This past week of workouts started out not so good and ended pretty great. It really was a swing between how I felt in the beginning of the week and how I felt at the end. But I managed to make it work no matter how I felt.
Monday’s workout was an endurance day. I think it was supposed to help get us ready for our mile benchmark this week, but it was a tough one. And it was made tougher because I was feeling so awful that morning. I tried to remember that I wanted to take it easy to try to make it through as much of the workout as I could, but on an endurance day that’s not always easy.
For cardio, we had a 23-minute block. It was rounds of push paces and base paces. The base paces were 1-minute for a majority of the time, but at the end of the block, they increased to 90-seconds. And the push paces got longer each time. We started at 30-seconds and went all the way up to 3-minutes. I didn’t have a big difference between my base and push paces because of how I felt. I just tried to pedal as long as I could before needing a break. We did have an all out at the end and I did try to increase my speed a bit more for that.
On the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had regular lunges, lateral lunges, and swing lunges with a 1-minute row. I modified the swing lunges to be regular lunges while holding weights, but I wish I had just used the straps instead. For some reason, I didn’t think of doing that when I was in class. The second block had low rows on the straps, hip hinge reverse flys, plank work, and double crunches. The only modification I had to make was using the bench for my plank work, but I do that all the time so I don’t necessarily think of it as a modification.
When class was done, I was still feeling awful, but not that much worse than I was when I started. So maybe the idea of going easy on myself is a good one that I need to continue. Of course, my pain and nausea likes to change from month to month, so what works this month might not work next month.
Wednesday’s workout was a power day. I was still feeling off, but I was over the hump and doing much better than I had been doing on Monday. So I still wanted to take it a bit easy, but I knew I could do a bit more than I had earlier in the week. And power days are perfect for that.
For cardio, we had 3 blocks. All of the blocks were intervals with 30-second push paces and base paces. Almost all the base paces were 1-minute, but there was 1 that was only 30-seconds. And all the blocks ended with a 30-second all out. I did go a bit faster with my push and all outs than I did with my base paces. It wasn’t exactly what I would normally do, but it was closer.
On the rower, we also had 3 blocks. Every block had rounds with a 150-meter row and 10 squats. Technically, we had a specific number of rounds to do for each block, but I never made it to the end of those so I spent all 3 blocks alternating between the rowing and squats. I’m glad the rows were all short because they were starting to make me feel a bit worse. But I took some time to take breaks when I needed to and it did help a lot.
And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. I did have to make quite a few modifications, but it wasn’t too bad. The first block had pull ups on the straps (which I modified to low rows), plank Spiderman to leg raises (I had to split up the exercises and do them using the bench), and hollow hold chest presses. And the second block had split stance high rows with weights, plank arm extensions (I modified these by using the bench), and single-arm snatches with weights. And just like on Monday, I was only feeling slightly worse than I had before the workout, which I consider a good thing.
Friday’s workout was the 1-mile benchmark challenge. Even though I’ve been using the bike for a while now, doing benchmarks on the bike still feels pretty new to me. I also don’t have the same type of records noted as I do on the treadmill, so it’s not always easy for me to remember what I have done or what my goal should be. Fortunately, the new Orangetheory app tracks our benchmarks as long as we enter them in the computer during the workout, so I knew what my previous attempts on the bike were like.
I was finally feeling better, but I still didn’t know if I could beat my best time on the bike. I did the math in my head with what I would need to be able to do by certain times or checkpoints with the benchmark so I could stay on track. My PR for the bike was 8:28 and I was hoping to come close to it. Even if I couldn’t beat that, I wanted to be around the 8:30 mark. And as I was biking, I knew that I was cutting it really close to being able to beat my best time. When it was down to what would likely be the last 30 seconds to get to the distance, I pushed myself harder than I think I ever have before. And it worked because I was able to get a new PR!
After the benchmark, there was still a little bit of time left before switching to the rower. We had short sprints with recovery to do on cardio, but I spent almost all of the time recovering because my legs felt like jello.
On the rower, we started with a 400-meter row and then we had 20 squats, Each round, we went down 50 meters on the row and the squats stayed the same. The rowing still felt like a bit of recovery time for me after the benchmark, so I didn’t make it as far down the rowing as I would have liked to. And on the floor, we had lunges with overhead presses, rows on the straps, torso rotations with weights, and double crunches with weights. I was feeling a bit more recovered by the floor, but I still took it a bit easy and didn’t go too heavy on the weights.
And on Saturday we had a strength day. I was feeling completely like myself and I had recovered from the benchmark the day before.
For cardio, we had 2 blocks that had a similar format. We had a 2-minute push pace with no incline, a 90-second base pace with no incline, a base pace with incline, a push pace with no incline, and we finished with a 30-second all out. The time of the incline and the push pace before the all out changed, as well as the incline we had to use. I’m glad the incline work wasn’t too long because it’s always so tough to add resistance on the bike. I did better than I thought I would, but I still could feel myself struggling a bit with the added resistance.
On the rower, we started with a 100-meter row with 10 squats with a medicine ball. We went up 100 meters each round and ended with a 400-meter row before things switched up. The second half of the block started with a 400-meter row and we had 10 medicine ball front raises. The rowing went down 100 meters each time.
And on the floor, the first block was all mini-band work. We had front raises, bird dogs with hand slides, and static crunches with scissor kicks. And the second block was all upper body work. We had single-arm chest presses, tricep extensions, and y raises on the straps. Between the mini-bands and the upper body work, my arms were sore!
I’m so glad that this past week ended on a good note. I like it when that happens because it helps me to forget the struggles I might have had for the first part of the week. And hopefully, this week will just be awesome workouts!
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