This past week of workouts was split into 2 different Orangetheory challenges. The first 2 workouts were the last 2 workouts for Hell Week. And the last 2 workouts were the first workouts of a new challenge that is lasting all month: The Orange Voyage. It is similar to the idea of Marathon Month where we are tracking the distance we get in all workouts for November. This time, we track all meters rowed and there are different locations we can try to reach.
Monday’s workout was all about inclines and abs. And it was fitting that the name of this Hell Week workout was The House Of The Incline Devil. There was a bit of a mix-up with me getting into class, but fortunately it all worked out in the end for me. I did have to use the bike because there were no more treadmills, but that was perfect because I had already decided that I wanted to do the bike for the workout. I can do so much more with resistance levels than I can do with inclines and I want to take advantage of that!
On the cardio side, we had all incline/resistance work. The first block was 6 minutes of increasing inclines/resistance every minute. I started at my normal push resistance on the bike and went up 1 level every minute. Since I have done some higher resistance levels lately, this wasn’t too bad but it did feel tough. The next both was all power walking work for the treadmills because it was super high inclines. And for the bike, I used all resistance levels higher than I normally would do. Even when I do the high resistance levels, I rarely go above 13. But this time I was going up to 18 and my legs were barely moving while I was working. It was so hard to keep going but I really tried to not take a break during that block since it was only about 3 minutes long. Then those blocks repeated themselves and I tried to match what I had done the first time. But I was glad to get off the bike when it was the halfway mark in class.
On the floor, we had 2 long ab workout blocks and 1 rowing block. For the rowing block, we had a 6 minute row for distance. I didn’t actually look at my distance when I was done, but I’m pretty sure it was under the goal we were supposed to hit. My legs were so tired from the bike earlier in the workout and I had to take breaks during the row. For the ab blocks, they both had the same exercises. We had static crunch scissors, leg raises, Spiderman planks, swimmers, heel touch crunches, regular crunches, and sprinter sit ups. In the first block the sprinter sit ups were at the end of the workout and we had 90 seconds of those (everything else was 60 reps). Then when we did the ab block again we started with the 90 seconds of the sprinter sit ups and then the other exercises were in the reverse order of what we did the first time.
Wednesday was the final day of Hell Week and my 5th Hell Week workout overall! So I earned my Hell Week survivor shirt which is something I strive to do each year. And since it was Halloween, I also wanted to dress up a bit for class. Some of my friends and I were trying to think of a fun group costume for us to do that would be easy enough to work out in, and I had a moment of inspiration during the workout the Friday prior. Since there were 4 of us and there are 4 types of workouts at Orangetheory (endurance, strength, power, and ESP) we could go as the 4 workouts! I had lots of leftover photo paper and lamination sheets from my Halloween costume, so I made us all little signs to wear on our shirts. Not everyone got it right away, but once they did they loved it!
This workout was called The Nightmare From Hell Weeks Past and it took elements from the past few Hell Weeks and put them into one workout. Most of the workouts this one was inspired by were workouts I had done before so that was pretty cool. We had 3 blocks on each side plus a mini tornado workout at the halfway point and at the end of class.
On the treadmill, the first block was 5 minutes of decreasing inclines. I started at 10% and we went down 1% each minute. Even though this was an incline workout, I decided to stick with the treadmill since not everything was inclined based and I wanted to see what I could do when compared to my bike workouts. I wasn’t able to get my inclines as high as we were supposed to do, but I was close. The second block was rounds of 30 seconds at inclines with 30 seconds to recovery in between. I started at 12% and went down 1% each round. We also had a 1 minute all out at the end, but I walked it. And the last block on the treadmill was rounds of increasing all outs (starting at 30 seconds and ending at 75 seconds) with 30 seconds to recover in between. I walked all of these.
The tornado that we had was the same in the middle of class as well as at the end of class. On the treadmill it was a 1 minute all out, on the rower it was a 1 minute row, and on the floor it was 1 minute of sumo squats using weights. For the treadmill, I walked the all out in the middle of class but ran the one that ended class since I had been on the floor prior to that minute.
On the floor, the first block was a 5 minute row for distance. I struggled a bit because my ESP sign on my shirt was bunching up weird (I probably should have just taken it off for the workout but I wanted to keep it on) so my rowing wasn’t as far as it should have been. The next block was doing continuous exercises without stopping between different elements. We had upright rows to front squats to shoulder presses to lunges; and all of these were done holding weights. The idea was to not drop the weights until you finish an entire round. I had to go much lighter than I normally go for rows, squats, or lunges because I needed it to be at a lower weight for the shoulder presses. But because there was no break between what we did it really felt heavier. And the last block on the floor was all burpee work. We had burpees to bicep curls, burpees with plank jacks, and full burpees. I tried my best for the first round because I didn’t have the bench out like I normally do for my hands. It was much harder to do them going to the ground so I had to go slow and use modifications. After that round I decided to just do some elements from the burpees as their own exercises so I could get through them. So I did bicep curls, plank jacks, and push ups until the block was over and we did the last tornado of the workout. It was a really tough day, but the perfect way to end Hell Week!
Friday’s workout was another strength based day and I was on the bike again. I’m really feeling more like the bike is a choice versus something I have to do when I’m not feeling great, so that’s a very positive change for me. We had 3 blocks on cardio where the first block was a progressive push that for treadmills was increasing speed, the second was a progressive push with inclines, and the last was us picking which we wanted to do. What I did was increase my resistance by 2 levels each minute for the first and third block and increased my resistance by 1 level each minute for the middle block. That ended up being a pretty good plan for me and I was using some really hard resistance levels.
On the rower, we did progressive pushes for the first and third block. It’s not easy to increase the wattage on the rower every minute and I had to be very aware of everything I’m doing while rowing to keep the wattage where it is supposed to be. For the middle block, we had rounds of 30 second all out rows with squats between each row. We didn’t reset the rower the entire time we were on there so I was able to get quite a few meters for the Orange Voyage challenge.
And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first one was longer and we had single arm low rows, bench pullovers, plank work, and high rows on the straps. And in the second block we had plank single arm rows and Y-raises on the straps. I tried to go heavy with the weights, but I know that I’ve used heavier ones for those exercises in the past. I just was feeling tired and let that stop me from trying to use the ones I know I can do.
Saturday’s workout was an endurance day and it was also a switch day. So that allowed me to really work on some awesome running and I’m so glad I had that chance! Since it was a switch day, I could really push myself on the treadmill because I knew I’d have the floor in the middle to let me recover.
We had 2 10.5 minute blocks on the treadmill. The first block was 2 rounds of a 3 minute push pace with a 90 second base pace between and ending with a 90 second run for distance. For that block I took the 3 minute push pace and did it as 1 minute run/walk intervals (so 1 minute of running, 1 minute of walking, 1 minute of running). I walked the base paces and ran the final 90 seconds. The second block was 4 rounds of 90 second push paces with 45 second base paces between with a 90 second run for distance at the end. I ran all the push paces and walked all the base paces. It was a lot of running, but it wasn’t quite as bad as I expected it to be.
On the floor, we had 2 blocks that were pretty much the same. The first block started with an 800 meter row and then we had regular lunges, lateral lunges, bench tap squats, and bench sit up to stands. The second block started with the exercises and ended with the rowing. I was using medium heavy weights for the weighted work and I got both of my 800 meter rows done in under my goal time.
Because this month will be the Orange Voyage challenge, I know that there will be a lot of running through November. But with all Orangetheory challenges, I love to see what I can do and push myself. I successfully completed Hell Week, now it’s time to conquer the Orange Voyage!
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