Category Archives: Fitness

This past week of workouts was a mix of really great workouts and really bad workouts. I knew it was possibly going to be a mix like that, but I don’t know if I expected it to be such a big swing back and forth. But I managed to get through the tough days the best I could because I knew it would be better toward the end of the week.

Monday’s workout was not my best day. It was the day that I wrote my short post about how I was going through a tough time. When I went to my workout, I wasn’t feeling as bad as I did when I wrote that. But I knew I wasn’t doing well. And I knew that the workout had the 500-meter row benchmark and I really wanted to try my best for that.

The workout was a strength-based class, but the cardio work didn’t have inclines. We started with a 2-minute push pace, 1-minute base pace, and 30-second all out before having a recovery. We continued that pattern but took 30-seconds off of the push pace each time until we just had a 30-second all out at the end. I tried to start the workout with my normal base level on the bike, but I wasn’t able to do that. So I had to start a bit lower than that and I worked my way up to my normal base. But I wasn’t pedaling fast or consistent. I just had to do what I could when I could and be ok with that. The nausea wasn’t much worse than I normally have, but the pain was significantly worse and I was struggling to focus on pedaling when the pain was that sharp. I was so annoyed because I felt like I wasn’t really working out, but I just had to keep reminding myself that something is better than nothing.

When I got to the 500-meter row, I wasn’t feeling horrible and was even a bit optimistic that I could do an ok job. And when I started I was shocked at how strong I was rowing. My split time was so low that it would have easily gotten me a PR on the row. And I was feeling great for maybe the first 200-meters. But right around the halfway mark, my nausea hit me so hard and so strong that I was sure I was about to throw up in class. I never felt nausea that strong while working out and it scared me a bit. I immediately stopped rowing and worked on breathing through it and seeing if I had to leave the room. I was able to get through it, but my rowing time was ruined because of it. I was determined to finish the row, but I had to go very slow and easy. For the first half, I was pacing at 1:55 which would have been amazing. The second half I was pacing at over 4 minutes. I think it ended up taking me about 3:30, but I didn’t really look at my time when I was done and didn’t track it.

On the floor, I was able to do most things without modifications. We had swing lunges that I had to do as regular lunges, hollow hold chest presses, plank work which I had to do as high rows with weights while standing up, alligators on the straps, and rollouts on the straps. I did go slow with the exercises and took lots of breaks, but I was able to go heavy with the weights and I did get 2 rounds of all the exercises done.

I was still a bit nauseous going into Wednesday’s workout, but I was doing much better than how I was on Monday. Wednesday’s workout had a mix of endurance, strength, and power and if I was feeling awesome it might have been a day I tried the treadmill again instead of the bike. I don’t mind the bike the way I did before, but there are occasional workouts that make me wonder if I should go for the treadmill. And this one was like that.

For cardio, all we had were all outs. We had 4 all outs that were 1 minute long and 5 all outs that were 30 seconds long. The recovery time after each of the 1 minute all outs got longer each round. Then we went back to a shorter recovery when we switched to 30 second all outs but each round the recovery got longer. It would have been an amazing chance to work on my running and see what I could do, but I knew that my nausea wouldn’t allow me to try that at all. So I focused completely on my pedaling speed on the bike. I didn’t play around with the resistance levels since we were doing such short intervals. But I did try to pedal a bit faster with each of the all outs so it would be like I was increasing the speed on the treadmill.

On the rower, we had 100, 300, and 500-meter rows. Between each row, we had medicine ball exercises. They were supposed to be lunges with shoulder presses and tricep extensions but I modified the lunges to be squats. I struggled a bit on the rower, but since they weren’t benchmarks I didn’t feel the same pressure that I did on Monday to go hard and do them quickly. I took my time and took breaks when I needed to. I was seeing a pattern of needing to let the nausea pass after I rowed about 150-200 meters. It did break up the rowing nicely, but I would have preferred to not need breaks at all.

And on the floor, I had a lot that needed to be modified. We started with lunges (I had to skip using weights for this one to keep my balance), lateral lunges to half thrusters (I modified this by splitting up the movements into 2 different exercises), plank jacks to pop jacks (I modified this by using the bench for my hands), hamstring curls using the straps (I did weighted hip bridges instead), and sit-ups using the straps (I did these on the floor and skipped the straps). It was a bit odd that every exercise had to be changed to work for me, but they felt close enough to what we were supposed to do so it didn’t feel like I was changing everything.

