t sound like a lot of work it did take up the entire time for me.

Wednesday was the day that I was tired, so my workout wasn’t as great as it had been earlier in the week. But it was still better than a lot of workouts have been for me recently.

For cardio, both blocks focused on incline/resistance work. We alternated between a push pace without an incline and a push pace with one. In the first block, the push paces were 45 seconds each and in the second block, they were 30 seconds each.

On the rower, the first block started with a 12 stroke drill. We looked at the distance we got and then tried to get to that same distance again but in fewer strokes. After that second row, we had squats before repeating the pattern again. The second block was the same pattern, but we did 15 stroke drills instead.

And on the floor, we did cluster sets. So we did an exercise, rested for about 10 seconds, and then did the same exercise again for as many reps as possible. We did each exercise as a cluster set 3 times before moving on to the next one. We had chest presses, tap squats, and overhead triceps. I didn’t go too heavy with the weights and I was feeling a bit weak, but I think that was because I was tired.

And Thursday’s workout was a signature workout. This one was Inferno, which is a rowing challenge. It’s a bit different when you do it as a 3-group class compared to a 2-group class, but it’s still a challenge where you try to get the best rowing distance possible.

I started on cardio, which wasn’t too hard since we were supposed to save our energy for the row. The first block had 1-minute push paces with increasing base paces. And the second block had 30-second push paces with increasing base paces. Both blocks ended with a 30-second all-out, but I didn’t go as hard as I normally would since I wanted to do my best with the Inferno challenge.

Then I was on the rower. For the 3-group class, the row starts with a 100-meter row, and then you do 20 lateral hops. Each time you sit back on the rower, you increase your row by 100 meters. I had a few ideas of the distance I wanted to get to in 14 minutes, and I knew I wanted to do better than 2000 meters. For some reason, 2100 meters was sticking in my mind so I went with that as my goal. I really tried to row as hard as I could and not rest. I knew I’d be close to my goal, and when the time was up I was at 2098 meters. That was so frustrating because 2 meters is nothing. It’s a fraction of a second. It would be me sitting down a millisecond faster. I did get a PR with the row, but it was tough knowing I was so close. I tried to focus on the PR more and I did celebrate how well I did when I know my past attempts weren’t this good.

I had the floor after the row, but I went pretty slow on the floor since I was tired from rowing. But I still tried my best. We had 2 floor blocks and they were focused on upper body work. In the first block, we had chest flys, lateral raises, and lunges. And in the second block, we had torso reaches on the straps, standing chest flys, and push-ups. I didn’t get that many rounds done, but I did them.

I’m so glad I had another good week. They have been rare lately and I always need that confidence boost to know that I’ve continued to make progress. Even with the minor disappointments and issues I had this past week, it was still a really great week for me and I know it will help me with any nausea and pain issues that may come for me this week.

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