Category Archives: Fun Stuff

I was pretty proud of myself when I started running again, but I also knew that I had to keep being easy on myself. I can see how easily I could push myself to try to be back to where I was before, but I know that in the long run it is better for me to take my time and work my way back there. This past week of workouts really gave me the chance to work on my progress as well as test my patience to prove to myself that I know how to take it slow.

Monday’s workout was a themed workout. Even though it was a 2 group class, it was a 3 partner workout as soon as we were done with the warm-up. But instead of having someone controlling the switch between the partners, all of the blocks were timed. We had 9 blocks (3 at each section) and they were all 3.5 minutes long.

When I was on the rower, we had distance rows. Each distance went up by 50 meters and we had squats with medicine balls between each row. And the partner on the rower ahead told me what distance they did so I picked up where they left off. I started on the rower and did the 100 and 150 meter rows. The next time I was on the rower I did the 400 meter and started the 450 meter row. And the last time on the rower I did the 650 meter row.

The floor was the same block every time and the timing worked out where I was able to get through each exercise once before time was called. We had swinging leg lunges, squats, pull-ups on the straps, seated twists with weights, and double crunches. The lunges were a bit tough for me but I was able to do the swinging lunges by holding on to the wall for balance. I noticed that I’m a lot stronger with my lunges going back than I was going forward so I tried to even them out when I was doing them.

The treadmill was supposed to be a mix of endurance, strength, and power but I kind of did the same thing every time. The first block was supposed to be a 3 minute push pace and a 30 second all out pace. I did the 3 minute push pace as my 30 second running/1 minute walking intervals and then did the 30 second all out as a run. The second block was supposed to be the same thing but with incline work and I just did the same as the first block. And the last block was a 30 second all out, 30 second walking recovery, 45 second all out, 45 second walking recovery, and 1 minute all out. I was going to do all of the all outs as a run, but I was a bit hesitant about the 1 minute all out. But I figured I’d try it and see what happens and managed to do the entire thing as a run.

Wednesday’s workout was a strength based class but I wanted to keep working on my running so I didn’t do any of the incline work. We had 3 blocks that all had a similar plan. The first block was 3 rounds of 1 minute base paces at an incline followed by 1 minutes of base pace at a flat road with a 30 second all out at the end. I ran when we were supposed to be doing the incline work and then had my base pace as my regular power walking to recover. And I ran the all out at the end just like I had been doing. The next block was 75 second hills with 45 second flat road recoveries. I ran for 45 seconds and then did the last 30 second and the 45 seconds of the recovery as my power walk. And the last block was 90 second hills with 60 second flat road recoveries and I did 30 second run/30 second walk intervals instead of the hill time.

I was battling some nausea during the end of the treadmill time, but I really tried to fight through it. I think it might be too early to tell, but I felt like the nausea wasn’t as bad when I was running as it was when I was walking. It might be like my hip pain which hurts less with running for some weird reason. I did have to take some breaks during the treadmill to let the nausea go by, but it wasn’t as bad as it can get so I felt pretty lucky that I was able to do the running work that I did.

The floor was split into a longer floor block and a short rowing block. On the floor block we had bent low rows, pullovers, bicep curls, and reverse flies with weights and then the block ended with crunches. For my low rows, bicep curls, and reverse flies I was using a 20lb weight and I used a 30lb weight for my pullovers. Those were all the new heavier weights with the exception of the low rows (I couldn’t find a 25lb weight and 30lb was too heavy). And the rowing was a similar pattern with the treadmill with 2 rounds of 90 second rows for distance and ending with a 30 second all out row. All of my rowing was higher than the minimum we were supposed to get, but it wasn’t as good as I know it could be.

Friday was a day that was a horrible nausea day for me. I honestly was ok with that because I should have been nauseous all week and it was only minor. But Friday was one of the epic bad nausea days so I knew I had to use the bike to make sure that I was being kind to myself and that I wouldn’t make the situation worse.

This workout was a power day and it would have been an amazing day to work on my running. We had short push paces followed by base paces and that’s exactly the thing I need to practice my running form and endurance. But on the bike I just focused on trying to keep moving. I wasn’t always increasing my resistance the way that I normally would, but I tried to do it when I could. It was not my best bike day for sure, but I also have learned that doing whatever I can on my bad nausea days is all I can ask for sometimes.

On the floor the first block was timed exercises with lunges and rolling burpees. I did modified burpees using the bench for my hands instead of the ground which helps. We also had a rowing block where we had to count how many pulls it took us to get to 100 meters. I’m getting pretty good and going slow with my rowing to get the count down and even with feeling pretty sick I was still able to do a good job with it. And then we had skater lunges as well as lunges to overhead presses with weights. Those were a bit tough with the nausea, but I just took it slowly and took breaks when I needed to.

