I had a mixed workout week this past week. I had some really great things and some not-so-great things happening. But fortunately, I decided to focus more on the positive things and I think that was reflected in my workouts.
For Monday’s workout, we had a lot of power work, so it was a good day for me to push myself. I felt so much more like myself, but I still have some work to do to build my strength again. But I still challenged myself where I could.
For cardio, the first block was very short with a 45-second push pace, 30-second base pace, 30-second push pace, 45-second base pace, and 30-second all-out. Because those two push paces were the only ones we had for the workout, I increased my resistance level on the bike to be one higher for those. In the second block, all we had were all-outs and recoveries. We had 2 rounds of a 1-minute all-out, 2 rounds of a 45-second all-out, and 2 rounds of a 30-second all-out. And as the all-outs got shorter, the recoveries got longer. I probably could have pushed myself a bit more in the all-outs and maybe I should have worked on increasing my all-out resistance level, but I’m trying to limit how much I push myself so I don’t overdo things.
On the rower, the first block was matched with cardio so we had the push rows and base rows. And for the second block, we had 500-meter rows with squats between each row. This was to prepare for the 500-meter row benchmark, which I’m not expecting to do too great on. But I proved to myself that I could do the row without stopping and that was going to be my main goal.
And on the floor, we had one long block with 3 mini-blocks in it. And we were supposed to do each mini-block twice before moving on to the next one. The first mini-block had mountain climbers and superman extensions. They were both supposed to be on the Bosu, but I did the mountain climbers without it. The second mini-block had goblet squats and sumo squats, and both were with weights. And the last mini-block had hip dips and bridge pullovers. Again, both of those exercises were supposed to be with the Bosu, but I did the hip dips on the floor instead.
Tuesday’s workout was a benchmark day and we had the 500-meter row. That is a really weird distance to do because it’s not a sprint like the 100-meter row and it’s not something you have to be careful about pushing yourself with like the 2000-meter row. It’s a mix of making sure you push hard but also not burning out in the beginning. And my only goal for this benchmark was to not need breaks during the row.
First, I had a short block with cardio since I was in the second group to go to the rowers. That short block was rounds of a short push pace followed by a 30-second walking recovery. We weren’t supposed to go too hard since we wanted to save our energy for the row.
Next was the benchmark row. We had more time than we needed to get it done, so we had extra time to warm up or get ready. But I just wanted to get started because I wasn’t expecting too much. We see a lot of information on the screens of the rower, and one thing we can see is our 500-meter split time. I noticed pretty quickly that my split time was a lot lower than I expected and it might be possible for me to get a PR. But I knew that if I went too hard then, I wouldn’t be able to maintain what I was doing. So I tried to keep everything steady and just keep going. Once I noticed I had less than 100 meters to go, I just went for it knowing that I was going to feel very exhausted when I was done. And somehow I got a new PR! This was less than a second faster than my last PR, but the last one was before the pandemic so this felt like a huge victory!
Next, we had a short block on the floor which wasn’t too intense since some people had the floor before the row. We had hip bridges, high rows on the straps, and torso rotations.
Then we went through all sections of the room again for longer blocks. For cardio, we started with rounds of a 1-minute all-out and 45-second recovery. Then we had rounds with 45-second all-outs and 30-second all-outs. I didn’t do any increases with my all-outs since I was exhausted after the benchmark. On the rower, we started with a 350-meter row followed by lunges. And each time we got back to the rower we decreased the row by 50 meters. And on the floor, we had lunges, plank pull-throughs, chest fly with weights, and side planks. Again, I was feeling how hard I worked for the benchmark and my floor work wasn’t too great. But I was feeling amazing after getting a new PR!
On Wednesday, I was feeling a bit sore but I thought it was due to how hard I went in the row benchmark combined with sitting for so many hours at work after. I know now that this was my back or hip pain coming back. But I didn’t know that at the time so I still tried to push myself.
For cardio, we were supposed to have a distance challenge and then exercises after each distance for the first block. But the exercises we had were both things that I knew I couldn’t do, plus I know getting on and off the bike can be tough when I’m sore, so I decided to just focus on doing my work on the bike. This isn’t ideal, but it’s one of the rare modifications I do from time to time. We had decreasing distances for cardio and we were supposed to increase either incline or speed each time. I just increased my resistance level on the bike for each distance and made sure I had a bit of recovery between each one to make up for not having the time off the bike with the exercises. And in the second block, we had rounds of a 30-second all-out and a 45-second recovery. Because I have been trying to challenge myself, I did increase my resistance level for the all-outs.
On the rower, the first two blocks were the same. We had rounds of a 30-second push row followed by a 45-second base row. And the goal in the second block was to beat the distance from the first block. And in the last block, we had 30-second all-out rows and then 45 seconds to do 10 squats. Any extra time we had in those 45 seconds was to recover and catch our breath.
And on the floor, everything was timed with 30-second and 45-second intervals. In the first block, we had either calf raises or squat jacks for 30 seconds and hand-release push-ups for 45 seconds. In the second block, we had lunges for 30 seconds and v-ups for 45 seconds. And in the last block, we had burpees for 30 seconds and plank jacks for 45 seconds. For that last block, I did use the bench for my hands to make things a bit easier for me.
On Thursday, my back/hip pain was worse, but it still wasn’t as bad as it had been the month before. So I had to be a bit easier on myself again, but I’m glad I was still able to do better than I had last month.
For cardio, we had mixes of push paces to all-outs and all-outs that were before and after recoveries. I continued to use the higher resistance levels for both my push pace and all-outs, and I’m proud of myself for doing that since I hadn’t increased them in a while. I’m hoping I can still continue to do that, but just proving it to myself was a big thing. The push paces and all-outs ranged from 30-seconds to 1-minute, and the recoveries matched the all-outs.
On the rower, we started with a 3-minute row. I did have to take a few breaks during this row, but I really tried to push myself to not take those breaks. After the row, we had squats. Next was a 90-second row and we were supposed to get at least half the distance of the 3-minute row. And then we had a 45-second row where we were supposed to get half the distance of the 90-second row. I might not have done great for each distance compared to normal, but I did always beat half my distance from the row before.
On the floor, we had one buy-in exercise and then we had mini-blocks. The buy-in exercise was double twist crunches, which was tough for me to do. But I did them slowly and was able to get them done. Then we did each mini-block twice before moving on to the next one. We had leg lifts with the straps and lateral lunges, and I did my best with the leg lifts with the pain I had. Next was high plank to push-up holds and suitcase squats. And finally, we had squats to Y-raises and reverse fly with weights. And for the last minute, we had around-the-world raises which were supposed to be kneeling but I did as a standing exercise.
I’m so glad that I did have some good wins this past week with my PR and working on increasing the resistance levels on the bike. But it’s unfortunate that my pain was kicking in again and making things not as great toward the end of the week. I have a feeling the pain will continue to be a factor this week, but I’m trying to stretch as much as I can in the hope that I can reduce the pain even a little bit. And I am hoping I can see a doctor soon to get some confirmation about what is going on because it is worrisome that this pain returned so quickly. But I have worked through pain so many times in my life and I will just continue to do so, both in my regular life and in my workouts.
You Might Also Like
A Much Better Workout Week (or At Least This Time My Pain Was From Working Out)
PRs and Pain (or A Very Up And Down Week)
Another Painful Workout Week (or Swapping One Pain For Another)
This Is The Workout Week I Expected (or I Knew It Would Be A Bad Week)
A Good Workout Week (or Only Dealing With Old Issues)
A Good, Strong Workout Week (or I Really Love Feeling Like Myself)
