Posted onJanuary 4, 2022|Comments Off on My First Challenge of 2022 (or Trying To Get Back To Better Habits)
The past few years I’ve been setting monthly challenges, and I’m going to continue doing that this year. I think it’s good to have daily, weekly, monthly, and annual challenges to help me accomplish quite a bit during a year. And I’ll be going over my goals/challenges for 2022 later this week, but I wanted to start with my January challenge since I think this is something a lot of people are doing.
But first, a quick check about my challenge for December. I challenged myself to speak up more for myself. I knew I needed to do this for so many aspects of my life, and I’m proud to say that I feel so much more confident speaking my mind and not fearing things. I do know there can be consequences for speaking up, but the things I’m speaking up about have consequences that I think are ones I’m willing to accept. Like with dating, speaking up means I might not have a date or a second date because I won’t tolerate specific behavior. And while I am trying to be ok with this idea, I at least can speak up more. I might be sad to not have as many dates because of this, but this is about quality over quantity. I don’t need to put up with someone who says something that is offensive or that doesn’t want similar things to what I want.
Obviously I can’t speak up quite as freely in all aspects of my life, but I am finding ways to make sure my voice is heard even when I have to do it less directly. And it’s reassuring to see positive outcomes when I do speak up so I have less fear each time I have to do it.
My December challenge was a bit more of a mental one, and my challenge for January is a bit more about my physical health (and maybe a bit of my mental health). And it’s also a modification on a challenge I did a few years ago. Several years ago, I challenged myself not to order delivery food for a month. And while I would love to say I won’t order delivery food for a month, with my crazier schedule I know that might not be possible. So I had to add a bit more of a challenge one way to reduce the challenge another way.
So for January, I want to try to limit both my delivery food and take out food as much as possible. This means that I don’t want to do pickup or drive thru options either. Sometimes, if I’m out running errands after work and I see a short line at In-n-Out, it’s just easier to get a hamburger than to go home and see what I can make for myself. But I’m slipping into bad habits again and doing this more often than I would like. I am not doing delivery food too often, but I know I need to cut back on that too.
But I am doing things to make this challenge a bit easier on me. I’m making sure I have easy to make meals at home. Frozen dinners aren’t the best, but they are better (and cheaper) than going out to eat or bringing food home. And this is a way to do a little bit of meal planning without putting too much pressure on this idea.
I do want to work on my eating habits and what types of food I eat, but I know I need to do baby steps because I can revert to old habits easily. And if something doesn’t seem too extreme, it’s a little easier for me to maintain. So that’s why I’m going a bit easier on myself and not saying I have to completely eliminate this from my life. I just want to limit it. And I think that is a good way for me to set myself up for success with this first challenge of 2022.
Posted onJanuary 3, 2022|Comments Off on Wrapping Up My 2021 Workouts (or An End To One Year And A Start To Another)
The week between Christmas and New Year’s is usually weird, as I mentioned in my other post. But the one place things were still normal was with my workouts. I got my usual 4 workouts in for the week, even if they weren’t exactly the usual plan. I had a few classes at different times and the ones in the normal times were not 3 group classes but they were 2 group classes instead. So Monday and Wednesday were my normal times, but 2 group classes. And Friday and Saturday were different from normal times and those also happened to be 2 group classes! So I had a full week without a 3 group class!
Monday’s class was a mix of endurance, strength, and power and it was themed around practice, perfect, and perform. So on the floor, each block had exercises that worked together.
For cardio, we had 3 blocks and we had done this workout before. The first block had all short intervals at a base pace with increasing inclines. The second block was also short intervals at a base pace but we started at the highest incline and went down each time. And for the last block, we got to decide if we wanted to start at the top or the bottom of the hill. For me, I always pick to start at the top so things get a bit easier each time.
The floor was also 3 blocks and each block started with a 150-meter row. Then we went to the floor and each block had exercises that worked together. The first block had single-leg deadlifts, regular deadlifts, hip hinge swings, and bicycle chest presses. The second block had lunges, lunges with dumbbells, jump lunges, and reciprocal low rows. For this block, I just had to do regular lunges for all the lunges but I did take breaks since doing all of them at once would be a bit too much for me. And the last block had hand-release push-ups, chest presses, power push-ups, and toe touches. I was struggling on the floor with being a bit nauseous, but it wasn’t that bad so besides the lunges, I didn’t have to modify much.
