Category Archives: Health

Getting Sick (or Pushing Through The Sniffles)

Posted on July 9, 2015 | Comments Off on Getting Sick (or Pushing Through The Sniffles)

At the 4th of July party, I was starting to feel a bit sniffly. I figured it might be because Marie and Chris have some cats that live in their backyard. Cat fur is all over the backyard and I stupidly forgot to take my allergy medication (I’m very allergic to cats). I really didn’t think too much about it and spent a lot of the party blowing my nose.

I took a decongestant when I got home, figured I’d feel fine in the morning, and went to bed.

I was so wrong.

I woke up in the middle of the night trying to catch my breath. I couldn’t breathe through my nose and I couldn’t stop coughing. I couldn’t ignore it anymore, I was sick. Fortunately, all of my symptoms seemed to be just above my neck (no fever) so I was pretty sure that this was a summer cold.

I pulled out some of my usual remedies for having a cold and hoped for the best. I tried to sleep the rest of the night, but it was a pretty restless night and I knew that it wasn’t worth trying to sleep in.

Cold Remedies

I really tried to take it easy on Sunday. I focused on drinking as much water as possible and just relaxed between doing house chores. I spent as much time as I could doing low-key things like reading and watching tv to save my energy for when I had to go out and do some sort of chore (like going to the grocery store which felt like what I imagine running a marathon feels like).

I hate being sick. Usually my mind isn’t too foggy but my body won’t keep up with my head. I want to get work done, but I just can’t. I almost prefer it when I have a foggy head (usually when I have a fever) because then I just sleep it off and not think about it. When my mind feels fine, being sick is just frustrating.

There aren’t really any sick people around me, so I’m thinking that this might be the lack of stress. I was worried so much about the 200th episode event, so I was running like crazy taking care of that. When I was in school, I would seem to get sick after midterms or finals a lot. That let down made my immune system a bit weak and I’d catch something. So I’m thinking that this is something like that.

There’s really not much that I can do about being sick. I’m trying to do the same things that I do when I’m not sick, but if I need a nap or to slow down I’m not beating myself up over it.

I’m hoping that this gets better soon. I know that many of the symptoms can last for a while, so I’m going to stock up on some of my remedies (those will also come in handy when I have another cold in the future).

I’m just grateful that I work out of my house so I don’t have to be too far from any of my remedies and between customers I can relax a bit.

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Hip Surgery Anniversary (or This Feels Like A Milestone)

Posted on July 7, 2015 | 5 comments

Today marks 9 years since my hip surgery. I feel like this is a big anniversary. Obviously 10 years is one that most people would think of. But for me, 9 years has some significance.

I was told pretty soon after my hip surgery that I would probably only make it 3 years (if that) before my next surgery would be needed. The marker for needing that next surgery would be a similar amount of pain that I had prior to my surgery on the right side.

For those first 3 years, I pretty much lived in fear. Any time I took a step that caused my hip to have a shock of pain, I was terrified that was that and I would be in a cycle of pain again. But luckily for me, usually that pain only lasts an hour or so. I’ve also learned some tricks about how to make the pain go away faster.

Once those 3 years went by, the next 3 years scared me. I figured that I would never make it twice the amount of time that my surgeon expected me to before the next surgery. Again, I was in constant fear that I would have that horrible pain again that caused me to feel like electrical shocks were never-ending in my body.

But for the last 3 years, I’ve been working on not having that fear. I’ve pushed my body to do things that I was told that I should try not to do. While I do still avoid things that make falling a high risk (like skiing or skating), I’m pushing my limits and finding new ones.

It started with spinning. That was something that my original hip surgeon was concerned about. He really only wanted me to use a reclining bike, not an upright one. The upright one puts more pressure on my hip sockets and can cause me to need to have surgery sooner rather than later. But I figured that since I had already exceeded the original timeline for when I would need my next surgery, it would be ok if I ended up needing the surgery now.

After spinning I started at Orangetheory. While I am still very careful there by not trying to run on the treadmill (although I’m really tempted to test that out) and by not doing things like step ups that cause my hips to catch, I do things that I know aren’t the best for me. But again, the fear of needing my next surgery is fading away.

