Category Archives: Fitness

A Week Of Mayhem (or 2 Perspectives On A Crazy Week)

Posted on May 27, 2019 | 2 comments

This post is going to be a little different from my usual workout recap, but it’s for an awesome reason. First, this past week of workouts was Mayhem Week, which is similar to Hell Week. All of the workouts were extra hard and if you completed 4 out of the 6 workouts you got a hat. I was totally excited to get the hat, but even more excited when my friend Andrew asked me if I wanted to collaborate again. He and I worked together in the beginning of the year when we discussed our Orangetheory goals for the year. This time, he was planning on doing all 6 days of Mayhem and a vlog for each day. He asked me to be a guest on one vlog, and since he was going to do all 6 workouts I asked if he could do some recaps for me!

So this post is all quick recaps of the workouts from both of us. Andrew (which will be the italics text) has something to say every day. I had a lot of rest days (which I will discuss at the end of this post) so I don’t have as much to say. But before I get into our recaps, Andrew wanted to share a little bit about his plan:

This year was my second All Out Mayhem at Orangetheory (kind of strange to write that) and, unlike last year, I decided to go beyond the minimum amount of classes to ‘complete’ the challenge and aim for all SIX days…

Those six days came and went and since I’m still alive, I thought I would give a quick review of each class (written RevRun-style, soaking in a tub of Epsom salt).

Sunday (Unrest)

Me: Rest Day

Andrew: To Paraphrase Maya Angelo, “people won’t remember what you said or did, but how you made them feel”. That’s me with this workout. I don’t remember what the format was exactly, but I do remember during it I began to question my plan of doing this 5 more days in a row…

Monday (Bedlam)

Me: This was the day that I appeared on Andrew’s vlog, so you can see a little bit about my experience on there. I was happy to have a 3 group class because we didn’t have nearly as many all outs as the 2 group class. I had to go a bit lower on my resistance level on the bike because all of the all outs were at inclines/high resistance levels, but even going lower than normal made it hard for me. I didn’t get as far on the rower as I would have but I still had a great time with this workout and felt amazing after completing it!

Andrew: This was the day with the 20 (Yes, TWENTY) All Outs on the treadmill. While it did have a “sticker shock” effect upon hearing it presented by your coach, it really wasn’t that bad -Although I might have preferred to start my Monday morning with the 3G version (only 12 All Outs). Spoiler: in hindsight this day ended up being my favorite.

Tuesday (Epocalypse)

Me: Rest Day

Andrew: This is when my body started to get a little mad at me. With this being my 3rd day in a row, my legs and arms really started to hurt. After class, I actually had to foam roll the backs of my arms (you can laugh) to relieve the pain.

Wednesday (Commotion)

Me: This workout was a bit weird for me because the rower at my station wasn’t working. So instead of having 15 minutes at each section of the room, I had 30 minutes on the bike and 15 minutes on the floor. But it turned out that the rowing blocks actually were almost no rowing but instead 30 seconds of rowing and then we finished the block with sumo squats and tricep extensions. The floor was all squats, sit-ups, and push ups. Everything was very repetitive and I was so glad to have work after my workout so I could sit and be lazy.

Andrew: I hated this one. Moving on.

Thursday (Disturbance)

Me: Rest Day

Andrew: At this point in the week, my body was giving up. I powered through however and made modifications to both the floor and the tread blocks to not make matters worse for my lower legs & feet (I threw the burpees away).

Friday (Pandemonium)

Me: This was the first workout of the week that I had my horrible nausea. I am so glad it started toward the end of the week because I honestly was expecting it all week. We had a ton of squats in this workout and they were unfortunately making me nauseous (which I don’t think has ever happened with squats before), but I just took my time and did them at my own pace. The floor was all upper body and went much better than I thought I could do with how I was feeling.

Andrew: I remember telling the staff at the front desk before that I was jealous they got to sit there while I had to go workout (I swear I like Orangetheory y’all, I’m just dramatic lol). By the end of class I decided I had put in way too much hard work & dedication to end the week with a less than average effort. So I spent the last 30 seconds at a 10.2 on the treadmill -super high for me!

Overall, I’m really proud of myself for sticking with my goal of going all 6 days. The point of Mayhem for me was to get myself back on track with my consistency and I think it truly worked.

*drains tub*

As you can see, I only did 3 days of Mayhem. I don’t know what I was thinking but I thought it ended on Saturday so my Saturday workout would have been the 4th day. I only realized my mistake when I was in class on Friday so it was too late to do anything about it. I had a moment of real disappointment and feeling mad at myself, but I got that thought out of my head quickly. I still did 3 days of Mayhem and 4 workouts that week since I did still go on Saturday. That’s not something that everyone can do.

And what Andrew did with doing all 6 workouts is even more incredible! I’m so lucky to have friends like him who inspire me to do more and work harder. Hopefully I will be able to do better with the planning for Hell Week and Mayhem next year.

Make sure you go to Andrew’s channel to subscribe so you can see all of his vlogs about his fitness journey! And you can see my appearance regarding Monday’s workout below!

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Posted in Fitness, Fun Stuff

Tagged challenge, fitness, friends, Mayhem Week, Orangetheory, workout

Lots Of Lower Body Work (or A Week Of Froggers)

Posted on May 20, 2019 | 1 comment

This past week of workouts was not what I was expecting. Every workout at Orangetheory is different, but we had a lot of similar things throughout the week. I definitely pushed myself and sometimes that is a bit much, but this time the pushing just led to soreness which proved I was working hard.

Monday’s workout was a themed class for National Frog Day (yes, that’s a thing). Every section of the workout had frogger squats as a big part of it. Sometimes it was an exercise in the workout and sometimes it was timed within a block. But there were a ton of frogger squats the entire time.

For cardio, every block was the same. We had a 30 second push pace and 45 second base pace that repeated and then we had a 30 second all out pace. After that we had a minute to recover and get off the treadmill/bike before we had 30 seconds of frogger squats. All 3 blocks were like that and the frogger squats weren’t too bad since for me it was the beginning of the class. I did keep my bike resistance levels a bit lower just to not overwork my quads before all the squats.

For the floor and the rower we switched between blocks. So when it my technically my rowing time I had 2 blocks on the rower and 1 block on the floor. And for my floor time I had 2 blocks on the floor and 1 on the rower. On the rower, we started with 10 frogger squats and 1 single arm snatch with a dumbbell on each side. Then we went down 1 frogger squat and up 1 single arm snatch. We had that for about 4 minutes before heading to the rower for a 30 second all out row. When we got back to the rower, we picked up on the exercises where we left off.

The floor was a similar pattern to the rower. We had exercises and then at the end we had 30 seconds of frogger squats. The exercises were high rows on the straps, knee tucks on the ab dolly with pushups, and ab dolly roll outs. The exercises weren’t too hard and I didn’t need that many modifications, but the frogger squats were getting tough. I have no clue how many I did over the entire workout, but they did make me sore and I really didn’t want to do another frogger squat for a long time after I was done.

Wednesday’s workout was an endurance day and it was designed to help get us ready for the 12 minute run benchmark that we will have coming up soon. I have a different feeling about running themed benchmarks now that I do them on the bike, but it’s not a bad feeling. It’s less pressure since I don’t have a big history of what I can do, but also a little uncertainty because of the same reason.

For cardio, we warmed up with a 1 minute push pace before having a recovery and then a 5.5 minute run for distance. I set the resistance level at my old push pace and it was a bit tough to maintain that the entire time. After the 5.5 minutes, we had another recovery before doing the 5.5 minute distance run again. The goal was to do at least what we did the first time. I was able to use the same resistance level and I got a bit further in the distance so I was very happy with that.