Wednesday’s workout was a strength day and I was feeling miserable that day. I hated how bad I was feeling because I really wanted to try. But it ended up being a day where I just did what I could and I know it wasn’t much.
For cardio, the first block was a mix of push paces at no incline and push paces at an incline. And the push paces with inclines got shorter as the inclines got higher. The second block was all about short intervals and we started at the top of the hill with the highest incline and did base paces with incline and then an all-out at an incline. We worked our way down lowering the incline for each base pace or all-out. I did use the resistance levels on the bike and I did use the levels I would use if I had been feeling ok. I just was pedaling really slowly.
On the floor, the first block was floor exercises. We had single-arm high rows, lunges, plank in and outs, chest presses, burpees, and plank abductions. For the plank work, I used the bench for my hands so I didn’t feel as nauseous. And the second block was timed with the treadmills. When the treadmills had their base paces (which was 2 rounds for 30-seconds each at a time), we had single-arm shoulder raises. When the treadmills were in their 30-second all-outs, we had a 30-second row. Even though I did struggle with the row a bit, I think this block ended up being my best block for the entire workout.
And on Friday, since it was New Year’s Eve and I had the day off of work, I went a little later in the morning than I normally do. This workout was a New Year’s Eve theme with everything being a countdown.
For cardio, we had 1-minute push paces followed by 75-seconds to recover for pretty much the entire block. The inclines started at 10% (I did 9 over my base resistance level on the bike) for each push pace and it went down by 1% each round so we ended at 1% (or for me at my base resistance level). And when we were at that base level, we had a 30-second all-out to finish the cardio for the workout. I was feeling a little better compared to Wednesday, but still not totally myself. So I tried my best to only take breaks during the recovery time. I didn’t always do that, but it was a good goal for me to keep in my head.
And the floor was also one long block with a countdown theme, but the block was split into 4 mini-blocks. With each mini-block, we had 2 exercises that we started at 10 reps and went down by 2 reps each time. After doing 5 rounds we had a row. The first row was 700-meters and that went down 200-meters each time. The mini-blocks were push-ups and pop jacks, upright rows and front raises, squats and bridge rows, and leg raises and toe reaches. I got through the exercises for the 3rd mini-block and was about to start my 300-meter row when the class was done. But I was proud of what I did, especially with my 500-meter row. It wasn’t my best time, but I was able to do it without any breaks which felt huge with how I was feeling.
And that workout ended my workouts for 2021. I was able to do 205 workouts this past year and most of them were back at the studio so I know they weren’t easy ones! And of course, I had to start off 2022 with a workout on New Year’s Day to get started on my next workout goal!
And on Saturday, I actually went to an earlier class than I normally do since I had the day off of work. It wasn’t that early since I wanted to be able to sleep in, but it was nice to get my first workout of 2022 done with lots of time left in my day after.
This workout was an endurance day and the cardio was all about doing 90-second push paces. We had 2 blocks, and each block was all 90-second push paces with either a 45-second or 1-minute base pace between each one. And we ended with a 30-second all-out for each block. I was a bit tired that day and still nauseous, so I was glad that things were pretty consistent for cardio and I didn’t have to think too much about switching the gears on the bike.
For the floor, the first block was half rowing and half floor. We had a 600-meter, 400-meter, and 200-meter row with lunges between each row. Once those were done, we had push-ups, squats, and hip dips. And the second block had weighted front squats, burpees (which I tried to do but had to skip because I was getting too nauseous), leg extensions, and plank leg lifts. It was a tough class, but also the perfect way to kick off 2022!
And now, I get to work toward my workout goals for this year and I think I kicked them off with a great end to 2021 and a perfect start to 2022!
Posted onDecember 31, 2021|Comments Off on Reviewing My 2021 Goals (or This Really Was A Year Of Unknowns)
Happy New Year’s Eve! I think everyone is a bit shocked this year is coming to an end because mentally it feels like we are still in 2020. I do still feel in a way that I’ve lost 2 years of my life due to not being able to live the life I love and enjoy, but I did still get things done this year. And when I was setting my goals for 2021, I set them based on the idea that I didn’t know if or when life would feel normal again. But even with me planning for the unknown and unexpected, things still had some plot twists that made accomplishing some of my goals not exactly what I planned.
