Posted onMarch 26, 2019|Comments Off on Doing Some Marathon Watching (or Helping Random Runners Power Up)
For the past several years, I have gone out to cheer on the runners of the LA Marathon. It’s become a tradition for me to do it, and while it doesn’t always work out the way I hope it will I try my best. I usually cheer runners on from the same place, which I think has a few benefits. First, it’s one of the closest places for me to drive to that is on the marathon route. Also, my friends who run the marathon year after year usually know where I am so I can cheer them on directly.
I haven’t always had signs with me when I cheer on the runners, but that has become something I look forward to doing. I love having fun signs because I know it makes the runners smile. While I’ve never done a marathon, I know that there are points in my 5K races that I need to be cheered on and having fun signs to read is a good distraction. So I want to do the same for others. And I have been told by many marathon running friends that the place I usually cheer on from (between miles 19 and 20) tends to be a place many runners hit a wall so all encouragement is appreciated.
I didn’t start working on what I wanted on my cheering signs until the last minute. I asked my friend who was going to be joining me to cheer if there was any particular sign she wanted me to make (I’m happy to make the signs for my friends to hold too). She thought about it, and decided this is what she wanted.
I also wanted a sign that was specific to Orangetheory since I knew several people from there would be running too. I had a few ideas of what I could put on a sign, and this was the final decision.
And even though it was only going to be me and 1 friend out there, I wanted to make a 3rd sign since one was specific to Orangetheory people. I looked at a few different lists online of funny signs and I saw one that a kid had at a marathon a few years ago. But I figured it would be a really good one to have.
Making the signs is a pretty easy process since I get paper letters from the store (my handwriting is way too sloppy) and I was proud of what I made and how they looked when I was done.
Marathon day ended up being a really gorgeous day. It was sunny but not too hot. And we lucked out with very little traffic on the way there and we found a parking space pretty quickly. We had been tracking the pace of the friends we wanted to cheer on, and we were standing on the sideline before any of them already went by.
Even with the tracking the marathon provided, we kind of failed at cheering on our friends. Some of them we didn’t see even though we knew approximately when they would be going by. And several people we did see but they were on the other side of the street and didn’t see us (and they had headphones in so they couldn’t hear us cheer). It was a little disappointing that we didn’t get to directly cheer on the people we wanted to see, but that didn’t mean we weren’t going to cheer on for all the people we didn’t know.
It took a little bit of time, but my sign ended up being a pretty big hit. People were running by and tapping the sign to power up. There were even some people who were on the other side of the street that noticed the sign and came over just to tap it. Everyone who saw any of our signs had a big smile and I know that they enjoyed them. The only mistake I made with my power up sign was that I didn’t reinforce in somehow. After a bunch of people were tapping it, the sign was starting to bend and it was harder to hold it steady as more people came over to tap it. But I just tried to hold the sign tight and I think it worked out well.
We were out there cheering on the runners for about 2 hours before we had to head out. There was a family standing near us that was also cheering on runners but didn’t have a sign, so we offered them the power up sign. The kids were super excited to have it and I was glad that more runners were going to get joy out of it.
I know that some people are a bit annoyed with the marathon because of all the street closures and sometimes traffic can be really horrible. But I do enjoy it. Any time I can see a group of strangers come together for something positive is something I like to see. I love getting to cheer on the runners because I know that they appreciate it. And hopefully next year when I cheer for the marathon some of my friends will see me so I can cheer them up directly!
Posted onMarch 25, 2019|Comments Off on Still Working On Getting Better (or Starting To See My Normal Again)
I’m still working through this bug that is in my system, and I knew it was going to take a while. It’s a bit annoying that I can’t get over this, but I’m trying to stay hopeful that I’ll be over it soon. And one of the things that has been helping me see that I am getting over it slowly has been my workouts. Since the last symptoms I’ve been experiencing have been related to breathing (like coughing and being short of breath), working out has been a good way to judge my progress getting over it.
Monday’s workout was a power day, and even though it was a 3 group workout it had a bit of a run/row format. When it was the cardio or rowing block, we switched back and forth. For the cardio block, I was on the bike twice and the rower once and when I was on the rowing block I was on the rower twice and the bike once. But instead of starting with cardio like I normally do, I had to start on the floor this time.
The floor work was one long block that had mini-blocks in it. We first had a mini-block with 3 rounds of chest fly on the Bosu and plank jacks. Then it was a mini-block of 3 rounds of chest press on the Bosu and pop jacks. And the last mini-block was 3 rounds of hip raises and push-ups. After completing all the mini-blocks we did all the exercises as one long block. It was definitely weird for me to start on the floor and I felt strange. I had a warm-up before we started, but I’m used to feeling much more warmed up. I was using close to my heaviest weights for the weighted work which was good. Some of the work on my back was tough because of the congestion I was dealing with, but it was nothing like the week before.
For the bike work (whether I was doing a cardio block or rowing block), it was always the same thing. We had a 90 second push pace, 1 minute base pace, and 90 second distance challenge. I used my new push pace resistance level for the push and I used the level between my new push and all out paces for the distance challenge. They were short bursts on the bike so I was able to go a bit harder than I thought I could. Every time I finished on the bike, I was back on the rower and had a bit of time to rest and get my heart rate back.
Every time I was on the rower, we had the same thing as well. We started with a 200 meter row followed by squats. Then a 150 meter row and squats and a 100 meter row and squats. I never made it to the last set of squats for any of the times I was on there, but I was doing the squats like we were supposed to. I wasn’t modifying things because of how I was feeling and that was such a great feeling. I really was feeling strong and tough while rowing and I even worked on my form a bit more and got some guidance on some hand placement that might help me row better when we have distance rows.
Wednesday’s workout was an endurance day and we didn’t have switches between blocks so I was at each station for about 15 minutes. That is one of the ways that an endurance day is an endurance focus, but it is also all about not having to have recovery time when doing cardio. There is an emphasis about not going below base pace during the block and I worked hard at doing that.
For cardio, we started with a few rounds of push to base pace which increased each round. And without a recovery after that we went into a 4 minute progressive push pace that went into an all out pace. That’s not an easy 15 minutes to do, but I was determined to test myself with how my endurance was doing after being so sick. I did have to take a few breaks to get water (I still can’t drink water while pedaling on the bike), but I never did go below my base pace resistance level. I was using my new push pace level for the regular push paces. And when we did the progressive push, I started at 1 level above my base pace and went up 1 level every minute. It was not easy to keep going and not bring the level down, but I made it through. Since I track the distance I do in workouts I know that I didn’t go as far on the bike as I thought I would, but I think that just means I wasn’t pedaling as hard and quick as I might do with other workouts.
Once I got on the rower, I took a bit of time to recover and get my heart rate down a bit. I can recover my heart rate faster than I could before, so it didn’t take too long. The rower started with 4 rounds of 150 meter rows with squats holding a medicine ball between each row. Then we had 2 rounds of a 300 meter row and the squats became squats with an overhead press. Then we had a 600 meter row and I was working on that row when the block ended. My rows were all under the time goals, but it took me a bit of time to recover from each row and get to the squats which slowed me down a bit.
And on the floor, we had 2 blocks that had a lot of focus on lunges. Several things had to be modified by me, but it was because of my hip issues and not because I was feeling off. The first block had kneeling lunges with overhead presses with weights, regular lunges while holding the weights up, and side plank dips. And the second block had regular lunges without weights, squats, single leg squats, and leg lift abs. My legs were shaky by the end of class, but I honestly felt so good to feel like that.
