After having some great workouts the week before, I was really excited to see what could be done this past week of workouts. I knew that there was a chance that I was going to start feeling nauseous during the week, but I really wanted to see what would happen without setting too many expectations for myself.
My Monday workout is usually a 3 group workout even if there aren’t enough people in class to need the 3 groups. But for some reason this time it was a 2 group workout. But that was fine since we did switch between blocks so I wasn’t on the bike for too long. We also had a benchmark row challenge to do.
When I was on the bike, the blocks were pretty simple with push paces to base paces and ending with an all out pace. Even though it was a strength based day, the treadmills didn’t have much incline work so I stuck with my usual resistance levels on the bike. I did manage to do all the blocks without needing to take a water break in the middle of the block which was nice. I also was doing almost all of my bike time sitting up in the seat instead of leaning over the handlebars which does help add a little bit of core work to the biking.
On the floor, the first block had the benchmark row. It was a 500 meter row and I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to beat my current PR. I wasn’t being pessimistic, I was being realistic. I knew I’d be coughing while on the rower and that my endurance is still lower than normal. But I wanted to get as close as possible to my PR and to row without taking a break. When I was done, I was about 10 seconds slower than my PR which isn’t too bad considering the issues I’ve been having. After the row we also had ab work to finish that block. In the other floor blocks, we had mini band work doing toe taps and squat walks plus a lot of single arm work using weights.
Wednesday’s workout was an endurance day and I was excited to see what distance I could get on the bike. The cardio work was technically 1 long block, but it was broken up into 5 minute segments plus a walking recovery. Each segment was a 3 minute push pace, 1 minute base pace, 1 minute all out, and then the walking recovery. Since I knew it was endurance work, I stuck with my usual resistance levels and just tried to pedal a bit faster than normal. Each of the 3 minute push paces felt like they took forever, but I made it through them. And the only times I took a water break was during the walking recovery. I didn’t get my furthest distance on the bike, but it was very close to my furthest which I had done the week before.
The floor was also 1 long block but also broken up into different segments. The first segment was squats using weights, bicep curls with weights, shoulder presses with weights, and a row. The row started at 300 meters and you did the exercises for 3 rounds with the row going down each time (so after the second round it was 200 meters and after the third round it was 100 meters). Then it moved to 3 rounds of squats, pop jacks, and the same rowing pattern.
Usually with pop jacks (or burpees), I step my feet back and step them back up since I can’t do the jumping motion. I don’t know why I decided to try it, but I discovered in this class that I can jump my feet back! This is the first time I’ve been able to do this ever and it was really exciting! I still need to step my feet back up, but I’m 50% toward doing the exercise without a modification! There was another group of exercises after that, but I didn’t make it that far. But that’s ok because I was happier taking the time to do the pop jacks than to rush through them to get to the last set of exercises.
Friday’s workout was a signature workout for Orangetheory. It was the Everest workout. That means that you are on the treadmill for 23 minutes starting at 2% incline. Every minute you go up 1% until you get to 15% and then you start going down 2% each minute. I’ve done this workout a few times, but doing it on the bike was a different beast for me.
I started the bike resistance at what my normal base resistance is at 6 (my normal push is 8 and my normal all out is usually 10 but sometimes 12). Later I thought this might be a mistake, but it ended up working out ok for me. Every minute I increased the resistance by 1 and for a while it was fine. Even when I got a little above my usual all out resistance I was still feeling good. Then at about 14 it started to feel like I was pedaling through jello or something. I didn’t think I could keep going higher but I was determined to do it. 18, 19, and 20 were impossible resistances and I was barely moving but I was still going. When we finally started to decrease it, I was happy but it took until getting to about 14 again before it felt normal. And when we were done, I was so ready to get off the bike to stretch out my legs!
The first block on the floor was chest presses with weights, hammer curls with weights, squats with weights, and then a 250 meter row. I usually use the same weights for chest presses and squats, but go down to the next weights for my hammer curls. But I couldn’t find any 15 lb weights to do my hammer curls with so I had to use the 20 lb ones. I know my form on my hammer curls wasn’t the best, but I just tried to take my time and broke up the set into smaller sets. I probably would use 15 lb weights again since I prefer to have good form and not feel like I’m swinging my body, but it was a good challenge. And the second block was plank low rows with weights, tricep extensions, and leg raises. The leg raises were definitely a challenge on my hips (and after doing all the high resistance work on the bike my hips were not doing so great), so when I was doing the second round of all the exercises I ended up doing crunches instead. But it still felt like a pretty victorious workout!
After the Everest workout, I knew I’d have to go a little easier on Saturday. On the cardio, we had 5 blocks. Each block started with a 90 second push pace and ended with a 1 minute all out. The second and fourth blocks had a 1 minute base pace in the middle and the third block had a 1 minute base and a 1 minute push pace in the middle. I went back to my usual resistance levels on the bike and I was getting more tired than I had in the past few days. I figured that was due to the hard work the day before and didn’t push myself too much to allow myself to recover.
On the floor, we had 3 blocks. The first block was 3 rounds of rowing with arm raises using the mini-bands and then plank arm raises and crunches. The second block was lateral raises using weights and mountain climbers. And the last block was bench sit-ups to squats, hop overs, and more rowing. I tried to go hard on the rowing in the first and last blocks, but I was getting burned out pretty quickly and having issues with catching my breath so I had to take it down a bit.
I feel really lucky that I wasn’t nauseous much during this past week of workouts. I had a few brief moments where I questioned if I needed my medications, but they passed quickly and I was able to get back without any issues. This week is also another potentially nauseous one so I’m a bit hesitant about what will happen. I would love to be optimistic and say that I won’t be nauseous at all, but I know realistically the I just have to expect the worse while hoping for the best.
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