My first goal that I had this year was to do at least 200 workouts. I set this goal with the idea of doing mainly workouts through Orangetheory, either at home or in the studio. I did hit my goal for workouts this year which I expected would happen since it’s not too hard for me to get to 200 workouts a year now (which is still something I’m shocked about). And a majority of my workouts were through Orangetheory since I was able to go back to the studio this past spring. My home workouts weren’t the Orangetheory videos since I switched to mainly doing weightlifting at home, but I think this still counts as a win since I did get to my goal and most of my workouts were Orangetheory studio classes.
My next goal I had for 2021 was to work on my budget. I hate that this was another failure since I’ve tried to get my budget back on track so many times. I used to be really good at it, and then so much changed. My excuses in the recent past were about not being stable with work, but things have been much more stable for me lately. There will always be a little bit of unknown with how much I’ll make with some jobs, but most of the money I make each month is a pretty stable and known amount. Even without doing a budget, I was more mindful of my spending and where my money was going. I know I need to get this more under control, but it is nice to see that I haven’t gone completely crazy without a budget. But if I want to work on having more savings and the ability to splurge on fun things without stress, I need to get a budget so I am very aware of my financial situation.
I’m going to combine the next two goals I had for this past year. I wanted to try more, take more risks, and be ok with possible failure and I also wanted to be ok with asking for help and support. When I wrote those goals a year ago, I saw them as very different things. But now, I think they go together. Taking more risks and accepting failure goes along with asking for help and support. When I had failures, I needed support to boost myself back up. I don’t know if I had as many opportunities to try more and take risks as I hoped I would, but I know I did do this more often. I spoke up for myself more and learned how to cope better when things I wanted to have happen didn’t happen. And when I was feeling down about these failures or other things in my life, I had a better group of people I could turn to for advice and support. I still want to take more chances, but I think it will be easier doing that going forward now that I have great friends to help me out if things don’t go the way I hope.
And my last goal for 2021 was to get my house organized and find the best way to use the space I have. Obviously when I wrote my goal, I didn’t know that I would be getting a new place this year. And I did get things much more organized in the first half of the year. But starting in September, I was in the mindset of how I would be hopefully moving in the somewhat near future. So organizing my house took a new turn and became more about going through all my stuff and seeing what I want to move and what I want to toss. And that’s something I’m still going through now. My house is less organized than I would like it, but it’s organized for an upcoming move. And obviously since I’m moving into a place significantly bigger than where I am now, maximizing the space I have stopped being something I worried about. Instead, lately I’ve been planning for my move and how things will work in my new place. And I’m excited to have space to get some new things and really make my new place feel like a home!
Overall, I’m happy with how I did with my goals this year. They weren’t all wins, but I did my best with most of them. And things were an unknown so the ideas I might have had in the beginning of 2021 weren’t exactly how they turned out by the end of 2021. So some of my goals had to adjust with the changes in my life. But I think I was flexible with most of them and made them work. And I’m excited to share my goals for 2022 with you all next week and seeing in a year how I do with them!
Posted onDecember 30, 2021|Comments Off on Was I Patient Enough This Year (or Reflecting On My Word For 2021)
For the past few years, I’ve been doing a word of the year each year. I like having this as a part of my goals for each year, but the word of the year is a different idea to me than my goals. The word is more about an overall theme where the goals are slightly more specific. Sometimes the word is an idea of something I know I want to do and it’s a reminder to focus on that and sometimes the word is something I know I will need to work on but is already something in my life.
For 2021, my word was patience. I picked this word because it seemed obvious to me. At the end of 2020, vaccines were just getting started and it was a big unknown for when I would be able to be vaccinated. I had heard rumors it might not be until the summer and I knew that as much as I wanted to get back to aspects of my normal life that I would need to wait. I knew I would need to practice patience with getting vaccinated and going back out into the world. 2020 was difficult for me with being so isolated, but at the same time, I had kept myself safe and healthy. And even if I was seeing others going out and doing things, I would need to be patient until I felt like things were safe enough for me to do the same.