Friday’s workout was a power day and we had a lot of timing ourselves during the workout. We had repeating distance challenges with cardio and the rowing, but my main focus wasn’t beating my distance but doing each challenge as hard as I could.
For cardio, we had 3 different 4 minute challenges. Each challenge was doing a push pace for a certain distance, having a 30 second recovery, and then an all out for a certain distance. Even though I wasn’t tracking my distance to see if I could beat it each time, I did track it so I could do my push and all out paces for the right amount of time. Each block I was ending my all out pace about 20 seconds before the block ended, so I just kept going with it. I know I was working hard and I was also able to not take breaks to catch my breath or drink water during each block. It was nice to be able to wait to do those things until we had real recovery time.
On the rower, it was also 3 different 4 minute challenges. We had rounds of 30 seconds of rowing and medicine ball squats to overhead presses. This was harder on me than the bike work. As much as I wanted to go hard with my rowing, it was taking me so much time to catch my breath between the rowing and the squats and I didn’t want to lose that time. I didn’t go as slowly as I did when I was really sick, but I did have to row much slower than I wanted to.
For the floor, we had 1 long block that had 3 mini-blocks in it. We had 3 rounds of one mini-block before moving on to the next one. The first mini-block had squats to thrusters and uppercuts. The second mini-block had pull ups on the straps and high rows on the straps. And the last mini-block had skater lunges and sumo squats. I was able to do my normal weights for the weighted work, but I had to modify the pull ups on the straps to be low rows using the straps instead. My body wasn’t acting coordinated enough to do those properly and I didn’t want to do something that might hurt myself.
Saturday’s workout was a strength day, and I was feeling ready for it. I was doing so much good work on the bike and I was ready to play with my resistance levels to simulate hill work. I still wasn’t totally better, but I was going to push myself to prove that I wasn’t as limited as I had been the week before.
For cardio, we had 2 blocks that were very similar. The first block had a push pace, a base pace, a base pace with incline work, a regular base pace, and ended with a push to an all out pace. The second block was the same pattern but the incline work was longer. I used my new resistance levels for all of the regular work. And for the hills I used the level between my push and all out level. The hill work was really tough, but it’s supposed to be tough. Because these blocks were a little longer than the ones on Friday, there were a few times I needed a break to cough and get some water, but nothing compared to what I was having to do before.
On the rower, we started with a 500 meter row and then we had squat to press and calf raises while holding a medicine ball. Then the row went down my 100 meters and the squats increased and calf raises decreased. That pattern continued for the entire time we were on the rower. I was able to do my rowing with a slightly higher average wattage than normal which surprised me. But I think it might have been because I’ve been working on my form so much so I can be an efficient rower. I did skip the last round of squats and calf raises because it was the last minute of the block and I decided to just keep rowing.
And on the floor, we had one long block. All of the exercises had 5 reps per side so they went really quickly. We had single leg sit to stands, suitcase squats with a weight, half getups with weights, and a hollow hold chest press with weights. I did go heavy for my squats since I know that I can go heavier than I think I can. And it did help that there weren’t a ton of reps for each exercise so I could test out what I could do. I didn’t have to worry about doing them for a long time or worry that my form would get sloppy over time.
Overall, I felt like this past week of workouts was really all about proving to myself that I’m doing better than I thought and that I’m not as sick as I was the week before. It’s so hard to judge progress in so many different aspects of life, but pushing myself with workouts and seeing how I felt during them really did help.
Of course, I’ll probably be better toward the end of this week and that’s when my nausea will likely be kicking in. It sometimes feels like I never get a break from having tough workout weeks, but I’m trying to reframe my mindset and think of them as challenges to overcome and not just tolerate.
Posted onMarch 18, 2019|Comments Off on Another Week Of Sick Workouts (or At Least I Did Something)
This past week of workouts was such a tough one for me. I knew I was getting over this cold, but I really thought I was doing better than I really was each day. You usually feel better in the morning than the evening when you are sick, but this took a much harder hit on me than I honesty thought it would. It really became a week of just doing anything and not thinking too much about it. I wasn’t always able to actually do the workout we were supposed to do, but I did something.
Monday’s workout was a strength day but it wasn’t really a strength day for what I was doing. For cardio on the bike, I just set it to my base pace resistance level and kept it at that for the entire time. I wasn’t focused on increasing the resistance levels or when we were supposed to be in a push or all out pace. I just kept pedaling and doing my best. I know that research says if you are sick from the neck up (which I was) that light exercise is good for you. I figured that’s exactly what I was doing.
On the rower, we were supposed to do increasing row distances with jumping jacks between each row. There was no way for me to do jumping jacks, so I did a similar thing with the rower that I did with the bike. I just tried to keep rowing the entire time. I had to take breaks every minute or so because I wasn’t fully able to breathe through my nose, but again I just figured doing something was better than nothing. It wasn’t a hard workout and I wasn’t sweating much, but it was better than just being in bed missing out on doing what I could.
For the floor, I was much closer to what we were supposed to do. The first block had lateral lunges to single arm thrusts and then ab work. I had to split the lunges and single arm thrusts into separate moves, but that’s pretty normal for me. For the ab work, it was tough at times to be on my back, so I did the work on the bench instead of the floor so it was easier for me to sit up when I needed to. The next block had the same exercises but we also added sumo squats which I was able to do without modifications. And the last block was the lunges, squats, and chest presses. I wasn’t using my normal heavy weights, but they weren’t that much lighter either.
While I was feeling better than I had the past few days before this workout, clearly I was still sick because when I got home and showered, I fell asleep for almost 8 hours!
Wednesday’s workout was the Infinity workout and I was a little disappointed that I would have to do some more big modifications for this one. We were supposed to track distances for the cardio and rowing, but because I had to change so much up I didn’t track anything. It didn’t seem fair to track distances if I wasn’t doing the proper workout.
For cardio, the bike work was the same for me as it was on Monday. Even though we had different push paces throughout the time we were doing cardio, I didn’t worry about them. I just set the bike to my base pace resistance level and went the entire time at that. I took breaks when I needed to and it wasn’t as often as Monday, but it still happened a lot. I did what I could and tried to just remember that I was only there to do a light workout as I was still sick.
On the rower, we were supposed to do rounds of 100 meter rows with jumping jacks with the medicine ball in-between each row. I did the first 100 meters and tried to do squat presses with the medicine ball after, but getting up from the rower and squatting was too hard for me. I wasn’t lightheaded, but I wasn’t feeling too stable. So I just did the same thing from Monday again and tried to row the entire time. I still was taking lots of breaks but I tried to go a little further each time before taking a break. It still averaged every 100-200 meters, but it gave me something to work on and strive toward.
The floor work was one long block. The idea of it is to get us ready for the Dri-Tri (which I’m not sure I’ll be doing yet). We had bench hop overs, bench tap squats, lunges, plank jacks, push-ups, and burpees. I didn’t do the burpees at all and I modified so many of the other exercises, but I tried to do them as close to how I do them for the Dri-Tri normally. I just added in the breaks that I needed to recover. But I did notice that I was doing better on Wednesday than I had on Monday (plus, I didn’t pass out and need sleep after this workout).
I finally was on the tail end of this cold (which may also be bronchitis) by Friday so I could do a bit more of a normal workout for me. It was another strength based class and I didn’t do exactly that, but I did more than what I had been able to do the past few workouts.
