I knew this past week of workouts would be tough for me. I wasn’t sure if I’d be having bad pain and nausea all week or if it would be really bad only for a few days and then taper off. But I was prepared for it to be all bad days and fortunately I was wrong. And it worked out perfectly because I have a new focus on getting better in my workouts and that happened after the worst day of the past week so I was able to accept the new challenge.
But Monday’s workout was what I was prepared for with it being one of the worst days. As much as I want to put a positive spin on it, I was miserable. I was in pain, I was feeling so nauseous, and I had no motivation to do anything. I showed up because I knew something was better than nothing, but I also knew I was going to be very limited in what I could do.
The workout was a signature workout: Catch Me If You Can. I actually like this signature workout and I was sad that I knew it wasn’t going to be a day I could really do the work. The idea is that there are distance checkpoints every 1-2 minutes and as long as you don’t fall behind the distance, you keep going. Because it was a 2 group class, if you didn’t make a checkpoint, you rowed and did squats the rest of the cardio block. I actually missed the checkpoint by the second one (which was 4 minutes in), but I knew I couldn’t row for the next 20 minutes. My coach knew I was having a bad day, so he understood that I just stayed on the bike and kept going, even if I wasn’t doing much.
On the floor, we had mostly exercises I could do without too many modifications. We had skier swings, shoulder presses, hip hinge reverse fly with weights, bicep curls, Y-raises on the straps, and plank dips. I was very slow on the floor and took a lot of time to rest and take deep breaths. But I did make it through class and that was the most important thing.
Wednesday was a power day and I was still feeling off but I was significantly better. I knew I wasn’t going to be 100%, but I’d be close to that so I could try harder. And I had some really great moments in class that made me much happier than what I was doing on Monday.
We had 3 blocks for cardio that were all the same format. We had a push pace, a base pace, a push pace, an all-out, a recovery, a push pace, and an all-out to finish. The difference between the 3 was the all-outs in each block. In the first block they were 1-minute, in the second they were 45-seconds, and in the last they were 30-seconds. I did have to take a few breaks during each break, but nothing too long.
And for the floor, we also had 3 blocks. In each block, we had some rowing to start. The first block had 3 rounds of a 150-meter row before the exercises, the second had 2 rounds, and the last only had 1 150-meter row. While I did try hard with all the rows, I really went all-out with the last one since I knew that was my last one. I was racing with the 2 people next to me on the rowers (I think we all needed that last little boost), and even though I lost the race I did get the highest wattage I’ve ever had on the rower! That was amazing! The rest of the floor blocks involved 3 different exercises in each. Each block had one upper body, one lower body, and one core exercise. I’ll admit that my row in the last block took me out a lot so I wasn’t really able to do much for the exercises in the last block, but that’s ok.
And after Wednesday’s class, I was chatting with my coach because he was giving me some specific guidance for my cardio that seemed a bit high for wattage considering what I usually can do. So he worked with me on the bike for a few minutes and challenged me to stop looking t the cadence I was pedaling and working more on using the resistance levels. I told him I couldn’t promise I would do that for every workout, but I would try.
Friday’s class was a strength day, so it was the perfect opportunity to work on focusing more on the resistance levels on the bike. And that’s exactly what I did.
The cardio had 3 blocks that all had the same breakdown. We had a 2-minute push pace, 1-minute base, 1-minute high incline (it was a powerwalk for everyone on the treadmills), 1-minute base at a lower incline, 1-minute base with no incline, and a 30-second all out. In each block, the inclines got higher. For my work on the bike, I did increase my base resistance level to be 1 higher and I used the resistance levels for the push paces and all-outs. And for the incline work, I did some of the highest levels I’ve ever used. I felt like I wasn’t moving at all, but I know I was working hard and my legs were so tired at the end.
On the floor, we had 1 long block and 1 short block. In the long block, we started with a 300-meter row, but we were supposed to do a really hard pull and then wait until the water in the tank was almost still again so we could do another really hard pull. It took longer to row that way, but it made the focus on our legs. Then we were supposed to do all the work for one side and then repeat the exercises for the other, but I can’t really do that with my hip issues so I just did them back to back. We had deadlifts (that were supposed to be single-leg but I did them with both feet down), lunges, hammer curls, and plank pendulums. Then we had another 300-meter row with the focus being on our legs before going back to those exercises. And in the shorter block, we had swing lunges (which I had to do as regular lunges), sumo deadlifts, and seated torso rotations. It was a lot of lower body work on a day where I did harder work on the bike, but I didn’t mind being sore when the workout was done.
By Saturday’s workout, I was almost completely over my nausea. I still had a tiny bit, but I knew that I would be able to push myself a lot more. And even though it was a power day, I decided to continue working with the resistance levels on the bike and challenge myself with making the cardio tougher for me so I could get better.
For cardio, we had 4 blocks. Blocks 1 and 3 were the same and blocks 2 and 4 were the same. Blocks 1 and 3 were the longer blocks and we had rounds of push pace to all-outs. The all-outs were always 30-seconds long and the push paces decreased each time in the block. And I increased my resistance level for the push and the all-outs every time. I used the same level for the push paces no matter how long they were, but I think that is fine since it was still a challenge. And blocks 2 and 4 were on the rower with 3 rounds of a 30-second all-out row with 30 seconds to recover between. It was a tough row at the end of the block because I was tired, but I was able to do really well with the wattage I got on the rower and I could feel that my form wasn’t suffering even when I was tired.
And on the floor, we also had 4 blocks. Just like with cardio, blocks 1 and 3 were longer and blocks 2 and 4 were shorter. Block 1 had single-arm clean to press, bicep curls on the straps, and plank rotations (which I had to modify a little bit since I was starting to get nauseous while doing them). Block 2 had tricep extensions with weights and high knees (which I did more like marching in place). Block 3 had single-arm snatches, triceps on the straps, and plank dumbbell taps. And the last block had hammer curls and lateral hops (which I did as pulsing half squats). This workout was a tough one and I pushed myself more than I had all week to make up for what I couldn’t do earlier in the week.
I’m looking forward to this week’s workouts since I should be feeling like myself for the week. I know in the beginning of the week I might still be dealing with a little nausea, but it shouldn’t be too much and each day should be easier and easier. And we have a benchmark class this week that I’m both nervous and excited about. Hopefully, when I do my recap in a week I will have a lot of positive news to share about how each workout went!
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