With my new diagnosis, I’ve got a few more options for what surgery I’ll do next. The surgery that my surgeon would prefer to do on me would require a very long recovery including overnight hospital stays (I’ve never been at a hospital overnight). I wouldn’t be walking without assistance for a couple of months. I really don’t like that idea. The other surgery option only would be about 6 weeks of recovery, but the chance of success is a little lower.

I’ve still got plenty of time to figure this all out. I’m not in need of surgery yet. And I still need to lose quite a bit of weight before the surgeon will write the order for the MRI (which is the next step and will allow me to get a second opinion). But I do want to plan things out because when things do go bad, they go bad very quickly and I don’t want to spend almost a year in pain like I did last time.

I’m now starting to wonder if I can make it another 3 years before I have to think seriously about surgery. It’s not a fun process to go through (I’m already dreading the MRI which was a horrible experience last time) and once I have the surgery I might not gain full range of motion again. I’m still technically not fully recovered from the surgery 9 years ago although my range of motion is getting very close to how it used to be.

So here’s to 9 years of not needing my next hip surgery! Clearly I’ve been doing something right and I’ve hopefully got several more years before I need to worry about going on the operating table again!

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5 Workout Week (or I Did It, But I Don’t Know When I’ll Do It Again)

Posted on July 6, 2015 | Comments Off on 5 Workout Week (or I Did It, But I Don’t Know When I’ll Do It Again)

As I mentioned in my workout recap last week, this past week was potentially going to be a 5 workout week (basing the week to be from Sunday to Saturday). I knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but I managed to do it.

Workout Week

I’m getting pretty used to having workouts 2 days in a row once a week (usually on Friday/Saturday). I still struggle a bit on the second day, but it’s not nearly as bad as it was when I did my first back to back set of classes.

I was recovering from my sunburn for the first two days of the week, so I had to take it easy with weights when it involved my upper body. I only went down to 12 pounds weights (from my usual 15 pound ones), so it wasn’t a huge decrease. But I really did feel it as being much easier than I’m used to.

After the sunburn healed by Wednesday, I was back to my usual weight. I’m really wanting to move up to the next set of weights, but those are 20 pounds. I can use them for some lower body stuff, but when I try for upper body things I’m struggling to even do one rep. I’m not too stressed about getting up to the next set of weights. I know that it will take time and moving up to heavier weights is a bigger change than increasing the treadmill speed by .1 miles an hour.

Speaking of the treadmill, I’m getting into a nice groove with it now. I’m doing all  my base paces at 3.5 miles an hour and almost all of my push and all-out paces at 3.7 miles an hour. I still don’t know why I struggle doing 3.7 miles an hour (or even 3.6) during my base pace “flat road”, but it’s not horrible that I’m increasing my speeds for the pushes and all outs. That’s what the runners do and it allows me to use a more manageable incline for the longer push segments without my hips hurting as much. I’m happy where I am right now with my speed and am ok staying there for a while before I try to bump it up again.

Doing 5 workouts in a week was definitely doable, but it’s not something that will be done on a regular basis. If I did, I would do 5 workouts one week and 3 the next (unless I want to do 4 workouts in a row which I don’t). I’d much rather do 4 workouts a week as much as possible. I like having breaks between my workouts. But I’m glad that I did this because it proved to me that it can be done if I want to.

You might be wondering what the motivation was behind doing 5 workouts in a week. Well, all June there was a team contest at Orangetheory. You made a team of 3 and between the 3 of you the team had to get 45 workouts in for the month. You also had to post on social media (that was the easy part for me).

I joined a team and since one of our team members was going to be out-of-town a bit, the other girl and I had to pick up a little slack. So I needed to get 16 workouts in for the month. And to do that, I had to fit in an extra one in the week.

But it was all worth it when we got this email.

OTF June Challenge

I can’t believe that only 4 teams were able to complete the challenge! I knew that we would win because we were very on top of tracking everything. But I really thought that at least half of the teams that started would win. This makes me feel even better about the hard work my team put in to make sure that we got everything done that we needed to in June.

So far, there’s no contests for July. I’m still tracking my workouts and I’m over halfway to my workout goal for the year (which is perfect since the year is half over). But if there is some sort of July contest or challenge, I think you all know that I’m totally doing it!

