This past week of workouts really was a mixed bag for me. I had some great moments and some not great moments. But fortunately for me, I was expecting the not-great moments so they didn’t surprise me too much. But the great moments were a surprise and that made things even better!
Monday’s workout was a benchmark workout. I have done a few benchmarks since returning to OTF, and they haven’t been the best for me. But I also have known that I’m not back to where I was before, so I’m not too upset when I don’t get close to my PR.
This time, the benchmark was the 1-mile run. I used to do this on the treadmill, but now it’s on the bike and that means I go for 4 miles. I didn’t look at my past benchmarks before class because I just wanted to do my best and not judge myself against my past self. I kept the resistance level between my base and push pace levels and tried to let my focus be on anything other than the clock. I checked my distance every so often, and I didn’t pay too much attention to the time until I was almost done so I could make sure I knew what my final time was.
I finished in 8:19 and that seemed pretty great to me. But it wasn’t until class was done that I could check my past benchmarks and I discovered that I PRed on my mile challenge on the bike! I know it’s not a huge difference from my old PR, but 3 seconds faster is 3 seconds faster!
The second block on cardio was a bit easier with rounds of 45-seconds of an all-out and 1-minute to recover between.
On the floor, the first block was a bit easier than normal because the people who started on the floor had to do it before the benchmark. We had some warmups with high knees, front and back steps, and skips. Then we had bird dog low rows with weights, chest presses, and plank work. And the second floor block had lateral step-ups (I did lateral lunges), heel touch crunches, and v-ups.
Wednesday’s workout was a strength day, and I was feeling really off. I wasn’t sure if this was my usual pain and nausea kicking in earlier than expected or if I had a bit of food poisoning or something like that. I was just feeling nauseous and had to try to push through.
For cardio, we started with a rowing block with 1-minute intervals between push pace and base pace and ending with an all-out. I know my rowing wasn’t that great, but I did manage to do it with very few breaks. Then we had 2 more blocks on the treadmill/bike. We had 2 rounds of 90-second push paces at an incline with 1-minute flat road bases between. Then we ended with a 90-second flat road push pace and a 1-minute all-out. The first of the 2 blocks had higher inclines than the second block.
On the floor, the first block was a mini-band block with hip bridges, knee tucks, and crunches. The second block had goblet squats, lateral raises, and shoulder taps. And the last block had sumo squats, front raises, and side plank rotations.
Friday’s workout was an interesting one. I was feeling pretty bad that day, so I did have to go easy. But the cardio workout was a bit like the Everest challenge.
We had 3 cardio blocks that all had similar patterns. The first 2 blocks had a push pace, a base pace, a 3-minute hill, a base pace, and an all-out. In the first block, we went up the hill and in the second block, we went down the hill. The last block skipped the push pace and base pace in the beginning and went straight to the 3-minute hill. And we could choose to start at the top or bottom. I decided to start at the top and work my way down. I’ve done this workout before and that’s the way I like to do it because it’s nice to feel like it’s getting easier.
And on the floor, we had 3 blocks that all started with a 200-meter row. Then, within each block, we worked the same muscles to perfect our form. The first block had chest presses on the straps, chest presses with weights, and push-ups. The second block had low rows on the straps, hip hinge low rows, and seated low rows. And the last block had crunches, weighted crunches, and sit-ups. I did struggle quite a bit on the floor and had to take a lot of breaks, but I didn’t have to modify much for my nausea.
I was really feeling bad by Saturday’s workout. And this one would have been a challenge for me even if I was feeling great. This was The Nonstop, which is one of the signature workouts that I’ve taken before. And it’s always a tough one. This class was also a 3 group class, so in some ways that made it easier, and in other ways it was harder.
The idea for this workout is to just not stop during the blocks. The cardio and rower were the same, with a 14 1/2-minute block with no recovery. It was a 3-minute push, 90-second base, 2 1/2-minute push, 75-second base, 2-minute push, 1-minute base, 90-second push, 45-second base, and 30-second all-out. That’s a lot of work and it was really tough for me. I took a lot of breaks, but I did my best to try to do them in the base time. But for the rower, I struggled to do much so I didn’t have a lot of difference between my base and push. There is a goal distance for the rower, and I wasn’t anywhere close to it. But I did my best considering how I was feeling.
On the floor, there were 2 groups of exercises and within each group, you weren’t supposed to stop. The first group had squats, bicep curls, front squats, uppercuts, deadlifts, and hip hinge low rows. Every exercise was 5 reps and I used a weight that I knew I could do for all the exercises. So the weight was lower than I normally would use for some of the exercises, but I was able to do the entire set of exercises without stopping. The second group was all core work with static crunch over unders, heel taps, and bicycle crunches. I did modify the bicycle crunches to be regular crunches to each side, but I didn’t have to modify beyond that.
Even though I ended my week on a slightly down note with feeling awful, having the PR at the beginning of the week really did motivate me through the entire week! I was feeling so powerful even when I knew I was struggling and not doing my best. And I hope that I can keep that feeling going this week as I know it’s going to be another tough one. I’m going to try some different timing with the medications I take to see if it helps, but I also know that I probably will just have to push through like I normally do and see what happens.
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