For cardio, the first block I was able to do normally as there was no hill/incline work. I did the base, push, and all out paces at my new resistance levels on the bike. It was harder than I thought it would be, but I think that was because I had been doing so little the past few workouts. The second and third blocks were hill work and I just kept working with my normal base, push, and all out resistance levels. I knew I couldn’t do more and I didn’t want to push myself too hard since I was still struggling with my cough and exercise was making it a bit harder to breathe.
On the rower, we started with a 90 second row and then medicine ball squat presses. Each time on the rower we did 50 meters less than the row before and had the squats between each one. I was doing the squats for the first few rows that I did, but toward the end I was struggling a lot so I just worked on the rowing. I was hoping I wouldn’t have had to modify the rowing work, but I also am very cautious of my limits right now and knew I was getting close to working too hard.
And on the floor we had 2 blocks. The first one was bicep curls, upright rows, and low rows using weights. I did go a bit heavy with the weights and that helped me feel better about my workout. We also had sit-ups which were much harder than I thought they would be and made me cough quite a bit. The second block was a short block with side plank hip dips, plank punches, and then holding a plank. I had to take some breaks while holding the plank, but it was just because it was making my nose run.
Saturday’s workout was the closest to normal for me. While I was still coughing a bit and had some congestion issues, they were so much less than what they had been. Comparing how I felt on Monday to Saturday was such a huge improvement! This workout was an endurance day and I was pretty much back to what I know I could do.
On cardio, we had 2 blocks and they were distance challenges. The first block was a 3 minute push pace, 90 second base pace, and a 90 second distance challenge. And the second block was 2 rounds of a 90 second push pace and 45 second base pace followed by another 90 second distance challenge. I was using my normal push and base pace resistance levels and I used the level between my push and all out pace for the distance challenges at the end. I did manage to do better the second time than I did the first and the overall distance I got on the bike was one of the best ones I’ve ever had!
On the rower, we had one long block. It started with a 2 minute row and then squats. Then we had half the distance of the 2 minute row and pulsing half squats. The pattern continued but the timed row was 90 seconds the next time and 1 minute the last. I was doing close to normal row distances for the timed work and I did all the squats every round. It was so nice to not need to do any modifications for once this past week!
And on the floor we had all mini-band work. The first block had walking forward squats, lateral squat steps, and tricep work using a weight. And the second block had toe reaches, squats to lateral leg raises, and deadlifts. I didn’t go as heavy with the triceps and deadlifts as I know I can go, but they were still heavy weights. I just was getting tired by the end of the class and I had done so much more work than I thought I’d be able to do.
For this week, I’m hoping I continue to keep getting better. There’s a chance I will still be dealing with some symptoms for another week or two which is a bit annoying. But as long as I feel like I’m making some improvements in my workouts or feel like I’m getting close to my normal self I think it will make me feel ok. I’m seriously so ready to have a week that I feel great and I can push myself. I haven’t used the treadmill in a long time and it might be nice to try one treadmill day soon. But I also know that I am not slacking off while on the bike when I can do my normal work. I just have to keep listening to my body and making sure I do what I know is best for me.
Posted onMarch 14, 2019|Comments Off on Saying Goodbye To A Workout Buddy (or Hanging Out In Normal Clothes)
I’ve been very lucky with finding amazing people in my Orangetheory classes. In every class time that I take regularly, I’ve found a group of people who have become friends. Sometimes we only see each other in class, but we still are more involved in each other’s lives than just seeing each other for that hour of the workout. I find these workout friends one of the reasons why I’m always so motivated to go to class. I don’t want to miss my time with the people I only see once or twice a week. And when someone isn’t in class, it does feel like something is missing.
Finding friends in my workout classes isn’t something that happens right away, but it naturally happens over time. But I feel like my bond with my friends in my Wednesday and Friday Culver City classes happened faster than most. There was something about us that just clicked and we’ve been a pretty strong group for a while. We have a texting group that we use for workout related texts, but we also text each other random stuff throughout the week. It’s been amazing having them in my workouts and we were so sad when one member of the group announced she was moving to NYC.
Of course, we are excited for her because it’s an amazing career opportunity, but we will totally miss having her in class. So we had to have a goodbye outing because it was feeling like the end of an era. Since we all live right by downtown Culver City, it was easy for us to pick a place there. And we let the guest of honor pick where to go and she wanted to go to Public School 310. We were there during happy hour so we got a couple of different things to share among us.
We were having a great time just hanging out and eating delicious food. It was also the first time we were hanging out without having a workout so we were seeing each other in non-workout clothes for the first time. It was a nice change from our usual hangouts and it was fun just enjoying time together.
We were giving the friend moving away a bit of a hard time and joking how she shouldn’t be moving, but we all know it’s a good thing. And she’ll be back from time to time so we know we will see her again soon (she mentioned that she should be back in the next month or so for a weekend and we will all hopefully work out together then).
And of course, we had to get a group photo together. We asked the waitress to take one, and we did get a few normal ones. But this one happened after one person knocked into our dishes and I think it is much better (even if I look like a bit of a goober).
Our dinner lasted a few hours and then we all had to go our own ways. But it was a nice hangout for us and a nice way to celebrate the amazing friendship that we have been able to form just from being in a workout class together. Hopefully we can have another epic hangout the next time the 4 of us are in the same place.
This past week of workouts was a real struggle for me. I already knew it might be a weird week because of my schedule, but things just were not going my way. I made it to my 4 workouts, but I’ll be honest and say that I really didn’t want to do them all. But I didn’t have a good enough excuse to miss the ones I wanted to miss so I went.
Because I was in Catalina, I missed my usual Monday workout. But a few hours after getting back on Tuesday I made it to an afternoon class to make up for it. I knew it would be a tough class for me for a few reasons. First, this was going to be my first workout since the previous Friday, which is a much longer gap than I usually have between workouts. I was also dealing with my normal hormonal nausea. But I also had the added weirdness of feeling the room swaying from being on the boat earlier. I was not expecting that feeling because I didn’t have it on the boat going to Catalina. For some reason I was more affected on the ride back even though it was a very smooth ride.
The workout was Go Row, which is one of the signature workouts. It did feel a bit funny that I was going to have a big rowing workout while the room felt like it was moving. It was a 2 group class, but the cardio part of class was split between rowing and the treadmill/bike. The first block was a 4 minute row, the second block was a 2 minute row, and the last block was a 1 minute row. I did ok with my row distances, but nothing was super amazing. And the treadmill/bike work was push to all out paces. Because of how I was feeling, I didn’t really do much on the bike. I kept it at my base pace resistance level for the entire time I was on the bike. I knew I had to take it easy and just make sure I was moving.
The floor work was a lot of abs and upper body. The first block was single arm snatches, Spiderman planks, and crunches. The second block was running men, triceps with weights, and alligators on the straps. And the last block was lateral raises with weights and back extensions. I was able to do the plank work normally and not using the bench which was a surprise to me. And I did try to go heavier on the weights to make up for going easier on the cardio work.
Even though I had a Tuesday afternoon workout, I still did my Wednesday morning workout. It’s not easy to have that small of a break between classes, but it’s a good challenge for me. And I was feeling much better and didn’t have the swaying room sensation so the class went much better for me than Tuesday’s did.
The cardio was one long block but it was timed out by us. We started with a 30 second all out pace and a 30 second recovery before completing a distance. After getting to the distance, we had another recovery and continued the pattern. I wasn’t keeping the best track of my distance but I was trying to do my best to do the workout as we were supposed to. But since I was probably only going over the distance before the recovery and not under, I figured that was ok.