On the rower, we started with a 2.5 minute row for distance. I was able to get a little bit further than what I normally can do. Then we had lunges with tricep extensions using a medicine ball. For each round on the rower we were supposed to decrease our row by 100 meters and we kept the lunges with tricep extensions the same. Normally when we have workout plans like this I just use a round number for my rowing distance. But I decided to use my actual distance and do the math each time I was on the rower. It wasn’t too hard, but it did make the rowing a bit longer than it would have been with round numbers.

On the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block was all work with weights. We had shoulder presses, double crunches, and weighted hip bridges. I didn’t go too heavy with the shoulder presses or double crunches because I was still trying to be careful with my back. But with the hip bridges, I did go heavy. I used to be very worried about putting weight on my hips, but I’ve realized how strong they are and I love that I can use a weight that seemed impossible to me before. The second block had toe taps using the bench which I was able to do with holding on to the straps and doing a single leg squat as well as roll outs using the straps. The modified toe taps were tough and I had some issues balancing. I just tried to do what I could and sometimes that meant taking a break and having both legs on the bench between each one.

Friday’s workout was a power day and it had some really awesome moments and some moments that were a real struggle. But the struggle in the workout was something that I think most of us struggled with so having that support helped.

For cardio, we had 3 blocks that were the same. We had a 30 second push pace, 1 minute base pace, 30 second all out, 1 minute recovery, and then a 30 second push pace to 30 second all out. For the first push and all out, I did my new resistance levels since we had a bit of recovery after them. And for the back to back push and all out, I used my old levels since there wasn’t the recovery. I’m glad I have gotten out of the mindset that I have to stick to one set of bike resistance levels since I have been enjoying going back and forth and playing with it.

The rower was where most people in class struggled. We had 3 blocks and each block had a 200, 150, and 100 meter row. And between each row we had frogger squats. Most of us in class also took class on Monday so when we heard we had to do more frogger squats we were pretty annoyed. We were given the option to do regular squats instead and I took that option. My legs were sore after all the frogger squats and I didn’t want to do more. Some people tried them, but I think all of us were not happy that frogger squats made an appearance again so soon.

On the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had lunges while holding weights, lunges without weights, sit-ups, and full burpees. I did my burpees on the bench like I’ve been doing for a while and even with that modification they were tough. I think it’s been a while since I’ve done them so I was a bit rusty with the movements. The second block had lunges with single arm shoulder presses and pop jacks. I did the pop jacks with the bench like the burpees and had the same issue with not being as fluid as I would have liked. I wish the burpees and pop jacks had gone smoother for me, but at least they weren’t hurting me and I could do them.

Saturday’s workout was strength based and it was a great class to end the week on. I felt really strong and powerful and even though this was a strength class it felt like it was more than just that.

For cardio we had 2 similar blocks. We had a push pace, base pace, base pace at incline, regular base pace, and an all out. I used my old push pace for the flat push paces and my new push base as the base pace with incline. It was a great mix of using the resistance levels on the bike and I really pushed myself to pedal faster when we didn’t have incline work. I don’t know why I felt so amazing and powerful in that class, but I did and the cardio work match perfectly for me.

On the rower, we started with a 200 meter row and we counted the strokes. Then we took the number of strokes we did and used that for medicine ball squat front raises. Then we went down one stroke and one squat each round. The goal was to do the strokes on the rower slowly to not have the count be so high. A lot of people rushed through the row, but I took my time. I still did a higher stroke count than I would have liked, but it was not too high which helped me not to have to do as many squats.

And on the floor, we had a lot of weighted work and some Bosu work. The first block had single arm hip swings with weights, half get ups with weights, and pullovers with weights on the Bosu. The second block was weighted hip bridges on the Bosu, chest presses with weights, and plank pull throughs. I was glad to get a break from lower body work on the floor and I was using some heavy weights to feel powerful.

This past week of workouts really had a lot of tough work, including a ton of lower body work. But this week might make this past week look easy because it’s Mayhem time! Hopefully I do ok in those workouts and I can’t wait to see what happens because I am really on a high with feeling awesome!

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Posted in Fitness

Tagged fitness, Orangetheory, strength, workout

Still Working Through The Pain (or I’m Going To Stay Positive About This)

Posted on May 13, 2019 | Comments Off

This past week of workouts ended up being another struggle. As I mentioned last week, I did something to my back and that really threw things off for me. But at least the nausea was gone and I was ready to feel like myself again. That’s not how this past week went, but I think I did end up finding the best in the situation.

Monday’s workout was a strength day and I was ready to be back to normal with my bike work. I was feeling good (this workout was right before my back pain started) and I was excited to see what I was going to be able to do.

The cardio work did include hills, but they weren’t super high inclines. So I was keeping my bike resistance levels close to what I’m used to. We had rounds of hill work and flat road work and each round the incline/resistance level went down by 1. I started 1 level higher than my new all out level and didn’t worry about pedaling too fast. And it felt great when the resistance level was getting back down toward where I’m used to being after having such a high level earlier. When we had our all outs, since I had so much work using resistance levels I decided to have the level at my base level but I pedaled much faster. It was an interesting difference from what I’m used to doing. I don’t know if I’ll do that all the time for my all outs, but it could be something good to have as an option when I have strength days in the future.

On the rower, we had rounds of stroke count work. We started with doing 20 strokes on the rower slowly to get as many meters as possible. Then we had lunges using the medicine ball. Each time we got to the rower we went down 2 stokes. Because I was going so slow, I didn’t get that low with the stroke count. I tried to keep the stroke rate below 16 strokes a minute when with normal rowing I’m usually between 25-30. It is so hard to go that slowly, but I know that was the purpose of that workout and I’m glad I really tried to do it that way.

And on the floor we had 2 blocks and it was a lot of upper body work. The first block had bicep curls but we were balancing on one leg while doing them. That was definitely an added challenge, but I took my time and put my foot down to regain my balance when necessary. We also had tricep extensions on the straps and goblet lunges. And the second block had regular bicep curls, regular lunge, and tricep extensions using the weights. It was interesting to see how I felt between the two blocks since they were essentially the same exercises but different ways of doing them.

Wednesday’s workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power and because of my back I had to be careful with what I did. I knew that working out wasn’t going to make things worse unless I was careless in what I did in class. Every time I worked on stretching things felt better so I was hoping a workout would do the same. There wasn’t too much I had to modify which was nice, I just had to take things a bit slower.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks with a similar pattern. We started with hill work, then we had a flat road push pace, and we ended with rounds of 30 second all outs with recoveries between. For the hill work, I kept it where my push pace resistance level usually is. I didn’t want to strain too much because I was worried I would put that strain into my back. I did work hard, just not as hard as I would have done if I was feeling ok.

On the rower, we had sprint rows and we were supposed to do power jacks with a medicine ball between each row. I knew that I shouldn’t lift a weight over my head and I didn’t want to have to bend over to grab the medicine ball each time I was going to use it. So I did regular squats instead and that worked just fine for me. We also had all out rows to match with the cardio side when they had them. I was able to do a bit better with those rows because they were so short.

And on the floor, we had one long block. We had front squats with dumbbells, upright rows with dumbbells, double crunches, goblet squats, lateral raises, and swimmers. I had to modify the front squats because I couldn’t hold the weights up that high so I did them as regular squats with weights. I also had to go much lower with the weights for all the exercises. Some of the exercises did use my back so obviously I needed lighter weight for those. But even the goblet squats had to be done with a lighter weight because I just couldn’t pick up the heavier one. Considering what the workout could have been and the modifications I could have needed, I was very happy with the limited modifications I had to do.

Friday’s workout was a mix of strength and endurance work. My back was doing much better than it was on Wednesday, but I still had twinges of pain when I moved certain ways so I had to be careful with what I did and how I moved. Unfortunately, one of the ways I felt pain was when I hunched over to adjust the resistance levels on the bike so I had to be very careful with that.