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Playing Catchup (or Recovering From The Beginning Of The Week)

Posted on July 3, 2015 | Comments Off on Playing Catchup (or Recovering From The Beginning Of The Week)

After all the excitement on Monday, I’ve pretty much spent the rest of my week making up for everything I didn’t do because I was focused on both the live recording and after party.

Obviously, the first thing I had to make up were work hours. Fortunately, my box office job doesn’t have Monday hours so I didn’t have to worry about that. But with my research job, I had to make sure to work a few extra hours to make up for not doing anything Monday (or over the weekend).

The research job is still trucking along. Things are a bit slower than I’d like, but my boss is totally understanding. I think that once I get all the initial work done and it’s more about maintaining the data I’ve collected, things will be better. Now it just seems like a race against time.

Even though I got through all the festivities of Monday, the podcast team still needed to meet up on Tuesday. We met at Lyfe Kitchen and I think it’s pretty obvious that we all were pretty hungry going into the meeting.

Lyfe Kitchen

Some of the meeting was a debriefing of how things went the night before and what we could improve on for the next event. I think most of us were on the same page about things, but I think that I also kept some of the issues I encountered too quiet as nobody else on the team knew about them. In a way that is good because I was the only person stressed out. But I’m glad I got to share them because we can make changes to prevent those issues from happening again.

We also discussed the 300th episode. Yes, it’s about 2 years away. But I’ve got to top what we did for the 200th so I’m getting a head start. I can’t share any of the ideas we’ve been discussing just yet. But if things go the way we want them to, in 2 years you will all want to come join us for our 300th episode!

I also had a friend of mine ask me to write them a letter of recommendation for Women In Film! That was such an honor. I took my time and wrote several drafts before sending it to her to submit with her application. I’ve asked for letters of recommendations plenty of times. But I never knew until know how stressful it could be! Maybe I’m just so stressed because I know how great Women In Film is and I want all my amazing friends to be a part of it as well. I’ve got my fingers crossed that she gets in!

Finally, I just had to catch up on working on my happiness checklist. I’ve been neglecting some of the things that make me happy lately (although other things have been happening almost daily). I see my therapist in just over 2 weeks and I’m planning on bringing my checklist for him to see. I want him to see that I made a real effort in the homework he gave to me to do for 3 months. I really am taking this seriously and if I want to get my dosage of Vyvanse adjusted (which I’m pretty sure it needs to be), I have to work on the mental aspect of my recovery and not just getting the “quick fix” medication.

That’s a lot of work to get done on an already crazy week! I’m glad that this weekend is a holiday weekend and I get tomorrow off from my box office job!

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Posted in Acting, Celebrations, Fun Stuff, Health, Weight Loss

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Short and Sweet Workout Week (or Taking It A Bit Easy)

Posted on June 29, 2015 | 1 comment

I “only” got 3 workouts in this week (I count my weeks from Sunday-Saturday). I was able to do my usual Monday/Wednesday/Friday workouts and that was all that I did.

I put only in parenthesis because that’s a pretty darn impressive amount. I remember when I started my partnership with Orangetheory pretty much exactly a year ago and was so scared to do 3 workouts in a week. Now that seems like a break to me!

I would have done more workouts this week, but I didn’t want to do one the Sunday that started the week because I was recovering from my beach workout (and doing that would have made it 4 workouts in a row). And I didn’t go on Saturday because I had something else I had scheduled (more on that later this week). And doing workouts on Tuesdays and Thursdays are still a bit tough for me when I’m doing my regular workout schedule because that means that I will have 3 workout days in a row. I can do 3 workouts in a row if I have to, but I’d rather not at this point.

I’m still continuing to test myself on the treadmill and see what my limits really are. I’m getting quite comfortable at 3.5 miles an hour on the treadmill. And when I’m in push paces, I’m almost always going up to 3.6 or 3.7 miles an hour. For some reason though, those faster speeds are much more difficult for me at my “flat road” of 4% incline than they are at 8 or 10% incline. I’m hoping by the end of summer that I can start doing 3.6 miles an hour at 4% incline on a more regular basis. I still have a goal time in my head for my next 5K and to do that time I need to be at 3.7 during my workouts. My 5Ks seem to be faster than my treadmill times (maybe adrenaline or maybe because it’s a real flat road) so if I’m doing 3.7 miles per hour at my workout I know I can hit my goal time.

