Category Archives: Fitness

Some Interesting Workout Days (or 3 Regular Workouts And 1 Traditional One)

This past week of workouts was interesting for me. I had some odd struggles that I wasn’t expecting and I had some really great things too. I didn’t love having as much of an off week as I did, but I think I made the most of it.

Monday’s workout was a strength day and it was a prep day for the Everest workout happening later this month. I was also having a bit of an off morning. I think having the clocks change affected me more than I thought it would because I struggled to sleep the night before. And while I was tossing and turning, I made my hip hurt a lot. It wasn’t ideal going into a strength workout, but I was prepared to try my best.

The cardio work was similar to what the regular Everest workout is like, but we had a break in the middle. For the treadmills, they increased the incline by 1% every minute. For me on the bike, I increased the resistance level by 1 every other minute (I have done every minute before, but it gets really difficult and I didn’t want to risk it with my hip). We did that for about 11 minutes and then we had about 2 minutes to have some recovery. Then we did the same 11 minutes as we did before but we started at the top and decreased the incline/resistance level until we had a flat road all-out at the end. Because I was only doing the increases every other minute, I never had the resistance level too high. It was still higher than I normally use, but not as bad as it has been for hill work.

On the floor, we had 2 blocks. We started with 2 rounds of high rows on the straps, alternating chest presses, side plank rotations, and sit-ups. Then we had a 200-meter row before going back to the exercises again. And the second block had a similar format. We had 2 rounds of chest presses on the straps, bird dog single-arm low rows, and palms to elbows (which I did as shoulder taps) before another 200-meter row. My row wasn’t fast, but it was better than it was last week. And I tried to go heavy with the weights, but I wasn’t able to go as heavy as I would have liked to.

Wednesday’s workout was a mix of strength and power. It wasn’t as bad with inclines as Monday was, but it still had some hill work.

We had 4 blocks for cardio. Blocks 1 and 3 were similar and blocks 2 and 4 were similar. For blocks 1 and 3 we started with a 90-second push pace followed by a 30-second base pace. Then we had 3 rounds of 1-minute hills with 30-second base paces between each one with a 30-second all-out at the end. For the first block, the inclines/resistance levels got higher each time and for the third block, they got lower. And for blocks 2 and 4, we had 2 rounds of a 30-second all-out with a 1-minute recovery after. So between all 4 blocks, we had 6 minutes of hill work and 6 all-outs.

On the floor, we also had 4 blocks. And blocks 2 and 4 were done on the rowers and timed out with the treadmills. So for each of those blocks, we had 2 rounds of a 30-second all-out row followed by a 1-minute recovery row. For the regular floor work, we had sumo goblet squats, squat jacks (which I did as side step squats), lunges, and plank rotations for the first block. And for the third block we had good mornings with weighs, lunge to hops, and plank alternating leg lifts. My hips and legs were definitely feeling it after this workout, but this was a much better type of pain and soreness than what I was dealing with on Monday.

Friday’s workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power. But it was a really bad day for me. I had gotten my booster shot on Thursday and didn’t have that many side effects when I got it. But the next day, I was really feeling it. I usually have reactions to any vaccines I get, so don’t let this dissuade you from getting the booster or vaccine. But I guess I was too hopeful I wouldn’t have side effects this time and I was wrong. So I spent a lot of my workout dealing with a lot of body aches and a bad headache.

This was a run/row workout for cardio. We had 2 blocks that were very similar. We started with a 3-minute push pace and then had a 1-minute base base. Then we had rounds of a .1 mile (.4 for the bike) run and then a 30-second all out row. In the first block, the incline/resistance level increased each round and in the second block, we started at the top and decreased the incline/resistance level each round. Because I was so slow on both the bike and rower, I didn’t make it through that many rounds.

On the floor, we had 4 blocks. Every exercise we had was for 10 reps, so it was easy to remember how much I had to do of each exercise. Block 1 had chest presses and hip hinge low rows. Block 2 had push-ups, back extensions, and mountain climbers. Block 3 had close grip chest presses and squat to Y raises on the straps. And block 4 had tricep extensions, plank pull throughs, and lateral crunches. Just like on cardio, I was pretty slow so I didn’t make it through a lot of rounds. I also had to go a bit lighter with the weights because of how I feel.

Saturday’s workout was a special one. First, it was a signature workout called The Chipper. But also, this was my traditional Thanksgiving workout with my family. I know that it’s not Thanksgiving yet, but my family decided to do it earlier this year because it’s less expensive to travel if we celebrated a bit early. We were spending it in Santa Barbara (more about that day in tomorrow’s post) and there was a brand new Orangetheory studio that was only minutes away from where we were staying! So it was perfect for us to work out that morning. This year, it was just me with my dad and brother, but we still had a great time.

The idea of The Chipper is to chip away at the workout each round. So for cardio, you started with a 3-minute push pace and that decreased each round after a 1-minute base pace. The bike at this studio was different from the bike at my studio, plus I was still having some side effects from my booster shot, so I know I didn’t do as well as I could for the workout. But I tried my best and it was fun to experience class at a different studio.

On the floor, we had intervals of an exercise and then rowing. We did just 1 exercise before the row and the number of reps started at 40 and went down by 5 for each exercise. And the row started at 400-meter and went down by 50 each round. The exercises we had were bench tap squats, leg raises, sumo squats to upright rows with weights, low rows on the straps, palms to elbows, chest flies, and bicep curls. This studio also had the new rowers with the screens, and I loved seeing all my data while rowing easily displayed. I didn’t make it through all of The Chipper, but I did better than I expected.

And of course, we had to take our traditional picture with our coach after class.

I’m still having some side effects from my vaccine, but they get better and better each day. So hopefully this week will bring more wins and less struggles in my workouts.

Almost Having A Second Hell Week (or Just Pushing Through)

After a crazy Hell Week, I was glad to be back to my normal workouts. But I ended up having my personal Hell Week this past week because this was the week I had to deal with a lot of pain and nausea. But at least this is a type of hell that I’m used to dealing with, so I pushed through the best I could.

On Monday, I wasn’t feeling too horrible. I was a bit off, but there were other factors that could have been causing that too. The workout was an endurance class, and it was a really good one.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks. The first block had two rounds of a 3-minute push pace followed by a 90-second base pace and ended with a 3-minute distance challenge. The second block had two rounds of a 2-minute push pace followed by a 1-minute base pace and also ended with a 3-minute distance challenge. For the distance challenge, I set the resistance to be at my regular push pace level. They did feel like long blocks, but nothing too crazy and I really did try to improve with the distance challenges.

On the floor, we also had 2 blocks. We started with a 500-meter row, which didn’t go that great for me. I was just slow and a bit awkward and couldn’t get my form to feel right. After the row, we had Arnold presses and hammer curls with weights and high rows to I raises on the straps. The second block didn’t have rowing. We had step-ups (which I did as squats), single-arm reverse flies, and bicycle presses with weights.