The row block was also one long block. We started with 10 strokes for distance and then 15 seconds to recover. Then we rowed until we got to 200 meters. After the row, we had lunges with tricep work using the medicine ball. Every time we went back to the rower we did the same beginning but the row increased by 50 meters. And the lunges/tricep work increased by 2 reps each time. I wasn’t too worried about my row times and I just focused on form. None of my rows were that slow, so it’s good to know that when I’m not focusing on rushing I’m still doing good work.
And the floor was split into 3 short blocks. Every block started with power sit-ups. Then we moved on to the rounds of the different exercises. We had neutral full thrusters and lunges for the first block, strap roll outs and plank jacks for the second block, and squats and calf raises for the last block. Some of the exercises were making me feel a bit more nauseous, but it was manageable with just taking breaks and letting it pass.
Friday’s workout was an endurance day and it was a pretty great endurance day. I was ready to work hard and see what I could do again after having a few odd days earlier in the week. We had two blocks at each station, one long block and one short one, and they were back to back.
For cardio, the first block started with a 3 minute push pace with a base pace after. We then had a 2 minute push pace and a 1 minute push pace before ending with an all out pace. I was using my new resistance levels on the bike and it was hard to do it for the longer push paces. But it felt great to know I could do it and I was able to recover with a base pace after instead of needing a break. The second block was just a 3 minute push pace to an all out and I continued to use the new resistance levels. I was starting to have some nausea issues during that block, but I managed to finish the work before needing to take a break.
The first block on the rower started with a 90 second distance challenge. Then we had medicine ball squat twists before rowing for half the distance we got on the 90 second challenge. We repeated that pattern until that block was done and I made it through 2 rounds of 90 second challenges and 2 rounds of the half distance challenge. The second block was just one more 90 second distance challenge with the squats before rowing for distance until we were done on the rower.
The floor work required a few modifications for me, but I felt really good about what I did. The beginning of the first block was all work using the bench to step on and I can’t do those with my hip. We were supposed to do different types of step down work and I usually do lunges. But I didn’t want to just do 3 rounds of regular lunges. So I did regular lunges, single leg squats using the straps for support, and step back lunges to replace the bench work. We also had bicycle crunches and arm raises with the mini-bands in that first block. The second block was lunge twists using the mini-bands on our wrists and plank work using the mini-bands to step our hands in and out. I did use the bench for my hands for the planks to help with my nausea, but it was still as tough to do the planks that way as I feel like it is on the floor.
I thought everything was going better on Friday, until Friday night. I had been feeling off for a few days but I thought it was just my nausea affecting me a different way. Friday night, I figured out that I caught a cold. When I start feeling sick, it’s usually a few days after I caught it, so I knew that I couldn’t stop it. But I took as many measures as I could on Friday night to keep the cold from getting really bad.
I thought about skipping my workout on Saturday, but my rule is that if I don’t have a fever and my cold is from my neck up (no body aches or anything like that), I should go and try to do what I could. I know that some people might think that it was bad for me to go because I could have gotten someone sick, but the timing of my body showing symptoms is usually a day or so after I stop being contagious. Also, we use antibacterial wipes at Orangetheory and I was careful not to high five anyone or do anything else that might spread germs if there was any chance I was still contagious.
The workout was an endurance, strength, and power day; but for me it was all about just getting through the workout however I could. For the cardio, the first half was incline work and I did work on increasing my resistance on the bike even if that meant my speed and cadence went down. And the second block was just all out paces and recoveries and I used my old resistance levels for that.
On the rower, we had one long block. It started with an 800 meter row and then lunges with twists. The row went down to 400 meters and then more lunges. We were supposed to do 200 meters, lunges, 100 meters, lunges, and then row for distance. But the lunges were making things tough for me so after the second set of them I just stuck with rowing until we were done and moving on the floor.
On the floor, we had two blocks. The first block was push-ups, single arm rows with weights, and crunches with leg lifts. The second block was push-ups to plank jacks, single arm rows on the straps, and side to side crunches. For the exercises that had 2 parts, I had to split them up and do each part separately. I also was taking a lot of breaks just because I was feeling congested. But I made it through the workout and didn’t give up which was all I wanted to do.
I’m hoping that this week will be a bit better. I’m not completely over my cold just yet, but I’m hoping it won’t last through the entire week. I do know how to do workouts when I’m not feeling my best, but I really want to stop having that as an excuse. I feel like I’m in a rut and stuck in my progress because of all my recent struggles and challenges. I just want to have another week where I feel amazing to help me remember how hard I’ve worked so far.
Posted onMarch 4, 2019|Comments Off on Getting My 4 In (or Not Missing A Workout If I Can Help It)
This past week of workouts was an interesting one for me. First, it was the beginning of my nausea and I had to deal with that the entire week. I thought I might not have nausea until midway through the week, but I wasn’t lucky this time. Also, I had a weird workout schedule. I am pretty set in my routine with the days and times I work out, but when something happens that prevents me from maintaining that schedule, I have to be flexible. I could have just missed the class I knew I couldn’t go to, but my desire to get in 4 workouts a week is higher than my desire to keep my normal schedule.
Monday’s workout was a strength based class and I was dealing with a mix of being overly tired and a little bit of nausea during class. I was already prepared for this week to not be one of my super amazing weeks, so I knew that I had to be careful during cardio to not overdo things and get burned out before the end of the workout.
The treadmill work was a single block that was 14 minutes of work. We only had 2 hill/incline/high resistance levels sections and I was going to some of the highest resistance levels on the bike that I’ve used. For my regular base, push, and all out paces I was using my old resistance levels. I used those honesty because I forgot about the new ones so that was my fault and not me needing to go easy on myself. The nausea wasn’t too bad during the bike so I didn’t need to take a ton of breaks and that made me happy.
On the rower, we had sprint rows with exercises between each row. The rows were all between 100-400 meters and I was going pretty close to my normal speed on the rower. After the first row we were supposed to do medicine ball jacks, but since I can’t do bouncy stuff like that when I’m nauseous I did squats to overhead presses with the medicine ball. After the second row we added on squat front presses with the medicine ball. And after the third round we were supposed to add squat overhead presses with the medicine ball, but since I was already doing those I just did regular squats while holding the medicine ball.
On the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block was lateral lunges, pop squats, and regular lunges. I was able to do the pop squats while using the bench for my hands so my nausea wasn’t too bad. The second block was lunges to single arm presses with weights, sit-ups, and bear steps. The bear steps are done face down similar to a plank and I was worried about doing them with the nausea. I tried them and found that as long as I went slowly I wasn’t having the usual nausea issues. I also had to keep taking breaks during them to sit and let the nausea pass, but that’s still better than I’m used to.
Wednesday’s workout was also a strength workout. We had 2 blocks at each section of the room but they were back to back so we had about 15 minutes at each section.
For cardio the first block was a 2 minute push pace, 1 minute base pace, 2 minute hill, 90 second base base, and a 1 minute all out. I was at my old resistance level for most things but used my old all out level for the hill work. The second block cut most things in half so since it was shorter I used my new resistance levels on the bike. I hadn’t been using them much lately and I was glad I did it in this workout so I could remember that I could do it.
