Category Archives: Fitness

I knew 2 things going into this past week of workouts. First, I would still be dealing with nausea and pain and I know how much that affects my workouts. And second, I was going to be doing the Dri–Tri on Saturday. The Dri-Tri is going to be a separate post because I have a lot of say about how that went. But for my regular workouts, I knew that I had to find a balance of getting ready for how intense the Dri-Tri is and taking it easy so I’m not too tired by Saturday. The nausea actually helped me balance that since the days I was feeling the worst had to be easy days.

Monday’s workout was a power day, and it was the worst nausea day of the week.  I’m glad it was a power day because I knew things wouldn’t be as long and there would be more opportunities to have a bit of a break.

For cardio, we had 3 blocks that all had the same pattern. We had a push pace, an all-out, a walking recovery, a push pace, a base pace, and an all-out to finish the block. The times of each interval switched up between the blocks but having the same pattern was helpful. I did play around with the resistance levels on the bike for the long push and all-outs, but when the intervals were shorter I just focused on pedaling faster.

On the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had pullovers with weights, sit-ups to squats, lateral raises with weights, and bench hop overs. After doing one round of the exercises, we also had a 200-meter row. I tried to go a bit heavy with the weights even though it was a power day because I wanted to make up for what I couldn’t do on the bike. And when I had the 200-meter row, I ended up being pretty slow. The second block had single-arm weighted work, plank low rows with weights, and squats. There was also supposed to be a 200-meter row at the end of each round, but because I was struggling by that point I skipped the row.

Wednesday’s workout was an endurance day. I was finally starting to feel better so I was able to do more than I could on Monday. The cardio block was one long block that had rounds of push paces with base paces after. All of the base paces were 1 minute, but the push paces increased every round. We started with a 30-second push and went all the way up to a 3-minute push. And the cardio ended with an all-out. I was feeling really good during the cardio block and it helped me feel a bit more confident about the bike portion of the Dri-Tri.

The rowing was a single block. We started with a 500-meter row and then we had squats with front raises using the medicine ball. We repeated it with a 300-meter and 100-meter row. Then we went back up the rows with 100, 300, and 500-meter rows.

And the floor was 1 block but it had 3 mini-blocks within it. Each mini-block was supposed to be done 3 times before moving on to the next mini-block. The first mini-block had bicep curls and skier swings. The second mini-block had lateral raises and hip hinge swings. And the last mini-block had lunges and hip hinge high rows. All of the exercises were with weights, but I wasn’t going too heavy because it was a lot of work and a lot of reps.

Friday’s workout was a power day and it was my last workout before the Dri-Tri so I knew I had to make sure I didn’t go too hard. Power days are easy to push myself, but if I did that then my Dri-Tri would suffer. And I was finally not feeling nauseous so I was optimistic that I wouldn’t be nauseous for the Dri-Tri, which I was afraid of.

Cardio had 2 blocks with similar formats. We had a push pace, base pace, all-out, walking recovery, and then 2 more all-outs with walking recoveries. The first block had 1-minute intervals and the second block had 30-second intervals. I did work with the resistance levels for the first block but skipped them on the second to focus on pedaling faster. I knew with the Dri-Tri that I wouldn’t be using the resistance levels so fast pedaling was important to work on.

The rowing was also 2 blocks. The first block started with a 200-meter row and then we were supposed to do lunges with medicine ball raises, but I modified those to be squats with medicine ball raises. Then we had a 150 and 100-meter rows with the same exercise between each row. The second block was timed rows with the same exercise, but I wanted to get some extra rowing time in to be ready for the next day. So I just rowed as long as I could without breaks for that block. I was feeling discouraged because I wasn’t able to row that long without a break, but I tried to remember that in the Dri-Tri the rowing would be the first thing and I wouldn’t be tired from the bike.

And the floor also had 2 blocks. The first block had deadlifts, reverse lunges to hops (which I modified by using the straps), hamstring curls (which I switched to hip bridges), and rollouts on the ab dolly. The second block had lateral lunges, skater lunges, and knee tucks on the ab dolly. I could have gone heavier with the weights, but just like everything else for that workout, I was trying to go easy so I wouldn’t be tired the next day.

