This past week of workouts had some really amazing moments and some really annoying moments. It really was a week of ups and downs for me. I knew going into the week that I would likely be nauseous for at least a part of it. And that was accurate. But I still had some really great victories that even the worst pain and nausea couldn’t bring down.
Monday’s workout was an interesting day. First, it ended up being a 2 group class. My normal classes are all 3 group ones so it’s been a while since I was in a 2 group class. But it was fun to take one when I’m not used to it. Also, the workout had the 200 meter benchmark row. Rowing benchmarks are very competitive for me, especially the short distance ones. I knew what my best was from before going into class, and while I would have loved to have beaten it I went into class just hoping I was close.
I started with cardio but since everyone was going to do the benchmark toward the beginning of class we started with an extended warmup. Then it was time to head to the rower to try my best with 200 meters. I know that for the sprint rows like that it doesn’t matter to have nice long pulls on the rower. So I tried to keep my strokes short and fast. I think I got the wattage higher than it ever has been which is a great accomplishment. I didn’t get a personal best, but I was close and was very happy with that.
After everyone in class finished the benchmark, then we were back to regular blocks. For cardio, we had a lot of all outs with walking recoveries and push paces with base paces after. I stuck to my normal resistance levels on the bike and just focused on not letting the higher resistance levels make my pedaling slower. It’s not easy to go at the same speed when it’s harder to pedal, but I was close to keeping everything within the same range.
On the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block was longer and had shoulder presses, lunges, plank low rows, and sit-ups. After completing those exercises we had a 100 meter row. I was more determined to see what I could do with a sprint row so I asked my coach for a little bit more advice on what to do. He gave me some pointers on keeping my strokes short and he made sure that my hard rowing didn’t make the rower bounce too much (which does happen from time to time). Even though I already did over 40 minutes of my workout, I was able to get my 100 meter row within a fraction of a second of my personal best. My coach said if I had done it toward the beginning of class that I probably would have gotten a personal best. The second floor block was shorter and had toe-tap lunges, bench hop overs, and crunches. By the time class was done, I was exhausted from the work I did on the rower but felt super accomplished.
Wednesday’s workout was the first day that I was experiencing nausea. It wasn’t as horrible as it could get, but it still slowed me down and made me a little extra cautious during the workout. So I just worked on modifying where I needed to and just worked what I could.
For cardio, it was pretty simple. We had 3 rounds of 3 minute distance challenges. I put the resistance level between my base and push pace and that was comfortable yet still a bit of a challenge for me. I know if I was feeling my best I would have done better with the distance each time, but I was just happy doing what I could and feeling like I didn’t have to modify the cardio work too much.
On the rower, we had 3 rounds of 400 meter rows with ground to press using a medicine ball after the row. But my station ended up having a broken rower so I used the bike again. I did the bike for 2 minutes (approximately the time I do a 400 meter row in) and then got off the bike for the ground to press. It wasn’t that bad having to do more bike work and I’m ok with missing the rower.
And on the floor, we had 3 blocks. The first block was the longest and had single leg deadlifts (I used the wall for balance), squats, bicycle crunchs, and hip raises. The second block was a bit shorter and it was mini-band work with hip bridges and scissor crunches. And the last block was a 1 minute plank and I used the bench to help keep the nausea from getting worse. Overall, it wasn’t my best workout but it wasn’t my worst either.
Friday’s workout was much worse for me in terms of my pain and nausea. I was having what I hope will be the worst day this cycle and I just had to tolerate it and hope for the best in my workout. I am so grateful that my coaches know me well enough to know that when I’m having a bad day that they don’t have to worry about me. This was a day I wanted to be left alone for a lot of it.
For cardio, we had 2 blocks. One was a 4 minute block and the other was an 8 minute block. For the 4 minute block, we were supposed to have increases every 30 seconds and for the 8 minute block we were supposed to have increases every minute. For both blocks, I just kept the bike as my base pace resistance level. I couldn’t really do any more than that and I had to take a lot of breaks during each block.
For the rower, both blocks were similar. The first block was rounds of 100 meter rows with medicine ball squats between each row. And the second block was rounds of 200 meter rows with medicine ball squats between each row. I was fine with the squats for the first block, but by the second block, I discovered that squats were making me feel super nauseous. I had to skip the squats but I did do overhead presses with the medicine ball.
And on the floor, we started with walkouts to pushups. I was able to do 1 of them just fine, but then I realized that being facedown like that wasn’t going to be ok for me. So I just did pushups using the bench instead. Then we had a lot of weight work. We had sumo squats with upright rows, shoulder presses, hip bridges to chest fly, bicycle presses, sit-ups with rotation, and hip raises. I was able to do most of the weighted floor work without modifications, but I was working very slowly.
Saturday’s workout was a strength day and I was feeling a little better than how I was on Friday. I was still struggling, but I was able to do a bit more than the day before. I’m glad I was since with strength days there is a lot of incline/resistance work and I wanted to do a little.
For cardio, we had two blocks that were almost the same. They had a mix of push paces, base paces with incline, high incline power walks (or high resistance slow biking for me) and an all out at the end. I did add resistance on the bike for the hill work, but I stayed within my normal push and all out range. I didn’t do anything too extreme but at least it was something.
For the rower, we had 1 long block. We started with a 700 meter row and then we had arm raises using the mini-bands. Each row went down 200 meters with more mini-band work between. I was surprised that I was able to do the rowing without taking any breaks, even for the long ones.
And on the floor, we had another 1 long block. We had weighted lunges, bench situp to stands (I split these to crunches and squats), lunges with torso rotations, plank work, and hip bridges. I had to make modifications to not me totally face down, but that was it for changing things up. So it was another workout that made me feel not too horrible about how I was feeling since I was close to the actual workout.
And I had another accomplishment in my Saturday workout. I have a goal of doing 200 workouts this year. This year isn’t quite half over, but I made it to the halfway mark of my goal!
I wasn’t worried about getting to half my goal by halfway through the year, but it’s nice to know I did it and with a week to spare! That doesn’t mean I’m going to go easy on myself, but it does make me feel extra confident about hitting my goal.
I’m prepared to have another tough week this week. Besides the usual issues I knew I’d be dealing with, I hurt my ankle over the weekend. I’m doing better than I was when I hurt it, but it may still restrict things for me. I guess I’ll just have to see what happens.
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