Friday’s workout was better than the other days and I was almost back to normal. It was a strength-based class which meant I would have higher resistance levels on the bike. But it ended up not being too bad so I was able to handle it and my nausea wasn’t kicking in as much as I was afraid it would.

For cardio, the first block was coached and the second block was on our own. The first block was a mix of 1-minute push paces at inclines and 45 seconds of a base pace with no incline. The inclines weren’t that high so I was using resistance levels around my push and all out levels. The second block was .1 miles (.4 for the bike) at inclines with 45 seconds to recover after. .4 on the bike takes me about a minute so it was very similar to the first block for me.

The rower was also 2 blocks. The first block was rounds of 200-meter rows and 6 squats between each row. 200 meters was a good distance for me to work with and I was able to handle it without needed to take breaks. We weren’t supposed to reset the rower during that first block because for the second block we were supposed to do the distance we got in that first block and then 25 squats. The distance for the second block was a challenge for me and I did have to take breaks every 250 meters or so. But I did make it to the squats so I was proud of that.

And the floor work was 1 long block but we had drop sets within the block. We had drop sets of bicep curls and hip hinge low rows as well as regular sets of plank work and triceps on the straps. I tried to go heavy for the drop sets since that is the goal, but after one round I realized I couldn’t go as heavy as I wanted to without my nausea kicking in a bit. I was still using 2 different sets of weights, but it wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be.

Saturday’s workout was really amazing for me. I was shocked by how much better I was feeling compared to Friday. But that also meant that I would have a great workout and not worry too much about it. The workout was endurance-based, but it felt more like a power day for me. We had 2 blocks at each section of the room and we switched after each block (so we did 2 laps around).

For cardio, the first block had 2 rounds of push paces followed by a base pace and then we ended with a 90-second distance challenge. The second block was the same pattern, but the push paces were shorter and the base paces were longer. The goal was to get to the same distance on the second block even though we weren’t in a push as long. For me on the bike, I knew that wouldn’t be too tough to accomplish because I don’t really have a huge difference between my base and push speeds. I kept my resistance level at my base level the entire time and I ended up going further in the second block which was awesome!

On the rower, the first block started with a 150-meter row followed by squats. We then had a 250 and 350-meter rows with squats between and if you got through all that then you rowed until the block was done. The second block was the same except we started at the 350-meter row and went down. Just like with the cardio, we were supposed to get to the same distance in the second block as we did in the first. I struggled a little with the 350-meter row, but I think that was more due to being tired than anything else. And I was just about at the same distance between both blocks.

On the floor, the first block had single-leg squats, lateral squats, and hip hinge reverse flys. The second block had sit-ups to squats (which I had to split into 2 different moves), scaption raises, and plank low rows. The modifications I had to do for the floor work was more about my hip issues and not nausea. And I was able to go a bit heavy with the weights even though it wasn’t a strength day.

I loved that I ended on such a good workout. I felt like I made up for the bad workout days and that I am ready to go for this week. I might have 4 workouts in because I might be adding in an extra day, but if I go with what I have planned I’ll have 3 workouts this week. But one of them will be my family workout on Thanksgiving and I’m really excited about that!

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I knew this past week of workouts were going to be tough for me because my nausea was going to start at some point. I try not to stress out about this happening because I know I can get through it. But it doesn’t necessarily make it easier when I’m dealing with it. All I can do is work hard where I can and modify what I can’t do so they are things I can do.

Monday’s workout was themed for Veterans Day, so we covered all the sections of the room to celebrate the strength of different military branches. So even though my class was a 2 group class, it really felt like a 3 group one. It also felt extra tough, but I think it was designed to be that way.

For cardio, we had a 12-minute distance challenge. But instead of going at our own pace for the challenge, it was coached and we had different push paces or incline work. I kept the resistance at my base level for the push and all outs, but I did work with it for the incline work. And the end of the 12-minute challenge was 90 seconds on our own so I did try to go extra fast for that section. Then we moved to the rower to finish our cardio work.

The rower was essentially a 9.5-minute row for distance. We did have different times that we did the rowing together as a group and then we had a break to do squats. But whenever the break is doing more exercise, it doesn’t feel like much of a break. I tried to not rest during the rowing, but I was getting tired toward the end and was starting to feel my form getting sloppy. So when I noticed that, I took a quick break to catch my breath and refocus so I could get back to my rowing with the correct form.

