2 weeks ago, I had a tough workout week for a majority of my week because my heel was in a lot of pain after another freezing treatment. By the time this past week of workouts started, I was in less pain than the week before, but I was still hurting. But at least the pain wasn’t affecting my workouts as much. But then for the second half of my workout week, I had pain due to cramps. So I ended up trading one pain for another and it made a really tough week for me.
Monday’s workout was a 2 group class and it was a signature workout called The Chipper. The idea is that you chip away at the workout as the block goes on. For both cardio and the floor we had 1 long block.
For cardio, we started with a 3-minute push pace followed by a 1-minute base pace. Then we kept the pattern up and the push pace decreased by 30 seconds each time. At the end of the block, we had a 30-second push pace with a 30-second all-out after. I did have to take some breaks to take some pressure off of my heel, but it wasn’t as bad as the week before and the pain I was feeling was much less. I hate that I’m so used to pain that reduced pain is a nice change, but that’s how things go for me.
On the floor, we had 1 exercise and then a row and then another exercise and a row, and the pattern continued. The rowing started at 400-meters and went down by 50-meters each time. For the exercises, the first exercise was 40 reps, the second exercise was 35 reps, and so on. So the reps we did were 10% of the row we had to do. For the exercises we had bench hop overs, toe reaches, bicycle crunches, plank jacks, lunges with bicep curls, Y raises on the straps, and burpees. I got through the Y raises and was going to the rower for the 150-meter row when the block ended.
By Wednesday, my heel was almost normal (I still have some pain and it can be a quick sharp pain if I step in a specific way) but that’s when my cramps started. So it was a different type of pain challenge for me to work through. It was a power day and a 3 group class, so at least things seemed to move quickly for me.
We had 4 blocks for cardio. Each block had a push pace, base pace, and an all-out. The push pace and all-out were always the same length with a shorter push pace. We started with 75-seconds for the push and all-out and 90-seconds for the base and those decreased each block. Fortunately, the shorter intervals made things a little easier for me to deal with.
On the rower, we also had 4 blocks. Each block involved a 150-meter row and squats. The first block was 4 rounds of the row and we had 4 sets of squats between each row (5, 10, 15, and 20 reps). Each block, we had 1 fewer round of rowing and we didn’t have the highest rep count for the squats. And if we finished all the rounds, we had rowing until the block was done. Even though my heel was doing better, my rowing was still not as powerful as it normally is, so I never made it through every round. But I usually got to the last round and then the block ended before I could finish.
And on the floor, we had 1 long block with 2 mini-blocks in it. For each mini-block, we were supposed to do 3 rounds before moving on to the next one. The first mini-block had goblet squats, jump squats (which I did as regular squats), and plank reaches. And the second mini-block had lunges, lateral hops (which I did as skater lunges), and leg raises. I’m glad my heel wasn’t hurting as much for all the squats so I didn’t have to worry too much about those.
Friday was an endurance day, and it was a pretty tough pain day for me. I was glad it was mainly cramps and not nausea because pain tends to be shorter duration for me. But it’s still something I have to push through.
For cardio, we had 1 block and it focused on 2-minute push paces. We had pretty much only 2-minute push paces with base paces in-between. The first base pace was also 2-minutes and it decreased by 30-seconds each time. And at the end, after a 30-second base pace, we had a 1-minute all-out.
The rower was timed with cardio. We had rounds of 2-minute push rows and then when the cardio was doing their base pace we had squat to front presses and overhead tricep extensions with a medicine ball. We were given a warning before we were about to row again, but I was always still working on my medicine ball exercises when we were supposed to sit back on the rower so I didn’t get much of a break for that entire block.
And on the floor, it was also a single block. We started with half kneeling to stands (which I did as lunges), bird dog low rows, alternating tricep extensions, and mountain climbers. I was starting to feel a little nauseous during the mountain climbers, but as soon as I was upright again I felt fine so it might have been random nausea and not hormonal.
And on Saturday, I think we had one of the toughest workouts I’ve done in a while. And I would have felt that way even if I was feeling totally normal. Every block was 4-minutes and we had 3 blocks on each side of the room. And also, every block within a section of the room was the same, so we repeated the same thing 3 times. I think that’s what made it extra tough.
For cardio, we had a 3-minute progressive push pace (so increasing the resistance on the bike by 1 every minute) and ending with a 1-minute all-out. On the rower, it was the same idea with a 3-minute progressive push row and a 1-minute all-out row. But for me on the rower, I just tried to row for as long as I could without a break and didn’t worry too much about increasing my speed each minute. And on the floor, we had 4 exercises we did for 1-minute each. We had alternating shoulder presses, lunges, plank low rows, and skater lunges (which I did as lateral lunges). I was exhausted at the end of this class!
So for 2 weeks I’ve mainly had to focus on one type of pain. And this week, I might have multiple types of pain. I’m expecting my pain and nausea to be pretty bad this week (although I always hope I will be lucky and it won’t be bad). But I’m also seeing a specialist for my foot on Tuesday and I have no clue if I’ll have another type of treatment done that could make my heel hurt really bad again. I’m hoping it’s mainly just an exam to make sure things are ok and not a treatment appointment, but I guess I’ll find out on Tuesday and then see how my workout week goes this week!
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