Well, I went into this past week of workouts thinking it was going to be a good week for me, but my body decided that I didn’t need a good week. It wasn’t as bad as some of my bad weeks, but my cycle got messed up so I ended up having another bad week (but maybe I’ll get my normal 28 days between them this time). So I ended up dealing with quite a bit of pain and nausea during this past week’s workouts, but I was grateful that it was a bit easier than what it was like 2 weeks ago.
Monday’s workout was a bit of a choose your own adventure type of workout. We had 2 options for what we wanted to do for each section of the room.
For cardio, we got to choose if we wanted to do a strength or endurance block. I picked the endurance block. For those on the treadmills, they started with a .1 mile run with a 30-second recovery and then increased the distance by .1 miles each time. For the bike, that meant I started with .4 miles and increased by .4 miles each time. The recovery time was never very long, but because the distances weren’t too bad either it was a good cardio block for me even with how I was feeling.
On the rower, both of the options had a row and squats. But the options were either to increase the row each time or increase the number of squats. I chose to increase the row each time. So I started with a 100-meter row and 6 squats and increased the row by 100 meters each time.
And on the floor, we could choose either a strength or balance workout. Considering all my balance issues, I knew immediately I would be doing the strength workout. So I had lunges, chest presses, hip bridges, and double crunches. I did try to go heavy with the weights when I could, but I wasn’t able to do quite as heavy as I know I can do when I’m feeling my best. But I still tried to challenge myself as that was the point of picking that workout.
I was probably feeling the worst of the week on Wednesday, so I had a bit of a struggle getting through the workout. But fortunately, the workout seemed to work with how I was feeling and had an easier format than a lot of recent classes.
For cardio, we started with a 2 1/2-minute push pace. Then after that was done, we had 3-minutes to recover at a lower base pace (but not at our regular recovery) and then get back to our regular base pace. For me, I did my recovery at my base pace resistance level but just pedaled slower than normal. We repeated this pattern 3 times with an all-out at the end. Because of the extended base recovery time, I really did get a chance to take it easy and not push myself too hard.
On the rower, we started with a 400-meter row where we were supposed to do the first 300-meters at a push pace and the last 100-meters at an all-out pace. Then we had lunges after doing the row. We decreased the row by 50-meters each round but always tried to do the last 100-meters as an all-out. I went a bit slower than normal on the rower, but I was happy with how I did and how I didn’t need that many breaks during the block.
And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block was focused on work and active recovery with back-to-back exercises. We had push presses which were like shoulder presses with a little squat to help followed by lateral and front raises. And then we had single-arm hip hinge swings followed by cossack squats. And in the second block, we had back-to-back exercises to work on tempo. So we had squats with explosive tempo (which meant going slow down and fast back up) and then squats at regular tempo (which meant going down slow and back up slow). We also did explosive and regular tempo push-ups which I did as chest presses on the straps instead.
I’m glad I was feeling better by Thursday’s workout because it was a really tough one! For all sections of the room, it didn’t seem like we got much rest time, but I think it was the hardest on the floor.
For cardio, the first block started at a .2-mile push pace (.8 miles for me on the bike) followed by a 1-minute base pace. We decreased the distance each round. And the second block was the inverse starting the distance at .1 miles (or .4 miles for me) with a 1-minute base pace after and increasing the distance each time.
The rower was a similar idea to cardio. The first block started with a 250-meter row and then 12 shuffles after. We decreased the row by 50-meters each time. And the second block started with a 100-meter row with shuffles after and we increased the row by 50-meters each time.
And on the floor, we were timed by our coach, and almost everything was done in 30-second intervals. The first block had tricep extensions, chest flys, and shoulder presses for 30-seconds each. Then we had reverse grip low rows and had to do 6 of them and whatever time was left in the 30-seconds we could rest. But that only was maybe 10 seconds for me. We repeated this 3 times and ended the block with 45-seconds of high knees to mountain climbers. The second block was the same idea with lunges, deadlifts, and squats for 30-seconds each and then 6 plank taps and we could use the rest of the 30-seconds to rest. And again, we ended with high knees and mountain climbers.
Friday was pretty much a normal day for me. I’m glad that even though I wasn’t expecting a bad week, this unexpected one was much shorter than what I’m used to. And it allowed me to do a pretty decent workout for Friday.
For cardio, we started with a 2-minute base pace into a 30-second all-out. We had a minute to recover and then we repeated the pattern but added a 90-second push pace in the middle. And then we repeated it again but instead of just a 30-second all-out at the end, we had a 30-second push to all-out and then a 30-second all-out. It was a good challenge to make sure that I could maintain my base pace for extended periods of time and to still have a bit left to push myself to go harder.
On the rower, we had 3 blocks. Each block had a stroke drill with a medicine ball exercise. The first block had a 10-stroke drill with bicep curls with the medicine ball. The second had a 12-stroke drill with 12 squats holding the medicine ball. And the last block had a 15-stroke drill with isolated squats with bicep curls with the medicine ball. For the last block, I did have to split up the exercises so I did squats and curls separately. But I was able to get a lot of power behind each stroke on the rower and a lot of distance each time.
And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. I was glad I was feeling better because so many of the exercises would have made me feel very nauseous. The first block was all about ultimate burpees and breaking down the individual moves. I did still use the bench for my hands, but that was more due to my hip than nausea. So we had plank low rows, push-ups, pop jacks, squats to shoulder presses, and then ultimate burpees. It wasn’t easy for sure, but it was a good challenge for me. And the second block had plank jacks and plank kick-throughs with sit-ups at the very end.
I’m really hoping that this week is better for me. I don’t want to jinx it, but I should have a good week at least as far as my nausea goes. And then I can do a lot better than I did this past week. And I’m hoping that I get more of a break this time between bad weeks and my cycle is back to normal.
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