And on the floor, we had the same exercises for each block. We had low rows on the straps, squats, sit-ups, plank jacks, and leg raises. Each block had a different number of reps that we were supposed to do, but it was always the same exercises. And at the end of each block, we had a 1-minute plank hold. I did change up the order I did the exercises (sometimes doing them in the regular order and sometimes doing them in reverse order) so I was able to do all of them at least a few times. But it was still hard with the high rep counts and having the same muscles getting sore each block.

Wednesday’s workout was a power day, and I was glad because that’s when my nausea started. Power days have the most recovery time for me and I really needed it. Fortunately, my nausea wasn’t too bad that day, but it was still causing issues for me from time to time.

The cardio was really interesting. We started with a 1-minute push pace to a 1 minute all out and then a recovery. Then we kept the push pace at a minute and did rounds with a 45 second and 30 second all out (with recovery after each all out). Then we repeated the round with a 1-minute push pace and 30 second all out before working the push pace down 15 seconds each round. It was fun working with the push to all outs so many times in a row. I kept my resistance level the same each time and focused on pedaling. And I did try to keep my breaks to when we were in a recovery minute since the active time was so quick.

The rower worked along with the treadmill but we didn’t do the same thing. We started with a 300-meter row and then 15 squats after that. If we finished those and the treadmill was still not to their recovery we had to hold a squat. Each round we went down 50 meters on the rower but the plan with the squats stayed the same. I got to the squats each time, but I never finished them before the treadmills were in their recovery. So I never had to hold a static squat. But it was a lot of fast work and fast rowing and I enjoyed it.

And the floor was 1 long block with mini-blocks in it. We repeated each mini-block twice before moving on to the next one. The first mini-block had push-ups and hip hinge low rows with weights. The second mini-block had push-ups with plank work and skater lunges. And the last mini-block had child’s pose push-ups and sumo squats to high rows with weights. I did all my push-up work using the bench and I had to break up the sumo squats and high rows into 2 different moves. But for some reason, it didn’t feel like that much modification even though I had to modify over 50% of the exercises.

Friday’s workout was a signature workout. This one was Catch Me If You Can. The goal is to hit certain distances at specific times to keep going. If you are on the treadmill and you don’t make it to that distance (aka get caught), then you power walk at a high incline for the rest of the time. You want to keep running because you want to get as far as you can over the entire block.

The odd thing about doing this on the bike is that if you don’t get caught you are pedaling for distance. If you do get caught, you are doing the same thing. I was very nauseous that day and I would have worked harder to hit the distance goals if I was feeling better. But it was nice to know that I could pretty much do the same thing either way on the bike. I made it to about the halfway mark with the distances before I wasn’t hitting the goal anymore. I wasn’t trying to take too many breaks while I was still hitting the distances because each break got me closer to being caught. But once I wasn’t worried about it anymore, I allowed myself to relax a bit and go easy on myself when I needed to. I think pushing myself might have been a bit too much because the rest of my workout was harder than I thought it would be.

On the rower, we started with a 600-meter row and then 20 squats. Then it was 2 rounds of a 300-meter row and 10 squats. There were supposed to be 4 rounds of a 150-meter row with 5 squats, but I only made it through 2 rounds before the block was done. Doing the 600 and 300-meter rows were so tough on me. I really couldn’t do more than a minute of rowing before I had a really bad wave of nausea or a horrible cramp. I had to take so many breaks to let them pass before I could start rowing again. But I knew that I still had the floor work to do and I didn’t want to push myself to a point where the floor work felt impossible.

I had to do a lot of modifications on the floor. It was supposed to be a day with lots of Bosu work and I didn’t use it at all. The only things I did without modifications were skier swings with weights and y raises on the straps. We were supposed to do plank jacks and crunches on the Bosu and I did them both on the bench. And we were supposed to do back extensions, but I can’t do face down work when I’m nauseous. So I asked my coach what a good modification would be for those and he told me to do lunges instead. I was glad when this class was done because I really needed to rest and recover after it.

Saturday’s workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power. I was having another bad nausea day, but I was trying to be hopeful that maybe this would be the end of the really bad nausea days and the rest of them would be a bit easier (I guess we’ll see if that’s true this week).