Wednesday’s workout was a power day, and it was a really miserable day for me. I was so nauseous and in a lot of pain. I really was struggling a lot just to get out of bed, but I knew that doing something in my workout would be better than doing nothing. But I know I didn’t do that much because of how I felt.

For cardio, we had 3 blocks. The first block had three rounds of 1-minute push paces, a base pace, a 30-second all-out, and a recovery. The base pace and recovery increased with each round. For the second block, the base paces were removed so it was three rounds of a 1-minute push pace to a 30-second all-out with recovery between. And the last block was just rounds of the 30-second all-out with the recovery between.

On the floor, we also had 3 blocks. The first block had deadlifts, skater lunges, and hip bridges followed by a 200-meter row. I was able to go heavy with the hip bridges, but I used a lighter weight for the deadlifts and went very slow with the skater lunges. The second block had hip swings with weights, curtsy lunges, and a 150-meter row. And the last block was only sumo squats to upright rows with weights and a 100-meter row. My rowing was very slow for each block and for the first two blocks I only made it to the rower once. I just had to take a lot of breaks to let the nausea pass so I could feel like I could continue.

By Friday, I wasn’t fully better but I had gotten over the hump of being miserable. I still had to go easy on myself because of how I was feeling, but I could push a bit harder. And I’m glad because it was an endurance day to prep us for an upcoming cardio benchmark.

We had 2 cardio blocks and the first block started with a 5 1/2-minute distance challenge. I kept the resistance level on the bike between the level I use for my base and push paces. I did have to take a lot of rest during it, but it wasn’t as bad as Wednesday. We then had a 90-second recovery before doing another 5 1/2-minute distance challenge. The second block started with a 2-minute row and then a 6 1/2 minute distance challenge for cardio again. The row was really tough for me and I didn’t get a lot of distance, but I tried.

On the floor, the first block started off with a mini-band block. We had 3 rounds of static crunches with in and outs, hip bridges, and knee tucks. After that, we had a 1-minute row and then plank work, uppercuts, and bicep curls. For the plank work, I did use the bench so I wasn’t completely facing the ground. The second block had bird dog low rows with weights, single-arm chest presses, and plank pull-throughs. Again, for plank work, I used the bench.

Saturday I was finally over the nausea and just dealing with a little pain, so that was a lot better. I still struggled, but at least it was a bit of an easier struggle. And this workout was a 5×5 themed class. So we had 5 rounds of a lot of different work.

For cardio, we had 5 blocks and each block had a push pace, base pace, push pace, and an all-out. The base pace was always 1-minute and the all-out was always 30-seconds. But the two push paces changed for both lengths of time and incline. The longer the push pace was, the lower the incline got. But for me on the bike, it can be tough to do a lot of variation with my inclines, so I always used 1 resistance level higher than my all-out for the incline work. I know that’s not exactly how the workout should have been, but it was a good option for me.

On the floor, we had 1 long block. We started with 5 rounds of deadlifts and squats (5 reps for each exercise). Then a 300-meter row. Then 5 rounds of chest presses and seated low rows (5 reps for each exercise). And another 300-meter row. And finally 5 rounds of shoulder presses and squats to high rows on the straps (again, 5 reps for each exercise) before a final 300-meter row. I never made it to the last row, but I did get through all the exercises. And because the number of reps was low, I was able to go pretty heavy with the weights.

Considering I was coming off of the official Hell Week and going through my own type of hell, I’m really happy about how I did in my workouts. And I hope that this week gets a bit easier for me so I can get back to my normal self.

A Full Week Of Hell Week (or I’m A Survivor)

I’m a Hell Week Survivor! I had a feeling I’d be able to get this done since I’ve been able to do it every year, but this is my first Hell Week since having 13 months off from in-person workouts. So I knew it might be harder than it has been in the past. But I had every intention of getting my 5 workouts in so I could earn my shirt. And that’s exactly what I did!

Sunday was my first Hell Week workout. This one was called Fishing For Recovery, and I didn’t have the best start. I don’t normally work out on Sundays, but that wasn’t the problem. The problem was that I didn’t know the main street I had to cross to get from my place to Orangetheory was closed due to a race. I was struggling to find a way to get over there, and I finally had to drive down the freeway a few miles to exit and find another street to take. I thought I wouldn’t make it to class, but I made it after class started but before the cutoff to join in.

For cardio, we had 4 blocks that had similar patterns. We had 3 different 1-minute intervals at a base pace with increasing inclines followed by a 1-minute base at no incline and a 1-minute all-out. The recovery after the all-out for those on the treadmill was at a 15% incline. I just used whatever the highest resistance level was that I had during that block. These resistance levels got really high for me and in the end my legs weren’t moving much at all because it was so hard. But that’s what Hell Week is about!

On the floor, we had 4 blocks as well. Each block started with the same 3 exercises. We had clean to presses, front squats, and half thrusters. All of these exercises were with weights. Then we had 1 exercise on the straps after that. We had low rows, alligators, bridge rows, and high rows. After the 1 strap exercise, we were supposed to row for distance. But I only was on the rower for a brief moment each block. This wasn’t the worst Hell Week workout I’ve had, but it was a good one to kick off a tough week.

Monday’s workout was called The Burpee Breach. I’m not a huge fan of burpees, so I wasn’t looking forward to this one that much. Fortunately, the burpees weren’t as big of a part of the workout as I feared.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks. The first block was all about distance challenges and all-outs. We started with a 2-minute distance challenge followed by 30-seconds to recover. Then it was a 90-second distance challenge, 75-second distance challenge, 1-minute all-out, 45-second all-out, and 30-second all-out. And all of those had 30-seconds to recover between the work. The second block was all about 1-minute intervals and inclines. Every minute the incline or resistance level went up by 1 until the last minute when it was back to a flat road. The goal was to try to beat your distance from the first block, and I just was able to beat my first distance.

On the floor, the first block was the burpee block. And it was timed out with the treadmills. Every time the treadmills had their 30-second recovery, we would have a squat hold. And during their runs, we had burpees in various forms. Because I had to use the bench for my burpees, I didn’t do exactly what we were supposed to do. We started with ultimate burpees which is a burpee with a push-up, low row with weights, and shoulder press. I can’t do the low row with weights when using the bench, so I did shoulder taps instead. And each round with the burpees, we took away one part of the burpee until at the end we were just at regular burpees. But those 30-seconds of regular burpees felt just as hard or harder as the 2-minutes of ultimate burpees because I was so tired. For the second block, we had 3 rounds of hop-overs, step-ups (which I did as lunges), and squat jacks. After that, we were supposed to go to the rower and work with the person next to us to alternate 100-meter rows and recovery rows. But the floor work took me a long time and I never made it to the rower.

Wednesday was Decoding the Drop Set, and yes it was about doing drop sets on the floor. But I had cardio first and it was a run/row.

