This past week of workouts was actually a pretty great one for me. It’s been interesting getting back into running and figuring out how much to do and when it’s too much and I need to take a step back. But this past week of workouts gave me so many opportunities to work on running and figure things out, which is exactly what I needed.
Monday’s workout was a benchmark class and I was a bit hesitant about it. It was the 12 minute run for distance benchmark and I knew I wouldn’t be anywhere close to what my best distance was for that challenge since my best distance was when I ran the entire thing. Of course, I had the thought that maybe I should see if I could run the entire thing, but I knew better than to even try that and went with doing intervals.
For the first 10 minutes I did 45 seconds of running/1 minute of walking like I had done on Saturday the week before. It was the longest I had done run/walk intervals since I started running again and it was getting very tough for the second half of the challenge. I did need to take some breaks to catch my breath and I thought about stopping, but I also knew that a lot of the issues I was having was in my head. Because of the timing of the intervals, the last minute was a bit different so I would end on a run. I did my last interval and then ended on a 1 minute run. That last minute was difficult and I’m so glad I didn’t push my speed at all because I don’t know if I could have done it. My goal was to do at least .75 miles and I’m glad that I was able to do a little bit better than that.
For the second block on the treadmill, we had timed push to base paces. It was all 90 second push paces and I started the first one thinking I’d do 30 second intervals. But after those first 30 seconds of running, I realized that I maxed out on running for the day. So for all the push paces I did my walking at an incline. I would have loved to keep working on running, but considering I did the entire 12 minute distance challenge with run/walk intervals I couldn’t be too upset with myself.
On the floor we had 2 blocks. The first block had triceps with weights, chest presses with weights, Y raises on the straps, and plank kick throughs. I used heavier weights for my triceps and chest presses but my body was just not having it with the plank kick throughs. My hips were locking up and it was impossible for me to get my leg to kick through without losing my balance. It was frustrating that I couldn’t even do a real modification for these moves so I ended up doing plank shoulder taps so at least I was doing something that was plank related. The second block had a 200 meter row at the beginning of each round and then it was 2 different arm moves with weights and the mini-bands. We had front raises and hammer curls. I was doing my normal weights for those but with the mini-band it was harder than normal.
Wednesday’s workout was a run/row but it was done in blocks instead of us doing the run/row on our own. So we had 5 blocks for cardio, 3 of which were on the treadmill and 2 were on the rower. On the first and last block on the treadmill, we had a 2 minute push pace to a 1 minute all out pace. I did the 2 minute push pace as a 1 minute run/1 minute walk and then ran the 1 minute all out so it was all 1 minute intervals. And the middle block had a walking recovery after the all out pace followed by another 1 minute all out so I could do it as 1 minute intervals as well. I have said that I was slowly getting back to running, but I have also been moving pretty quickly to increase my running and I realized that I might not be ready for 1 minute intervals yet. I can do them occasionally, but these blocks proved to me that I wasn’t ready to do them over and over.
On the rower we had the same plan for both blocks. We started with a 100 meter row and then had 10 medicine ball squat presses. Then we did 150 meters and more squats and were supposed to keep increasing the row by 50 meters each time. I only made it to the second round of squats each time and those squats were tough because the only medicine ball that was left was the heaviest one when I’m used to either the lightest or medium one. I probably would have gotten more rowing done if I had the lighter medicine ball, but I’ve learned that it’s always good for me to challenge myself with what weights I use from time to time.
On the floor we had 2 regular floor blocks and 1 rowing block. The first floor block had half get-ups and single leg squats using the straps. Single leg stuff is tough to do with my hip issues, but I’ve been picking up tricks to use so I can try them more often. And I was able to do the single leg squats this time with taking some breaks while working on them. The second block had single arm presses, goblet squats, and lunges. And for my squats I used one of the new heavy weights I started using recently and they were hard! I might have overdone it a bit based on what I had done earlier in the workout, but I was only feeling sore after the workout and not pain (soreness is ok). And the rowing block was the same as the rowing block we had during the run/row, but this time I had a lighter medicine ball at my rower so I was able to get to the rower for the 3rd row.
