I had another good week of workouts this past week. I was back to feeling normal, which always makes the week better. I also was getting more sleep (which I’ve been working on) so that allowed me to push myself a bit harder. There is a Dri-Tri coming up, and I’m going to try to participate in it. But there are a few things working against me right now so I’m not sure if I’ll be able to do it. But I still want to push myself in my workouts as if I will be doing it just in case.
Monday’s workout was a lot of endurance work, which made sense since we were coming to the end of Marathon Month. I don’t regret not participating in Marathon Month, but I wish I had tracked my distance on the bike each day because I ended up being curious. I think next time we have this challenge, I’ll track it even if I don’t officially participate in the challenge.
For cardio, we had 2 blocks. The first block had alternating push paces and base paces. The push paces started at 30 seconds and increased by 30 seconds each time. And the base paces stayed at 1 minute throughout the block. And we ended with a 30-second all-out. The second block was a 6-minute distance challenge with a 30-second all-out at the end. We could do our distance challenge however we wanted to, but what I did was have my resistance level just a bit higher than my normal base pace to make it more challenging for me. I looked at this as a bit of training for the Dri-Tri cardio section so I tried to keep my pedaling steady throughout the entire thing.
For cardio, we also had 2 blocks. The first block had rounds of a 200-meter row with medicine ball exercises between each row. We had front presses, tricep extensions, and bicep curls between the rows. And in the second block, the rows were 100 meters and the exercises changed. We had squats, squat pulses, and squat jumps (which I did as squats to calf raises). I liked that the rows were short so they were fun for me to do. And I did challenge myself to try to increase the wattage of each row and I noticed that it was going up throughout each block.
And on the floor, we also had 2 blocks. In the first block, we focused on strength and stability. We had swing lunges, single-leg squats using the straps, high rows using weights, and single-arm low rows on the straps. For the swing lunges, I held on to the wall but I was mostly able to do the exercise. And in the second block, we picked to do either the strength exercises or the stability exercises. I picked the stability exercises so I did the exercises on the straps and we added rollouts on the straps too.
Tuesday’s workout was a themed workout. It was a PSL workout, which stood for Press Squat Lunge. So we had a lot of those in our workout!
For cardio, we had one long block. The focus on that block was 3-minute base paces, but we also had 90-second push paces. The long base paces were nice, but we also had to challenge ourselves to make sure we weren’t going too easy. There are always ways to modify a workout to be easier if you need it, but you also need to modify things to push yourself if you think it might not be tough enough. And if I had gone easy on the base paces, this cardio block wouldn’t have really been much cardio. But I tried to pedal faster than normal for my base paces at my base resistance level to keep things going for me. I think I did a pretty good job making sure I didn’t make things too easy, but I’m sure I could have also gone harder if I really tried.
On the rower, we were supposed to keep all of our rows close to 24 strokes per minute. I know this is supposed to be a challenge because so many people row faster, but that’s a good pace for me so I was happy that was the challenge. We started with a 300-meter row with a medicine ball front press. Then we did a 200-meter and 100-meter row with a medicine ball front press. After that, we had a 300-meter, 200-meter, and 100-meter row with a bicep curl using a medicine ball. And things ended with those 3 rows again but we had lunges between each row. I only got to the 300-meter row with the lunges, but I was very happy with how I did with the rows and I did keep my rowing between 22 and 24 strokes per minute for the entire thing.
And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had pivots to single-arm presses, squats to shrugs, and lunges. The second block had chest presses, sumo squats, and lateral lunges. I did have to modify things a bit and not use weights for the lunges, but those are my standard modifications so it didn’t feel like I changed that much. And we did 1 minute of any of the exercises to end the block, and I did a minute of sumo squats.
Wednesday was an odd day for me with some weird hip pain, but it wasn’t anything too bad. I think I had slept weird and that’s what caused it, but I had to do some extra stretching and rest throughout the workout just to help the pain go away. The pain and stretching is a normal part of my life, but it doesn’t always affect my workout as much as it did this day. But even with the extra pain, I was very happy with how I did.
For cardio, we had 2 blocks. The first block had rounds of a 1-minute push pace, a 30-second all-out, and a 1-minute recovery. I was using my normal resistance levels even though they felt harder than normal. And I think I was pedaling a bit slower than I usually would, but I was happy that I only took breaks to stretch my hip during the recovery time. And in the second block, we had rounds of a 30-second all-out and a 1-minute recovery. I felt better about how I did in the second block compared to how I did in the first block. And I needed less rest time, which is always a win for me.