Fortunately by Saturday I was feeling a bit better. Still nauseous, but not anything close to what I was feeling on Friday. But when I learned it was a partner workout, I was a bit nervous. I didn’t want to have a partner relying on me when I didn’t feel my best. So I told the coach that if we had an odd number in class that I really wanted to be working alone. And we did have an odd number so I was solo for the partner workout.

The partner workout was for the entire class. The idea was one person was either on the treadmill or rower and the other was on the floor. And the person on the cardio side was the person who controlled the switch. We had assignments for the treadmill or rower and then the floor was one long block. On the floor we had bench sit ups to squats, high rows on the straps, burpees, plank jacks, toe reaches, bicycle crunches, hop overs, crunches with heel touches, over/under static crunches, and running men. The first exercise started at 10 reps and they went up by 10 ending with 100 running men.

Since I didn’t have a partner to switch with, my coach told me to do 3 floor exercises each time except to do the 100 running men on their own. Because I was doing that, I was on the floor a little longer than the people in the partner groups, but that was fine with me. I really just wanted to focus on doing the work and doing the best I could. With the burpees, plank jacks, and running men I used the bench for my hands instead of the floor. But that also meant I was able to do the burpees with jumping my feet back and forth instead of walking them back.

With the cardio side, I focused on just doing the rowing without a break. It was tough since the first time on the rower was a 1,000 meter row, but I did it. I did feel a bit nauseous at the end of the rowing, but I think that was more to do with being tired and less to do with the nausea I normally have. And on the treadmill, I focused on my run/walk intervals. I had been doing 30 seconds running/1 minute running but I decided to test things and bump it up a little. So I did 45 seconds running/1 minute walking and it was going pretty well. I did the full treadmill assignments instead of cutting them in half for power walkers, but again since I didn’t have a partner I wasn’t too worried about taking too much time.

Considering that this was supposed to be a bad nausea week, I really lucked out. I only had 1 day where it truly affected my workout and I continued to make progress in my running. As much as I want to test myself this week and see what I can do, I also know that this slow progress is exactly what my body needs and will allow me to get back to where I was eventually.

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Last week I blogged about how I finally got back on the treadmill after 7 weeks of only using the bike during my workouts. That was a huge accomplishment for me not only because I knew my endurance would be lower than before but because I was terrified that walking would be so difficult for me. I didn’t want to feel disappointed or frustrated with myself and I knew that was going to happen. I would have to take time making progress and I’m not the most patient person. But this past week of workouts, I made progress that I wasn’t expecting to happen for a while.

Monday’s workout was a power switch day, so I was excited to try to see what I could do on the treadmill. We were never on the treadmill for more than 5 minutes so it was a good day to work on my speed and not feel too overwhelmed. But we switched so much that I was exhausted because the workout was crazy!

When I was on the treadmill, I used my slower speed for my base pace and my normal speed for my push and all out paces with the inclines all being my normal inclines. It was a bit tough at times to keep the speed up, but it was feeling easier than it had before so I know there was progress. It was very limited treadmill time compared to other switch days because even though this was a 2 group class we were using the treadmill, rowers, and floor sections.

When I was on the rower, it was always the same thing with rounds of 30 second all out rows with 15 seconds of recovery. I know my rowing wasn’t my best, but it was nice knowing that all the rowing was going to be 30 seconds because that goes by so quickly.

But the craziest section to me was when we were on the floor. We had a mix of timed exercises and counting the reps but they were equally hard. In the timed sections we always had just one thing to do. One block was squats with front presses using the medicine ball. Another block was skater lunges. And the last timed block was frogger squats. The timed work was always 30 seconds of work with 15 seconds of recovery but the recovery felt like nothing! In the other blocks we had things like chest presses, push-ups, and sit-ups.

About halfway through this workout, I felt like I was done. I thought it was just me from being so tired from the heat. But I asked a friend who was working out at the station next to me and he agreed that this workout was one of the tougher ones we had done. I think the combination of the quick switches, power moves, and lack of rest really made this hard. But I was glad I did it and as always felt so accomplished when class was done.

Wednesday’s workout was an endurance day and was supposed to be a workout to prepare us for when we have a 12 minute distance run again. I’m nowhere near ready to do a distance run, so I knew this workout was going to be more of a focus of just trying to get my endurance back.