The rower was a similar idea to cardio with one block being longer and the second block cutting them in half. We started with a 2 minute row and then we had lunges to overhead tricep work using the medicine ball. Then we were supposed to do that distance from the 2 minute row again with more lunges and tricep work before rowing for distance. But the tricep work was making me feel nauseous for some random reason so I did the first row. the lunges and tricep work, and then rowed until time was called on the block. I did the same thing with the second block. I know I didn’t get all the work done that I should have done, but I figured rowing longer wasn’t the worst option for me.
The floor was mainly upper body work. We had sit-ups to shoulder presses (which I split into sit-ups and squats to shoulder presses), seated low rows using weights, ab dumbbell twists, chest presses, and lunge low rows. I wasn’t going too heavy on the weights which I regretted after the workout. I was trying to go easy on myself and I realized after it was done that I probably went too easy. It’s a tough balance to find with going easy to not be nauseous and pushing myself too much and not being able to do a lot of the workout. And the balance changes every time I work out and am nauseous.
Even though when I set my 2019 goals I allowed for a few 3 workout weeks, if I can find a way to have 4 workouts even if it’s not with my normal schedule I’ll try my best. And for last week and this week I knew I’d be missing one of my normal workout times. Last week, I knew I’d miss my Saturday workout. So I added in a Thursday workout to make up for it.
Working out on a Thursday meant I went after work in the afternoon. This is the time I used to go when I went to Brentwood for all my classes, but it was so weird for me to do it now. And because I take class at very popular times, I’m used to 3 group classes and didn’t even consider that I’d be going to a 2 group class. It was an endurance based class, but we switched every 5 minutes so that helped.
Every time we had cardio, we had a 4 minute progressive push pace and a 30 second all out pace. I started at my normal base pace resistance level each time and increased it by 1 every minute. That worked out perfectly for me because 1 level above the progressive push levels ended up being my new all out resistance level. It was nice to take the time to work up each block from my base to my all out and it helped to make it feel easier than I thought it would be.
Every time we were on the floor, we had the same thing. We had one long floor block and we picked things up where we left them off. We had static over under crunches, heel toe taps, toe touches, hop overs, squats with weights, side plank work, and burpees. I had to make some modifications for a few things due to my nausea but I was able to do most things the way they were supposed to be done. And the last floor block was a row block where we had the same pattern as cardio with a progressive 4 minute push to a 30 second all out. I knew that I couldn’t push myself on the rower the way I wanted to, so I had a goal just to row the entire time without stopping. I wasn’t able to do that and I had to take breaks for the nausea to pass about every 45 seconds. It wasn’t my best row, but it was at the end of workout so I was tired besides being nauseous.
Friday was my last workout last week. It was also my worst nausea day of the week and my third workout day in a row. There were enough factors working against me that I went into class just feeling like I had the goal of surviving and doing what I could and not really pushing myself. It was a strength based class and my usual 3 group class so I was at each section for about 15 minutes.
For cardio, we were on our own with timing things. We had plan with how far we were supposed to go with push, all out, and recovery paces and our push paces were supposed to increase inclines each time. I used my normal base pace resistance level as my recovery (I don’t really go lower than that if I can help it even when we have recovery time) and my new all out resistance level each round. For the push paces, I knew I’d be working my way up the resistance levels so I started it at my old push pace level. Then I went up 1 level each time I got back there. When the block was ending, I was using my all out level for my push at an incline. It wasn’t easy to keep going and I took a lot of breaks to let the nausea pass or the pain from the cramps to lessen. But the goal was to just keep going and that’s what I did.
On the rower we started with a 400 meter row. Then we had squats and squat front presses with a medicine ball and a 200 meter row. We repeated the squat work and back to a 400 meter row. That’s as far as I got for the first row block. The second row block was the same idea but everything was cut in half. So we had 200 and 100 meter rows and half the squats we had the first time. Just like on the bike, I had to take a lot of time to rest and let things get a bit better for me. I struggled a lot with the squats too because the motion of squatting down and standing up was affecting me. It sucks to feel this bad, but I knew it was just temporary and I’d be done with it soon.
And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had lunges with front raises or lateral raises using weights, bicycle chest presses, and double crunches. The lunges went fine for me and it was nice to have something feel normal to me. The bicycle chest presses and double crunches weren’t as easy, but I was able to use my normal weights for those so I felt awesome about that. And the second block was goblet squat lateral steps and plank shoulder taps. Those went as well as I expected they would and I just focused on getting through it and taking breaks when I needed them.
My last workout last week was on Friday and my next workout won’t be until tomorrow which is a pretty long break for me. And this week will also be a bit weird with the schedule since I am missing my Monday workout. I’m also aware that it will likely be another bad nausea week. But if I made it through last week, I know I can make it through this week!
Posted onFebruary 25, 2019|Comments Off on A Week Of Getting Back To Normal (or Still Dealing With The Same Old Issues)
This past week of workouts went well for me. While I was finally able to work out normally again after getting my stitches out, it didn’t mean that I was completely free of all workout related issues. I still had some random issues I had to deal with, but they are all ones that I’m used to. I would love to have a week where I have absolutely no workout related issues to deal with, but that may never become a reality for me.
Monday’s workout was my last workout with the stitches in, and I was so glad it was the last one. I was tired of having the random pain in my face and having to be careful about how heavy I was lifting because I didn’t want to put any tension on my face. This workout was a power switch day so we were moving around the room quickly and often.
When we were doing cardio, it was a mix of different little cardio blasts. Sometimes we had a push pace with a base pace before an all out and sometimes it was just push pace to all out. They were all about 2 or 2 1/2 minutes long so we were never on there too long. I was using my old resistance levels on the bike because of the issues I was having with the stitches, but I was pedaling much faster than before so that was a sign of improvement.
On the rower, we started with a 2 1/2 minute row for distance and then every time on the rower we based things off of that distance. To make things easy for me I just used 500 meters as the distance so it was easier to remember. Each time on the rower, we rowed 100 meters less than the last time and then we held a static squat until we switched. The rows weren’t all sprint rows, but they were all able to be done pretty quickly and I was always holding my squat for a good chunk of time.
And on the floor, we had the same thing every time we were there. We had a roll out on the straps, high row on the straps, hip hinge low rows with weights, plank jacks, and burpees to bicep curls. I really struggled with the burpees that day (even more than normal), so I wasn’t always doing them each time I was on the floor. I also had to split up the burpees and bicep curls into 2 different things instead of a continuous exercise. But I was getting through everything else much easier than I had before and I was happy that it wasn’t a ton of floor work that I knew would make me put tension in my face.
Wednesday’s workout was a benchmark day. We had the 12 minute run for distance. I haven’t done a lot of benchmark distance challenge on the bike so I was excited to see what I could do. I was finally feeling better with the stitches out and I knew that I could really push myself on the bike.
The idea was to just get as far as possible in those 12 minutes. I started at my push resistance level and realized that I wouldn’t be able to maintain that for a majority of the time and any time after that might be affected by me being tired from the higher resistance level. So after the first minute, I used the resistance level between my base and push and made my focus pedaling as quickly as I could. I know that the baseline for me on the bike is 1 trip every 2 1/2 minutes but I can sometimes go closer to 2 minutes when it’s a quick sprint. But this wasn’t a sprint so I knew not to go too hard in the beginning to try to get that faster time. I was hoping to do 5 trips since that would still be faster than my baseline and was so happy when I did 5.5.