I also knew I needed to be patient because I felt like I had lost a year of my life. I know many people felt the same way (now it feels like I’ve lost 2 years, but that’s a different topic) and there were things I had as goals for 2020 that I couldn’t do because of circumstances outside of my control. I needed to be patient and understanding with myself and not feeling like I was where I wanted to be at that time. I still feel like I’m somehow behind in my life, but I am still practicing being patient with that idea.
I really think overall I did a pretty good job with using my word as my theme for 2021. There were a lot of things I wanted to do but had to wait longer than I would have liked to. There are plenty of other things that I want to do now but I still haven’t brought them back into my life. It’s a weird time right now because we are still in a pandemic but it also feels like we have a small percentage of our normal lives back. We are in this in-between time where some things are back and we have to make personal choices if they are ok for us to do or not. I have been patient with myself with allowing myself to still feel a bit fearful and being ok with avoiding things. And I’ve been patient with others when I ask someone if they want to do something and it’s not something they feel comfortable with yet.
Being patient isn’t something that I will stop working on since I will have a new word for 2022 (which I will be writing about soon). I still need to practice patience quite often and remind myself that it’s ok that things are not going as quickly as they did before or how I want them to go. I still hope that things will be getting better soon because it seems like we had a small taste of what things were like before and now some things are back to how they were at the worst time in the pandemic last year or earlier this year. I have worked on keeping myself safe and healthy for almost 2 years of a pandemic now. There’s no rush to move past this and take unnecessary risks. So I will just keep being patient and taking things day by day as I need to.
Posted onDecember 29, 2021|Comments Off on Enjoying A Bit Of A Half Week (or This Week Is Always Odd)
I think most people agree that the week between Christmas and New Year’s is always weird. It’s almost like a week that doesn’t necessarily happen since many people have odd schedules and routines may not be what they normally are like. And I think this year it’s even more weird than normal. The week is actually a full week and not split up with a weekend in the middle. And we are dealing with all the weirdness with the pandemic and those fears around that. So this week seems far from normal.
Even I don’t have a fully normal schedule this week. I’m working my regular hours at my box office job for most of this week, but those are pretty limited hours so they rarely would be affected by holidays. And at my other customer service job, I’m working half days. And they are half days in the middle of the day (so I’m working 11-3 instead of 9-5). I did keep my workouts early so I have a bit of a time gap between my workouts and starting work, which is nice to have since I usually rush a bit in the mornings. And I have my afternoons free which is nice to get some errands done. Especially for some errands that have to be done during business hours and I struggle to find time to do them in a normal week.
I’m glad I have a bit of a schedule to go by this week so I don’t just waste my time each day. I know how easy it is for me to get into a very lazy routine. I noticed that this past weekend when I had 3 days off. I try to not sleep in too much because it can be tough to be back onto a sleep schedule. But getting up early when I don’t have anything I have to do for several hours does leave me a lot of time to do a lot of nothing. But I am trying to enjoy the freedom I have in my schedule this week since I know things will be crazy again before I know it and I’ll be missing having this extra free time.
And having this odd week is letting me reflect a bit on how this past year went. I’ll be doing recaps the next few days on how my 2021 went and then also posting my plans and goals for 2022. I know this past year wasn’t what anyone expected, but that is both a good and bad thing. And having time to think about what I was able to do even when it seemed impossible is a nice boost when I’ve been a bit low lately.
Hopefully having this weird week gives me the time to rest and recharge a bit before kicking off the new year and hopefully accomplishing some awesome things. And it lets me remember that I earned a bit of rest right now because I did get quite a bit done this past year even if it doesn’t feel like that at times.
Posted onDecember 28, 2021|Comments Off on A Very Low-Key Holiday Weekend (or Enjoying A Real 3 Day Weekend)
For me to have a 3 day weekend is extremely rare. Because I work Monday-Saturday between my 2 main jobs, if a holiday is on a weekend I get to have 2 days off. And if a holiday is on a Monday (which so many of them are), then I also get to have 2 days off instead of just 1. But to have 3 days off is something that just doesn’t happen much for me. But for Christmas, that’s what I got!