The cardio work was a mix of push paces at a flat incline and push paces with hills. But because I struggled to adjust the resistance level, I just used my new base pace for the base pace moments and my old push pace for the push paces no matter if there was incline work or not as well as the all out. Limiting it to those 2 levels helped a lot because I didn’t have to adjust things that often. I know that it didn’t make the workout as hard as it should have been, but it did allow me to have very little pain while on the bike.

The rower had 2 blocks with similar patterns. We had 2 rounds of a 200 meter row, 2 rounds of a 150 meter row, and rounds of a 100 meter row. Between each row we had medicine ball exercises. For the first block we had medicine ball ground to presses and for the second block we had medicine ball front raises. But I couldn’t lift a medicine ball that way without having pain. So for both blocks I did squats with the medicine ball. It wasn’t working the same muscles we were supposed to, but the muscles we were supposed to be using were the ones that hurt. And for the rowing, I tried to keep my rows as close to my normal times as possible. I had to be very cautious doing them because I discovered doing the proper form hurt more than doing a sloppy form. So I had to be aware of my body position so I didn’t injure myself a different way by having bad form.

And the floor had a lot of upper body and core work which was a bit tough for me. We also had drop sets which ended up giving me a good chance to test out different weights to see what my body could do while hurting. The first block had drop sets with chest presses and regular sets with bear steps and arm raises. The second block had drop sets with tricep extensions with weights and then regular sets with shoulder presses and sit-ups. I did have to go lighter with my weights for the weighted work, but I was doing better than I had done on Wednesday. And the core work wasn’t as tough as I thought it would be, it was just getting into position that was hard. Getting up and down from the ground was harder than the actual exercises.

Saturday’s workout was an endurance day and fortunately my back was almost totally normal. I’m lucky that I only had to deal with the bad pain for a couple of days, but I’m also aware that if I go too hard that I could injure myself again or the little pains I have could last much longer. So I took that knowledge into my workout to make sure I didn’t do anything too crazy.

For cardio we had lots of push paces to base paces. The base pace always matched the time of the push pace before it, but the block had a lot of variety. We had 2 minute, 90 second, 1 minute, and 30 second intervals throughout the time we were doing the cardio block. We ended with a 1 minute push pace followed by a 1 minute all out. And just like on Friday, the only time I had a bit of pain on the bike was when I had to lean over to change the resistance levels. So I kept it simple like I did the day before. So all the base paces were my new base pace and all the push paces were the old push pace even if they were the shorter ones. Usually I would do the old push pace for the longer ones and the new push pace for the short ones, but it wasn’t worth it for me to worry about the adjustments as much. I did use my new all out pace at the end which helped to end on a good note.

The rowing work was 1 long block. We started with a 2 minute row and then we had medicine ball work. Then we were supposed to reduce the row by 100 meters from what we did in 2 minutes and repeat the pattern. Usually I would use an even number no matter how far I went in 2 minutes, but I decided to do the math in my head each time and do what I actually did. The medicine ball work were squats to overhead raises and calf raises. I didn’t do the overhead raise with the squats and I kept the medicine ball at my chest for the calf raises to protect my back. But I felt like I was doing work much closer to what we were supposed to do.

And the floor block ended up being one of the highlights of the workout for me. The first block was almost all work that involved stepping on the bench. Until last week, I wasn’t able to do any exercises like that and would have to do squats or lunges instead. I still had to modify the actual exercises because I can’t do stepping up and down, but I was still able to use the bench. We were supposed to do step overs with crossing the back leg, step down toe taps, and power step ups. What I did was balancing on one leg while holding the straps for all the exercises. Instead of the step overs I basically did single leg squats with crossing the back leg behind me. For the toe taps and step ups I did single leg squats with keeping the leg I wasn’t using to the side. It’s much closer to the work than what I used to do even with all the modifications. The second block was lunges with bicep curls or uppercuts and side planks, all exercises I could do. I had to be careful with the side planks while I was going from standing to the floor and back, but the actual exercise was not painful or difficult.

There was no way for me to know that this past week was going to be thrown off by my back issues. But I am so grateful that it really didn’t hurt my workouts too much. I did have new modifications to do, but I also was getting a lot of stuff done that I hadn’t been able to do until recently. I think there were more positive things about this workout than negative and that’s awesome! My back is still a little tender and I have a few moments of little pains, but I’m doing so much better and I’m optimistic the trend will continue that way.

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Posted in Fitness, Health, Tough Stuff

Tagged fitness, health issues, Orangetheory, pain, struggle, workout

Trying New Things When I’m Having A Bad Week (or Having An OTF First)

Posted on May 6, 2019 | Comments Off

I was really prepared for the worst this past week at Orangetheory. I knew it would be my week of nausea and I really don’t expect much from myself that week. I usually go into my workouts just hoping I can keep moving while I was in class and if I can do more than that it’s a bonus. What I never expect is to have a small breakthrough in my workouts. But this past week surprised me with just that.

Monday’s workout was endurance based and was having moderate nausea. I haven’t decided if I prefer having one horrible nausea day and the rest of the time being only a little nauseous or having moderate nausea for an extended period of time. This past week was moderate nausea for the entire week which made Monday a bit better (but the rest of the week a bit harder). But it helped for making the endurance workout a bit easier.

For cardio we started with a long 3 minute push pace and then we had rounds of 1 minute push paces and 30 second base paces with an all out pace at the end. The 3 minute push was tough to keep going the entire time, but I put my resistance level a bit lower than I normally would. The rounds of 1 minute pushes were a bit better and I felt like I could actually push myself a bit more. I ended up using the base pace time to stop and get some water (and let my nausea pass) so I didn’t really have a base pace during the workout. But considering what I was expecting to be able to do I had a much better time and did a lot more work.

On the rower we started with a 3 minute row for distance. The plan was to go down 100 meters on the rower each time we rowed and have squats with the medicine ball between each row. I usually try to use round numbers when I have this type of rowing workout so I just did the 3 minute distance row and then went down to 500 meters after (I did around 600 meters in those 3 minutes). The long rows weren’t easy, but it was nice to have the ability to zone out a bit while I rowed. I still had to rest in the middle of the rowing a lot, but I wasn’t too worried about that and didn’t stress too much about how far down the row distance I could do.

And on the floor, the first block had side lunges, regular lunges, and crunches. Those all went well and as expected and weren’t anything too crazy. But in the second block, I had a pretty great breakthrough. Whenever we have exercises on the floor that involve stepping on and off the bench I do something on the floor instead like lunges. But the first block already had lunges so I asked my coach what else I could use as a replacement. We worked on figuring out how I could use the bench a bit but I held onto the straps for balance and I wasn’t exactly stepping on and off. I was balancing on one foot while moving the other foot behind me. I’ve done something similar on the floor, but because I’m on the floor I’m limited in how far I can drop the back foot. By doing it on the bench, I had more room to squat down and balance. I still wasn’t doing exactly what we were supposed to do, but it was a big change from what I normally do and I felt how hard I worked after that workout! It was so awesome to know I could do something that I really didn’t think I could do!

Wednesday’s workout was a power day, but I ended up treating it a bit like another endurance day. My nausea was close to what it was like on Monday and I really was expecting it to be better than that. Because of that feeling, I didn’t want to overdo things on the bike and I really wanted to be able to zone out while I was on it.

The cardio was supposed to be different distance challenges with base paces between them, but I really didn’t want to have to focus on the distance on the bike and to do the math needed to plan it out. Both blocks for cardio were 6 minutes so I just kept my resistance level between my base and push paces and just went for the entire block. I had to take lots of breaks during the block, but I was grateful to have a steady resistance level so I could skip focusing on that. I know I didn’t get as hard of a workout as I normally do, but it was better than many nauseous days. And I feel like not having the pressure of focusing on the distance allowed me to do more work than I could have done if I was trying to keep up the pattern.