On the rower, we had one block. First, we had a 600-meter row followed by step-out squats. Then we had a 400-meter row followed by side-to-side hops and step-out squats and did that row with the exercises twice. After completing that, we had a 200-meter row with good mornings, side-to-side hops, and step-out squats. The plan was do to the last set four times, but I only got through 2 of them when the block ended. I was happy with how I did with the step-out squats because those usually are tough for me. But this time, they almost were like a stretch so I enjoyed them a lot more than normal.
And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block was the main block for exercises. We had 5 exercises, but we started with just doing exercises 1 and 2. Every round, we added on another exercise so then we had exercises 1-3, then 1-4, and finally 1-5. The exercises were a split squat, kneeling alternating shoulder press, bridge hold pullovers, side plank hip dip, and reverse hyper extension. All of the exercises were supposed to be on the Bosu, but I only did a few of them on it. I never can do split squats on it, so I didn’t use it for that. And for the shoulder press and hip dip, I knew it was better for my hips not to push things with my stability. But I was happy with how I did. And the second block was a short block that had burpees, plank jacks, and push-ups. We started with 1 rep of each exercise. Then we did 2 reps of each exercise, and so on. We only had a few minutes to do them, so I didn’t do too many and the exercises did take me longer because it’s always hard to get up and down like that.
Thursday’s workout was another heavy endurance day since it was the end of Marathon Month and they wanted everyone to have a chance to get in all the mileage they could before the challenge ended. And it happened to be a repeat of the workout we had on the first of the month, so it was nice to have bookends like that.
For cardio, we had a long distance challenge where we set what we wanted to do to maximize our time. We had 2 90-second surges in the block when we were supposed to go just a bit faster like we were trying to pass someone in a road race. For the challenge, I set my resistance level to be just above my base level, as I did at the beginning of the week. For the surges, I pedaled faster but didn’t change the resistance level. I think this strategy worked out well and I was tired at the end of the block but not so tired that I felt like I overdid it.
On the rower, we had 4 blocks total. For blocks 1 and 3, we had 30-second rows. After the rows, we had lateral hops. We started with 10 hops and every time we got off the rower, the hops increased by 10. I had to do side-to-side steps instead of the hops, so I didn’t get as much time on the rower since the steps take longer. But I got almost to the same distance for each block and I was happy about that. Blocks 2 and 4 were 90 seconds each, and they were at the same time as cardio did their surges. For those blocks, we had a 90-second row for distance. I focused more on my split time and tried to keep it under a 2:30/500 split. I’ve been struggling with rowing endurance for a while, and I really want to get back to where I used to be. It wasn’t easy to keep my split time where I wanted it to be and I didn’t always succeed, but I’m glad I pushed myself to try.
And on the floor, we had one block. It was a mix of upper and lower body work and we were supposed to try to challenge ourselves by increasing the weight if possible after each round. We had sumo deadlifts, kneeling wood choppers, single-arm high row to low row, and tricep kickbacks. We had a rep range so we were supposed to do 6-10 reps each time. I did go heavy with my deadlifts, but I wasn’t able to increase my weights when I did the exercises a second time. I think I might have gone a bit too heavy the first time, so I made my challenge to get more reps done the second time compared to the first and I was able to do that. And we ended the workout with a 30-second plank hold, which I was happy to do since it was a break from using weights.
After completing all my workouts this week, I reflected a bit on how I did throughout the month. I still love how I’m now 40 and I feel so strong. I think I took on each workout the best way I could. I didn’t always do an amazing job in every workout, but I did what I could and I pushed myself whenever it was possible. And even with the pain I had to deal with, I think that this past month was better than a lot of other months. I just had extra motivation with my birthday and knowing that age is just a number. I think that made every week this past month exactly what I needed to do with my workouts.
And hopefully, that motivation and feeling just continue with the challenges that I know will be coming up with Orangetheory. Even if I can’t do Dri-Tri, I know that Hell Week is just around the corner and I’m excited to push myself with those classes. Every month adds in more challenges, and I’m ready to take those on and see what other improvements I can continue to have in this new decade of life!
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