Both of my jobs had Christmas Eve and Christmas Day as holidays, so I had Friday-Sunday off work. It was a nice break that I really needed after having a crazy few months recently. And for the most part, I didn’t do much over those 3 days. But I think that’s exactly what my body and mind needed.
On Friday I did have my workout in the morning which was fun. And then that afternoon a friend of mine came over to the condo because I wanted to start marking out some of my furniture and planning how I want to set things up. I still have time before I am moving in, but it’s easy to plan out now when there is nothing there and I’m not worried about messing up new floors or walls. And there are a few new things I want to get for the condo, but I needed to figure out how much space I would have. Just taping out my current furniture helped me so much and I’m starting to look more at things I want to get (although I will be waiting until I move in for most new things since I want to see what I really need).
And on Christmas Day, I really did a lot of nothing. I didn’t set an alarm so I was able to sleep in a little bit. I spent a lot of time reading and watching things on Netflix I wanted to catch up on. And I ordered Chinese food since that’s one of my Christmas traditions. I didn’t technically watch a movie that day, but I think binge-watching shows on Netflix should count as a movie in a way.
And on Sunday, it was another somewhat lazy day but I was also getting things ready for my week the way I normally do on Sundays. I did some cleaning, laundry, and planned out my week a bit. I’m working almost every day this week, but I’m working half days so I have a bit more free time than I normally do during the week. But between things with the pandemic getting worse and the bad weather we are having in LA, I’m not sure I’ll be doing a lot this week either.
The week between Christmas and New Year’s is always a bit of an odd one even in normal times. I’ll try to go out and do things when I can, but I also want to spend this week getting myself ready for 2022 and all the good things that I know will be coming my way in the new year!
Posted onDecember 27, 2021|Comments Off on A Full Week Of Christmas Workouts (or Having Some Traditional Workouts)
With the exception of last year when things were still closed, it’s been a tradition for me to work out Christmas week. I always do a Christmas Eve workout and I would probably do a Christmas Day workout if the studios were open that day (but they are all closed that day). But I still got in my 4 workouts this past week and I have been more used to this type of schedule since I’ve been doing a lot of only weekday workouts lately.
Monday’s workout was an endurance day and it was also a signature workout. This workout was called “Non-Stop” and it was pretty much what it sounds like. The blocks didn’t have breaks built in and we were working pretty much non-stop.
For cardio and rowing, we had the same workout. We had a 3-minute push pace, 90-second base, 2 1/2-minute push, 75-second base, 2-minute push, 1-minute base, 90-second push, 45-second base, and a 1-minute all-out. For cardio on the bike, this was tough but not impossible. I did have to take some breaks during the base paces to drink some water, but those were minimal. But on the rower, this was really hard for me to do. Rowing has been my tough spot for a long time, and rowing for that long isn’t something I’ve done more than once or twice. I took a lot of breaks during the rowing and I didn’t get close to the distance we were supposed to reach. But I tried my best and with doing a 14-minute row, that’s pretty much all I can ask of myself.
On the floor, while it was non-stop work we did have the block broken up into 2 mini-blocks. The first mini-block had lateral lunges, regular lunges, squats, and deadlifts. And the second mini-block had hammer curls, shoulder presses, hip hinge low rows, and push-ups. The idea was to use the same weights for each mini-block without putting them down. But for the first mini-block, I knew I couldn’t do weights for the regular lunges. And after a few rounds I had to stop with the weights for the lateral lunges and squats too. But I did keep the same weights for all of the first mini-block when I used them and I kept the same weights for the second mini-block the entire time.
Wednesday’s workout was a power day. And everything was pretty short intervals for us.
For cardio, the first block was all 30-second all-outs with 1 minute to recover between each one. And the second block was all 30-second all-outs with 45 seconds to recover between each one. And the rowers were timed with cardio. When it was the all-outs for the cardio, we had an exercise on the rower. The first block was neutral half thrusters and the second block was hip hinge low rows. Then when the cardio was recovering, we had a row. The first block had a 100-meter row and the second block had a 50-meter row. Any time that was left after the row was used for recovery, but it usually wasn’t much time.
And on the floor, it was all about using the TRX straps. The first block had pull-ups (which I did as high rows) and tricep extensions and the second block had chest presses and bicep curls.