The run/row started with a .5 mile run (2 miles for the bike) and we increased the incline/resistance level 1% 5 times. Then it was a 100-meter row. The treadmill/bike segment shortened each round and we didn’t increase the incline/resistance level as many times but we started at a higher incline/resistance level. And each row increased by 100-meters. The segments were all pretty short, but with the increased resistance level they weren’t getting that much faster for me.

On the floor, we had 3 blocks. Each block had 1 drop set exercise, 1 exercise we were supposed to do until failure, and 1 exercise that we had regular reps for. With drop sets, you use a heavy weight for a low number of reps and then a lighter weight for a higher number of reps. And after doing the drop set exercise, we were supposed to use that same lighter weight for our exercise until failure. The drop set exercises were seated shoulder presses, seated low rows, and chest presses. For the until failure exercises, we just did as many as we could until we lost our form and couldn’t continue. For me, this varied a lot, but I tried to get at least 6 reps done for each. We had tricep extensions, hammer curls, and chest flies. And for the last exercises, they were all jumping-type exercises like jumping jacks. I really couldn’t do those that day (and rarely can do them), so I did different types of squats instead.

Friday was one of the hardest Hell Week workouts I can remember. I know I’ve had some tough ones, but this one was just that much harder. This workout was called Meltdown, and I feel like it was a good description for it.

For cardio, we had a run/exercise block (like a run/row but floor exercises instead of rowing). Cardio started with a .1 mile run (.4 for the bike) and increased by .05 miles (or .2 for the bike) each round. After the run/bike work, we went to the floor and had the same 4 exercises each time. We had single-arm clean to press, plank single-arm low rows, single-arm snatches, and single-arm hold with lateral step-ups (I did these as lunges). The first time on the floor we had 4 reps and it increased by 2 reps each time. It was a lot of work and I was exhausted. But that was probably the easier part of the workout.

On the rower, we pretty much had a 23-minute row. It was broken up into segments and we had some rest between each segment, but it was still a lot of rowing. And after the floor, my hip was really hurting so I knew I’d be struggling with the row. The first segment on the rower was a 4.5-minute row for distance. I wasn’t able to do this without stopping, but I tried. We looked at our distance after that was done and then reset the rower because the goal was to match the distance for the next 3 blocks. The next block had a 90-second push row, 1-minute base row, 1-minute push row, 30-second base row, and a 30-second all-out row. Again, I needed breaks but I tried to do what I could. The 3rd block was probably the hardest one. We had 10 rounds of 20-seconds of an all-out row and 10-seconds to do a recovery row. Having double the effort than recovery is just really hard, and doing it for 10 rounds is that much harder. And the last round was 10 rounds of 10-seconds of an all-out row and 20-seconds of a recovery row. This was a little better, but I was so tired by this point that it didn’t feel much easier. While I love challenging myself, this might have been a bit much for me and I was glad when it was done so I could rest.

And my final Hell Week workout was on Saturday. This one was called Pyramid Scheme and not only was it a Hell Week workout, but it was also a 90-minute workout too! This was not something I necessarily planned, but my usual class was a 90-minute one. And since I didn’t know when I could do my final workout, I decided I might as well end on an extra challenging class. So we had the regular Hell Week workout and then did an extra rotation around the room. And it was a 3 group class so we had equal time on cardio, rowing, and the floor.

The pyramid idea was very clear in the cardio work. We started with a 90-second distance challenge followed by 30 seconds to recover. Then we had a 75-second challenge, 1-minute all-out, 45-second all-out, and 30-second all-out. And between each one, we had 30 seconds to recover. Then we went back up and went from 45-seconds back to 90-seconds again. When we had our next rotation around the room for the extra 30 minutes of class, we had another pyramid with 30-seconds, 1-minute, and 2-minutes of all-outs of distance challenges before going back down to 30-seconds.

On the rower, the first half of the main block was timed out with cardio going from the 90-second challenge down to 30-seconds. But after we did the 30-seconds, we didn’t work out way back up but had distance rows with lunges between. And for the bonus block, we started timed out with cardio again for the first half and then had distance rows with high knees between each row.

And on the floor, we started by learning the mystery number of squats we had to do in the middle of the block. For my group, we had 80 squats. But before that, we had other exercises. We had low rows on the straps and chest presses with weights. We had a round of 40 reps, then a round of 20 reps, and finally a round of 10 reps. Then we had our squats before moving on to the next half of the block. We had bicep curls on the straps and overhead tricep extensions. For those, we started with 10 reps and worked up. But I only got started on the 20 reps of the bicep curls on the straps before the block was done. And for the bonus block, we had hip hinge swings, plank jacks, squats, and plank hops (which I did as mountain climbers). For those, we started with 20 reps and then had 10 reps and 5 reps. By the time I was done on the floor, I was so exhausted. I possibly overdid it a bit this past week, but it was worth it because I hit my goal and did all 5 of the workouts I wanted to do!

I’m still a bit sore from all my workouts last week and I know this week might kick off my bad week. So I’m not planning on going too crazy in my workouts. I know I’m recovering still from all the work I did last week and I need to allow my body to get back to normal. But I’m still proud of what I did and that I continued my streak of being a Hell Week survivor!

Hell Week Prep (or The First Part Of My Workout Week)

I did get my 4 workouts in this past week, but I’m actually only going to write about the first 3. That’s because this week is Hell Week and my 4th workout was on Sunday so I could make it count toward my 5 workouts to earn my shirt. And I’m going to write about all 5 of those workouts in next week’s post. So this post is just about my 3 regular workouts this past week.

Monday was an endurance day and also a run/row day. I know I’ve had run/row workouts in the past, but I always look forward to them because they feel like they don’t happen that often and are a nice change. Plus, since my classes are 2 group classes, there usually isn’t that much rowing. Last week, that was good because of how my foot was doing. This week, my foot is still a bit tender, but I’m not in as much pain as I was. So I wasn’t powerful with my rowing but I could do it.

The run/row had cardio, a body weight exercise, and a row. The first round was .5 miles on the treadmill (2 on the bike), 50 pulsing half squats, and a 500-meter row. The next round was .4 miles, 40 squats, and a 400-meter row. That pattern continued through the block. I played around with the resistance level on the bike for the cardio, but I mainly kept it at the level between my base and push paces since it took a bit of time to get through it. And I did have to take breaks with the squats because of my foot, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be. I didn’t get as far into the pattern as I would have liked to, but it was still over 23 minutes of work.

On the floor, everything was timed. We had 3 blocks and each block had 3 rounds of the exercises. Each exercise was done for 30-seconds and we had a few 15-second transitions within each block. The first block had ab dolly rollouts, alternating superman planks, knee tucks on the ab dolly, and plank rotations. The second block had goblet squats with weights, Cossack squats, sumo squats with weights, and lateral hops. And the last block had lateral lunges on the right side, lateral lunges on the left side, and mountain climbers. We were supposed to use weights for the lunges, but I didn’t use them because I used the wall to balance.

Wednesday’s day was a power day and it was a lot of short intervals of work! I think I needed this workout after getting through all my convention work and it was a great energy boost.