On the rower, we had only sprint rows. Both blocks had 200, 150, and 100 meter rows. The first block had overhead medicine ball presses between the rows and the second block had medicine ball front presses between the rows. The sprint rows were nice because they were done quickly. I know I was slow and not able to push back as hard as I would have liked on the rower which made them take longer, but they were still done faster than the rows I had on Monday.

And on the floor I had another chance to work on my new bench standing skill. The first block had high rows on the straps, double crunches, and what was supposed to be toe tap hop overs on the bench. I can’t do the hop overs, but I did a similar exercise as I did on Monday with holding onto the straps. This time, I balanced on one leg while putting the back foot back and to the side. I couldn’t do all the reps without standing on the bench again to get my balance, but I’m sure I’ll get there eventually. The second block had pullovers with weights, lunges, and skier swings. It was nice to have a floor workout that only required minimal modifications for my hip issues and no modifications due to my nausea.

Friday’s workout was the hardest day for me by far. My nausea was the same it had been all week, but I had not slept the night before. Going into a workout with only about 20 minutes of sleep is not ideal but I didn’t want to skip the class either. This was the time I feel like I really went in with the mindset that I’m used to having when I’m nauseous. I just wanted to get through it and doing something is better than doing nothing.

The workout was endurance based and I really took it easy on the bike. We had one block with rounds of decreasing push paces with 30 second bases between and one block with rounds of decreasing push paces with 1 minute bases between. I was using my old push and base paces and it was really a struggle. Exhaustion was hitting me really hard in class (although I think having my workout is what helped to keep me awake during work later that day) and all I could think about was trying to keep going. I didn’t do what I know I can do, even when I feel nauseous, and I had to be ok with that.

The rower was also 2 blocks. The first block started with a 300 meter row with squat front presses. Then it was a 600 meter row and we were supposed to hold a squat the rest of the block, but I didn’t finish the 600 meter row before the block ended. The second block followed the same pattern as the treadmill and we had push rows and ground to press with medicine balls as our recovery when the treadmills were in their base pace. After the ground to presses I had about 15 seconds each time to get ready for the next row so it felt like we didn’t have much rest that entire block.

And on the floor, we had 1 long block that was split into 2 mini-blocks. The first mini-block was lateral raises to front raises with weights, alternating shoulder presses with weights, and Y raises with the straps. The second block was goblet squats with weights, regular lunges with weights, and side lunges with weights. The regular lunges were actually supposed to be step ups on the step and I could have tried to figure out a way to modify that on the step with the strap, but I didn’t feel comfortable trying that when I was so tired. I need to be focused when I try things on the step and that day I know I wasn’t.

Saturday’s class was a themed class. It was May The 4th Be With You and everything was pretty much related to 4. We had 4 minutes runs and rows and 4 or 8 reps of things on the floor. It was a bit of a crazy class with a lot of switches, but it ended up being my best class of the week. I was dealing with some anger in my life and I was taking it out in class. Turns out working angry means you get to work hard and you feel better when it’s done!

The cardio and rower blocks worked together and had a run/row type format. If you were doing cardio you did cardio, rowing, cardio and if you were doing rowing you did rowing, cardio, rowing. When we were doing the cardio work, it was a 4 minute distance challenge. I set my resistance level to be at my old push pace for that and it worked really well. It was a bit tough, but considering it was 4 minutes without a break it should be tough! And when we were doing rowing it was 4 rounds of 100 meter rows with 4 frogger squats between. If we finished those 4 rounds we rowed for distance until we switched. Every time I made it to the rowing for distance.

The floor was one long block and it was focused a lot on upper body. We had chest presses, push-ups, high rows on the straps, chest flys, sit-ups, squats, and rollouts on the straps. My arms were still a bit sore from Friday’s workout so I had to take my time with these exercises, but I was able to get a lot of rounds done. I definitely feel the hard work I did still, so I might have gone a little too heavy with the weights, but it was totally worth it to me.

I still can’t believe that I had such great work during a week that I was prepared for the worst. I know that having these not-so-bad nausea weeks are a surprise and I wish they would be more often. But if I get them every few months that would be nice too. I got so much done this past week that I never thought I could do and it was a great boost to my self-esteem during a week that I had some struggles. Hopefully I can keep that going through this week too!

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Another Week Of Pushing Through (or Feeling Strong Before Feeling Sick)

Posted on April 29, 2019 | Comments Off

This past week of workouts was the week that my nausea was starting. I’m sure some people would not be happy to know that they were going to be getting nauseous, but I like knowing what’s going to happen so I can prepare for it. I also think it gives me a little extra motivation to push harder because I know that the next week I probably won’t be able to do so. I had some moments that were tough, but overall I was happy with how I pushed through things.

Monday’s workout was a partner workout, which I was excited about. I know that not everyone loves partner workouts, but they do give me a lot of extra motivation to work hard. And the last time we had a partner workout, I wasn’t really able to participate properly because I was dealing with a lot of pain and nausea. So getting to do one on Monday was awesome.

The workout had 2 blocks and for both blocks the person on the floor controlled the switching. For both blocks the person on the treadmill (or bike in my case) went at a push pace until we were tagged to switch. On the rower the first block was rounds of 100 meter rows and squats and the second block was rounds of 30 second rows and squats. You didn’t reset the rower during the entire block and the goal was to go further on the row in the second block than the first. My group didn’t accomplish that, but that’s ok.

The first block on the floor had squats, plank low rows with weights, and crunches. We started at 12 reps and every time you returned to the floor you increased your reps by 2. And the second block had tricep work with weights, plank reaches, and sit-ups. For the second block we started at 20 reps and went down by 2 every time you got back to the floor.

As far as the timing goes, I think my group was pretty equal. If the person on the treadmill or rower controlled the switching I would have been a bit more concerned that I would be the slow one in the group. But on the floor I feel like I’m pretty average along with the other people in my class. I tried to limit my breaks to when I was on the bike since that was the time that my partners weren’t depending on me and I managed to do that for almost all the water breaks I needed. But I also had a good group and we all understood if someone needed to drink some water or catch their breath while on the floor.

Because of how the partner workouts go, I really don’t know how well I did on the bike or rower. I kept my bike resistance level at my old push pace just to make things easy on me since I didn’t always know how long I would be on there. But I do feel like I worked really hard and that’s the most important thing.

Wednesday’s workout was strength based and it ended up being the start of my nausea. Fortunately, the workout kind of worked well with being nauseous so I didn’t feel like too much was affected.

For cardio, we had base paces at no incline and then each block we had a little more incline work. I was able to just increase my resistance on the bike by 1 each time we had a bit more work so I was never that high on the resistance level. I was still doing a bit of a hill workout, but it was much less intense that it was supposed to be. But that worked well for taking it easy in class.

On the rower, we started with 4 rounds of a 150 meter row and squat front raises. Then we had 2 rounds of 300 meter rows with squat front raises. The block ended with a 600 meter row and I was working on that when the block ended. My rowing wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great. It’s frustrating when I’m in that middle space because I feel like it would only be a little more effort to do my normal rowing. But that little extra effort just isn’t possible when I feel nauseous.

The floor had 3 blocks and all the blocks included drop sets. Drop sets are when you have a small number of reps with a heavy weight immediately followed by a larger number of reps with a lower weight. I like doing them because I feel like I get to lift really heavy but I still get to do a lot of reps. The first block had drop sets for hip hinge low rows and then we had core work. The second block had drop sets for shoulder presses and hip hinge low rows with core work. And the last block had drop sets for goblet squats, shoulder presses, and hip hinge low rows without the core work. All of the floor work was stuff that was fine for me to do when I’m nauseous so it was a high point to end my workout.