For cardio, we worked with both push paces and base paces at inclines. The goal was to feel the same way with pushes and inclines because they are supposed to be equally hard on us. The first block had a 2-minute push pace as well as a 2-minute base pace at incline. The second block had the same idea but they were 1-minute intervals instead of 2. I kept the resistance level at my base level for any work that didn’t have incline and used the level between my push and all out for all incline work. I didn’t worry too much about changing up the resistance levels for the hills to feel the same throughout because the nausea makes it hard for me to judge how I really feel.

On the rower, we started with a 450-meter row. We were supposed to do lunges with hops between each row segment, but I did squats since that’s easier for me. I really don’t like having to hop out of the rower and I can do the squats by just unstrapping my feet and standing up. After the squats, the row went down 50 meters and that pattern continued the entire block. The goal was to get down to the 100-meter row before the block was done, but I was working on the 300-meter row when we were done on the rower and moving to the floor.

The floor work had 3 main exercises and then add on exercises. The 3 main ones were full thrusters with weights, plank rows, and burpees. I modified the plank rows and burpees to be using the bench and I didn’t go as all out with them as I can when I’m feeling ok. The first round we added on sit-ups which I modified to bicycle crunches. In the second round we did the sit-ups (or crunches for me) and also straight leg hip raises. I didn’t finish the third round so I never added on that exercise, but that’s ok because it was back extensions and I knew I couldn’t do those.

I know we have a benchmark coming up this week and I’m hoping I’m feeling a little better for that. And I know the nausea should be ending this week so that is something for me to look forward to. But if it’s still bad through the entire week, I know I can just do what I can and I will get through it one way or another.

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I feel like the past few weeks of workouts have all had something crazy or dramatic. I’ve had to deal with nausea, Hell Week, fires, and other injuries. Things just haven’t been easy for me lately, but I’ve been pushing through and trying my best. And while this past week of workouts wasn’t simple, it was nice to have a week that didn’t feel like I was dealing with a lot of outside factors affecting my workout.

Monday’s workout was much more normal when compared to the past Monday when we had the fire. There was no more smoke in the air and most of the people I see in my Monday classes were there. I’m glad that the fires weren’t as bad as they were, but we are still dealing with a lot of fire danger here.

The workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power; but to me, it felt much more like a power day. We had 30 minutes in each section of the room, and that allowed me to get a lot of work done on the bike.

Cardio had 3 blocks. Each block had a run/bike for distance, a recovery, and at least 1 30-second all out. The first block had a 6-minute distance challenge and 1 all out. The second block had a 3-minute distance challenge and 2 all outs. And the last block had a 90-second distance challenge and 3 all outs. I started the first distance challenge with my push resistance level, but I realized to be able to do my best with the distance I had to put it back to my base level. And I kept that base level for the all outs as well because my coach encouraged me to use those to work on my speed and not the wattage I was getting on the bike. The 6-minute distance challenge was tough because I haven’t had a long-distance challenge like that in a while. But after we were done with cardio I had one of my highest distances on the bike I’ve gotten.

The floor work also was 3 blocks. Each block started with a row and then we had the floor work. The first block had a 600-meter row, the second block had a 300-meter row, and the last block had a 150-meter row. I was using the ideas I had learned the week before with how to use my feet to maximize my power. My power is still lower than most people can get, but it was higher than I normally do and I was able to do the rows very quickly. And the exercises we had on the floor were froggers, skater lunges, plank forward reaches, single-arm snatches, reverse chest flys, reverse mountain climbers, single-arm clean to presses, and planks with leg raises. I kept my weights a bit lower than normal because most of the weighted work involved my hips and I was having a bit of a rough morning with my hips. But I had good form and got a lot of each exercise done.

Wednesday’s workout was a strength-based class and it was also a switch class. We had 2 blocks at each section of the room and we switched after each block. It was nice to have shorter blocks and breaks after working hard.

The first cardio block wasn’t too much of a strength block. We had rounds of push paces to base paces with an all out at the end. There were no inclines/resistance levels used. But it was a block designed for us to really feel how a push pace feels for us. The second block had rounds just like the first one, but instead of push paces, we had incline work. The goal was to make the inclines feel the same as the push paces did without changing our speed. It was a good block even with the incline work and I enjoyed testing myself and what I could do on the bike.