For cardio, we had 4 blocks. Each block started the same way with a 45-second push pace, 1-minute base pace, and 45-second all-out. After the all-out, we had a recovery and then another all-out. Each block the recovery got a bit longer and the all-out got a bit shorter. I don’t know if my legs were tired or what, but those all-outs were extra hard on me with the resistance level I set the bike at. I’m not sure what happened, but I just struggled a lot more than I expected to. I still did it, but I know that they weren’t my best all-outs.

On the floor, we had 2 floor blocks and 2 row blocks. For the row blocks, we had either a clean to press or a single-arm snatch with weights before going to the rower for a 150-meter row. This row should be fast and done with much shorter strokes, but I still was dealing with some pain in my foot so I had to do them a bit slower than a typical power row. Even my coach called me out on this, but he understood when I explained why I couldn’t press as hard on my heel. For the other 2 blocks, we had 2 exercises on the floor. One block had chest presses while laying on the floor and plank rotations and the other block had single-arm split stance high rows with weights and plank reaches. Even without a ton of exercises on the floor, it felt like I wasn’t getting a lot of breaks and working non-stop. But I really enjoyed that!

Because I was going to work out on Sunday, I didn’t work out on Friday. But my last non-Hell Week workout this past week was my Saturday class. I knew that I would be doing 3 workouts in a row starting with Saturday, so I did try to be a bit easier on myself. But this workout was a strength day, so it wasn’t as easy to go light.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks. Both blocks started with a 2-minute push pace and then we had intervals of base paces and push paces with inclines. And we ended with a run for distance challenge for 90-seconds at an incline. None of the inclines were too high, but I still went a bit lower with the resistance levels than I might do if I wasn’t about to start Hell Week. I still got a great workout in even with going a bit lower than we were supposed to do.

And on the floor, we also had 2 blocks. Both blocks had 2 exercises and then we did a 300-meter row and repeated it. The first block had single-arm low rows with weights and goblet squats. The second block had single-arm chest presses with weights and lunges. I tried to go pretty heavy with the weights since it was a strength day, but still remembering I was about to do 2 days of Hell Week workouts in a row. I think I found a great balance for pushing myself and not going too hard, so I was pretty happy with how things went.

And for my 4th workout, that was on Sunday and it was day 1 of Hell Week. And that will come in next week’s post when I write about all 5 of the Hell Week classes I attend to earn my shirt!

Another 3 Workout Week (or Grateful For A Lack Of Rowing)

After having a 3 workout week the week before, I was hoping I’d be able to do 4 workouts this week. I had already planned on this past week to be only 3 workouts because of my union convention, but I wanted to see what I could do to fix that. But a lot of other things are happening in my life right now, so I couldn’t make that work. So it was another 3 workout week for me, and I did my best to maximize the classes I was able to go to.

Monday’s workout was a bit tough due to pain, but I was fortunately feeling a bit better than I had the past week. And I needed to be feeling better because it was a tough endurance and strength workout! Having both endurance and strength in one class was tough, but it was a good challenge.

For cardio, we had one long block with no recovery. We had base pace increasing inclines for 75-seconds each with a 2-minute flat base pace between. The resistance levels did get higher than what I usually use for my push pace and all-outs, so I needed the flat base pace time to catch my breath and let my legs rest a little bit. But just like it normally is, the inclines felt like they took forever and the flat road time flew by. And after about 20-minutes of this work, we ended with a 1-minute all-out. Because we had been doing so much with inclines during the workout, I did my all-out at a lower resistance level than I normally would.

On the floor, we had 2 blocks. For both blocks, we started with a little bit of rowing work. We had 15-stroke drills and then overhead triceps and chest presses with a medicine ball. We repeated that and then went to the floor for the rest of the block. The first block had hip hinge low rows, low rows on the straps, and plank bird dogs. And the second block had deadlifts, single-leg deadlifts (which I do without weights and use more core strength so I can hold on for balance), and plank leg lifts. Even though I wasn’t feeling completely better, the floor work didn’t make me too nauseous so I didn’t have to make that many modifications for the exercises.

Wednesday’s workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power. And it was the day after my doctor’s appointment and my foot was in a lot of pain. I have dealt with this before, and sometimes it’s not as bad as it was this time. I wasn’t really able to put my heel on the ground, so I was hoping I wouldn’t need to do much rowing. I have had to try rowing without putting pressure on my heel, and it’s extremely difficult. Fortunately, there was no rowing in this workout. But it was another crazy challenging day!

Cardio was another single-block workout with no recovery built-in. I added in little bits of recovery for myself because even on the bike it can make my heel hurt. But at least I was over feeling pain and nausea, so I was only dealing with one issue. We had a 3-minute push pace, 2-minute push pace at incline, 1-minute push pace at incline, and then repeated that all again but in the opposite order. All of the base paces between each push pace were 90-seconds. And at the end, we had a 90-second distance challenge. Just like on Monday, I had done a lot of higher resistance levels during the workout, so for that last distance challenge I used a lower level on the bike than I normally would.

And on the floor, we focused on drop sets. A drop set is where you use a heavier weight for a lower number of reps and then immediately use a lighter weight for a higher number of reps. We had 3 blocks with 1 drop set exercise for each block. The drop set exercises were chest presses, seated low rows, and bicep curls. And we had 1 other exercise in each block with pull-ups on the straps (I did high rows on the straps), push-ups, and squats to upright rows. Some of these exercises were a bit tough because of my heel, but I was able to work around the pain for most of them. The squats were the hardest thing for me, but I just took a little break when the pain was getting worse.

And Friday was my last workout of the week (Saturday was the first day of the convention!). Again, my heel was still hurting and I was having some hip pain because of how I was walking to not be in pain. But it was manageable. I was worried again that we might have some rowing, but I lucked out and it was another day without rowing! But it was another strength day, so just like the rest of the week, we had a lot of incline work.

For cardio, we had 3 blocks with similar patterns. The first block was a 2-minute base at incline, 1-minute base without incline, 90-second base with incline, 1-minute base without incline, and a 1-minute all-out with incline. Each block, the incline got higher but the incline time was shorter. The second block had 3 incline intervals for 90-seconds, 75-seconds, and 1-minute with the same flat base paces and 1-minute all-out at incline. And the last block had 3 incline intervals for 1-minute, 45-seconds, and 30-seconds with the same flat base paces and 1-minute all-out at incline to end the block.

On the floor, we also had 3 blocks. In each block, we had 3 exercises but the first two exercises were designed to do back to back without changing the weights we were using. The back-to-back exercises were front raises and lateral raises, deadlifts and lunges, and hip hinge low rows and bicep curls. For those exercises, the only modification I had to make was to do the lunges without weights so I could balance. And the other exercises we had were low rows on the straps, squats, and chest presses on the straps. Just like with Wednesday, I had to take a few little breaks because of pain but it wasn’t that bad.

