Even after doing 5 workouts the week before, I still wanted to keep up with my regular 4 workouts this past week. I like having my routine and I wanted to do what I could to feel like I was back to a typical week in as many ways as possible. I knew I would be a bit tired on Monday after traveling on Sunday and I was prepared to start having my bad week, but I still knew I should try my best.
Monday’s workout was a signature workout. This was Capture The Flag, which I’ve done a few times before. It’s a partner workout where you work with your partner or partners to get as many meters on the rower as possible. My class was a 3 group class, but because of the class size, I was in a 2 partner group. And my partner wasn’t going to use the rower so I knew that we wouldn’t be able to track our rowing meters the way that most teams would do. So we would just do what we could and enjoy the workout.
Since we were a 2 partner group, we did the 2 group workout instead of the 3 partner workout. The person who was on the rower (or elliptical for my partner) just went until the other partner tagged them out. And the other partner did medicine ball exercises and a treadmill (or bike) distance before the switch. The medicine ball exercises were squat to presses, lateral lunges, and double crunches. And all the treadmill/bike distances were pretty short so we were switching every few minutes. The other groups got different flags based on the distance they got on the rower. I was fine not being able to get the flags since I knew I was still working out hard and doing a good job on the rower.
On Tuesday, I was starting to have a bit of nausea but it wasn’t that bad. So I knew it was probably the last workout before I was feeling really bad and I wanted to try to get the most out of it.
For cardio, we had an interesting workout. In the first block, we had rounds of a 1-minute push pace and a 90-second base pace. But in the push paces, we were supposed to increase for the last 15 seconds to make it closer to an all-out. And in the second block, we had 1-minute push paces with an increase for the last 30 seconds and a 2-minute base pace after. Since those last seconds of the push paces weren’t supposed to be an all-out, I didn’t increase my resistance level on the bike and just increased how fast I was pedaling instead.
On the rower, both blocks focused on doing a 200-meter row with as few strokes as possible. In the first block, we had lunges and shoulder presses with a medicine ball between each row. And in the second block, we did forward presses and bicep curls with the medicine ball. I’m usually pretty good about keeping my strokes low when we have a challenge like this one. I averaged about 15 strokes for each row, but I was able to get one down to just 13.
And on the floor, we had 3 exercises in each block. In the first block, we had goblet squats, hip bridges, and sit-ups to rotations. And in the second block, we had low rows, bridge holds with pullovers, and high plank knee taps. I tried to go heavy with my weights when I could, but I couldn’t go as heavy as I would have liked to go with my squats. I know I can normally do better, but at least I did well with my other weights.
By Wednesday, I was feeling pretty bad so I knew it would have to be an easier workout day. And I was able to modify most of the workout to work best for me.
For cardio, the work was all about inclines and recoveries. In the first block, we alternated between a 45-second push pace at a high incline/resistance level and a 1-minute recovery. In the second block, we had a 1-minute push pace at a slightly lower incline/resistance level and a 45-second recovery. The resistance levels for both blocks were much higher than what I normally use so I was pedaling very slowly. But at least I wasn’t too worried about that since I also wasn’t feeling good.
On the rower, we were timed with cardio and had sprints for each block. So in the first block, we had 45-second rowing sprints with a minute to recover. And in the second block, we had 1-minute rowing sprints with 45-seconds to recover. I did a lot better in the first block with the shorter sprints. I think I was going too hard at the beginning of the longer sprints and kept getting burnt out by the end of those rows.
And on the floor, each block had some cluster sets and then regular exercises. For the cluster sets, we did 12-16 reps of the exercises, rested for about 10 seconds, and then did as many reps as we could before resting again. And we did those twice before moving on to the other exercises. The first block had cluster sets of a chest press before doing sit-ups and plank front reaches. And the second block had cluster sets of tap squats before moving on to the same exercises as the first block.
Thursday was my toughest day with how I was feeling, but I was glad it was the end of my workout week. And just like always, I pushed through when I could and went easy when I needed to.
For cardio, the first two blocks were the same. We had a 1-minute base to push pace, 1-minute push pace, 1-minute push to all-out, and 1-minute all-out. And I was using my normal resistance levels and then the levels between the regular ones to work for the pattern. And the last block just had 1-minute intervals with a base, push, and all-out.
On the rower, the first block had rounds of a 200-meter row with single-leg halos using the medicine ball. In the second block, we had 150-meter rows and lunges between each row. My rows were pretty slow, but they were also consistent for each round. So I considered it a victory that my rows weren’t getting worse as the blocks went on. And we finished along with cardio with the 1-minute all-out row.
On the floor, we had 2 exercises for each block. The first block had single-arm shoulder presses and plank dips. The second block had deadlifts and bird dogs. And the last block had double crunches and back extensions. I went slowly with the exercises in each block, but that’s expected with how I was feeling.
Considering I was tired from working out more than normal the week before and dealing with the beginning of my bad week, I’m very happy with how things went this past week. And this week might be another bad week or it might be a bit better. Each day will be a bit of a mystery. And even though I did a family workout for Fake Thanksgiving, I’m still planning on doing a Thanksgiving Day workout on my own!
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