Friday’s class was a mix of endurance, strength, and power. My nausea was a little bit worse, but still not too bad so I just tried to manage things the way that I normally do.

There were 2 blocks for cardio and the first block was a mix of hill work and rounds of 30 second all outs. I did the same thing I did on Wednesday and just kept increasing my resistance level by 1 each time. I was never at the resistance level I use for my all out pace, but it was still increasing the levels like I was supposed to. The second block was a 6 minute distance challenge. We could intervals or just maintain the same pace the entire time, it was our choice. I decided to set my resistance level at my new push pace and just keep it there the entire time. It wasn’t easy to do my push pace level for that long, but I did have little breaks when I had to let the nausea pass so that helped a bit.

The rower was also 2 blocks. The first block was a 300 meter row and then squats until we matched up with cardio and did rounds of 30 second all out rows. The second block was supposed to be a partner block, but there was an odd number of people so I was alone. I was happy to be alone so I’m glad it worked out that way. It was supposed to be one partner on the rower doing 200 meters and the other partner doing pulsing half squats. I did 200 meters and then 20 squats and just continued that until the block ended.

And the floor was also 2 blocks. The first block was high rows with the straps, skater lunges, and lunges while holding a weight overhead. The second block was lateral lunges with medicine ball front presses, pushups, and toe reaches with the medicine ball. I did a few different modifications for the exercises to limit my nausea, but it wasn’t too bad. And the modifications I picked allowed me to put some extra focus on my form so I tried to see it as a positive.

Saturday’s workout was a power day and even though it was the day I was most nauseous it always ended up being one of my best workout days. The cardio and rowing were done similar to a run/row pattern and we were only at each section for 4 minutes at a time.

Every time we were on the treadmill we had a 2 minute distance challenge, 1 minute of recovery, and 1 minute all out pace. I did my distance challenge at my push pace and I used my old all out resistance level for the all outs. But overall it was much easier than expected because by the time the nausea started to kick in from pushing myself the block was over and I was on the rower.

The rowing was an interesting pattern. We started with a 500 meter row and tricep extensions with a medicine ball. Every time we went down 100 meters on the rower. But because of the timing of the switches, most of the time I was in the middle of a row when I went back to the bike. So I had to remember where I was in the row and get back to finish it when I was on the rower again. It wasn’t too hard to remember, but it was something extra to focus on.

And the floor was 1 long block. We had shoulder work with weights, triceps on the straps, rollouts, deadlifts with weights, high rows on the straps, and ab work. The rollouts and ab work were both things I couldn’t do while nauseous the way we were supposed to because it involved being face down. So I did the rollouts on the straps and did the ab work on my back to accommodate how I was feeling.

I’m prepared for this week to be a tough week for me. I am hoping that because my nauseous kicked in early that maybe it won’t be as intense as it has been. I’m also trying to be more on top of my various medications and remedies so hopefully things won’t be as severe. But if it is, I know I can make it through and I’ll just have to do what I can.

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Still Testing Things Out (or Finding Another Advantage With The Bike)

Posted on April 22, 2019 | Comments Off

Recently I wrote about how I was working on increasing my resistance levels on the bike for my cardio work. I know I need to do that every so often because as I get stronger I need heavier resistance to get the same workout. But it’s a hard balance to find and that’s something that I ended up playing with this past week in my workouts.

Monday’s workout was a power day and we had a bunch of 4 minute blocks. After each block we switched stations so we were constantly switching. That can be a good thing since I don’t usually get too tired and can go a lot harder each time I’m on the bike, rower, or floor. Every block at each section was the same which also helped with not thinking too much and just putting my energy into working hard.

For cardio, every block was 2 rounds of 1 minute push paces with base paces after and ending with an all out. I know that last week I worked on increasing my resistance levels on the bike, but I mixed up what I had worked on. So for the first 2 times I was on the bike I had an increased base pace but used my old push and all out paces. I realized my error after 2 rounds and finished using my regular base pace and new push and all out paces. To be honest, I’m not sure which one was better and I’m going to be checking with some of my coaches about if I should focus on increasing my base pace or my push and all out paces. But both ways I did the resistance levels, it felt harder than normal and that was exactly what I wanted.

On the rower, we had 2 rounds of a 45 second all out row with squats after. We kept doing squats until the last 45 seconds when we had another 45 second all out row. The first time I was on the rower I was getting really frustrated because I couldn’t get my wattage up. I only discovered the second time that my rower was not set to wattage but MPH. I’m not as familiar with what MPH I should be doing on the rower so I had to listen to my body more and feel what felt like an all out to me.

And on the floor, we had 1 long plan and we just continued working on it each time we were on the floor. The plan had 3 mini-blocks and each mini-block had 2 exercises that we were supposed to do for 3 rounds. We had pop jacks, push-ups, hip hinge swings with weights, tricep work with weights, squats, and high rows on the straps. After each mini-block we also had sit-ups. I did a little more than 2 full rounds of everything when I finished the last time I was on the floor and I was lucky that I usually ended at the end of a mini-block so it was easy to come back to exactly where I was when I got back to the floor.

Wednesday’s workout was an endurance day and I decided to do the higher base pace and lower push and all out paces. I feel like I’ll be playing around with the resistance levels on the bike for a while to figure things out, but this past week ended up being more of an experiment than anything else.

The cardio was rounds of push paces to base paces with the push pace getting longer each round. Using my old push pace level was really the right choice for this because of how long some of the push paces got. But since my base pace was higher than before, it kept it a challenging workout. I definitely had moments of struggling with the longer push paces, but I allowed myself to take a moment to breathe and get some water and not forced myself to just work through it.

On the rower, we started with 100 meter rows and went up 100 meters each round. And after each row we had squats with the medicine ball that started at 50 reps and went down 10 reps each round. The rows were fine, especially because I never got that high in how far I had to go. But the squats were tough for me. My hip was not having the best day so the squats were starting to hurt me. Just like on the bike, I had to allow myself to take a break and not force myself to go through every rep without stopping. I don’t like doing that, but it’s necessary for me to do it sometimes.

And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had burpees, low rows on the straps, chest presses on the straps, and sit ups. I was very grateful for using the bench for my burpees because it allowed me to get through them quicker than if I was on the floor and having to step back instead of jump back. The second block was a core focused block. We had leg raises, bicycle crunches, hip bridges, straight leg hip raises, and v ups. I actually didn’t make it all the way down to the v ups but I was able to get all the other core work done.

Friday’s workout was a mix of power and endurance which is a pretty interesting mix to have. I played around a bit more with the resistance levels on the bike, but I ended up being more comfortable using my old base pace level and my new push and all out levels.

Cardio had 3 blocks but they all had a similar format. We had rounds of push paces to base paces with an all out at the end. What changed was how long the push and base paces were. The first block was 4 rounds of 30 second intervals. The second block was 3 rounds of 30 second push paces and 1 minute base paces. And the third block was 1 round of a 1 minute push pace and 90 second base pace. Every block had a 30 second all out at the end. The new push paces were tough at times, but it felt much better when I was able to go back to my old base pace which was much easier. And since the intervals were on the shorter side, it helped make the blocks go by faster.

On the rower, we started with a 700 meter row. We were supposed to see what our time was on that row to use for the rest of the rows. I just went with the idea that I did it in 3 1/2 minutes (which was close to what time I finished in). After that first row we had squats with medicine ball front presses and then we were back on the rower for another round. Each time we were on the rower, we were supposed to do 30 seconds less than the round before. Using round numbers make that so much easier which is why I don’t mind using a slightly longer time as my 700 meter row time.