I do feel like I did the best I could with the workouts I went to this week. I would have loved to have fit in a 4th workout another morning, but my schedule just didn’t work to add that in. But just like I said last week, doing 3 workouts is still great! And hopefully this week, nothing crazy happens with my schedule so I can get back to my normal 4 workout week!

A Short Workout Week (or I Guess I’m Glad This Happened On A Bad Week)

Going into this past week, I knew it was going to be a tough week with how I was feeling. But I was planning on pushing through like normal and going to all my workouts. But it ended up being a week where I only made it to Orangetheory 3 times (I still can’t believe I refer to going 3 times in a week as “only”). But I tried my best for each day I was there.

Monday’s workout was a power day, and I’m glad that’s what it was. I tried taking my medications before going to bed, but it didn’t seem to make that much of a difference. I don’t know if I was feeling that much worse than normal or if the timing didn’t change how they helped. All I know is that I was fighting a lot of pain and nausea the entire time. But at least with cardio, the work was all in short sprints.

We had 2 blocks for cardio. The first block was 4 rounds of a push pace to an all-out with a recovery after. The all-out was always 30-seconds and the recovery was always 1-minute. But the push pace changed. We had a 75-second, 60-second, 45-second, and 30-second push pace. In the second block, we had the same 4 rounds but we did them in the opposite order (starting with 30-seconds and ending with 75-seconds). But the recovery was a bit different because we had about 45-seconds to recover and then 30-seconds of jump squats. I did these as regular squats, but still needed to take breaks during that 30-seconds as I was feeling very nauseous.

On the floor, we also had 2 blocks. The first block had burpees and pull-ups on the straps. I did the burpees with the bench for my hands and I did high rows on the straps instead of pull-ups. We also had rowing starting with a 250-meter row and going down 50 meters each time. Because of how many breaks I needed, I only made it to the 200-meter row. The second block on the floor was timed out with the treadmills. When the treadmills were in their push pace, we had bicep curls (so starting with 75-seconds and going down to 30-seconds). When they were in their all-out, we had shoulder presses. When they were recovering and transitioning to the floor for squats, we had squats. And when they were doing squats we had running man plank work. I did the running man planks with the bench for my hands and rested when I needed to. It was a lot of work back to back and if I was feeling great I would loved this type of power workout. But because I was feeling so off, it just felt like a lot of work. But I did it.

Wednesday’s workout was an endurance day and it was also a run/row day. I was not feeling that much worse than Monday, so that was a bit of a relief. I was really worried I would be feeling really horrible that day. But I still was dealing with pain and nausea, so I didn’t make it that far in the run/row.

Because it was an endurance day, the run segments were a bit longer than a lot of run/row days. The first round was a .25 mile run (or 1 mile for the bike) and then a 200-meter row. Then it was a .5 mile run and a 300-meter row. I was working on the .75 mile (or 3 miles for the bike) segment when the run/row was done. I did take a lot of breaks on both the bike and rower, but I knew that was likely to happen for me.

On the floor, each block had 2 mini-blocks in it and the second mini-block of each was core work. We were supposed to do 3 rounds of the first mini-block before moving on to core work and I only just made it each block. In the first block, the exercises were goblet sumo squats, lateral lunges, and squats before we were supposed to do mountain climbers and static scissor crunches. And the second block had sumo deadlifts, squat sit to stands, and squats before we were supposed to do side plank hip rotations and bicycle crunches. Because I didn’t really make it to the core work, I didn’t have to worry that much about modifications.

Friday’s workout was a regular 2 group class, but we did it as a 3 group class and had 14 minutes at each section of the room. I was still feeling off, but it was less nausea and more pain, so in some ways that it was easier for working out.

For cardio, we had 3 rounds of a 3-minute block. We had a 30-second push pace, 1-minute base pace, and a 90-second distance challenge. Between each of the blocks, we had 1-minute to recover. And then we ended with one more 90-second distance challenge. I did use the resistance level for the 30-second push, but for the 90-second distance challenge I used the resistance level between my base and push pace. I didn’t struggle as much as I feared, but it wasn’t easy.

On the rower, we had a very similar pattern to cardio. We had the 30-second push row and the 90-second distance challenge. But instead of the 1-minute base pace we had 20 side hops which I did more as side steps. I was doing ok for the 30-second push row, but for the 90-second challenge I usually was taking a break in the middle to get over a really bad cramp. I don’t know if the bike or rower is harder when I feel bad, but at least for this day I was doing a lot worse on the rower.

And on the floor, we had 4 blocks to match the cardio and row sections. So we had 3 different 3-minute blocks and 1 90-second block. The first block had neutral thrusters with weights, bicep curls, and full burpees. For the burpees, I used the bench for my hands. And each round, you added one more burpee. So you started with 1 burpee, then 2, and so on. And you continued that through the next 2 blocks. The second block had squats using the straps, high rows on the straps, and more burpees. The third block had sit-ups, palms to elbows (I did them as shoulder taps), and more burpees. And the last block was a burnout block where you started in a push-up hold in the bottom of a push-up and when you needed to rest you moved to a plank. And you went back and forth for those 90-seconds.

And I didn’t work out on Saturday. There were a few factors that affected my ability to work out. I had some scheduling things that were going to make it tough for me to get to class (and on Saturdays there is only 1 time that I can go to without taking time off work). Also, the street where the studio is located was closed so we were told we would need to park a few blocks away and walk. Normally, this would be fine but because of my schedule I wouldn’t make it to class on time because you can’t be that late. So instead of worrying about if I could make it to class or not, I canceled my Saturday workout. And I’m sure that was the right choice.

But this week, I might also need to cancel my Saturday workout, but because I know about this in advance I’m hoping I can find a time to add in another workout. I’m not exactly sure when I can do that, but I’ll see what I can do. And if this week ended up being another 3 workout week, it will be ok. Because I know I’ll be making it up when we have Hell Week later this month!

PRs and Pain (or A Very Up And Down Week)

This past week of workouts really was a mixed bag for me. I had some great moments and some not great moments. But fortunately for me, I was expecting the not-great moments so they didn’t surprise me too much. But the great moments were a surprise and that made things even better!

Monday’s workout was a benchmark workout. I have done a few benchmarks since returning to OTF, and they haven’t been the best for me. But I also have known that I’m not back to where I was before, so I’m not too upset when I don’t get close to my PR.

This time, the benchmark was the 1-mile run. I used to do this on the treadmill, but now it’s on the bike and that means I go for 4 miles. I didn’t look at my past benchmarks before class because I just wanted to do my best and not judge myself against my past self. I kept the resistance level between my base and push pace levels and tried to let my focus be on anything other than the clock. I checked my distance every so often, and I didn’t pay too much attention to the time until I was almost done so I could make sure I knew what my final time was.

I finished in 8:19 and that seemed pretty great to me. But it wasn’t until class was done that I could check my past benchmarks and I discovered that I PRed on my mile challenge on the bike! I know it’s not a huge difference from my old PR, but 3 seconds faster is 3 seconds faster!