The first rowing block started with a 100-meter row. Then we had medicine ball work and did a 200-meter row. We increased the row by 100 meters each round until the block was done. When we got back to the rower for the second block, we started at the distance we ended on and then decreased the rowing by 100 meters each time. I did have to modify the medicine ball work a bit to work for me, but I was happy with what I did otherwise.

And on the floor, we had cluster sets. Cluster sets are 3 rounds of the same exercise but with low reps. This allows you to go heavier on the weight than you would if it was 1 round with more reps. The first block had cluster sets of chest presses and the second block had cluster sets of goblet squats. We also had lunges, pikes, and plank twists during those blocks.

Friday’s workout was the only one that had a bit of a weird issue. I had my MRI on Thursday (more about that tomorrow) and I was dealing with a few odd side effects from it. I had a lot of soreness in my arm where the IV was and I was feeling very dehydrated even though I drank a ton of water the day before. I had to adjust things to work around these issues, but it wasn’t as bad as many other things I’ve had to deal with.

For cardio, the first block started with rounds of push paces to base paces. I only focused on speed and not adding resistance because the next part of the block was hill work. And the end of that first block was a 2-minute distance challenge. The next block was rounds of 30-second intervals so I focused on speed again.

For the rower, we started with a 90-second row for distance. After that row, we had medicine ball work and then we worked on rounds of rowing, going down 100 meters each time. The rower ended up being a struggle for me. The pain in my arm was really affecting me and preventing me from pulling back on the rower properly. I ended up going pretty slow so I could do my best, but I wasn’t able to do what I know I could do.

The floor had a few issues with my arm too, but it wasn’t as bad as the rower. We had squats, skater lunges, shoulder presses, deadlifts, plank pull throughs, and hip bridges. I did modifications on most of the upper body exercises to work around my arm pain, but it also ended up being a good block to stretch my arm out and I was in less pain at the end of the workout than I was at the beginning.

I think Saturday’s workout was my best workout of the week. I think it helped that we switched every 3 1/2 minutes so everything was really quick for me.

For cardio, we started with a 2-minute push pace, a 1-minute base pace, and a 30-second all out. The next block took 30 seconds off the push pace and put a 30-second push pace before the all out. And the last block took another 30-seconds off the first push pace and put it with the push pace before the all out. I did work with the resistance levels on the bike for all the blocks, but I also tried to focus a lot of my pedaling speed.

The first two blocks on the rower matched cardio. When cardio had a base pace, the rowers did squats. But we had the same push and all outs. For the third block, we redid the distance we did for the second block and held a squat for the rest of the time. I’m glad rowing was much easier for me than it was on Friday, but I did still have a little bit of soreness left. So I did take a few breaks on the rower to massage the pain away, but I was able to have proper form again.

And on the floor, every block had mini-bands. We had 2 exercises for each block, which was fine since the blocks were so short. The first block had full thrusters with weights and side walks. The second block had squats and overhead tricep work. And the third block had reverse flys and front walks. We were supposed to have the mini-bands above our knees, but I can’t get them to stay there without rolling and hurting me. But I was able to keep them below my knees and not rolling which is a victory.

People joked that this past week was almost like another Hell Week, and it was hard but in the best way. And I’m glad I had a week that was strong when I’m potentially going to have a tough week this week. I say this all the time, but having these good weeks really does help me feel better about the bad ones.

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After having 2 weeks back to back of weird workout weeks, it was nice to get back to my normal schedule. Having a routine sometimes is frustrating, but it also is nice to know what to plan for. And I was glad to be getting back to it (although I have realized that soon I’ll have another weird workout week coming up). The only thing that worried me about this week was I knew it was probably going to be a tough one. Not only was I expecting to have some pain and nausea issues, I knew Monday might be tough since it had been a while since I worked out.

Monday’s workout would have been a tough one even if I hadn’t had a long break. We had a 23-minute row, which felt like something from Hell Week. Since I started on cardio, I didn’t have to start with the row. I started with the cardio/floor work.

For the cardio/floor work, we had one long block. It started with a .25 mile with cardio (1 mile on the bike) and then we had our floor exercises. We had hip hinge swings, chest flys, tricep extensions, push-ups to knee tucks, rollouts, and v-ups. Then it was back to cardio to repeat it the same way. I made it through 3 rounds and was feeling pretty good considering, but I knew the rower was going to be much harder.