And on the floor, we had 3 blocks. The first block was high rows using weights and skater lunges. The second block was weighted pull overs and sit-up to stand and squats on the bench. I had to split that last one up and did my sit-ups at one time and then did squats at one time since it’s hard for me to get up from the bench. And the last block was a core blast with straight leg raises, bicycle crunches, hip dips, and ending with a plank hold. My core was on fire at the end of that workout, but at least I was able to relax while working after I was done.

Saturday’s workout was a strength day and it felt like another good chance to play around with the resistance levels on the bike. I knew that we were going to have hill work for cardio, but I saw it more as a way to test out a few different resistance levels to see how they feel.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks that were the same. Each block started with a 1 minute push pace and 1 minute base pace. I used my new push level and old base level. Then we had a 4 minute hill climb where we increased the incline/resistance level each minute. I started at 1 level above my old base pace (which is my new base pace) and it ended at my new old all out pace. It really gave me a chance to see how my body felt at all those levels and I focused on that much more than how far I was going each block.

For the rower, the two blocks were the same and very similar to cardio. We started with 1 minute of squats and then we got onto the rowers for a 4 minute progressive row. Our rowers were set to display our mph and the idea was to increase it a bit every minute. I struggled to increase it but I tried to do my best. I wasn’t really able to do it every minute like we were supposed to, but it did go up over the 4 minutes and I was able to go very hard for the last 30 seconds and got the mph up pretty hi

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Working On My Strength (or Feeling More Normal Again)

Posted on April 15, 2019 | 1 comment

I think it was pretty clear that I recently had a pretty bad workout week. It was horrible and I was feeling pretty bad about myself. I knew that it was due to crazy circumstances, but that still didn’t help me feel better about the effort that I did in class. Fortunately, things changed for the better for me this week and I found new things to work on.

Monday’s workout was so much better than the last Monday’s class. I was still dealing with the tail end of my nausea, but I was basically back to normal and I felt much more like myself. We had a strength based class and the rowing had a lot to do with stroke counts which was a nice challenge.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks. Each block had push paces with no inclines and push paces with inclines. We also had inclines for our all out paces. I was using my normal resistance levels on the bike and didn’t really do much to count for incline work except to use my all out resistance level for push paces with inclines. It made me realize that I might need to work on seeing if I should be increasing my resistance levels on the bike again. I’ve been doing the bike for a long time without a treadmill break and I’m not used to that. When I’m not on it as often, I don’t make a lot of changes with my resistance levels. But if I’m going to stick with the bike (which I’m really feeling like I will be doing), I can’t be static in what work I do.

On the rower, both blocks had the same challenge. We had a 150 meter row and we had to count how many strokes it took to do that. When we had squats with medicine balls and the number of reps equaled how many strokes the row took. So the goal was to have your stroke count as low as possible which requires a lot of patience. I’ve gotten pretty good at being slow on the rower for stroke count challenges so I was able to keep my count around 12-13 each time I did it.

And on the floor, each block had 2 exercises. The first block had squats to bicep curls and push-ups. And the second block had sumo squats to upright rows and sit-ups. For the weighted work, I wasn’t doing my heaviest weights, but I was doing better than I have been doing for the past month or so because I really wanted to push myself.

Wednesday’s workout was another strength day. Strength days used to be really hard on me when I was on the treadmill because I was limited with incline work, but I don’t mind them as much now that I use the bike. But just like on Monday, I know that I’m probably not doing enough resistance work to replicate hills on the bike and I really didn’t do that great with fixing that in this workout.

For cardio, it was mainly done at a base pace alternating between hill work and flat road work. I did use the resistance level between my push and all out paces for the hills, but I know I could do more and I was a little mad at myself after finishing the workout for not doing that. I’m not sure why I have this mental block that I can’t do more because I know physically I can. But maybe I needed this problem to come up so I could be aware of it and start fixing it.

For the rower, it was all shorter rows with squat work between each row. We started at a 200 meter row and then had a 150 meter and 100 meter row. After the 200 meter row, we had regular squats with the medicine ball. After the 150 meter row we had regular squats and ground to press with the medicine ball. And after the 100 meter row we had regular squats, growing to press, and power squats with the medicine ball. The squats were taking me a long time so I didn’t get as much rowing done as I would have liked to. But to keep my hips safe and not hurting I have to make sure that I am not sloppy with my squat form.

On the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had chest presses, knee tucks, and tricep extensions. And the second block had chest flys, sit-ups, and reverse flys. For the chest presses I could go pretty heavy with my weight, but for the other exercises I had to go a bit lighter than I would have liked to. My arms were feeling a bit weak and I think that my arms have always been like that and again I might just need to put some focus into fixing that.

Friday was another strength day (I feel like having all these strength days is a sign that I needed to work on them). Even though the other workouts during the week were also strength days, they all have their own focus and I was able to find different things to work on during this class compared to the other classes.

For cardio, it was a similar pattern to what we had earlier in the week with alternating flat road and incline work. But the incline work was for longer intervals in this class. When we had the hill work for 2 minutes, I was using my normal all out resistance level. To know I could do that for 2 minutes gave me a real boost in knowing what I could do. It wasn’t easy and my legs were sore when I was done, but I did it! When we had our all outs, they were supposed to be on hills so I did 1 level above what I usually use. If I hadn’t done the hills before, I think I could have done a higher level. But it just continued to prove that my biking ability is much more than I’ve been really doing.

On the rower, we started with a 600 meter row. After that we had squats with medicine ball raises and calf raises. Then we had 2 rounds of a 300 meter row with the medicine ball work after. After that we were supposed to have 3 rounds of 150 meter rows and more squat work, but my hips were really starting to hurt me. Friday morning we had a small earthquake very early in the morning and that woke me up and I never got back to sleep. I know sleep helps my body reset and makes my hip get back into alignment. So when I don’t sleep, I’m at a high risk for having a bad hip day and that’s exactly what happened. So instead of doing the squat work after the rounds of the 150 meter rows, I just kept rowing.

On the floor, we had 2 blocks with 2 exercises each. The first block had deadlifts and hollow hold single arm chest presses. And the second block had seated shoulder presses and double crunches. For the deadlifts and shoulder presses, we had a range for the number of reps we were supposed to do. So I went heavier than normal with the weights to test myself. I don’t think I could do the heavier weights if I had to do more than 5 or 6 reps, but since we could do as few as 5 they worked. For the chest presses and double crunches I just used my normal weights for the exercises because both of those things put a bit of stress on my hips and I didn’t want to risk things with going higher with the weight.

Saturday was an endurance based workout, but I ended up treating the class more like a power day. After all the motivation I had earlier in the week with my bike resistance levels, I decided to test a few things out.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks. The first block was 2 rounds of a 2 1/2 minute push pace with a recovery between them. 2 1/2 minutes is a pretty long push pace, but I still decided to see if I could increase my resistance level a bit. I increased it by 1 level (so it was the level between my push and all out pace) and it was tough. 2 1/2 minutes seemed to take forever, but I managed to keep the resistance level there the entire time. The second block was a 6 minute distance challenge. And I decided to use my previous push pace level and see if I could do that for the entire time. I was doing ok with it until about the 4th minute. Then I had to bring it back down to my old push pace level. But to know I did it for that long (plus that I did the previous push paces at a higher level) was the proof I needed that I was due for a change.

On the rower, we started with a 1,000 meter row. That was brutal after all the work on the bike! Then we had 100 jumping jacks to do which was tough as well. Jumping jacks aren’t that easy for me to do, even on my best days. I had to break them up into multiple chunks, but I eventually got them done. Then we had a 500 meter row and we were supposed to do 50 jumping jacks and 50 squats. I skipped the jumping jacks because I could feel my hip getting a bit sore. We had a few more rounds we could do on the rower, but after my 50 squats I was only on the rower for a few minutes before we switched again.