And this class also marked my 200th workout for 2021! Even though I started out the year working out at home, a majority of my workouts this year were in the studio and I’m so proud that I didn’t struggle too much getting back into things after being away for over a year!
Thursday’s class was a mix of endurance, strength, and power. And it also was a 2 group class, which I rarely have anymore. But it was a nice way to switch things up when I normally have only 3 group classes.
For cardio, the first block was all about 2-minute push paces and 1-minute base paces. We did those back and forth until we ended with a 1-minute all-out. The second block was a mix of 1-minute all-outs and 30-second all-outs. And those all-outs were all done with inclines. Between each all-out we had 1 minute to recover and the inclines went down each round, so that helped to make it be not too impossible. And it was good it wasn’t too hard because this day I was hit really hard with pain and nausea. So having a workout that didn’t seem impossible helped.
For the floor, the first block was broken up into 2 mini-blocks. In the first mini-block we had single-arm low rows and torso rotations. After 2 rounds of that, we had a 200-meter row and then we had the second mini-block with single-arm chest presses and wood choppers. The second block had neutral grip front raises, hip hinge triceps, uppercuts, and running men. This block was more of an endurance block since you weren’t supposed to take breaks until after you finished all the exercises. But I unfortunately couldn’t do that. I just did my best with getting through each exercise and took breaks when I needed to.
And for Friday on Christmas Eve, there is always a tradition to have a workout that is theme Naughty or Nice. Sometimes that means you pick from stockings and that tells you what your workout assignment is or sometimes half the workout is themed Naughty and half is themed Nice. This year, it was the theme for each half of class. Each section of the room had 5 blocks this time.
For cardio, the odd numbered blocks were all 90-second runs for distance at an incline. And each time the incline got higher. For block 2, we had a 45-second push pace, 45-second base pace, and then a 90-second run for distance. And for block 4 we had a 1-minute push pace, 1-minute base pace, and 90-second run for distance.
For rowing, the odd numbered blocks were all 90-second rows for distance. For both even blocks we had intervals of squats and side hops. But in the 2nd block we increased out squats each time we did them and for the 4th block we increased our side hops each time we did them.
And on the floor, the odd numbered blocks were always sumo squats and squat jacks (which I did was regular squats) and the even numbered blocks were always lunges with bicep curls, lunges to uppercuts, and hip hinge reverse low rows. For the lunges, I dd them separately from the exercises since I have to hold onto the wall for balance.
This felt like a pretty traditional Christmas week for me at Orangetheory. And this week will be a pretty traditional NYE week for me! I’ll be finishing out my workouts for 2021 and kicking off my workouts for 2022!
Posted onDecember 24, 2021|Comments Off on Time For A Short Christmas Post (or I Hope You Have A Great Holiday Weekend)
Merry Christmas Eve! Just like I do for most holidays, this is going to be a short post. Even though I don’t celebrate Christmas, I do have my own traditions and I try to keep them up each year. This year, because of my work schedule and how the holiday falls on the calendar, I actually have a 3 day weekend. I rarely get those because I typically work Monday-Saturday. But this time things aligned and I get to have Friday-Sunday off!
I don’t have any crazy plans, but I’m excited to have a bit of a break so I can relax and enjoy time off. And I want to start doing some planning for the new year as well.
I hope you all have a great Christmas Eve and Christmas and you get to celebrate the way you want to! I know it’s not easy this year with the new variant, but I think we all learned last year that we can find ways to celebrate even if we can’t be together. And I’m excited to do some 2021 recap posts next week and then write about some plans for 2022 the week after!
Posted onDecember 21, 2021|Comments Off on Some Secret Santa Fun (or More Virtual Social Time)
As I’ve mentioned on here a few times before, I have a group of friends that I met through a FB group that I watch movies and tv shows with over TeleParty. And from that group, a smaller group of us have become close and have a text group between us. We share a lot of random things in that text group, but we share serious things too. And because we are pretty much always talking over text on a daily basis, we have gotten very close. It’s still crazy how close we have gotten even though none of us have met in person yet, but I think a lot of people have experienced that over the past two years.