The rower was a solid 23-minutes of rowing. But it was broken up into a few sections. We had team rows where one person set the pace and everyone was supposed to row in unison, recovery rows where we could rest but keep rowing, and 500-meter rows on our own. It was not easy and it was a big challenge. The team rows were really challenging because it wasn’t easy to see the person setting the pace and it was easy to get out of sync. I ended up being the pacer for the row for the last team row and that did make it a little easier on me.

Wednesday’s workout was a power day. While I had recovered from not working out for a while, I was dealing with nausea. But power days seem to be one of the easier types to deal with when I feel off.

For cardio, it was all set at our own pace. We had different distances we were supposed to do with recoveries after each distance. I kept my resistance level on the bike at my base level just to keep things easy for me. And I tried to not take a break doing each distance unless I was really nauseous. Fortunately, the distances were pretty short so I was almost always able to do that.

On the rower, we started with a 300-meter row with frogger squats after. We went down 50 meters on the row but then did that distance twice. Each time we went down in distance we added another round. I was doing ok with the rowing at first, but my nausea really started to kick in so I had to take it easy toward the end of the block.

And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had skier swings, hip hinge low rows, and Y raises. And the second block had clean to presses, pop jacks (which I modified using the bench), and low rows on the straps. It wasn’t my best floor block, but it wasn’t my worst either.

Friday’s workout was an endurance day, and it was also my toughest day. I was feeling so rotten and my medications didn’t seem to take the edge off of anything. It really became a day to just get through the workout and not focus too much on what I was doing and how much effort I was putting into it.

The cardio was rounds of push paces to all outs. I kept my bike resistance level at my base level and just tried to keep pedaling. I was taking a lot of breaks and the only sweat I had was from nausea. It was one of the worst cardio blocks that I could remember and honestly, I hope I never have a cardio block like that again.

The rower block started with rounds of 150-meter rows with tricep work in between each row. We did that until the end of the first block and then we looked at the distance on the rower. The second block was to repeat the distance from the first row and then there were more exercises. I didn’t actually finish rowing the repeat distance so I don’t know what everyone else did after that. I just worked on rowing and taking the multiple breaks I needed.

On the floor, we had a lot of lower body work. We had single leg sit to stands, swing lunges, and step-ups (which I modified to be regular lunges). We did those on both the left and right side and then we had core work with double crunches, sit-ups, and bicycles. The floor work went much better than the bike or rower, so it was nice to end on a slightly better note after a pretty bad workout.

Saturday’s workout was a strength day, and even though I was still feeling off I decided to make an effort and use the resistance levels on the bike. I was still going easy on myself, but I was trying to push myself a bit more than I had the day before.

Cardio had 2 blocks. Both blocks started with a 2-minute distance challenge and I kept the resistance level at my base level for those. Then we had a 3-minute hill with decreasing incline every 30 seconds. I used the resistance levels for this part and I did use the levels I was supposed to use. And each block ended with an all out which I did at my base level but working on pedaling faster.

The rower was all about stroke drills. Stroke drills are when you go slowly and focus on maximizing the distance with each pull on the rower. We started with 15 strokes and then we had overhead presses with the medicine ball. We repeated the 15 stroke round before moving to 14 strokes (and repeating that before decreasing). I like stroke drills because it gives me time to focus on my form. And I think this was the best rowing option for me when I wasn’t feeling great.

And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had seated bicep curls, low rows, and plank work (modified by using the bench). And the second block had overhead tricep work, chest presses, and toe reaches. This wasn’t that bad of a floor block for me, but I also know that I wasn’t pushing myself as much as I had with cardio. But I have to be gentle with myself sometimes and this was one of those times.

I’m looking forward to hopefully feeling better this week. I know the beginning of the week will possibly be bad, but that should hopefully end just in time for Hell Week to start! I know Hell Week will be hard, but I do look forward to it as it is a great way to challenge myself. And hopefully, I’ll be able to accomplish some really awesome things during those workouts.

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This past week, I only had 3 workouts. There was a time not that long ago that working out 3 times in a week seemed like a lot. Now, it feels weird to not have my 4th workout. But this was done for a good reason. This week, I’ll be hitting a milestone workout and because next week is also a 3 workout week (with a weird schedule), I had to skip a workout last week so my milestone class was in a class I usually take. But just because I had only 3 workouts doesn’t mean I didn’t work hard.

