Continuing My Running Progress (or Only Having Minor Setbacks)

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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