Even though I had some struggles with my workout week last week, I think I worked through them the best that I could and they even might have benefitted me. I didn’t overdo things before the Dri-Tri, but I felt like I got a lot of good work done that prepared me for it. I still had a little hesitation about how I would do with the Dri-Tri, but I felt as prepared as ever for it. And I’ll share how it went on here tomorrow.

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This past week of workouts wasn’t a great one for me. I knew it was potentially going to be bad because of my pain and nausea, and that’s what happened. But I’ve got the Dri–Tri coming up and I want to be as prepared for it as I can be. So I just had to work through how I was feeling and do my best.

Monday’s workout was a partner workout. We had a total of 4 blocks, and 2 of them were partnered ones. It was a good partner day, and I thought it was a good variety for the workout.

For both partner blocks, the rower set the pace and switching. For the first block, the rower rowed 200 meters and then they switched with the partner using cardio. We did that for 10 minutes and didn’t reset the rower the entire time. For the second partner block, the rower rowed for 1 minute before switching. Again, for the full 10 minutes, we didn’t reset the rower. The goal was to try to get more meters rowed in the second block than in the first. My partner and I didn’t quite make it, but we were close.

There was also a regular cardio and regular floor block. For cardio, it was rounds of push to base paces. We started with a 3-minute push and it went down 1 minute each time. The base paces were 1 minute every time. And at the end of the block, we had a 1 minute all out. And on the floor, we had step ups, shoulder presses, and mountain climbers. The regular blocks were a nice break from the constant switching during the partner blocks.

Wednesday’s workout was a strength day. It was also a switch day and we had 2 blocks at each section of the room. I was starting to deal with nausea so it made things a little tough for me. But it did help that it was a switch day so I had a few extra breaks.

Cardio was a lot of hill work. Both blocks were the same. We started with a 1-minute hill, then a 90-second hill, and ended with a 2-minute hill. Between each hill segment we had 45 seconds to recover at a flat incline. I did play around with the resistance levels on the bike, but I didn’t go as high as I would have gone if I was feeling ok. But I still did more than I would have done if we didn’t have hill work.

On the rower, the first block was distance rows with medicine ball squats. We had a 100-meter row, 300-meter row, and 450-meter row. I just got through those when the block ended. And the second block was timed with cardio with doing the rows while the treadmills were doing the hill work and then we were supposed to do the medicine ball squats again while cardio had their recoveries. But I was feeling pretty rotten by that second block so I skipped the squats and just did recovery rowing.

And on the floor, we had a block of upper body work and a block of lower body work. The upper body work block had chest flys, chest presses, and single arm low rows using the weights. And the lower body work block had deadlifts, sumo squats, and plank reaches. I tried to go heavy with the weights as much as I could, but for the upper body work I had to go down to lighter weights because my arms were feeling oddly weak.

Friday’s workout was a benchmark class. We had the 12-minute run/bike for distance. I knew going into the class that I wasn’t going to break a record because my nausea was hitting me really hard. I had a goal idea in my head, but I also set it very low because I knew it would be tough.

My plan for the 12 minute distance challenge was to try to use my usual push resistance level on the bike as long as I could. I only lasted about a minute before I went down to my base resistance level. I was able to stay at my base level the rest of the time and never had to go below that. And I tried to do little intervals of pedaling harder when I wasn’t feeling too sick. That plan ended up working out because I did go further than my goal distance which was nice. I was still pretty far off from my past benchmark distances, but I tried to remember that those were done when I was feeling better.

The rowing block was supposed to be rounds of rowing with either frogger squats or lunges between each row. I don’t usually do the lunges during the rowing blocks and I didn’t feel like doing squats as those have been making my nausea worse lately. So I just spent the entire block rowing and taking breaks when I needed to. It wasn’t my best rowing block (and I’ve got the Dri-Tri soon so that worried me), but I had to keep reminding myself that I was not feeling like myself and I had to go easy.

And on the floor, we had 1 long block. We had bicep curls while balancing on one leg, weighted double crunches, push up to knee tucks on the ab dolly, roll outs on the ab dolly, single arm low rows, and triceps on the straps. I had to make a few modifications with the work. I did the push ups with my hands on the bench and did mountain climbers instead of knee tucks, I did the roll outs on the straps, and I did both arms for the low rows together because my balance was feeling off. I don’t love that I had so many modifications, but at least they felt like they weren’t too off from what we were supposed to do.

