Going into this past week of workouts, I knew they would be pretty tough for me. I expected to be nauseous and in pain for most of the week, if not the entire week. I tried to stay positive and remember that any workout is better than no workout. And I wanted to remember that it’s better to have my bad week now and not at the end of the month when we have Hell Week. I know that there’s no guarantee I’ll feel great during Hell Week, but I have a better chance of that considering this past week was my bad week.
I spent the beginning of this past week really trying to tough it out. I unfortunately did have to leave class a few times at the beginning of the week to get sick, but I was able to return to the workout and finish it out. But it’s always a bit harder coming back from being sick not only physically but mentally. There’s something that feels almost like a bit of a failure of your body when it happens, and that messes with my head. I know that I didn’t do anything wrong or cause it, but it still feels like a failure.
Getting sick during class is tough enough, but I also struggled on the floor with using weights. I wasn’t just feeling a bit weak, but I was exhausted because I wasn’t sleeping well at night. This past week was a bit worse for me with nausea than normal, and I was getting up multiple times a night to be sick. With a serious lack of sleep, I really felt like a fraction of my normal strength during the workouts. Again, I just had to keep reminding myself that I was doing something instead of just giving up and not doing anything.
I felt like this for the first three workouts of the week, and I really just couldn’t get over the feeling. But I was finally feeling a bit more like myself on Thursday, and I’m glad that happened because it was a challenge that I wanted to try my best on. We had Catch Me If You Can, which is a cardio challenge with different checkpoints to get to. You have a specific distance to get to at a certain time. If you get to that distance, you keep going. If you aren’t at that distance by the time, your challenge is done and you track how far you got. Normally, I get caught at the same checkpoint each time. I’ve been getting closer and closer to getting past the distance required to get to the next one, but I’ve just been missing what I need to get to. I was hoping to get further this time, but I also knew that it was going to be hard considering I wasn’t feeling totally better.
I reviewed the checkpoints before the workout started to make sure that I was familiar with each distance so I could do my best. I don’t know what happened, but in my head, I messed up things a bit and thought I had to reach the checkpoint that I usually get caught at by the 8-minute mark. I knew that it was maybe possible for me to get to that distance, but it was going to be a real struggle and I would have to do something similar to my mile benchmark. I’m almost glad I messed up the times in my head because I actually had to get to that checkpoint at the 9-minute mark. So when I thought it hopeless to make it to a checkpoint, I actually was able to get past it for the first time ever! I know I was going a bit too hard on the bike and was starting to hurt a bit, but I really wanted to see how far I could get.
The next 2 checkpoints were a challenge, and I barely was able to make it far enough. But I did it just in time. But for the checkpoint that I got caught on, I knew there was no way I would get far enough. I was still pushing myself to do my best, but I also allowed myself to slow down a bit so I wasn’t hurting as much on the bike. When I was finally caught, I was so proud of myself and how well I did. I did so much better than I had hoped I would and now I have a very impressive PR that will be difficult to beat the next time we have Catch Me If You Can.
I’m glad the challenge was at the end of the week so I was feeling better than I had at the beginning of the week. And it allowed me to end my week on a much better note than I started it on. And hopefully, that means that this coming week and Hell Week at the end of the month will also be positive weeks with some great workouts!
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