I’ve also made some significant progress on the rowing machine this week. I don’t know what clicked for me, but I’m finally doing what the minimum wattage should be (before I was at maybe 70% of what the minimum should be).

I also got to work out next to one of the owners, Paul, during my Wednesday workout. He made a comment about how much improvement he’s seen in me since my first workout. He remembers how I could barely walk after that first workout. And now I’m kicking some serious butt in class!

It’s nice to have someone notice improvement in me. I still don’t think it’s showing in my body (and it’s definitely not showing on the scale). So to have someone point out improvement or progress to me unprompted proves that even though I’m not seeing it in the way that I’d like to.

Having a 3 workout week was a nice break for me, but this coming week is going to be a crazy one. I haven’t decided for sure yet, but it may end up being my very first 5 workout week! And now that I’ve said that publicly on here, I feel like I have to do it!

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Feeling New Aches And Pains (or Working On More Pain Management)

Posted on June 25, 2015 | Comments Off on Feeling New Aches And Pains (or Working On More Pain Management)

I’ve gotten pretty decent at managing my hip pain. I’ve been dealing with this for almost 10 years now (this coming October will mark 10 years since I collapsed in an airport and the pain started). I have a routine with painkillers and while that has changed a bit because I need to limit narcotic painkillers on Vyvanse, I’m still pretty on top of things.

But with all my workouts plus other things in life, I’m having more pain and having trouble managing it (which in turn makes my hip pain feel worse). Some of the pain is from things that I know I need to deal with. My muscles feel sore after workouts, especially when I’m pushing it with the weights I’m using. Right now, I’m dealing with a lot of shoulder pain in my right shoulder. I’m guessing it’s a combination of my workouts and maybe sleeping weirdly.

I’m also dealing with foot/toe/ankle pain. I’m guessing that that is partly due to the increased speed on the treadmill during my workouts. But it’s also probably due to me marching in place every day to make sure I get my steps in. Walking for hours at Disneyland didn’t help that either.

The rest of the pain that I’m experiencing is stuff that I know is temporary (and somewhat out of my control). Mainly sunburn soreness and feeling sickly (which makes me achy) because of the heat wave.

I’m still working on getting my mind to think about pain differently. It’s not something to stop me and make me take a break all the time. Of course, sometimes that’s exactly what pain means. But I used to always stop when I have any pain and that would prevent me from attempting to work out.

I’m not giving myself that excuse anymore. I’ve become the master at modifying my workouts. And I just have to keep that mindset for other things. Just because my feet are sore, that doesn’t mean that I can’t get my 10,000 steps done. It just means that it might take me all day instead of being able to get them all done in the morning (and then working toward 15,000 for the rest of the day). It might hurt to type with my shoulder pain (it’s weird, but true) but I have to push through it and try to take typing breaks when I can.

I know that pain is temporary, and I just have to keep telling myself that. And most of the pain I’m feeling is because I’m working so hard on improving myself and soon I won’t feel the pain anymore with similar activities.

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Daily PRs (or I Did Reach My Peak Performance)

Posted on June 15, 2015 | 3 comments

This past week was a 4 workout week (yay!), but I just want to talk about my first 3 workouts of the week.

Monday-Friday was Peak Performance Week at Orangetheory. Every day there was a difference challenge (almost like the Monday Challenges) and the goal was to push yourself to go the most you could do. And the top people each day got a prize.

I knew that there would be no way for me to rank #1 in the challenges so I was only competing against myself. I like that I wasn’t stressed about competing against others so I could really focus on myself.

Monday’s task was 24 minutes on the treadmill for distance. I really didn’t have a goal distance for this one. I just knew that I wanted to do my best and since this was the first time I had done a 24 minute distance challenge that whatever I get would be considered a PR. In my dreams, I would love to have been as close to 1.55 miles because that is half of a 5K, but that would have meant that my speed would have been significantly faster than anything I’ve done.

The first 3 minutes of the 24 minute distance time was at a push pace, which for me meant 10% incline. I was at 3.4 miles an hour and after those 3 minutes were done I went back to my “flat road” of 4% incline. Then I decided to see if I could go 3.5 miles an hour for more than a minute or two. So I bumped up the speed to 3.5 at 4% incline. 2 minutes went by and I was feeling good so I decided to go close to a push pace again at 8% incline (still at 3.5 miles an hour).