The second block on cardio was a bit easier with rounds of 45-seconds of an all-out and 1-minute to recover between.

On the floor, the first block was a bit easier than normal because the people who started on the floor had to do it before the benchmark. We had some warmups with high knees, front and back steps, and skips. Then we had bird dog low rows with weights, chest presses, and plank work. And the second floor block had lateral step-ups (I did lateral lunges), heel touch crunches, and v-ups.

Wednesday’s workout was a strength day, and I was feeling really off. I wasn’t sure if this was my usual pain and nausea kicking in earlier than expected or if I had a bit of food poisoning or something like that. I was just feeling nauseous and had to try to push through.

For cardio, we started with a rowing block with 1-minute intervals between push pace and base pace and ending with an all-out. I know my rowing wasn’t that great, but I did manage to do it with very few breaks. Then we had 2 more blocks on the treadmill/bike. We had 2 rounds of 90-second push paces at an incline with 1-minute flat road bases between. Then we ended with a 90-second flat road push pace and a 1-minute all-out. The first of the 2 blocks had higher inclines than the second block.

On the floor, the first block was a mini-band block with hip bridges, knee tucks, and crunches. The second block had goblet squats, lateral raises, and shoulder taps. And the last block had sumo squats, front raises, and side plank rotations.

Friday’s workout was an interesting one. I was feeling pretty bad that day, so I did have to go easy. But the cardio workout was a bit like the Everest challenge.

We had 3 cardio blocks that all had similar patterns. The first 2 blocks had a push pace, a base pace, a 3-minute hill, a base pace, and an all-out. In the first block, we went up the hill and in the second block, we went down the hill. The last block skipped the push pace and base pace in the beginning and went straight to the 3-minute hill. And we could choose to start at the top or bottom. I decided to start at the top and work my way down. I’ve done this workout before and that’s the way I like to do it because it’s nice to feel like it’s getting easier.

And on the floor, we had 3 blocks that all started with a 200-meter row. Then, within each block, we worked the same muscles to perfect our form. The first block had chest presses on the straps, chest presses with weights, and push-ups. The second block had low rows on the straps, hip hinge low rows, and seated low rows. And the last block had crunches, weighted crunches, and sit-ups. I did struggle quite a bit on the floor and had to take a lot of breaks, but I didn’t have to modify much for my nausea.

I was really feeling bad by Saturday’s workout. And this one would have been a challenge for me even if I was feeling great. This was The Nonstop, which is one of the signature workouts that I’ve taken before. And it’s always a tough one. This class was also a 3 group class, so in some ways that made it easier, and in other ways it was harder.

The idea for this workout is to just not stop during the blocks. The cardio and rower were the same, with a 14 1/2-minute block with no recovery. It was a 3-minute push, 90-second base, 2 1/2-minute push, 75-second base, 2-minute push, 1-minute base, 90-second push, 45-second base, and 30-second all-out. That’s a lot of work and it was really tough for me. I took a lot of breaks, but I did my best to try to do them in the base time. But for the rower, I struggled to do much so I didn’t have a lot of difference between my base and push. There is a goal distance for the rower, and I wasn’t anywhere close to it. But I did my best considering how I was feeling.

On the floor, there were 2 groups of exercises and within each group, you weren’t supposed to stop. The first group had squats, bicep curls, front squats, uppercuts, deadlifts, and hip hinge low rows. Every exercise was 5 reps and I used a weight that I knew I could do for all the exercises. So the weight was lower than I normally would use for some of the exercises, but I was able to do the entire set of exercises without stopping. The second group was all core work with static crunch over unders, heel taps, and bicycle crunches. I did modify the bicycle crunches to be regular crunches to each side, but I didn’t have to modify beyond that.

Even though I ended my week on a slightly down note with feeling awful, having the PR at the beginning of the week really did motivate me through the entire week! I was feeling so powerful even when I knew I was struggling and not doing my best. And I hope that I can keep that feeling going this week as I know it’s going to be another tough one. I’m going to try some different timing with the medications I take to see if it helps, but I also know that I probably will just have to push through like I normally do and see what happens.

An Unexpected Workout Win (or Really Just Happy With My Workouts)

Before I get into the recap of my workout week, I have an unexpected update from the Dri-Tri I did on Saturday. I never do the Dri-Tri to be competitive with others, only with myself. But a few days later, the studios posted the top 3 men and women for each location. I had shared the photo with a group text with my workout friends because my friend’s husband got first place. But then after I sent it I realized that I was listed as 3rd place!

I was beyond shocked, and still am. I know that it’s likely because not a lot of women did it, but I’m still taking this win. Especially with how it seemed like so much was working against me.

Now onto my regular workout recap.

Monday’s workout was an endurance day. I was a little sore after the Dri-Tri, mainly because I was trying to not take painkillers because of the burst blood vessel in my eye (it can make it worse if it’s still spreading, and at that point it still was). But it wasn’t the worst endurance day to do when you aren’t 100% there.

We had 3 blocks for cardio that all had the same pattern. We had a push pace, 90-second base pace, push pace, 1-minute base pace, push pace, and a 30-second all-out. Each block, the push paces got longer. We had 1-minute, 75-second, and 90-second push paces. I did try to push myself a bit, but was mindful of how I was feeling as I went a bit harder.

On the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block started with a mini-band mini-block. We had 3 rounds of a squat to leg raise and hip bridges using a mini-band. After completing that, we had a 300-meter row before continuing the first floor block. The rest of the first block had sumo squat front raises, bicep curls, uppercuts, and tricep extensions all using weights. And the second block had lateral step-ups, lunges, and sumo deadlifts. I did the lateral step-ups as lateral lunges so there was a little modification.

Wednesday’s workout was a power day and it was a crazy one! The cardio block was all about all-outs! The entire cardio block was rounds of 1-minute all-outs followed by 90-seconds to recover. And we did that for 10 rounds! Each time we had an all-out, I tried to increase how fast I was going on the bike. Around the middle, I tried to increase the resistance level too, but that was too hard to keep doing for a minute so I went back to just focusing on pedaling faster at my regular all-out resistance level. I think the hardest thing about this was having all the all-outs being 1-minute long. I feel like I’ve done a similar workout with 30-second all-outs, but 1-minute ones are so different. But I felt so accomplished when I was done!

On the floor, we had 3 blocks. The first block had sit-up to jump squats (I did sit-ups to squats and calf raises), lateral lunges, lateral hop-overs, and seated shoulder presses to standing. The second block was a core block and we had static crunch in and outs and toe reaches, both using the mini-band. And the last block had burpees, step-ups (I did lunges), squats, and reverse grip low rows. It was a lot of variety on the floor, but it was also a lot and I was getting a bit sloppy with my form toward the end.

Friday’s workout was another endurance day. And it felt much more like an endurance workout than the Monday one.

