Category Archives: Fun Stuff

I had another week of workouts where I couldn’t run. It’s tough to be patient with myself, but I do feel like my broken toe is almost better. I still don’t know how much longer it will take before I feel ready to try to run again, but I hope it will be soon. It’s always annoying when I have a workout that I know would have been a perfect running day and I have to walk it, but I know that it’s the best thing for me right now.

Monday’s workout was a power day with 3 groups. On the treadmill, the first block was a pretty basic power type workout with 1 minute intervals with a walking recovery in the middle. I had my normal walking speed for all of it, but I kept my incline at 6% as both my push pace and my all out pace inclines (usually it’s 6 and 8%). The second block on the treadmill was 1 minute all out paces with thrusters with weights between each all out. I was so tempted to try to run at least 1 of the all out paces, but I stopped myself by reminding myself that if I did that and it hurt that the recovery would take a lot longer. The floor work had lunges, ab twists, jacks with medicine balls, and crunches.

On the rower, the first block was the same pattern as the treadmills with the 1 minute intervals. But the second block was a pretty awesome one for me. We had a mix of 10 pulls on the rower for distance and counting pulls for 100 meters. On the 100 meter counts, my best was 8 pulls and I did repeat that a lot. I’d love to get it down to 7, but that’s probably going to take a little while. But for the 10 pulls for distance I really kicked butt! I’ve learned that for the pull for distance rows that you have to go as slow as you can tolerate. A lot of people rush through it thinking it would help get them more distance, but you need the pause in the middle of each stroke to help get the meters going. My best attempt was 157 meters in 10 pulls which was the best of any girl in class (some of the guys managed 200 meters). I was pretty proud of myself for that!

Wednesday was an endurance day. I was again able to use my normal treadmill walking speed with my lower inclines for class. We had some longer push paces which are tough but doable. But this time my body just wasn’t able to handle it and I had to take some breaks in the 3 minute push paces. I don’t know if that was because of my toe, my hip, or if I’m getting out of shape. But whatever caused it was very frustrating because I know I can do those. I’m hoping it was just because of my toe because I don’t want to believe that I’m getting out of shape when I feel like I’m working pretty hard given the circumstances right now.

On the rower, we started with a 1 mile (1600 meter) row. I knew we had this coming up so I had looked at my records to see what my best time was for this. It was 7:12 so I decided to set a goal of getting it done in 7:11. I knew it was going to be difficult to do that, but it was possible. I tried to remember all the techniques I’ve been working on with my rowing like going much slower than I think I should and focusing on keeping my timing and pace steady. I thought I was going pretty hard but I guess it wasn’t quite enough to beat my old PR.

Then again, I had just spent 30 minutes on the treadmill and I was still recovering my toe so I probably should be just very proud of myself that I was close to my PR. It was significantly better than what it’s been in the past and I did keep my pace steady for almost the entire time. The rest of the time on the floor was one block that had squats with high rows on the straps, chest presses with weights while on the Bosu, pullovers on the Bosu, and crunches. I was a bit slower than normal on the floor because I needed time to recover from the row, but I was using some heavier weights than normal so I was happy with that.

Friday’s workout was a pretty awesome one. It was called the Orange Inferno and it was a run/row format. For the 30 minutes of cardio, you had rounds of 200 meter rows and .25 mile runs. I had to do it as a power walk so I had .125 mile walks and I kept my inclines at 6%. The goal was to do as many rounds as possible but to do at least 5 rounds. I decided I wanted to try to do 6 rounds and knew that the only real place I could make up time would be on the rower.

My rows were all pretty good. I was always under a minute which is ideal but none of the rows were close to my record. But I wasn’t overdoing it because I knew that I wanted to be able to start on the treadmill without too much of a break. It was just constantly going back and forth and I tried to limit the time I used to catch my breath or to drink water. And I finished my 6th round with about 30 seconds left before we switched! I could have gone back to the rower to start my 7th round, but I figured with that little time left it would have just been me getting to the rower and strapping in so I stayed on the treadmill for that last bit of time.

On the floor, we had 3 blocks. The first block was power push ups, chest fly with weights, tricep work with weights, and scissor kick ab work. The second block was plank rows with weights, low rows on the straps, hammer curls with weights, and ab work. And the last block was a core blast for about 4 minutes. We had straight leg raises which I had to modify because my hips were feeling pretty done by that point and sit up rotations which I had to modify to bicycle crunches. It was a pretty amazing workout and I really felt great about myself after it was done. I wish I could have done at least a little running, but I still felt very fast and powerful which are the best feelings I can have after a workout.

Saturday’s workout was a strength day, so at least I knew in normal circumstances I would have walked it and walking didn’t feel as annoying to me. I started on the treadmill and kept the same routine I had done the rest of the week. I was at my normal speed, but the only incline I was going to was 6%. I could have probably tried 7 or even 8%, but I was feeling a bit tired that day and wasn’t ready to push myself. Since I wasn’t really doing the inclines, the entire time I was on the treadmill was pretty much going between 4% (which is what power walkers have for their base incline) and 6% for everything.

On the floor we started with front raises, bicycle presses (which are like a combination of a bicycle crunch and chest presses), and side plank work. And on the second block on the floor we had goblet side lunges, shoulder presses, and four point planks. The rower also had 2 blocks starting with a 2 minute row for distance and then a 1 minute row for distance. I was able to do more than half the distance when I did the 1 minute row so I was pretty proud of myself. The second block was another 2 minute row for distance (I beat my previous 2 minute row) and then lunges with 100 meter rows between each round of lunges. None of my 100 meter rows were a spectacular time, but I realized that there was just enough time at the end for me to do one more round so I went all out on the rower. I was just under 20 seconds which is pretty impressive for being at the end of the workout.

Next week will be the last week until my schedule gets a bit weird with the holiday workout schedule. I’m still trying to plan when to work out but I know I’ll be able to do at least 3 workouts a week. I just don’t know if I can do 4 each week without having to do 4 or 5 workouts in a row. I’m still working on the planning, but I know that I’ll be able to figure it out.

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Not Too Much Progress (or Just Being Happy With What I Can Do) A Week Of Walking and Biking (or Getting Through Some Low-Key Workouts) A Week Of Progress (or Feeling More Like Me) Another Week Of Progress And Practicing Patience (or Having Some Good Challenges) Walking And Running (Mixing Up My Workouts) Running And Walking (or Accepting My Limits)