And the floor also had 2 blocks. The first one had upright rows, plank jacks, and knee tucks. And the second one had low rows on the straps, reverse flys, and sit-ups. The weight I wanted to use for the upright rows and reverse flys weren’t available so I had to decide if I wanted to go lower or higher. I tested out going higher with the weights and was able to do it! I don’t know if I’ll be using the higher weights regularly because I did have to take more breaks (so I didn’t get as much work done), but again it was nice to prove to myself that I was having a good week.

I really needed this past week after the week I had before. I needed the boost that I got from doing some great work so I could bring that into this week. I should hopefully be having another good week this week and I want to try to make even more progress!

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Not My Usual Workout Recap Post (or I Survived A Bad Week)

Posted on April 8, 2019 | 1 comment

I know that for the past few years I’ve done workout recaps on Monday. I’m not planning on changing that, but this week I felt like I needed to do something different. I knew going into this past week of workouts that it was going to be my bad week. I’ve been trying to stay optimistic and hope that maybe my pain and nausea wouldn’t be as bad as it has been, but I also am realistic and prepare for the worst.

I did do my usual Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday workouts. But each day had its own struggles and things kept changing up. Monday was by far my worst day and Saturday was almost back to normal. I would say that Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday were pretty much what I expected to experience. It was Monday that really took me by surprise.

I had so many issues going into my workout on Monday. I was experiencing extreme pain and nausea. And I had spent the night before being sick every few hours so I didn’t get much sleep. Adding exhaustion to everything else really made it a bad day. And what made things a bit worse was that it was supposed to be a 3 partner workout. I really didn’t want to be partnered with anyone because I kind of needed to do my own thing. I ended up being paired with someone else doing their own thing too so it worked out well.

That workout was honestly about just getting through it. Even looking at the workout plan online, I can’t remember much of what I did. I was constantly having to take breaks to let nausea pass and to wait for my cramps to stop. The cramps were getting so bad that I was scared that maybe something else was wrong with me. But unfortunately they were just really bad cramps that my painkillers weren’t touching.

My last portion of that workout was on the floor and I was just miserable. My Monday coach has known me since my very first workout and he knows when I have bad weeks that I’m not my usual self. But he could tell it was much worse than normal and I was struggling so much. He came over to check on me and I burst into tears. It was a combination of pain, exhaustion, and frustration. I hate that I must have these weeks of struggle each month and I’m so tired of it. I can’t do anything right now to change it and sometimes it really gets to me when I realize I might have over a decade left of dealing with this.

I’m so lucky that my coach (and all of my coaches) are amazing. When I started crying, he just pulled me in for a hug and was trying to reassure me that I was going great and that it didn’t matter that I was having a bad week. He reminded me that a good week will come soon and for now I should focus on the fact that I showed up because not everyone would do that. While hearing that didn’t make things better or easier, it did give me the motivation I needed to keep going.

And most of my workouts this past week went the same way. My coaches all knew I was having a tough week (it’s pretty obvious when I do) and they all have coached me enough to understand that I have to do my own thing at times. I’ve been doing these modifications for over 2 years so I’m pretty good at figuring out what I need to do. I don’t need to be checked on when I’m having these tough days and they know it. I’m grateful that they aren’t hovering over me or making me feel like they are paying more attention to me than other people. I just want to be treated like everyone else and kind of blend in.

Part of the reason I didn’t want to do my normal workout recap was because there was nothing that great about my workouts. I don’t necessarily remember everything that I did and I think my brain is just blocking some of that time out of my memory to protect me from remembering how miserable I was. I really am hoping that this past week was just a random thing and not a sign of what future bad weeks will be like. Not only were my workouts affected during the beginning of the week, my entire life was affected. My normal remedies weren’t working and I was in a foul mood most of the time. Fortunately I’m doing so much better now and I know I’ve got a few weeks of freedom before experiencing a bad week again.

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Making Challenges More Challenging (or A Dri-Tri First For Me)

Posted on April 3, 2019 | Comments Off

When I did the Dri-Tri this past weekend, I pretty much knew what to expect. I’ve done it several times before and I’ve learned new tips and tricks each time that usually help me. I don’t always improve every time, but I feel better about it each time I do one. So when I got off the wait list for the Dri-Tri this time, I was so grateful because it was another opportunity for me to test myself and see what new things I could figure out.

But even though I knew what to expect, I also knew this one would be very different from the other ones I’ve done. First of all, I was having a bad nausea/pain day. While I’ve had some nausea, this was going to be the worst of all my Dri-Tri attempts. I was prepared for this, but at the same time it’s hard to be prepared until you are in the middle of the workout. Also, this would be my first time doing a Dri-Tri using the bike instead of the treadmill. If I wasn’t having a bad nausea day, I might have debated using the treadmill even though I haven’t been on it for months. But knowing how I was feeling, there was no way to do anything other than the bike.

We had a 2000 meter benchmark row earlier in the week which I found so helpful. I had an idea of what my row time would be since you are supposed to go slower than the benchmark since the row is only the beginning of the Dri-Tri. I still wanted to be under 9:30 even though that would keep me close to what I did for the benchmark. But I’m stubborn and had that in mind. A lot of people in my heat were doing it for the first time, so there was a lot of emphasis before we started to not burn out on the rower. I listened because I knew I needed the reminder too.

Once we started, I quickly found my pace on the rower. I was not worried about anyone else around me or what was happening other than maintaining my pace. There were a few times I noticed I was getting a bit too speedy and slowed things down, but I was pretty steady without too much effort. I tried to zone out since I knew the row would take time, but that didn’t quite happen. But even with my focus on random things, I still did pretty well with my row. I was the last person to finish, but I did it in under 9:30 so I was very happy with that.

The floor was a challenge that I wasn’t totally prepared for. I always remember the floor as being tough, but I forgot how many things we had on the floor that were face down exercises. Those make me more nauseous so it was a tough section for me. I did modifications when I could like using the bench for plank work, but I still needed a lot of breaks to let the nausea pass. But because I do lunges instead of step ups, I feel like I make up some time doing that. The floor could have been much worse, but it still more than I really thought it would be.

By the time I got to the bike, I was ready to be at the final stage. I had a general idea of how long it would take me to do the bike, but I also haven’t really done that far on the bike in a long time. I started a little higher on the resistance level than my base level, but I decided to drop it back to my base level after the first few minutes. If you are running on the treadmill, you don’t have to go faster than your base. I also knew that if I kept it to my base level that I could probably go faster. And since it’s a timed event, going faster is always better.

I did have a few issues on the bike, but nothing too bad. Whenever I needed some water, I had to stop completely since I’m still not coordinated enough to drink water and pedal at the same time. I also was having waves of nausea during the bike that I had to stop to let pass. I wasn’t sure if the nausea was still from being on the floor or just happening because they happen, but they felt a bit more frequent than I would have thought they would have been. I tried to not stop for too long, but sometimes I just had to.

While I was on the bike, other people were completing their Dri-Tris. I never expect to finish in the first half of the group so I always figure that I will see lots of people finishing before me. I’m never completing against anyone else (even though they do have 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners I’m not eligible due to my modifications) so I don’t care where I rank in finishing. And it is always fun watching people complete it because everyone in the room is cheering them on.

As I was getting close to finishing the distance on the bike, I realized that because the staff was focused on seeing who was close to finishing on the treadmills (because they could easily see those numbers) I would have to pay attention to the time I finished. I didn’t mind that there wasn’t attention when I finished because I honestly wasn’t super happy with my time. While I had no idea how long it would take me to finish with using the bike, I still wanted to finish in under 50 minutes. I ended up finishing in 50:50 and it was a little bit frustrating. Those extra 50 seconds could have been one or two water breaks and I hate that I was so close to the goal I set. But I did finish and that is really the most important thing.