We’ve done Secret Santas within the FB group we are in before, but this year we decided to do one just within our group. We used a website to set it all up so it figured out who we would give gifts to and it allowed us to put wish lists on there too. I had a bit of a hard time figuring out what to put on my wish list, but I took my time and thought about some things I would normally buy for myself and some things that I might not get for myself. I don’t normally put practical things on a wish list, but it made sense this time.
Because of delays with the post office, we set this all up in November with the idea that we would have a few weeks to get things shipped to each other. And to open gifts, we set up a Zoom hangout.
We’ve been on Zoom together as a group, but only a handful of times over the past 2 years. And it had been a while since we had been on Zoom together, so it was nice to see each other’s faces and hear everyone’s voices. Texting is good for handling a lot of communication, but hearing and seeing people makes it feel more real.
We ended up being on Zoom together for about 3 hours. Most of that time was us being silly and sharing random stories or updates from our lives. There are 3 of us getting ready to move, so that was a part of the chat. But I think all of us craved this social time since most of us are still pretty isolated. All of us are aware of how the pandemic is having a surge so we are all being careful with how much we go out and do things. So having our time on Zoom was a much-needed break from being alone.
And of course, we had to open our gifts together! For the person I got to give gifts to, I sent them 3 things on their list and 1 random thing that I thought would be funny. And I think most of us had that idea because most of us got some things we put on our lists and one or two little things that we didn’t have on our list.
For me, I got 2 things from my list and 1 extra. I got new workout gloves (which I need and hadn’t had a chance to buy myself) and a ring that I saw online that I liked that is a pretty basic ring. And the person who got me my gifts also painted me a little cute square canvas that I know I will put somewhere in my office space when I move to the condo.
I don’t think any of us expected to be on our Zoom for so long, but I’m so glad we got to have this time together. We’ve been trying to plan a group trip somewhere for almost a year, but we keep having to put it off because of the pandemic. We do still hope that we can have a group trip soon so we can finally meet in real life, but we just have to wait until it’s a bit safer. But at least we got to give each other gifts and spend some virtual time together that wasn’t just texting.
Posted onDecember 20, 2021|Comments Off on Back To My Old Workout Schedule (or Always Fitting In My 4 Workouts When I Can)
I originally thought that I would continue doing only weekday workouts like I have the past few weeks, but that didn’t end up happening for me. It might have been for the best since Thursday’s workout was the 2000-meter row and I wasn’t too sad to miss that. But I did still get in my 4 workouts this past week and it did give me more to think about with my workout schedule moving forward.
Monday’s workout was a strength-based day and it was all incline work for cardio. We did the cardio intervals on our own with a set distance to do each round. And each round we increased the incline/resistance level by 1 for the first half of the cardio section. The second half of the cardio section was half the distance each round and we continued to increase the incline/resistance level each round. But since it wasn’t as much distance, the higher levels weren’t quite as bad. And between each round, we only had 30 seconds to recover, so it didn’t feel like much recovery during the entire thing.
For the rower, we had one long rowing block that was broken up into 3 sections. In each section, we had a 250-meter, 200-meter, 150-meter, and 100-meter row. And between each row, we had an exercise. For the first time going through the rounds, we had high knees. The second time we had lunges. And for the third round, we had shuffles. I did the high knees and lunges, but when I was in the third round I just did rowing for distance because I knew I couldn’t do the shuffles.
And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had deadlifts, lunges, and chest flies. And the second block had sumo squats, single-leg deadlifts, and pullovers. I tried to use heavy weights for everything when I could. But for single-leg deadlifts, I have to hold on to the wall for support and I also have to use a lighter weight so I don’t fall over. But overall, I was happy with getting some heavier weights into my workouts.
Wednesday’s workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power. It was also a bit of a rough day for me because we had some rain in LA and that meant my hip was really bothering me. It wasn’t as bad as it’s been in the past with the rain, but it was still an annoyance.
For cardio, we had 3 blocks. The first and last blocks were both 2-minute distance challenges. The goal was to beat the distance in the last block. I set my resistance level to be between my base and push levels, which seems to work well for me for distance challenges. And the middle block was almost all base pace work but it alternated between flat road and inclines. We did increasing inclines for the first half of the block and decreasing inclines for the second half. And at the end of that block, we had our only all-out.
