This past week of workouts was not what I planned for or expected. It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it did make things different than what I thought I was in for this past week. I was expecting to be dealing with a lot of pain and nausea, and I was so grateful that I didn’t have that. I did have a little bit to deal with, but it was so minor compared to what I was prepared for. But that also meant the moments that I did have to deal with it, I was thrown off a bit because I was getting comfortable with being ok.
I also had an unexpected start to my workout week because I didn’t have a Monday workout. I’m pretty good about going to work out Monday through Thursday. And I woke up on Monday and was ready to go. But due to something at the studio, they had to cancel the class I go to. I know that it wasn’t anyone’s fault and they weren’t happy about having to message us. And I thought about trying to go to a different class time, but there wasn’t another class that would work for me. It’s ok because it’s not the end of the world if I don’t get 4 workouts in for the week. So I used my morning to get some other work stuff done instead of working out.
But I was back to my normal schedule on Tuesday. I know I’ve said this before, but I’m so used to my routine and my workouts are something I have craved when I missed them, so I was glad that only my Monday workout was affected by what happened at the studio.
For cardio, we had one long block. We had rounds of a 30-second push pace with increasing base paces. We started with a 30-second base pace and it went up to a 3-minute base pace before we ended the block with a 30-second all-out. Because the push paces were short and the base paces were long, we were encouraged to push ourselves a bit more in our push paces. And as long as we could get back to our base pace without having to walk, we were doing the right thing. I did try to pedal faster since I wasn’t going to use a higher resistance level than my normal one and I think that helped to make the cardio block a good challenge.
On the rower, we had 2 blocks that were similar. Both blocks started with a 250-meter row and we decreased the rows by 50 meters each round. In the first block, we had lunges between each row. And in the second block, we had frogger squats between each row. Both blocks were equally challenging since it’s hard to get off of the rower quickly and both exercises weren’t the easiest on my hips. But I’m glad the rows were short.
And on the floor, we had one long block. We had 5 exercises and we started with 4 reps for each exercise. Each time, we increased the reps by 2. We had low rows on the straps, neutral grip thrusters, bicep curls, lateral lunges, and hollow hold single-arm chest presses. I did try to go heavy with the weights for the weighted exercises, but as the reps increased I did have to use some lighter ones.
Wednesday’s workout was a signature workout. This was Inferno, which I’ve done a few times in the past. It’s a rowing-focused challenge, so the other sections of the room were a little easier so we could put as much effort as possible into our rowing.
For cardio, we had 2 blocks. The first block had 1-minute push paces and increasing base paces. The base paces started at 30 seconds and went up to 1 minute with a 45-second all-out at the end. The second block was similar but the push paces were 30 seconds long and the base paces went up to 75 seconds and a 1-minute all-out at the end. I didn’t push myself too hard because I was getting ready to row, but I also tried to not go too easy on myself either.
The Inferno challenge is all about increasing rows with an exercise between each row. We started with a 100-meter row and 20 lateral hops. I do side-to-side steps instead of lateral hops, but they are essentially the same thing. The row increases by 100 meters each time and the challenge is to get as many meters as you can in 14 minutes. It starts off not too bad, but as the rows get longer and you get tired, it’s harder. I know that from past attempts and I was trying to pace myself a bit more in the beginning with the hopes that I wouldn’t get too tired by the end. I didn’t check my past attempts before this workout because I didn’t want to stress myself to try to get a PR. And I didn’t know if I got a PR or close to my past attempts until after class, so I was very happy to see that I did PR!
It was 16 meters further than my previous PR, but that’s still a good improvement for me! And I felt a lot better about this attempt than I did for past ones, so I consider that a bigger victory than my PR.
On the floor, we had 2 blocks. Both blocks were more focused on upper body work since rowing is a lot of lower body work. The first block had alligators on the straps, chest flys, and shoulder presses. And the second block had high rows to bicep curls on the straps, reverse flys, and plank pull-throughs. I did end up modifying the high rows to bicep curls to be separate exercises because I was struggling to switch my arm positions that frequently. But that isn’t that bad of a modification for me. And I was trying to push myself on the floor more than it was designed since I was already done with my rowing, but I was also tired from the rowing so I couldn’t do as much as I would have liked.
On Thursday, I was having the most trouble with pain and nausea, but it was still minor compared to what I was thinking I would have during this past week. But it did make me a bit anxious because I was worried it would kick in during the workout and be pretty bad. But I was glad that it didn’t happen that way and I was able to focus more on my workout than any pain that might have happened.
For cardio, we had a newer type of challenge. We had 3 blocks that were the same, but I’m glad they were the same so I would work on this challenge. We started each block with a base pace. Then we increased the incline. After that, we increased the speed without bringing the incline down. We alternated increasing incline and speed without going back to where we started in the block. So in the end, we had a higher incline and speed than normal and that counted as our all-out. I did work on increasing my pedaling for the speed work since I didn’t want to just use increases in the resistance levels. I struggled a bit in the first block to figure out a good plan, but I was able to do a lot better in the second and third blocks.
On the rower, we also had 3 blocks. For the first block, we started off the rower with medicine ball exercises. We had squats with front presses, tricep extensions, and low rows. After doing 2 rounds of the exercises, we got on the rower and rowed until the block was done. For the second block, we looked at how far we rowed in the first block and rowed that distance first. Once we got to that distance, we got off the rower and did 2 rounds of the medicine ball exercises again. And the challenge was to get back on to the rower to get further in rowing distance than you did in the first block. And for the last block, we got to choose if we wanted to start with the exercises or the rowing. I picked to start with the exercises so I could challenge myself more with getting the furthest distance on the rower and I was able to do that.
And on the floor, we had one longer block and one shorter block. For the longer block, we started with lunges and split squats with rotations. The split squats with rotations are really tough on my hips, but I just tried to do whatever I could. my split squats looked more like I was just standing, but it was better than doing nothing. Then we had single-arm clean to presses and sumo goblet squats. I didn’t go too heavy with the weights for those exercises but that ok with me. I did try to go slower with the sumo goblet squats than I normally do because I know that made it extra challenging. And the short block was a core blast with two exercises. We were supposed to do bicycle crunches and crab toe reaches. We didn’t have a set number of reps, it was just as many as possible before we had to switch to the other exercise. I can’t do crab toe reaches, so I did side-to-side crunch reaches since that has some of the same movements. The short block was about 4 minutes long, and my core was dead by the time the workout was done!
Overall, this past week felt so successful for me. I might not have gotten 4 workouts in, but I did so much better with each workout than I expected and I felt like I really challenged myself where I could and I saw a lot of great results from that. I only hope this week is just as great for me!
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