Friday’s workout was an endurance day, but it was also a 3 group class and a class where we switched between blocks so it didn’t feel like a normal endurance day. Every block was 6 minutes and we were at each station twice during the workout.
The first time we were on the treadmill we had 2 rounds of 90 second push paces with 1 minute base paces and ended with a 1 minute all out. I knew I couldn’t run for 90 seconds and wasn’t sure I wanted to try running for a minute again for more than just the all out at the end, so I did the 90 second push paces as 30 seconds of running and 1 minute of walking on my usual push incline as a power walker. And then I ran the all out at the end of the block. The second time we were on the treadmill we had a 6 minute run for distance to do on our own. I decided to do my 45 second run/1 minute walk intervals like I had done before. The only difference this time was for the last 45 seconds of the block I increased my running speed. It was hard to run faster, but it was easier to do that than it was to run longer. I was happy to see that I did slightly better than half of what I did in my 12 minute run on Monday which is proof of my progress even if it’s not much.
The rower was the same for both blocks. We started with a 90 second row for distance and then had 12 squats. Then it was back to the rower for a 30 second row and more squats. We repeated the 30 second row and squats until the block was done. And on the floor the first block was lunges, upright rows, and running men and the second block was single arm shoulder presses and plank work. For the weighted work I wasn’t using my heavy weights because I was starting to feel a bit light headed. I’m not sure what caused it (it might have been that I had an early dinner on Thursday so it had been longer between my last meal and my workout than normal), but I just took breaks when I was feeling weird and didn’t push myself too much with the weights.
Saturday’s workout was a signature OTF workout called Orange Trinity. All classes were 3 group classes even if they normally are 2 group classes and we were at each section of the room for 14 minutes.
First I was on the treadmill where we had a run/weighted exercise block. Each time on the treadmill we ran .15 miles and after that we had squat presses using a medicine ball with decreasing reps each round. With the run, I knew I’d be doing them as run/walk intervals, but I wasn’t sure what I wanted them to be when I started. I figured I’d run for 45 seconds and then plan from there. I thought maybe I’d be doing a 45 second run, a 1 minute walk, and finish with another 45 second run and that would get me to the right distance, but I discovered that with the distance it was perfect to do it as just 45 second intervals. So I ran twice each time for 45 seconds with a 45 second walk in the middle. As much as I would have liked to see if I could run the entire distance, I knew that there was so much more coming up and I didn’t want to exhaust myself.
Next was the rower which is what I had heard was the toughest part of the workout. Essentially, it was a 14 minute row. But there were push and base rows to do within those 14 minutes so it wasn’t just a row for distance. We started with a 1 minute push row followed by 90 seconds and 2 minutes and then went back down before we ended with an all out row. Ideally, I wanted to get at least 2800 meters since that averages 200 meters a minute (which is pretty much the standard we are supposed to do). But this was a big endurance row and I had to take super quick breaks during the 14 minutes to wipe away sweat or tighten the foot straps. I would have loved to have done the entire thing without stopping, but I was pretty close. All of my breaks together were probably under 30 seconds so that’s not bad. I was just over 2700 meters when time was up but now I have a goal to work on the next time we have this workout.
The final block for me was on the floor and it was the same work we had during the Orange X workout. Even though I was so tired from the running and rowing, I was determined to use the same weights I used during the Orange X workout. So I did my squats with a 45lb weight, my row with a 35lb weight, and my chest press with a set of 30lb weights. I had to go a bit slower than I would have liked, but I was much more focused on using those weights and keeping my form than I was on doing as many rounds as I could have done.
Overall, I really am proud of myself with these workouts. I had a lot of opportunities where I could have pushed myself too much and done more than my body was ready for, and I didn’t do that. But at the same time, I found little ways to push myself and keep making progress so that was awesome too. I’m still just so happy that I’m getting back into running and I’m really hoping that I’ll have some more chances to make progress again this week.
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