I did the last 21 minutes of the challenge at 3.5 miles an hour alternating between 4 and 8% incline. The final minute I kept bumping up the speed because I saw that it might be possible to get to 1.4 miles in 24 minutes. In the end, I didn’t quite make it.

OTF Distance

But even if I didn’t go quite as far as I thought I would, I still did 21 minutes at 3.5 miles an hour! I’ve been working toward that goal for a while and I finally made it!

Wednesday’s challenge was a plank challenge. I used to be amazing at planks. I remember back when I was losing weight for my hip surgery that my personal trainer was always amazing that I could hold a plank for what seemed like an endless time. But after my hip surgery, I could barely hold a plank for any amount of time. It has to do with how my hips sit when in that position. It causes my bones to rest against each other in an awkward and uncomfortable position.

Since I struggle with planks, I didn’t have a ton of expectations for this challenge. I didn’t want to be the first person to drop, but beyond that I didn’t know what I could do. My trainer wanted me to make it 90 seconds, so I figured I’d try for that. I don’t have any photos from my attempt (I was busy holding my plank), but I did manage to hold it for 2 minutes exactly!

While I was pretty happy with my plank time, I hated what happened to the rest of my workout. Because of the pain from the plank (the plank was the first thing in the workout), I was struggling to just walk after that. I wanted to go back to 3.5 miles an hour, but my hip was catching and the pain was making me tear up. So I went back to 3.4 miles an hour and just tried to focus on walking and not quitting. I hate when my hip issues cause problems like this, but I need to know that the pain and discomfort is temporary and won’t be there for all my workouts.

For the final day of Peak Performance Week, we had a 1 mile run (or for me, 1 mile walk). I didn’t know what my PR for a treadmill walk would be, but I looked at my fastest 5K time and the mile time that went with that. That mile time was 17:23 so my plan was to just be faster than that. I really wanted it to be under 17 minutes, but I would have been happy with even 17:22. Just anything that proves I’m making progress.

I did the entire mile at my “flat road” of 4% incline and started at 3.5 miles an hour. At about .3 miles in, I decided that I’d try to bump it up some more (I know, I’m crazy). I went to 3.6 miles an hour at that point. Then the coach bugged me that I needed to bump up my speed some more so I promised that I would try to bump it up another .1 miles an hour at .7 miles in. And as I promised, I did just that.

When I was at .9 miles in I realized that I was easily going to get a mile PR time and that it might be possible to beat my old PR by a minute! So I kept bumping it up bit by bit as I got closer to the mile mark. In the end, I got up to 4.2 miles an hour but that was crazy fast and uncomfortable for me.

But I did manage to get another PR this week with my mile time.

OTF 1 Mile

53 seconds faster than my mile time at my last 5K! That’s pretty amazing! The only thing I wonder is if I could maintain this speed for 3.1 miles and not just 1 mile. Also, I do have the advantage in my races by being at a real flat road and not my 4% flat road. So I have no idea what this means for my 5K time just yet.

But no matter how this relates to my 5K time, this is still faster on the treadmill than I was going before my last 5K. So I feel pretty confident that by the time November gets here (when I’m doing my next 5K), that I should be able to get another race PR.

I really feel good about how I did during Peak Performance Week. I definitely pushed myself to do better than I have in the past and I’ve proved to myself that maybe my mind has been holding me back when my body was ready to be pushed. I’m hoping that I can maintain 3.5 miles an hour for my treadmill workouts. If I can’t maintain it for my entire workout I at least know now that I can start there and go back down if I have to.

I’m hoping that Orangetheory will do another Peak Performance Week soon. I really liked it and it really motivated me to keep pushing my workouts to be better and better.

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Getting Back To Better Food (or Finding My Own Balance)

Posted on June 11, 2015 | Comments Off on Getting Back To Better Food (or Finding My Own Balance)

After having so many days of “bad” food days, I knew I needed to get myself back in gear. If I didn’t, I would easily regain all the weight I had worked so hard to lose (plus some). I’ve been in this cycle for years (or decades) and I know that it won’t end on its own. I have to be proactive.

I’ve been trying to figure out what would be the best way to get back on track. I tried doing the diet plan from the cleanse again but that wasn’t working. I was feeling really sick and I couldn’t figure out what was causing it.