When I was on the rower, I had to go a bit slow to recover but that’s what our coach expected us to do. We started with a 4 minute row for distance and had to remember the distance. I used 800 meters to make it easy to remember. Then we cut the distance in half and had mini-band front arm raises. Each time we were on the rower we went down 100 meters. Even though I was trying to be easy to recover from the distance challenge on the bike, I was still going harder and faster on the rower than I had the past week.
And on the floor, we had one long block. We had single arm hollow hold chest presses, half getups, double crunches with weights, plank pull throughs with weights, and alligators on the straps. I was finally able to use my more normal weights and I could feel it in my body that I had been going easy on myself for a week. It was a little surprising how much I felt the difference when the weights I was using were the ones I was using not that long ago, but I did. I thought about going down in the weights, but I realized that it was a struggle to do them and not that I was doing sloppy form because of the weights so I kept them the same. It really did feel good to be back to what feels more normal to me and I’m so glad that I was able to get some awesome stuff done in that workout.
Friday’s workout was a serious struggle for me. I was at Disneyland the day before (that post is coming this week) and I woke up Friday morning having a horrible hip day. I know that workouts will always be tough when I have those days, but this workout was a class filled with burpees. I was not in a good headspace walking into class because I was already anticipating how hard it was going to be, and it pretty much went how I expected.
It was also a tornado class which means we switch very quickly. We had 6 laps around the room (18 blocks) and the first lap was 3 minutes long and all the rest were 1 minute. If the class wasn’t a tornado, it probably would have been worse, so that probably made things a bit better than they could have been.
For cardio, the first block was a push pace, base pace, push pace, and all out. And the other 5 blocks were all 1 minute all outs. I used my old resistance levels on the bike but even those were a struggle for me. On the rower, the first block was rounds of 10 strokes for distance and 5 recovery strokes. And the other 5 blocks were 1 minute all out rows. The rowing was a bit easier than the bike, but because of the hip pain it was hard sitting down and getting up from the rower. Fortunately we had about a minute to switch every time so I didn’t have to rush too much.
And the floor was almost all burpees. The first block was burpees and squats since it was longer, but all the other blocks were just 1 minute of doing a type of burpee. We had full burpees, reverse burpees, burpees with shoulder taps, burpees with lunges, and push ups to plank jacks (which are just like a burpee except you don’t have to stand up). I used the bench for my hands for all the burpees but I still occasionally had to step back and not jump back. I went slow and took breaks because even 1 minute was too long for me at times, but I did it. It wasn’t my best work and I know it didn’t look pretty, but sometimes that’s all you can hope for out of a workout on a tough day.
Saturday felt like the most normal day of the week for me. I didn’t have issues with my stitches and I didn’t have a ton of hip pain. I did have a little bit of nausea to deal with, but it was very minor and I didn’t even have to take medication to manage it. It was a strength based workout so that meant hills/high resistance levels on the bike and I was ready to challenge myself a bit.
For cardio we had 2 blocks and the idea for both blocks was to have longer hill work each time. We had a range of incline/resistance levels we could use and I tried to go a bit higher than I have for the past week or so. The shorter the hill work was, the higher we were supposed to be with the incline/resistance level. For the 2 shorter ones, I was higher than my typical all out resistance level which was good. And I did the longest hill at my normal all out level which I usually can’t hold for more than a minute. I was surprised that I did so well because I had been going easy on myself for so long.
On the rower, we had all sprint rows. We started with a 300 meter row and then we had 10 frogger squats. Next was a 200 meter row with frogger squats and a 100 meter row with frogger squats. We repeated the 300, 200, and 100 meter rows again but with lunges between. We were supposed to do the row distances again with squats between the rows, but I was working on the last 300 meter row when the block ended.
And on the floor, we had drop sets which means we do a low number of reps with a higher weight for an exercise immediately followed by a higher number of reps with a lower weight. For the first block we had shoulder press drop sets and the second block we had deadlift drop sets. The first block also had sit-ups and hip bridges and the second block also had leg lifts and crunches.
Considering how easy I went on myself the week before, I was so happy that I was able to get back to my normal work and even sometimes do a bit better than normal. It’s always nice when I can prove to myself that taking an easy week doesn’t have to be a setback. And I think that having new issues has made the normal issues I deal with during my workouts a bit easier for me to tolerate. Of course, I say that now when my nausea isn’t that bad. This week and next week will likely be my bad nausea weeks and I’m hoping that they aren’t too horrible. But if they are, I know what I need to do.
Posted onFebruary 18, 2019|Comments Off on A Low Key Workout Week (or Working Through The Stitches)
I knew this past week of workouts was going to be a weird one. I knew that 3 of the workouts would be while I had the stitches and I had no idea how it would affect me. But I was prepared for it to be bad and I think that preparation did help. It wasn’t an easy week to work out and it was hard in ways that I wasn’t expecting it to be, but the preparation to make it an easier week helped me not feel too bad about what I could and couldn’t do.
Monday’s workout was a strength based class, and I will be honest that I wasn’t in it 100%. I was still dealing with the end of my nausea, but that was only a little part of my distraction. Even though I have said I was excited to have the surgery with my dermatologist, I was nervous the day of. I knew it would be fine, but I just wasn’t looking forward to needles and potential pain and I know that it made me not focus completely on my workout.
The workout was a switch format so I was at each section of the room for 6 minutes before switching (we did 2 full rounds around the room). For cardio, we started with a 90 second push pace and then we had rounds of 30 second push or all out paces but with added incline/resistance levels. I was able to use my new push and all out resistance levels and even went above that for the hill work. It wasn’t my highest resistance levels I’ve used, but it was up there. Even though my focus wasn’t totally in the workout, I usually do zone out a bit on the bike since I don’t have to focus on it as much as the treadmill. So I wasn’t affected too much for cardio, even though I still know I could have done better.
For the rower, the first block we started with a 250 meter row and then we had lunges with tricep extensions using a medicine ball. Each time we returned to the rower we went down 50 meters but the lunges stayed the same. And for the second block on the rower, we had the same format but the exercise between the rows was a squat twist with the medicine ball. I feel like I struggled the most with my lack of focus on the rower. I wasn’t able to get my wattage up to where it usually is when I’m having an off day and things were just taking me so long to do.
On the floor, the first block was lower body focused with mini-band work. We had forward walks, lateral walks, and toe reaches all with the mini-band on our legs. My hips were starting to get a bit sore with the lateral walks, but I also know that my feet weren’t totally straight (my natural stance is with my feet pointed out) and I think that might have made my hip hurt more than it should have. And the second block was all upper body focuses with shoulder presses, bicep curls, shoulder raises, and upper cuts. I went with medium heavy weights for the weighted work, but they felt like they were heavier than I’ve ever used before. I don’t know what was causing it to be so hard, but I really think the focus issue was the main culprit.
The rest of my workouts this past week were affected by having the skin surgery Monday afternoon. I figured I would be sore after and that would make me need to go a bit easier with the workouts. But there were a few other factors that ended up affecting me too. First, because of where the incisions and stitches are, I can’t really move my face too much. I figured this wouldn’t be an issue in a workout but then I realized when I lift heavy weights I have tension in my face. So I had to go light with the weights. Also, because of the pain in my jaw, I wasn’t eating regular food for the first few days. I was doing all liquids and I know my calorie count was way too low. I didn’t have the same energy I normally do and I had to take breaks when I was feeling lightheaded. I really tried my best, but I also know that everything I did the rest of the week was affected by this.