I finished around the middle of the pack, and as soon as I caught my breath and recovered a bit I started to see who was close to finishing their 5K on the treadmills. I joined in to cheer on as each person finished and I was so happy I could be a little bit of motivation as other people were finishing. Everyone who started the Dri-Tri was able to finish it. And that is the only goal that really matters.

There were 2 heats for the Dri-Tri and I was in the first one. I had a few friends in the second one and I promised to stick around to cheer them on. I wasn’t sure how late I’d stay, but I wanted to be there for support for my friends. They were nervous with this being their first Dri-Tri and I wanted to help out however I could.

I ended up staying until all of my friends finished their 5K on the treadmill. I didn’t stay for everyone in that heat to finish because I did need to get home, but I wanted to make sure my friends had support even if it was at the very end of their run. They all did amazing and I am so proud of them for taking on a challenge and kicking butt doing it!

While this Dri-Tri wasn’t the same as any of the other ones I did, I’m glad I did it. I found new challenges I had to overcome and I was able to do it. I also now have an idea of how long it would take me to complete the bike section. There’s a good chance I’ll still be using the bike when the next Dri-Tri happens so I’m glad that I have a goal in mind. And I do also know how to deal with my bad nausea days for the Dri-Tri, although I hope the next one will fall on one of my better weeks.

Comments Off on Making Challenges More Challenging (or A Dri-Tri First For Me)

Posted in Fitness

Tagged challenge, dri-tri, fitness, Orangetheory, workout

Some Dri-Tri Prep Workouts (or Trading One Ailment For Another)

Posted on April 1, 2019 | Comments Off

This past week of workouts were interesting for me. I was finally getting over my bronchitis, but I also started dealing with nausea. It was really annoying timing because the day I was finally feeling better from one thing was the day that I started being nauseous. It was also an interesting week because the workouts were designed to help us get ready for the Dri-Tri. At the beginning of the week, I was on the waitlist for the Dri-Tri, but by Friday I knew I was officially in. I was hoping to get in so I did do my workouts with the assumption that I was prepping for it.

Monday’s workout was the class that was very clearly prep for the Dri-Tri. We had a workout with endurance, strength, and power and the endurance portion of the class was a 2000 meter row benchmark. This is the same distance that we have as the row for the Dri-Tri. While it is a benchmark, we don’t do it that often so I was happy that I had it as a part of my workout so I could have an idea of what I’d be able to do.

I knew I wouldn’t get a personal best with the row because of how I was feeling. I also know that my endurance is still lower than it’s been before so I have to work up to that again. But I still wanted to set a goal time in my head. I would have loved to have been under 9 minutes, but I knew that would be pushing myself too much. I wanted to push myself a little, but also not hurt myself or make it so that rowing throughout the week would be painful. So I went with just wanting to be able to do the row in under 9 1/2 minutes. That’s still better than many of my 2000 meter rows and it seemed like a good number to have in my head.

I was pretty steady with my rowing. I didn’t change up the speed for a majority of the row. I was just going and trying to not push too hard since that is the downfall for longer rows. I kept checking in with my time and my distance and saw I was right about what I would need to be to get to my goal time. But I also knew at the halfway mark that I’m often slower for the second half than the first half and if I wanted to hit my goal I would need to push it at the end. So when I got to the last 200 meters, I just went hard and I made it under my goal!

The cardio work was decreasing distance runs. We were doing our own tracking and timing. For the bike, it started at 2 trips and then we had a minute to recover. Each round went down by .4 with a recovery after. I was trying my best to track my distance each time, but sometimes I got a bit distracted. I always went the full 2 trips if I forgot what distance I started at. I figured overdoing it was better than under-doing it.

And on the floor, we had a mix of Bosu work and weight work. On the Bosu, we had back extensions and running men. For weights we had squats to overhead presses and tricep work. We also had bicycle crunches. I was going heavy for my tricep work and medium heavy for the overhead presses. Even though I was going from being on the ground to standing up over and over, my nausea wasn’t kicking in during that the way I was expecting it to. That was a nice surprise and allowed me to do more rounds on the floor than I thought I would be able to do.

Wednesday’s workout was a strength based class, and it ended up being special because I realized it was my 50th class of 2019! I’m ahead of my goal for my workouts this year and that’s exactly where I want to be. I want to be ahead so that when I do have a week where I can’t do 4 workouts that I already have workouts banked to cover that.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks that had a similar format. We started with doing a distance run/bike and we were supposed to go to a recovery once we hit that distance. I was having a really bad nausea day, so I never hit the distance by the time we were moving on. But that just meant I skipped the recovery time which was fine since I wasn’t pedaling too hard. After the distance each block, we had incline work. We increased the incline/resistance level every 30 seconds and it ended with an all out pace. The way the resistance levels worked for me, I increased the level every 30 seconds and 1 level higher than the hill was my all out level which worked out nicely.

On the rower, we had 2 similar blocks. We started with a 2 minute timed row. After the row we had lunges with rotations for the first block and regular lunges for the second block. Then we did half the distance we got on the 2 minute row with more lunges. And we ended with cutting the distance in half again. I never made it to the lunges after the 3rd row, but I was happy with how I was doing with the rower for all my distances.

And the floor was 1 long block with almost all weighted exercises. For weighted exercises we had kneeling low rows, sitting shoulder presses to stands, hip hinge reverse flies, and double crunches. We also had low rows on the straps. Because of the nausea I was dealing with, I had to go a bit lighter on the weights. I was able to go a bit heavy on the double crunches since I was laying on my back, but the other exercises were bringing my nausea out a bit.

Friday was my last regular workout of the week and the first workout I had were I knew for sure I’d be doing the Dri-Tri. I went easy on myself because of the nausea and because I knew I’d have a hard day the next day. I’m glad I knew to go easy because I would have hated it if I worked hard and was sore and then found out I got off the wait list for the Dri-Tri.

The cardio was 2 blocks with hill climbs. Each block started with a 90 second hill where the incline/resistance level increased every 30 seconds. We had a base pace with no incline work before a 90 second push pace without incline. Both blocks ended with a push pace and an all out pace. I was using my new resistance levels for all the work and the hill work was around the levels I use for my push and all out paces.

On the rower, the first block was timed rows with lunges between each row. We had a 90 second row, 60 second row, and 30 second row. The second block was distance rows with lunges between. The rows were 400 meters, 200 meters, and 100 meters. I did pretty well with how far I got with the timed rows and how quickly I could do the distance rows. But I struggled a lot with the lunges. For the second block, I decided to do squats instead. It can get tough for me to step over the rower to have the space for the lunges and I can do squats just standing over the rower.

And on the floor, we had 2 blocks as well. The first block had sit-ups to sumo squats, goblet squats, and bicep curls. I had to separate the sit-ups and sumo squats because it’s very difficult for me to do them as a single move. But because I split them, I could go heavier with the weight I used. And the second block was push-ups, squats, and side plank rotations. The second block was a bit harder for me in terms of my nausea, but it wasn’t as bad as it was on Wednesday.

After my 3 workouts for the week, I did feel as prepared as I could be for the Dri-Tri. I am always a little nervous before doing it and I’ve got a little extra nerves this time because I’ve never had to do the Dri-Tri while getting over a cold and dealing with nausea. But I know I did a lot of work during my workouts to be in the best place I could be going into it. My expectations were lower than other times and I was curious to see what would happen. And I’ll be writing about how it went a little later this week!

Comments Off on Some Dri-Tri Prep Workouts (or Trading One Ailment For Another)

Posted in Fitness, Fun Stuff

Tagged challenge, dri-tri, fitness, Orangetheory, prepared, workout

Category Archives: Fitness

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