I also tried going back to my weekly meal prep, but whenever I did I felt like I wasn’t totally into it and found that I wasn’t satisfied with my meals. So I would eat something else (like take-out) or after my meal I would still eat something else.

I think that it is so hard for me to find a “normal” diet because I’ve never really had one. Even as a kid and teenager I had food issues. So normal is completely abnormal to me.

But I have to find my own normal. So I’ve been working on that this week. I’ve been doing research on food options and seeing what seems most likely for me to follow.

Basically, I’m back to a similar plan to the cleanse with many modifications. I’m trying to just have fruit for breakfast. I was hungry at the beginning because I’ve gotten used to bigger breakfasts (usually a waffle with peanut butter), but I’m starting to feel more comfortable just having fruit in the morning. On Mondays when I have a morning workout I might have something more substantial, but on non-workout mornings I’m good with just fruit.

Lunches are a bit more varied. I’ve had sandwiches, apples with cheese, or a microwave meal (I’m trying to stick with the more organic ones even though I know those still aren’t ideal). Basically lunch needs to be something that is quick to put together and easy to eat. And hopefully something that I can put down and continue eating later if I get a call from a customer at work.

On workout days, I sometimes have a snack after work. Usually those are pre-packaged individual serving bags of cashews. Those help keep me from feeling too hungry or light-headed during my workout.

Dinners are still a struggle. I know better options for take out that I can get if necessary, but I’m really trying to make more dinners at home (especially on nights that I’m not working out or going somewhere). I’m doing a lot of rice bowls with either beans and veggies or a veggie burger on top. Those aren’t bad options, but I’m hoping to figure out something else besides rice bowls that I like to make for dinner (and don’t make me wish I had something else).

These are baby steps in the right direction, but at least they are on the right direction. I’m hoping that I’m finally able to find a balance that works for me in the long-term and doesn’t just feel like a quick fix (like everything has in the past).

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1 Year Of Going Orange (or Anniversary Celebrations)

Posted on June 8, 2015 | Comments Off on 1 Year Of Going Orange (or Anniversary Celebrations)

I was headed to my Orangetheory workout on Monday when I got a notification of an email from Orangetheory. My first thought was that maybe class was cancelled due to some weird reason or the parking garage was closed and they were giving us a heads up.

But instead, this is what it said:

1 Year Of OTF

It’s true, June 1st marked 1 year since my very first Orangetheory workout! One year ago I did a workout that made it tough for me to walk for several days after! I wondered at the time if I would ever do the workout again or if I could even do it on a semi-regular basis. But I decided to take a chance and see what could happen.

One year and over 150 workouts later, I’m much stronger and healthier. When I started I was using mainly 8 or 10 pound weights. Now, I’m using 15 pounds weights for most things (and 20 pound weights for deadlifts and occasionally squats). When I started I was going 3.0 miles an hour. I remember when I started going 3.1 miles an hour and how proud I was of myself because that meant that I could do a 5K in an hour again. Now, I’m at 3.4 miles an hour on the treadmill and I’m hoping that within a month I will start doing 3.5 miles an hour a little bit in my workout.

I can’t believe that a year has passed since that first workout. In one way, it seems like just a month or so ago that I struggled through that workout. But at the same time, it’s hard remembering what life was like where I didn’t spend almost every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday working out.

I was on a high for my Monday workout knowing that it was my 1 year anniversary at Orangetheory. I really wanted to try getting my treadmill faster for that workout, but my body just wasn’t having it. But I was just happy to spend my 1 year anniversary at Orangetheory doing a workout there. That seemed right to me.

Not only was it my 1 year anniversary with Orangetheory, Friday marked 1 year since the grand opening of the location I go to (I started before the grand opening since I went to a pre-opening bloggers event)!

All day on Friday they had special things at the studio to celebrate.

OTF Party

Since I was working during the day, I missed out on the taco truck. But they did have snacks and drinks after my 4pm workout. And during my workout they had a live DJ doing the music for the class (the DJ classes are a pretty regular thing but they usually aren’t at the times that I go).

Everyone was in a very festive mood at the workout and that helped make the workout go by a little faster.