Wednesday’s workout was endurance, strength, and power and it was the first workout after getting the stitches. I was so paranoid that I was going to do damage to my face somehow and I really was cautious. For the cardio, I did my old resistance levels on the bike but didn’t do any additional resistance levels when we had hill work. I just kept using my old push pace level and not worrying about anything else.
On the rower, the first block we had started with a 150 meter row and squats with front presses with a medicine ball. We repeated that until the block was done and I didn’t do too horribly with it. The second block was 30 second all out rows with the same squats with recovery between. Again, I wasn’t doing too horribly with the rowing and that was probably the part of the workout I was able to work the hardest during.
On the floor, we had one long block. We had lunges with weights, lunges without weights, tricep extensions, plank jacks, and squats. It was during the triceps that I discovered that I had to go easy on the weights to not hurt my face (that is the weirdest thing, but it’s exactly what the situation was). I still feel like I was using decent weights, but I wasn’t working as hard as I am used to.
Friday’s workout was a strength class, and while I was in less pain and more used to having to be easy with the weights this was the workout where the lack of food hit me the hardest. I never thought I would pass out or anything, but it was very strange realizing that my stomach was so empty during class.
The cardio had 2 blocks with hill work. The first block had a 30 second hill, 60 second hill, and 90 second hill and the second block had a 90 second hill and 2 minute hill. I went very easy on the resistance levels for the hills and ended up staying between my base and all out resistance levels. It felt hard because of me being tired, but I probably could have done a bit more if I really tried.
The rower started with a 1000 meter row. This terrified me, but somehow I managed to do it without needing a break in the middle. After that we were supposed to do 100 jumping jacks. I made it through 50 and knew I couldn’t do more. Then we had a 500 meter row and more jumping jacks and some squats. I just did the squats and when I finished those the time was called so I didn’t make it through any other rounds.
The floor was 2 block and it was upper body based. The first block was a chest press, single arm low row with weights, and heel touches. And the second block was hollow hold single arm chest press, double crunches, and plank work. I was prepared to use easier weights this time which helped and I got through 2 rounds of all the exercises each block.
Saturday’s workout was the closest to normal I felt the entire week. I was still dealing with being a bit tired due to not eating enough and I knew I would have to be easy with the weights so I didn’t put stress in my face, but it was still so much closer to normal. It was an endurance workout, but because of how some things were done it felt closer to a power day for me.
For cardio, we had multiple rounds of 2.5 minute distance challenges. The first time, we were supposed to be in a push pace the entire time. Then as we did each round, we had a base pace to start the distance challenge. That would require us to go harder during the push to be able to match the distance each time. I was using my normal base resistance and my old push resistance on the bike to take it easy and I didn’t do any all out resistance levels. I was pedaling hard and was able to match my distance each time, but I wasn’t working as hard as normal.
On the rower, we stared with a 2.5 minute row for distance. After that, we had lunges with tricep work using the medicine ball. Then we went back to the rower and were supposed to go 100 meters less than what we did in 2.5 minutes and keep repeating the pattern. Even though I went further than 500 meters in the 2.5 minute challenge, I decided to use that as the distance to measure from so the math was a bit easier for me. I did much better on the rower than I had done before and didn’t need the breaks I thought I would need. I still wasn’t rowing as hard as I could because I could feel the stitches pulling a bit from me tensing my face, but I just tried to find what was the line between going hard and going too hard.
And on the floor, we had 3 blocks. The first block was a core blast with mountain climbers, toe reaches, leg lifts, and sit-ups. This block went well because I got to rest a bit from the rowing and it wasn’t hard for me with any of the issues I had been dealing with. The next block was a mini-band block with squats to leg lifts and forward walks using the bands. And the last block was a weight block with skier swings and lunges. I had to go easy on the weights to not have any strain on my face, but I was not that much lower than I normally use.
Considering how worried I was about how this past week would go, I was pretty proud of myself. I did encounter issues I wasn’t expecting, but I quickly figured out what I needed to do and I worked around what I couldn’t work through. The next few weeks are going to be a bit weird for me. This week I will have the stitches in for one workout and I don’t know yet if I will have any issues or restrictions to deal with when the stitches are out but the incision is still healing. And then the 2 weeks after this I will not be doing my normal workout schedule due to some things I have planned. I do think I found a way to still get in my 4 workouts each week, but there is a chance it might only be 3. I just have to play it by ear and see how things go.
Posted onFebruary 11, 2019|Comments Off on A Week Of 3G Workouts (or Pushing Myself When I Feel Stuck)
This past week of workouts was during the worst of my nausea, but fortunately this time it wasn’t quite as bad as it has been the past year or so. I still had some really bad days, but they weren’t during my workouts. I still wasn’t feeling great, but it was nice to have a slightly less worse week than I was expecting because it allowed me to do some good work.
Monday’s workout was an endurance day and I thought the class would be 2 groups since that’s what my Monday class normally is. But it ended up being a 3 group class so I was at each section of the room for about 15 minutes. That worked for me because I was dealing with a bad nausea day so I appreciated changing things up often because that seemed to be tricking my nausea a little bit.
On the cardio side, we had all 30 second push paces with base paces after them. The base paces started at 30 seconds and increased each time. The goal on endurance days is to be able to maintain base pace after a push, and that’s exactly what this workout was designed to do. I used my normal resistance levels on the bike and I know that I need to step it up a bit because it was a bit too easy for me to get back to my base pace even with how off I was feeling.
On the rower, we had decreasing rows with different types of squats between each row. We started with a 250 meter row and then we had squat calf raises, regular squats, and pulsing half squats. We also were supposed to do jumping jacks, but I can’t do those when I’m nauseous so I just skipped that part of the workout. All the rows were essentially sprint rows, but they weren’t very fast for me. But I was still able to do the rows under the time we are supposed to be under which is a victory for me when I’m feeling off.
The floor work was a good mix of lower body work with mini-band work. The first block was all mini-band work with weighted front squats, bicep curls, and squat walks. I still struggle a bit with the mini-bands because they roll up my legs and get very tight, but I’m getting better and keeping them smooth or fixing them when they twist up. And the second block had regular lunges, lateral lunges, and upper cuts. None of those moves had the mini-bands so they went a bit easier for me.
Wednesday’s workout was a benchmark workout day. We had the 200 meter row benchmark and my goal wasn’t to beat my previous PR but to get close to it. We had a 3 group class and we were switching about every 4 minutes around the room.
For cardio, we had the same block every time we were there. We had a 45 second push pace, 30 second base pace, 45 second all out, walking recovery, and another 45 second all out. Because we went to the rower right after cardio, we were told to not overdo things so we would be ready for the row. The focus was on rowing so we had an easier cardio block. I was using my normal resistance levels even though I think I need to increase them because of that, and my cardio went well even with feeling off.
The row blocks were all similar with starting with a 200 meter row. Then we had squat work with a medicine ball and then back to the rower. The first block, I thought that would be my block to do my best 200 meter row. I wanted to be between 40 and 41 seconds, and I was able to do exactly that! I was exhausted after it, but it felt great to hit my goal. The second time I was on the rower I didn’t do quite and well and expected to do the same for the third block. But someone my third block ended up being my best 200 meter row at 40.2 seconds! The squat work we had after each 200 meter row were squat to press, squat to front press, and static squat front raises. I really didn’t get much rowing done after the squat work because I took a bit of time to recover after the first row, but I usually got at least 50 meters in before the block ended.
