Surprising Myself (or Maybe Progress Is Faster The Second Time)

Last week I blogged about how I finally got back on the treadmill after 7 weeks of only using the bike during my workouts. That was a huge accomplishment for me not only because I knew my endurance would be lower than before but because I was terrified that walking would be so difficult for me. I didn’t want to feel disappointed or frustrated with myself and I knew that was going to happen. I would have to take time making progress and I’m not the most patient person. But this past week of workouts, I made progress that I wasn’t expecting to happen for a while.

Monday’s workout was a power switch day, so I was excited to try to see what I could do on the treadmill. We were never on the treadmill for more than 5 minutes so it was a good day to work on my speed and not feel too overwhelmed. But we switched so much that I was exhausted because the workout was crazy!

When I was on the treadmill, I used my slower speed for my base pace and my normal speed for my push and all out paces with the inclines all being my normal inclines. It was a bit tough at times to keep the speed up, but it was feeling easier than it had before so I know there was progress. It was very limited treadmill time compared to other switch days because even though this was a 2 group class we were using the treadmill, rowers, and floor sections.

When I was on the rower, it was always the same thing with rounds of 30 second all out rows with 15 seconds of recovery. I know my rowing wasn’t my best, but it was nice knowing that all the rowing was going to be 30 seconds because that goes by so quickly.

But the craziest section to me was when we were on the floor. We had a mix of timed exercises and counting the reps but they were equally hard. In the timed sections we always had just one thing to do. One block was squats with front presses using the medicine ball. Another block was skater lunges. And the last timed block was frogger squats. The timed work was always 30 seconds of work with 15 seconds of recovery but the recovery felt like nothing! In the other blocks we had things like chest presses, push-ups, and sit-ups.

About halfway through this workout, I felt like I was done. I thought it was just me from being so tired from the heat. But I asked a friend who was working out at the station next to me and he agreed that this workout was one of the tougher ones we had done. I think the combination of the quick switches, power moves, and lack of rest really made this hard. But I was glad I did it and as always felt so accomplished when class was done.

Wednesday’s workout was an endurance day and was supposed to be a workout to prepare us for when we have a 12 minute distance run again. I’m nowhere near ready to do a distance run, so I knew this workout was going to be more of a focus of just trying to get my endurance back.

The first block on the treadmill was a 5 1/2 minute distance run, a 90 second recovery, and another 5 1/2 minute distance run. We were supposed to be in a push pace during the distance run sections, and I did have my incline at the push incline I normally use. But I just knew that I couldn’t do my normal speed for that amount of time yet so I just did the entire thing at my slower speed. I was a bit disappointed in myself because I probably should have at least tried, but I could just feel it in my body that I was not going to be able to do it. The second treadmill block was 3 rounds of 1 minute push paces and 90 second base paces with an all out pace at the end. Again, I did my inclines like normal but used the slower speed.

On the floor, the first block was split up with a row in the middle. We had rounds of bridge rows and tricep extensions on the straps first and then a 300 meter row. Then we had ab dolly knee tuck and rollouts after. And the second block started with a 600 meter row and then we had more ab dolly work and swimmers. My floor work wasn’t my strongest, but I think that was because none of it involved weights and that’s when I’ve been doing my best. But I need to learn how to push myself more with body weight work too.

Friday was where I made my huge progress. I saw that the workout was going to have lots of 30 second all out paces. This format was similar to what the workout was like the first time I tried running. It was a little different with some of the all out paces being after a push pace, but there were plenty of all out paces that were right before and after a walking recovery. Even though I just got back to the treadmill, I thought this would be the perfect chance to test out running. I was a bit terrified that I was pushing myself too much, but I told myself that I could always stop running if it didn’t feel right.

There were 3 blocks and they all started with a 2 minute push pace followed by a 30 second all out which I walked at my slower speed. Then we had 3 different 30 second all outs sandwiched between the walking. And I decided to go for it and run. I ran at my old running speed and was surprised how it didn’t feel as difficult to get back to running as it did to get back to walking. The third 30 second all out each block was tough because I was getting tired, but not anything like I thought it would be.

I couldn’t believe that I was running again. I hadn’t really run at all since the end of last year and I was only back on the treadmill for a week and a half before trying running. And I really wasn’t expecting to be able to do this for at least a month or so. But I guess when I’m coming back to something I had done before, it was easier than when I started the first time.

After the running on the treadmill, I was ready to move to the floor. The workout was a Friday the 13th theme so all the floor moves were either 13 or 26 reps. It was one long block with adding on exercises to start and then taking away exercises after that. And each round had a 30 second all out row as well. The exercises were hop overs, triceps with weights, bench sit-ups to squats, and burpees. The hop overs were tough and my legs were feeling like bricks. And I knew there was no way I could do 13 burpees. So I decided to do modified burpees with putting my hands on the end of the bench instead of the ground. And with having that extra leverage with not being totally parallel to the ground, I was able to hop my feet out and back instead of stepping back! That was another thing I wasn’t expecting to be able to do.

After my huge progress on Friday, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect on Saturday. And when I saw it was a strength based run/row day I was still a bit unsure. But I decided that working on my running progress was going to be a priority to I didn’t do any of the incline work. We had 4 blocks that all started on the rower and then had a run for distance until time was called. The first row was 400 meters and each block went down 100 meters so we had more time on the treadmill each block. I went with my old interval training with 30 seconds of running and 1 minute of walking for my running plan. But because of the timing of everything, I usually ended up running for a bit longer at the end of each block. I even had a block where I ran for almost a minute! That was pushing it a bit much for me, but it just proved to me that my progress was going to be easier than I thought.

On the floor we had 2 blocks. The first block was lunges with weights, chest fly with weights, and ab work. I did both the lunges and chest fly work with 25lb weights which is higher than I was doing before. I figured I needed to make up for the strength work on the floor since I didn’t do it on the treadmill. And the second block had deadlifts, bicep curls, hip bridges, and side plank dips. For my deadlifts I used 30lb weights (instead of my usual 20lb), for my biceps I used 20lb weights (instead of my usual 15lb), and for my hip bridges I used one of the 30lb weights (I don’t really have a usual for this since I am newer to using weights for this move). I love how much stronger I am than I thought and it still makes me so happy when I get to walk over to the heavy weight rack to pick up heavy weights.

I honestly wasn’t expecting to have this much progress this past week. I thought the week before was the huge thing with getting back on the treadmill. But I guess I underestimated myself and I’m proving that I really can do it. I don’t know how long it will take me to get back to running like I was doing before. I’ve learned now not to set plans for myself. I am a bit worried about how I will feel running when I will be nauseous (which will probably be happening this week or next), but again I’m just going to listen to my body and do what feels right. My body was telling me I could run again when my brain was telling me not to. I’m glad I listened to my body.

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