And since this week started off my second year at Orangetheory, I figured I should get 4 workouts in for the week instead of 3. I’m hoping that 4 workouts will soon be the norm and I’m working on finding exactly when in my schedule I can do them. But this past week it worked out well to go on Saturday after my box office shift was done.

The Saturday workout was a bit tough, but that was mainly because we didn’t rotate between the treadmill and the floor until the halfway point. Even though I’m more used to the extended treadmill time, I still don’t love having 24 minutes on the treadmill without a break on the floor doing weights (or when it’s a run/row and you break up the treadmill time with rowing).

I think that my 4 workout week was a great way to start my 2nd year at Orangetheory. I’m impressed that I got over 150 workouts in for my first year (especially since I wasn’t doing 4 workouts a week until a few months in). My goal for 2015 is to do 175 workouts, and I am on track for that. But maybe I can beat that goal for year 2 of Orangetheory!

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Feeling Special This Workout Week (or Maybe I Influenced My Coaches)

Posted on May 25, 2015 | Comments Off on Feeling Special This Workout Week (or Maybe I Influenced My Coaches)

This past week was a really fun workout week for me. It was another 4 workout week which is good. And yes, it was another week filled with lots of rowing.

While all my workouts were really good this week, the highlights for me were on Wednesday and Thursday.

About a month ago, one of the coaches, Lal, promised me that he would take a workout class with me and be on the treadmill next to me. I’ve taken Lal’s class a bunch of times. He is my Saturday coach from time to time. But I’ve never taken a class where he was doing the workout and not as the coach.

Right after he made that promise, he hurt his arm. I completely understand injuries, but at the same time I told him that if I was injured he wouldn’t let me use that excuse. He would tell me that I could just modify what I need to so I can work around the injury (like I do with all my hip issues). He said that once his arm was better, he’d workout with me.

I saw him on Monday after my morning class and reminded him that he had made that promise to me and hadn’t fulfilled it yet. He said that he would take a Wednesday class either this week or next and he let me put his photo on my social media pages and publicly shame him and hold him accountable.

And wouldn’t you know it? It worked! Lal was in this Wednesday’s class. He didn’t let me know ahead of time so I didn’t save him the treadmill next to me (sorry Lal), but he was still there and that is what counts.

Of course after the workout I had to get a photo with him so I could let everyone know on social media that he held up his end of the bargain and nobody needed to bug him about the promise.

Lal At OTF

The next day I was back at Orangetheory for another workout. I couldn’t work out on Friday due to a screening I was attending, so I did a Thursday afternoon one. And I was so happy because Whitney was my coach! I haven’t seen Whitney in a while since she is the head coach at the Santa Monica location (which is farther for me to get to than the Brentwood one so I don’t go there). She seemed pretty excited to see me as well. In fact, she named the run/row after me.

Jen's Run:Row

This was not an easy run/row for me to do. While my rowing skills have improved so much over the past few weeks, I’m definitely a sprinter versus a distance rower. And to me sprints are usually 200 meters or less. So 250 and 500 meters aren’t that easy for me. I’m able to complete them without resting in the middle, but I really do get tired.

Also, the run (or for me walk) segment of the run/row was longer than it usually seems to be. So it really tested my endurance (which was the point) and while I didn’t get through all 4 sections I go to the final run segment and only missed doing the final row. I don’t think a majority of the class got through all the segments so I’m not too disappointed in myself. Plus, Whitney seemed pretty proud of me. I might have to start taking some Thursday classes so I can see her more often!

I also had a nice workout victory in my Saturday class. Lal was the coach then and it was another run/row day. All the row segments were 250 meters and Lal was pushing us all to do them around 50 seconds every time. I can usually get a longer sprint in for the first row but my time increases a lot over the course of the workout because I get tired and burnt out.

But I really wanted to focus on trying to be as close to 50 seconds for all my rows. I stayed between 51 seconds (my fastest) and 56 seconds (my slowest) for every row. So even though I didn’t get to 50 seconds like Lal wanted, I stayed pretty close to my fastest time each time. That’s pretty awesome for me.

I’m toying with the idea of doing 4 workouts this week too. As of right now, I’m signed up for 3 classes. I’m still waiting to see if I have to do something on Saturday afternoon, but if I don’t I might try to go for my 3rd 4 workout week in a row!

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