We had 3 blocks for cardio. The first block started with a 3-minute push pace followed by a 90-second base pace and a 1-minute all-out. The second block had 2 rounds of a 2-minute push and 75-second base before the 1-minute all-out at the end. And the last block had 3 rounds of a 1-minute push and 1-minute base before the 1-minute all-out.

And on the floor, we had 2 floor blocks and 1 row block. The first block had suitcase squats, lunges to low rows, and plank taps. The second block had sumo squats to upright rows, lunges, uppercuts, and plank shoulder taps. And the row block had rowing plus squats to calf raises. We started with a 100-meter row and increased by 100 meters each round. I unfortunately was struggling a lot on the floor because my hip was really hurting after the bike. But I tried my best and I think most of what I did wasn’t affected too much besides my rowing.

Saturday’s workout was a strength-based day, but it also was a 90-minute class! I’ve done one other 90-minute class before, and it was a great challenge. This class happened to be during my regular Saturday class time, so I didn’t pick it for that reason, but I also didn’t avoid the class either. I figured it would be a great way to close out my week and I was right. Just like the other 90-minute class, we had the regular 60-minute class rotations and then added on another set. So we had 3 blocks on cardio, 2 blocks on floor, 2 blocks on cardio, and 2 blocks on floor.

For cardio, the first 4 blocks had a similar pattern. We had base paces at inclines with a 1-minute flat road base between and ended with a 30-second all-out at incline too. The first block had 30-second inclines, the second block had 1-minute inclines, the third block had 90-second inclines, and the fourth block had 2-minute inclines. And the inclines went down each block as the time got longer. I did go a bit higher on the resistance levels than I normally go, but they were short intervals so it was a good way to test out what I can do. And the last block of cardio was 4 rounds of 30-second all-outs that had decreasing inclines each time.

On the floor, we had a lot of variety in the exercises. For the first part of class, we had chest presses with weights, squats to bicep curls, knee tucks, rollouts on the ab dolly, high rows on the straps, and y-raises. We also had a little bit of rowing with stroke drills (the floor work from the first part of class is a bit of a blur so I don’t remember what was each block). When we were in the bonus floor blocks for the 90-minute class, the first block was on the floor and the second was on the rower. The floor block had low rows with weights, chest presses using the straps, and knee tucks. And when we got to the rower we followed the same pattern as the treadmill with 4 rounds of 30-second all-outs with recovery time between.

I really feel like I had a great workout week this past week. Between how great I felt after my Dri-Tri and finding out that I placed 3rd and having another awesome 90-minute class, it really was great. I did have some issues with pain in my hips that I couldn’t manage the way I normally do, but I feel like I pushed through and didn’t let that stop me. I know whenever I have one of these good weeks, I always say how I wish I could always feel like this. But I also know that I also have to deal with the bad weeks. But when I have those bad weeks, remembering these good weeks helps me make it through that time.

My First Post-Shutdown Dri-Tri (or This Is Not How I Expected Things To Go)

When my Orangetheory studio announced that they would be doing the Dri-Tri, I wasn’t sure at first if I was going to sign up. I’ve done the Dri-Tri lots of times and I think I have done it every time my studio has offered it except the first time. But even with being back at the studio again for about 6 months, I still know I’m not back to where I was before the shutdown. And I didn’t know how I would do with the Dri-Tri this time.

But I forced myself to get over that feeling and realized that’s exactly why I needed to do it. I needed to prove to myself that I could. Even if my time wasn’t anything close to what I used to do, I needed to know I could finish. So I signed up and decided I wasn’t going to look at my old times to see what I used to do and go in with an open mind. I did have 2 ideas of what I would like to do, based on what I know I could do in regular classes. I was hoping I could get onto the bike (the last section of the Dri-Tri) before the 30-minute mark and I was hoping I could finish in under an hour. But I knew that I might not be able to do either, so I wasn’t setting them as big goals, just ideas.

The day of the Dri-Tri was a bit of a weird morning for me. I was still dealing with the burst blood vessel in my eye and it was looking much worse than the 2 days prior (this is normal, the blood is similar to a bruise and it can spread for a while before it starts to fade). I felt like I looked horrible and that everyone would be looking at me. And then when I was getting ready to leave for the studio, the shoelace in one of my shoes broke. I wasn’t going to wear new shoes for a Dri-Tri and didn’t have time to unlace one shoe and put in new laces, so I had to make it work.

And it turned out, I had even less time than I thought. I knew the Dri-Tri wasn’t at a normal workout time for me, but I wrote it in my calendar as being at 10:45am. So I got to the studio around 10:35 so I’d have time to do a little warm-up before starting. Well, I guess I wrote it down wrong because it was actually at 10:30! Fortunately, they hadn’t started when I got there and were going over all the rules. But I didn’t have any time to warm up. They actually were waiting on me to strap my feet into the rower so they could start. So from the time I arrived to the time the clock started was probably under 2 minutes. Not ideal and not something I had ever experienced before.

The first part of the Dri-Tri is the 2000-meter row. This is something we do as a benchmark so I’m very familiar with what I can do and what my time is like. Since the studios reopened, I have done this benchmark twice and they both have been much longer times than I have done in the past. I’m pretty sure the most recent one was one of the worst times I’ve ever had on it. And I knew that doing this row as the first part of the Dri-Tri meant I needed to be very careful to not go too hard and to conserve some energy.

Normally, they say to do 10 really hard pulls and then find a good pace and intensity to stick with. I didn’t do those hard pulls, I figured without a warm-up that was going to be a really bad choice). I just tried to find a steady rhythm and to keep things around the same pace the entire time. I also wanted to try to limit any breaks I might need to take. And I don’t know how or why this happened, but somehow the row this time was much better than when I did the row as a benchmark. My time was still slower than before the shutdown, but it was over a minute faster than the last benchmark. And I was able to only take 2 real breaks and 1 break where I was still rowing but rowing very slowly. I couldn’t believe that! I didn’t care that I was the last person on the rower (I think I had over a minute on the rower when everyone else was already on the floor), I did it and couldn’t believe that it went a lot better than I thought it would.

The floor is all body weight exercises. We had bench hop-overs, bench tap squats, step-ups (which I always do as lunges), push-ups, plank jacks, and burpees. I do little modifications t0 a few of the exercises. The hop-overs are done one leg at a time and not as a hop. The push-ups are on my knees. And the burpees are done using the bench for my hands. Because I’m not competing or trying to get into the regional Dri-Tri workout, it’s ok that I do these modifications. The floor exercises are split up so you do 2 rounds of everything. And normally as I’m starting the second round, I have a moment of thinking that I’m exhausted. And I did have that this time, but I was able to keep going. I just took the breaks when I needed to and then got back to it when I was ready.

When I went over to the bike to start the last second, I took a look at the clock and it was about 25 minutes in. So I had made it to the bike in under 30 minutes and that gave me a nice boost before starting the bike. This is always the longest section for me. If I was on the treadmill, it’s a 5K run (or 2.5K if you powerwalk like I used to). On the bike, it’s 4 times that. I’m not exactly sure that the distance of the bike is 12.4 miles, it’s listed as trips and not miles. But I know the bike needs to show 12.4 to be finished.