Saturday’s workout was an endurance day, and it was designed to be almost like a prep for the Dri-Tri. When the coach asked how many of us were doing the Dri-Tri, I was the only one who said they were doing it. It was pretty funny to see I’m the only one going for it from that class, but I was extra appreciative of the prep class.

Because I wasn’t feeling great, I was cautious about the workout. For cardio, we had 3 blocks that had the same pattern. We had a push pace, base pace, push pace, and all out. The second push pace got longer each block. I was using the resistance levels on the bike, but when we had the all outs I just kept it at my push level and worked on pedaling faster. I had to take breaks from time to time during each block, but I tried my best to push through them because I know I need my endurance to be up a bit for the long bike ride that I’ll have for the Dri-Tri.

On the rower, we were supposed to have long rows and then jumping jacks. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to do jumping jacks (I barely can do them when I’m feeling great), so I spend the entire block just rowing. I took breaks when I needed to and I needed to do it a lot. I was having some horrible waves of nausea on the rower and it was getting pretty bad. But I did stick it out and got a lot of rowing practice in.

And on the floor, we had all body weight work. A lot of it was supposed to be done while standing on the bench, and I had to modify them to be done on the floor. With my modifications I had single leg bench sit to stands, single leg reverse lunges while using the straps for balance, lunges with high knees while using the straps for balance, and scissor kick crunches. Just like on the rower, I needed a lot of breaks, but I made it work.

This week, I have the Dri-Tri at the end of the week. Hopefully, my nausea will be done by then, but I know there’s a bit of a chance that it won’t be. But I just have to hope for the best and see what I can do.

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This past week of workouts was another good one for me. I’m so glad that I’m getting a little bit of time of feeling normal and good when I dealt with so many weeks with nausea and pain. I know that I’m about to have the nausea and pain again, but I’m trying to take advantage of the time before that. And I feel like I did that for sure in my workouts.

Monday’s workout was an interesting one. It felt like a run/row but technically it wasn’t. During the cardio and rowing blocks, we switched back and forth every 2 minutes. For cardio, we had increasing incline/resistance levels each time we were there. I did work on increasing my resistance level on the bike since I hadn’t done a lot of that recently. On the rower, we had a 100-meter row to start and we increased the rowing 50 meters each time. And between each row, we had squats.

On the floor, we had 1 long block. But within the block, we had main exercises and add-on exercises. The main exercises were chest presses, hip hinge rows with weights, and shoulder presses. We did each of the main exercises twice and after it, we either had crunches or side crunch heel taps. Then we moved on to the next main exercise. It was an interesting format and a bit different from what we normally do.

Wednesday’s workout was a benchmark prep class. We have the 12 minute run (or bike) for distance later this month so this was a workout to get ready for it. For cardio, we had 2 rounds of 5 1/2 minute runs (or bikes) for distance with a 1-minute recovery between them. I kept my resistance level at my base level because I wanted the focus to be on biking the entire time and not being at a higher resistance level. It worked out well for me and I was proud of myself for what I was able to do. I did get a little further on the second one, but that’s how it normally goes for me.

On the rower, we started with a 90-second row for distance. Then we rowed 50 meters less each time we rowed and we had squats with the medicine ball between each row. My rowing wasn’t that strong that morning so I didn’t get as far as I should have in the 90 seconds. So I used 300 meters as the distance instead so I would have easy numbers to remember when I kept taking 50 meters off.

And on the floor, we had 1 long block with 2 mini-blocks in it. The first mini-block was bicycle crunches and hip bridges for 3 rounds. The second mini-block had suitcase squats, single-arm shoulder presses, leg balance curls, and chest presses. I wasn’t going too heavy with the weights for the upper body but I did do heavier weights for the lower body work to make up for that a bit.

Friday’s workout was a strength-based class. I feel like we have had a lot of those lately and it’s having me make up for all the time I wasn’t using the resistance levels on the bike. This time, it was a lot of resistance level changes. We had push and base paces at incline/higher resistance levels with some base paces at a flat incline between. It wasn’t easy because I was getting the resistance level really high on the bike and I wasn’t able to pedal as fast as I’m used to. But it was a good thing to do since I needed to get some resistance work in my workouts again.