And on the floor, we had 2 exercises each block. The first block was low rows on the straps and neutral thrusters with weights. The second block was single arm squats to shoulder presses and pullovers using weights. And the last block was plank low rows with weights and crunches. The only one I really had issues with were the plank low rows, but I used the bench so I wasn’t totally face down to the ground and took my time getting into and out of my plank.
Friday’s workout was endurance based and for the cardio portion we had 3 different runs (or bikes) for distance. The first 2 were 3.5 minutes and the last one was 4 minutes. The goal was to do at least a push pace the entire time and I was able to do that for the first 2. But by the last one my nausea was affecting me much more so I set the resistance level to be between my base and push levels. But even though I had to go down a bit in my resistance, I was able to pedal the entire time without needing a break.
On the rower, we started with a 90 second row and we had to remember what distance we did. Then we had sumo squats and frogger squats before we went back onto the rower. We were supposed to do 50 meters less than what we rowed in 90 seconds and then do more squats. Every time we were on the rowers we were supposed to go down 50 meters. I didn’t want to worry too much about the distances or doing the math, so I made things easy on myself. I know that we are supposed to do at least 100 meters every 30 seconds. So in 90 seconds, that would be 300 meters. I know I went further than that in that 90 second row for distance, but using even numbers just made things easier for me and I didn’t have to waste time thinking about what I had to do next.
The floor work was split into 2 blocks. The first block had lateral raises, front raises, and upright rows using weights. After the first round we had crunches on the Bosu. Then we did the weight work again and had back extensions on the Bosu. And the last round was the weight work again and both crunches and back extensions. The second block was plank leg lifts and knee tucks which were supposed to be done on the Bosu, but I did the leg lifts with my hands on the floor.
Saturday’s workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power and it was the opportunity I was looking for to work on increasing my resistance levels on the bike. We had 3 mini blocks for cardio that all had a 90 second push pace, a base pace, a 30 second push pace, and a 30 second all out. The difference we had was in that base pace and it got shorter every time. The first time I did my bike work at my normal resistance level and remembered what I was thinking on Wednesday about increasing the levels. So for the next 2 times, I increased the push and the all out levels by 1 resistance level (I kept the base the same). It wasn’t easy when I tried it because it was hard plus I was dealing with my nausea. But the fact that I was able to do it proved that it was exactly what I needed!
On the rower, we started with a 100 meter row and medicine ball squats. Each round went up 50 meters with the row and down 5 reps on the squats. Then we switched and started with a 250 meter row and medicine ball squat presses. Each round went down 50 meters with the row and we increased the squat reps. I don’t know if my nausea just decided on that time to kick in or it was a result of the harder resistance levels, but I was hurting during the row. I know I was going very slow for myself and I tried to not think about it.
And on the floor, we had one long block that was an add-on block. We started with dumbbell ground to presses and then each round we kept adding on more exercises. We added tricep work on the straps, push up to knee tucks using the ab dolly, rollouts using the ab dolly, and hip bridges. After getting to all the exercises, we started to take them away, but I only started my first round taking things away when the class ended.
My expectations for this week of workouts isn’t too high. I have my little surgery with my dermatologist this afternoon and I have no idea if it will affect my workouts. I have already cleared with my doctor that I will be able to work out as long as it’s not the next day, which fits in perfectly with my workout schedule. But if I’m feeling sore or off, I know that I can’t push myself too much because I will have stitches in my face. But if anyone is used to working out with random modifications, it’s me. And I’m curious to see how it all goes.
Posted onFebruary 5, 2019|Comments Off on My Strength In Real Life (or Helping A Friend Gave Me Some New Confidence)
I wrote yesterday about how I was able to lift heavier weights in my workout and how I was shocked what I was able to do. Those workouts really opened my eyes to where I have been holding myself back without realizing it and it was a game changing moment. Sometimes I can be intimidated by the heavier weights in my workout, but I need to get over that and continue to test myself.
I think one of the reasons why I don’t test myself more often is because I don’t see my progress with strength work in my life. I see the progress in my cardio when I get a new PR with a 5K race. Or I see how much easier it is to spend a day walking at Disneyland. Or for some reason, I see weight loss or smaller clothing sizes as a sign of progress with cardio even though I know that’s not always the case. But I don’t get to see the signs of progress with lifting heavier weights since I don’t really life heavy things in my regular life.
But I had a moment where I got to see my strength in life that really added to the boost I had been feeling after my workouts.
A friend of mine had posted that he needed some help packing up his apartment into a moving truck. He was moving to a new place and he was doing the move on his own. Some of the work was just moving boxes as a team so things got done quicker, but he also had some heavy things that he needed help with. His old apartment was pretty close to my house and I had that afternoon free, so I offered to help my friend.
For most of the time that I was helping, my job was to carry boxes that he packed from his door to the moving truck (which was right next to the door) and lifting them into the back of the truck for his girlfriend to organize. The three of us worked really well as a team and it was so much easier doing it that way than to have us all climb up and down the ramp to the truck. We were very efficient in our work and things were going so much faster than any of us expected.
My friend knows that I work out, but there were still a few boxes that he was worried might be too heavy for me. They were fine (although sometimes it was tough to lift into the truck since the floor of the truck was as tall as I am) and I think there were several times where my friend was honestly impressed by what I could carry. I don’t think he expected that I could do as much as I could, but I think he was so happy that I could do it since that allowed him to keep working on packing up other things.
Once we got all the boxes into the truck, we had to move on to the few pieces of furniture that he was taking. Most of the furniture was awkward to carry, but not too heavy. We moved a dresser and a desk without too much effort. It was a bit tough for me to walk up the ramp to the truck, but that was mainly because I couldn’t see my feet and I was worried I’d fall off. I ended up doing shuffle steps up the ramp so I never had to feel like my feet were going off to the side.
The last thing my friend said he needed help moving was his bed frame. He was going to move his mattress the next day when he officially was moving out, but he said the frame was so heavy that he wanted to do it then when he had the help. I couldn’t understand how a bed frame could be heavy because I’ve only seen normal bed frames. But my friend not only had a special bed frame for a Tempurpedic mattress, it was a frame that had a motor in it so the bed could be lifted and raised in different positions.
When we tried to move it at first, there was no way we could do it. I was using all my strength and force and I could only lift it maybe half an inch off the ground for a few seconds. We weren’t sure what we were going to do, but then my friend said he’d be right back. He went through the boxes in his truck and found furniture moving straps. I had seen those straps before and knew they were supposed to help, but I still wondered if we’d be able to move the frame out of his place and into the truck.
But those straps are magic and we were able to lift it up. We had to take breaks every so often because it was still insanely heavy (I have bruises on my arms from the straps), but we got it done. And when it was in the truck, I was exhausted and so happy to be done lifting anything.
And because that frame was so heavy, of course I wanted to know what it really weighed. My friend thought it was about 300 pounds and I thought it was about 175. After several minutes of research online, we finally found it and discovered it weighed 214 pounds (so my friend and I were both wrong). Since I was helping one person lift the frame, essentially I was able to lift 107 pounds! I knew it was heavier than anything I have ever lifted at Orangetheory, but I had no idea it would be that much more! The sense of accomplishment I felt after realizing that is something I wish I could bottle and use for when I’m feeling low. I was on a high from knowing what I did and nothing could bring me down.
I know that the opportunities to lift very heavy things will be limited in my life, but it’s nice when I do have those moments so I can see some results in a normal setting. It’s a reminder and proof that I am so much stronger than I have ever been and the progress is happening even if I don’t know it.
Being A Marathon Supporter (or Cheering On My Cheering Buddy)