I knew I wouldn’t want the resistance level too high on the bike, but I also wanted to make sure it wasn’t too easy because that can also make it tough to go for a long time. So I had it either at my base pace level or the level between my base and push paces. I just changed it when I felt like I was ready for a change, I didn’t worry about tracking intervals or timing anything. I just wanted to go and base it on how I was feeling. When I needed a break for water, I did have to stop pedaling because I don’t have enough balance or stability to do that. But I tried to keep pedaling super slow when I could as I was getting my water bottle or putting it back. But for most of the time I was on the bike, I just tried to let my mind wander because I knew I’d be on there for a while.

I would check my distance every so often and mentally note when I hit different milestones like being half done or 10 minutes in. And I was making pretty decent time compared to what I thought I’d be able to do. The coaches and staff go to each person as they are finishing so they can mark the time and everyone cheers as each person finishes, which is really nice. I was one of the last people to finish, but I didn’t care. I got it done. And my final time was 55:51! I did it in under an hour!

Considering all the things working against me and how I wasn’t sure how I’d do in the Dri-Tri, I was in shock with my final time. Even one of my coaches said he was impressed that I did that well without having the warm-up before we started. I don’t know how I did it and I’m still in a bit of shock, but it happened!

And for completing the Dri-Tri, we all got a certificate, medal, and water bottle.

And yes, you can see a bit of my messed-up eye in that photo, but I was able to make it look much better than it looked in person.

I’m so glad I decided to do the Dri-Tri and didn’t let my worries get to me. I needed this challenge. I needed to see that I could do it and do better than I thought. I needed this proof that I’m not doing that much worse than I was doing before the shutdown. Even with all the things that were going wrong or not my way before I started, I overcame it all and did an amazing job!

I know that this doesn’t mean that I will instantly improve in my regular workouts because I approach those different from how I do the Dri-Tri, but I at least have a new record I can reflect on when I’m trying to see improvements and growth in my workouts.

And despite how I sometimes feel in the middle of a Dri-Tri, now I can’t wait until we have the next one so I can do it all again!

The First Part Of My Workout Week (or Getting Better From One Thing And Having A New Medical Thing Happen)

I’m going to be sharing just the first part of my workout week from this past week in this post. I’ll be sharing about my Saturday workout in tomorrow’s post because this past Saturday I did the Dri-Tri! For the other workouts this week, I was trying to mentally prepare for the Dri-Tri but also not overthink things too much. I was also getting over being nauseous and that affects my workouts quite a bit, so it did help me from going too hard and being sore on Saturday.

Monday’s workout was a strength-based class, and it was the day I was feeling the worst this past week. I wasn’t doing as bad as I had at the end of the week before, but it was still a struggle in class to get through a lot of it.

For cardio, we had 3 blocks. The first block started with a progressive hill with the incline/resistance level increasing every 30 seconds before having a base pace and then a flat all-out. The second block had 1-minute intervals with push paces at increasing inclines/resistance levels with flat base paces in-between with a 30-second all-out at the end. And the last block had rounds of push paces at an incline followed by an all-out at the same incline and then a flat recovery between each one. Because I normally use the resistance levels to be for my push and all-out paces, I went lower on those this time so that the incline work was not at the same level.

On the floor, we also had 3 blocks. The first block was a mini-band block and we had monster walks and squats to side leg raises. For the other two blocks we were supposed to do 2 rounds and then we had 200-meter rows after. The second block had sumo deadlifts, lunges, and plank reaches. And the last block had sumo squats, lunge jumps (which I did as regular lunges), and plank jacks. The plank work was hard for me to do with the nausea, but not unbearable. So I just did them using the bench and took a lot of breaks when I was feeling really nauseous.

Wednesday’s workout was an endurance/strength/power day and the first day I wasn’t nauseous since it hit this time. So I was ready to work hard, but I was still taking it a bit easy as I was still dealing with some cramps.

On the treadmill, the first block was all about 3-minute challenges. We had a 3-minute push pace, 90-second base pace, 3-minute push pace, 90-second base pace, and 3-minute run for distance (which was basically like a 2-minute push with a 1-minute all-out after). I kept my push pace at my normal resistance level and challenged myself to keep it there the entire time. It wasn’t easy, but the base pace after helped me get ready for each round. The second block was all about all-outs. We had an all-out at an incline, recovery, all-out on flat incline, recovery, and so on for a total of 6 rounds. So we had 3 all-outs at the incline and 3 without. They did get shorter each round, which helped (2 all-outs for 1-minute, 2 for 45-seconds, and 2 for 30-seconds).

The first block on the floor had hip hinge swings, single-arm low rows, deadlifts, and single-arm high rows. And the second block had single-leg deadlifts (which I did as regular deadlifts), single-arm bicep curls, and uppercuts. And for that second block, we were supposed to use the same weights the entire time and try to not stop during the reps until we finished all 3 exercises. So I had to go a little lighter on the weights because it was based on my uppercuts plus we had a lot of reps to do for each exercise.

Friday’s workout was a strength-based class, but knowing I had the Dri-Tri the next day I knew I had to go easy. I also wasn’t feeling super confident that day. On Thursday, I noticed a burst blood vessel in my eye. It’s harmless, but it looks weird. And on Friday, it was looking even worse (as I write this post on Sunday, it has continued to spread but I know that’s a part of the healing process). So I was feeling a little down and self-conscious, even though I don’t think anyone in class noticed it. The theme for the class was about doing drop sets, and even the cardio had that theme.

We had 3 blocks for cardio and they all had the same pattern. Long push pace, base pace, base pace at incline, push pace without incline, base pace without incline, push pace at incline, and an all-out. Each block, the incline/resistance level went up high and the first long push pace got shorter. But the idea was to have the base pace at an incline feel similar to what the push pace without the incline felt like. Just like earlier in the week, because I use the resistance levels for my push pace on a normal day, I had to adjust those levels so that the incline work felt different to me. But I tried to keep the levels a bit lower because of the Dri-Tri the next day.

For the floor, the first 2 blocks had rowing to start the block. We had a 300-meter row in the first block and a 200-meter row in the second. We were supposed to keep the stroke rate super low for the first half of each row and then sprint for the second half. I know some people struggle with the low stroke rate, but I naturally row pretty slow so that part is easier for me. Getting the sprint done was a lot harder. And all 3 blocks had 1 drop set exercise (where you go heavy for 4 reps and then you use a lighter weight for 12 reps) and 1 regular exercise. We had drop set chest presses and bridge rows on the straps, drop set reverse grip low rows and triceps on the straps, and drop set bicep curls and chest presses on the straps.

After my weekday workouts this past week, I was hoping I was ready for the Dri-Tri. I felt like I had pretty good workouts and didn’t push too hard so I wasn’t tired or sore. But I wouldn’t know until the next day. And that’s coming in tomorrow’s post!