On the rower, we also had 2-minute distance challenges for the first and last blocks. And in the middle, we had rowing with lunges between each row. The rows were between 100-300 meters and the lunges were between 12-20 each time. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to do the lunges with my hip hurting so much, but I did them slowly and just didn’t go as far down to the ground as I normally do and I was able to do ok.
And on the floor, we also had 3 blocks. The first block was 2 minutes of burpees. I did these using the bench for my hands and going slowly. It was really tough to not take a ton of breaks, but I tried my best. The middle block had clean to press, hip hinge swings, push-ups, and low rows on the straps. And the last block had 2 minutes of doing static hollow holds and static crunch holds. It didn’t seem like it would be a hard core block, but it was a lot harder than it seemed. I had to stick with mainly doing a static crunch hold since the hollow hold hurt my hip, but I tried to do the hollow hold for very short intervals.
Friday was another strength day. I was still dealing with more hip pain than normal, but it was better than Wednesday.
For cardio, we had 3 blocks. Every block had a base pace at an incline, a 1-minute base pace at a flat road, and a 30-second all-out. The base pace at an incline was different for each block. The first block was 1-minute, the second block was 2-minutes, and the last block was 3-minutes. And the incline/resistance level went down each block too.
On the rower, we also had 3 blocks. Every block had 150-meter rows with a medicine ball exercise between each row. The first block had front presses, the second block had bicep curls, and the last block had power jacks. I did overhead presses instead of power jacks, but for the actual rowing, I felt like I did ok. They weren’t my fastest rows, but they weren’t that slow and I didn’t feel like my form was getting sloppy either.
And on the floor, we also had 3 blocks that had a lot of the same work in each block. Every block had tricep extensions, chest presses, and seated low rows. In the first block, we also had mini-band bear steps. We had the bear steps plus mini-band toe reaches in the second block. And in the last block we had the bear steps, toe reaches, and mini-band scissor crunches. And each block, if we finished all the exercises we were supposed to hold a plank. I only made it to a plank during one of the blocks.
Saturday’s workout was a power day, and I think it might have been the hardest day all week for me! I usually love power days because I love that everything seems to be quick and short, but this one really was tough on me. For each section of the room, we had 4 blocks.
For cardio, the first 3 blocks were the same. We had a 30-second push, 1-minute base, and 90-second distance challenge. The goal was to try to do more each time on the 90-second distance challenge. I wasn’t resetting the bike for each block so I don’t know if I did better each block, but I tried. And the last block was just the 90-second distance challenge.
On the rower, it was very similar to cardio. We had a 30-second push row, then for the 1-minute base we had either lateral hops or pulsing half-squats, and we finished with the 90-second distance challenge. And the last block was just the 90-second distance challenge. This time, I did reset the rower for each block and I was very happy to see that I got further in the row each block! I wasn’t expecting that with how down I’ve been about my rowing, but it was nice to see I was having some improvement in the workout.
And on the floor, for the first 3 blocks, we had 2 exercises that changed each block plus ground to press with weights. In the first block we had squats and bicep curls, in the second block we had skier swing and hip hinge low rows, and in the third block we had pop jacks and upright rows. With the ground to press we had each block, we started with 1 and increased the rep by 1 each time. And that number continued from block to block. So I got through 2 reps in the first block and then in the second block my first round had 3 reps. And the last block we were supposed to alternate between push-up holds and plank holds, but I stuck with a plank hold because the push-up hold was putting extra stress on my hips and it was starting to be a little painful.
I’ve got 2 more weeks of workouts this year, and I’m very happy with how I’ve been doing so far. I’m glad that most of my workouts this year were able to be in the studio because I know it’s much better for me to be there than to be working out at home. And I’ve been starting to think about what workout goals I might want to have next year. It’s tough to plan them out when I’m still not back to where I want to be, but I am excited to try to think of some new goals for me. And one of those goals might be about my workout schedule. For these last 2 weeks, one week will be all weekdays and one week will be with a Saturday. And I really want to see if changing things up would be good for me. Either way, I’m always striving for my 4 workouts each week and I don’t see that changing!
Monthly Recap Update (or My New Habits)