On the rower, we had 2 blocks. The first block had 3 rounds of a 300-meter row followed by 10 frogger squats. We weren’t supposed to reset the rower during the  block so we were higher than 900 meters when we were done. The second block was to row the distance from the first block total. Then we had squats when we finished that. It was hard to row for that second block and I did have to take some breaks. But I did get it done before the block ended.

And on the floor, we had 1 block with mini-bands and one without. The mini-band block had squats with weights, lateral walks, and plank toe taps. The other block had goblet squats, tricep kickbacks with weights, and leg raises to crunches. The mini-band work was hard on my hips and I was starting to have some hip pain, but nothing unexpected for me. The second block was much better for me and I was able to use some heavy weights.

Saturday’s workout felt like a tornado workout because we were switching every 4 minutes or so. We were constantly moving which is something I like in my workouts. It doesn’t give me enough time to get tired and I feel like I work harder.

For cardio, we had the same block every time. We had a push pace, base pace, all out, recovery, push pace, and all out. That’s it. All the intervals were 45 seconds or 30 seconds. The recovery didn’t even feel like a recovery because it was so quick. And because we were doing such fast intervals, I didn’t change the resistance level on the bike during the workout. It was just easier to keep it the same for the entire time. But that meant I had to focus on pedaling faster when we had a push or all out.

On the rower, we had a similar format for all the blocks. For the first 2 blocks, we had a 200, 150, and 100-meter row. Between the rows for the first block, we had squats with the medicine ball and I did do those. For the second block, we were supposed to do lunges. But because it’s not easy for me to get on and off the rower and lunges are already tough, I skipped those and just rowed for the block. The last block was all 100-meter rows and we were supposed to do both squats and lunges between each row. I just did the squats between my rows.

And on the floor, each block had 2 exercises. Since we didn’t have that much time, it was better to only have 2 exercises to worry about. We had clean to presses with weights, squat jacks, lunges with a hop (I used the straps to help with those), high rows on the straps, pop jacks, and sit-ups. It was hard to not take too many breaks because I was tired, but I didn’t want to miss out on that much workout time either.

I was feeling really proud of myself after each workout this past week. I worked really hard and I felt it in my body too. I had to be a little gentle with myself on my rest days and I did work on taking care of myself. But having muscle soreness is something I consider a positive because it is proof of what I did. And I’m hoping I have the same this week in my workouts. And I’m extra excited about this week of workouts because my parents are going to be in LA and my dad is joining me for a class! I can’t wait to see how my dad and I challenge each other and what he thinks of the Culver City studio!

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I had 2 weeks of not so great workouts back to back. This past week of workouts wasn’t a week of amazing workouts, but it was the week that things finally turned around for me. I am so glad things were getting better because I was really tired of having tough days. I still struggled this past week, but on those bad days, I at least knew it was finally starting to get better.

Monday’s workout was an endurance day, but we also switched between blocks so that helped make it a little easier. I was still dealing with some nausea and pain, but it was finally starting to get a little bit better. I was tired of feeling so horrible and it was nice to finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.

All of the cardio blocks were the same thing. We started with a 2-minute push pace with a 30-second base pace after that. Each push pace went down by 30 seconds followed by a 30-second base pace. And we ended with a 30-second all out. I probably could have worked with the resistance levels on the bike for the push paces, but I decided to continue doing what I had been doing for 2 weeks with keeping it at the base level and working on pedaling harder. It’s been a different feeling for me in the workouts and it’s been interesting to mix things up a bit.

Between each block for cardio, we had floor work. The first block on the floor had chest presses with weights, push-ups, tricep work on the straps, and crunches. I had to modify the push-ups to be chest presses on the straps due to my nausea, but that wasn’t too bad of a modification. The second block had shoulder presses with weights, lateral raises with weights, plank work, and sit-ups. And the last block was all core work and I had to modify all of them because they were all face down things. It wasn’t the best block for me, but I made it work and it was the best workout I had been able to do in about 2 weeks.

Wednesday’s workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power. I was finally feeling more like myself, but I was also dealing with being nervous because that was the day we were getting the results from the union elections. Having an early morning workout was a good distraction from that plus a way to get some of that nervous energy out.