Monday’s class was a strength class. It was also my first workout after I hurt my back/hip, and I was a bit worried about how I would do. I already know a lot of modifications for my hip issues, so I figured I would do those and then just see how my back felt while doing other things and modify them from there.

Usually, strength classes have a lot of incline work, but this time it wasn’t too much. We had 2 cardio blocks and each block only had 1 hill. The rest of the work was regular base, push, and all out paces. I used my all out incline to be my hill work, which worked out well for me. I was able to do some work on increasing my pedaling speed, even with added resistance, since I wasn’t as worried about what I would do for my hill work.

For the floor work, we had an interesting format with doing multiple rounds of low reps for a few exercises. The first block had chest presses, deadlifts, pike situps, and then a 250-meter row. The second block had hip hinge low rows, shoulder presses, and side planks. The chest presses and hip hinge low rows were both done as 3 rounds of 5 reps with 10 seconds of rest between each round. It was hard to do some of the floor work because of my pain, but I was able to get it done. Sometimes I had to take a little extra break time, but I always got back to it to finish out the exercise.

Wednesday’s workout was a workout to get us ready for the Everest Challenge. I will actually be missing that workout because of my schedule this week. I’m not sure if I’m sad about missing it because I like to challenge myself or a bit happy because it’s not my favorite challenge. But either way, I’m glad I had the Everest prep day so I got to do a mini-Everest workout.

For cardio, we had a modified version of what the challenge is like. We started with 6 minutes of increasing the incline/resistance level every minute. Then we had a walking recovery before going back to the incline/resistance level we ended at and working out way down the levels to get back to flat incline. I did start my bike resistance level lower than my normal base is to make sure I could keep increasing it every minute. And it did feel really tough when I got to the top, but it wasn’t the highest level I’ve worked at. Considering that I was still dealing with pain, I was impressed with what I was able to do.

For the rower, all of the rowing was 200 meters. We were supposed to do different types of squats with a medicine ball after each row. We started with regular squats and had rounds of 5, 10, and 15 reps. Then they were supposed to be squats to overhead presses (with the same rounds of reps). I modified that one to just be overhead presses because the squats were starting to hurt. And the last exercise between the rows was supposed to be jump squats with the medicine ball, but I just skipped doing those and rowed more.

And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had chest presses on the straps, high rows with weights, and plank work. And the second block had tricep extensions on the straps, low rows with weights, and side plank extensions. These exercises weren’t as hard on my back as the Monday exercises were, but they still were tough and I had to rest a lot more often than I’m used to.

Friday’s workout was also a strength day, but just like Monday, it didn’t have a lot of incline work for cardio. It was also the first day that I didn’t have to think too much about my back/hip hurting. I was still in pain, but the pain was finally closer to what I’m used to dealing with every day.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks that were similar. We had a long push pace, a base pace, another long push pace, a base pace, and an all out. In the first block, the long push paces were 2.5 and 2 minutes. And in the second block, the long push paces were 1.5 and 1 minute. And the second block had the all out at an incline, which was the only incline work that we had for all of the cardio work.

On the rower, it was supposed to be long rows plus jumping jacks. I can’t do jumping jacks when I feel great, let alone when I’m still in a little pain. So instead of doing them, I spent the entire block just rowing. I tried my best to only take breaks when it was supposed to be when I would have been doing jumping jacks, but I was tired. The first row was supposed to be 1000 meters, then 500 meters, and 250 meters. I wasn’t able to do 1000 meters without a break, but I had also worked hard during cardio which made me feel ok about taking those breaks.

And on the floor, we had 2 blocks as well. The first block had sumo squats while holding a weight, shoulder presses with weights, hip bridges, and bird dog planks. And the second block had deadlifts, bicep curls, and plank pull-throughs. The only real modification I made was with the bicep curls. I’ve learned that my form isn’t as strong when I’m doing both arms at the same time. So even if they aren’t single arm bicep curls, I do those instead since I know I can lift heavier and do the exercise with the best form. For all the work except the shoulder presses, I tried to go heavy with my weights. I wasn’t doing the heaviest weights I’ve ever done, but I was close.

It really was weird to not go to workout on Saturday. I’m so used to my routine and I had to think about not putting on my workout clothes as I got ready to log in for work. And I did miss not having my workout, but I know it’s for a good reason. This week will be a huge milestone and I’m so excited about it!

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