The first block on the treadmill was a 5 1/2 minute distance run, a 90 second recovery, and another 5 1/2 minute distance run. We were supposed to be in a push pace during the distance run sections, and I did have my incline at the push incline I normally use. But I just knew that I couldn’t do my normal speed for that amount of time yet so I just did the entire thing at my slower speed. I was a bit disappointed in myself because I probably should have at least tried, but I could just feel it in my body that I was not going to be able to do it. The second treadmill block was 3 rounds of 1 minute push paces and 90 second base paces with an all out pace at the end. Again, I did my inclines like normal but used the slower speed.

On the floor, the first block was split up with a row in the middle. We had rounds of bridge rows and tricep extensions on the straps first and then a 300 meter row. Then we had ab dolly knee tuck and rollouts after. And the second block started with a 600 meter row and then we had more ab dolly work and swimmers. My floor work wasn’t my strongest, but I think that was because none of it involved weights and that’s when I’ve been doing my best. But I need to learn how to push myself more with body weight work too.

Friday was where I made my huge progress. I saw that the workout was going to have lots of 30 second all out paces. This format was similar to what the workout was like the first time I tried running. It was a little different with some of the all out paces being after a push pace, but there were plenty of all out paces that were right before and after a walking recovery. Even though I just got back to the treadmill, I thought this would be the perfect chance to test out running. I was a bit terrified that I was pushing myself too much, but I told myself that I could always stop running if it didn’t feel right.

There were 3 blocks and they all started with a 2 minute push pace followed by a 30 second all out which I walked at my slower speed. Then we had 3 different 30 second all outs sandwiched between the walking. And I decided to go for it and run. I ran at my old running speed and was surprised how it didn’t feel as difficult to get back to running as it did to get back to walking. The third 30 second all out each block was tough because I was getting tired, but not anything like I thought it would be.

I couldn’t believe that I was running again. I hadn’t really run at all since the end of last year and I was only back on the treadmill for a week and a half before trying running. And I really wasn’t expecting to be able to do this for at least a month or so. But I guess when I’m coming back to something I had done before, it was easier than when I started the first time.

After the running on the treadmill, I was ready to move to the floor. The workout was a Friday the 13th theme so all the floor moves were either 13 or 26 reps. It was one long block with adding on exercises to start and then taking away exercises after that. And each round had a 30 second all out row as well. The exercises were hop overs, triceps with weights, bench sit-ups to squats, and burpees. The hop overs were tough and my legs were feeling like bricks. And I knew there was no way I could do 13 burpees. So I decided to do modified burpees with putting my hands on the end of the bench instead of the ground. And with having that extra leverage with not being totally parallel to the ground, I was able to hop my feet out and back instead of stepping back! That was another thing I wasn’t expecting to be able to do.

After my huge progress on Friday, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect on Saturday. And when I saw it was a strength based run/row day I was still a bit unsure. But I decided that working on my running progress was going to be a priority to I didn’t do any of the incline work. We had 4 blocks that all started on the rower and then had a run for distance until time was called. The first row was 400 meters and each block went down 100 meters so we had more time on the treadmill each block. I went with my old interval training with 30 seconds of running and 1 minute of walking for my running plan. But because of the timing of everything, I usually ended up running for a bit longer at the end of each block. I even had a block where I ran for almost a minute! That was pushing it a bit much for me, but it just proved to me that my progress was going to be easier than I thought.

On the floor we had 2 blocks. The first block was lunges with weights, chest fly with weights, and ab work. I did both the lunges and chest fly work with 25lb weights which is higher than I was doing before. I figured I needed to make up for the strength work on the floor since I didn’t do it on the treadmill. And the second block had deadlifts, bicep curls, hip bridges, and side plank dips. For my deadlifts I used 30lb weights (instead of my usual 20lb), for my biceps I used 20lb weights (instead of my usual 15lb), and for my hip bridges I used one of the 30lb weights (I don’t really have a usual for this since I am newer to using weights for this move). I love how much stronger I am than I thought and it still makes me so happy when I get to walk over to the heavy weight rack to pick up heavy weights.

I honestly wasn’t expecting to have this much progress this past week. I thought the week before was the huge thing with getting back on the treadmill. But I guess I underestimated myself and I’m proving that I really can do it. I don’t know how long it will take me to get back to running like I was doing before. I’ve learned now not to set plans for myself. I am a bit worried about how I will feel running when I will be nauseous (which will probably be happening this week or next), but again I’m just going to listen to my body and do what feels right. My body was telling me I could run again when my brain was telling me not to. I’m glad I listened to my body.

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