I continued doing what I have been doing with the bike lately with keeping the resistance level at the base level I’ve been working with and just focusing on increasing my pedaling speed. The cardio was a mix of push to all outs and push to base to all outs. And in the end, we just had all out on their own. After all the all outs, we had recovery, but it was still one long block of work. I think because things were changing up a lot it did work out well to keep the resistance level the same the entire time. It took away one thing that I had to think about and I could put more attention on my workout.

On the rower, we started with a 600-meter row and then we were supposed to do power jacks and squat jacks with a medicine ball. I modified that to be squats with an overhead raise and regular squats using a medicine ball. Then we had 2 rounds of a 300-meter row with the squats work. Then, 4 rounds of a 150-meter row with the squat work. I was working on the 150-meter rows when the block was done.

And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had to be modified a lot for me. A lot of the work was lower body work on the bench and I just didn’t have the balance to work on the bench that morning. So I modified it to be reverse lateral lunges using the straps for balance, regular lunges, crunches, and bird dogs (which is plank work). Since I was not dealing with nausea, the plank work was finally easier on me. The second block had lunges, skater lunges, and heel tap crunches.

Friday’s workout was a mix of endurance and power. I was finally feeling normal and I was done with nerves since the election was done. I missed feeling like me and it was so nice to have a workout that didn’t feel like I was only able to do a fraction of what I know I can normally do.

For cardio, we started with rounds of push to all outs. All of the all outs were 1 minute long but the push paces decreased. We started at 90 seconds and then went down to 1 minute, 45 seconds, and 30 seconds. After all the all outs, we had recovery. And in the end we had a standalone 1 minute all out and 30 second all out. I did the same as I had for a while with the resistance level staying at my base level. But I made sure to make this workout hard because I could finally do it. And it wasn’t easy to do so many all outs.

When I got to the rower, it was the same pattern as the cardio work. We had the push to all outs with the recovery and then the standalone all outs at the end. I tried to take advantage of the recovery on the rower because that was a lot of rowing time. I don’t remember having that much rowing without another exercise mixed in there for a while and I needed that break. But I also did feel great knowing I was able to do all that work.

And the floor was 1 long block with 2 mini-blocks in it. The first mini-block was all mini-band work. We had front walks, side toe taps, and static crunches with leg work using the mini-bands. And the second mini-block had upright rows using weights, single-arm chest fly using weights, and plank reaches. This was a great floor block for me and I was so happy that I was finally able to work hard and feel like I was putting in the effort and not just sweating because I was feeling so horrible.

Saturday’s workout was definitely the best workout of the week for me. I was feeling totally normal and was able to do what I normally know I can do in class. It was a feeling I had been missing and it was so great to have it back and to have that confidence again. The class was strength-based and we switched between blocks so we had a little recovery from one section of the room to another.

The 2 cardio blocks were the same. We had rounds of doing .1 miles (.4 for the bike) and every time we increased the incline or resistance level. I hadn’t been playing with the resistance levels for a while, but this was the perfect class to work that back into my cardio. I was increasing it to higher than my normal all out level both blocks which was really hard considering I hadn’t used the resistance levels for a few weeks. But it also reminded me that I could do it so I don’t keep skipping it in the workouts this week.

The rower had 2 similar blocks. The first block started with a 30-second row and each row increased 15 seconds. Between the rowing, we had squats with a medicine ball and tricep work with a medicine ball. The second block started with a 1-minute row and they decreased 15 seconds each row. We had the same medicine ball work between the rows.

And on the floor, we had 2 different blocks. The first block had single-arm clean to press with weights, rollouts on the straps, and half get ups (sit-ups while holding a weight overhead in one hand). The second block had ground to press with weights, high rows on the straps, and plank pull throughs. I was using heavy weights for the weight work to challenge myself so I didn’t get as many rounds in as I would have if I used lighter weights.

I’m really hoping this week of workouts will be a really good one. I’m finally past the nausea so I know that shouldn’t be affecting my workouts. I do have a little bit of random body pain that might affect things, but I feel like I deal with that better than nausea. I’m just glad that I made it through the nausea and have a bit of a break before I have to expect that again. I’m going to try to take advantage of the good weeks and work as hard as possible.

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