Tag Archives: fitness

Another Week Of Sick Workouts (or At Least I Did Something)

Posted on March 18, 2019 | Comments Off on Another Week Of Sick Workouts (or At Least I Did Something)

This past week of workouts was such a tough one for me. I knew I was getting over this cold, but I really thought I was doing better than I really was each day. You usually feel better in the morning than the evening when you are sick, but this took a much harder hit on me than I honesty thought it would. It really became a week of just doing anything and not thinking too much about it. I wasn’t always able to actually do the workout we were supposed to do, but I did something.

Monday’s workout was a strength day but it wasn’t really a strength day for what I was doing. For cardio on the bike, I just set it to my base pace resistance level and kept it at that for the entire time. I wasn’t focused on increasing the resistance levels or when we were supposed to be in a push or all out pace. I just kept pedaling and doing my best. I know that research says if you are sick from the neck up (which I was) that light exercise is good for you. I figured that’s exactly what I was doing.

On the rower, we were supposed to do increasing row distances with jumping jacks between each row. There was no way for me to do jumping jacks, so I did a similar thing with the rower that I did with the bike. I just tried to keep rowing the entire time. I had to take breaks every minute or so because I wasn’t fully able to breathe through my nose, but again I just figured doing something was better than nothing. It wasn’t a hard workout and I wasn’t sweating much, but it was better than just being in bed missing out on doing what I could.

For the floor, I was much closer to what we were supposed to do. The first block had lateral lunges to single arm thrusts and then ab work. I had to split the lunges and single arm thrusts into separate moves, but that’s pretty normal for me. For the ab work, it was tough at times to be on my back, so I did the work on the bench instead of the floor so it was easier for me to sit up when I needed to. The next block had the same exercises but we also added sumo squats which I was able to do without modifications. And the last block was the lunges, squats, and chest presses. I wasn’t using my normal heavy weights, but they weren’t that much lighter either.

While I was feeling better than I had the past few days before this workout, clearly I was still sick because when I got home and showered, I fell asleep for almost 8 hours!

Wednesday’s workout was the Infinity workout and I was a little disappointed that I would have to do some more big modifications for this one. We were supposed to track distances for the cardio and rowing, but because I had to change so much up I didn’t track anything. It didn’t seem fair to track distances if I wasn’t doing the proper workout.

For cardio, the bike work was the same for me as it was on Monday. Even though we had different push paces throughout the time we were doing cardio, I didn’t worry about them. I just set the bike to my base pace resistance level and went the entire time at that. I took breaks when I needed to and it wasn’t as often as Monday, but it still happened a lot. I did what I could and tried to just remember that I was only there to do a light workout as I was still sick.

On the rower, we were supposed to do rounds of 100 meter rows with jumping jacks with the medicine ball in-between each row. I did the first 100 meters and tried to do squat presses with the medicine ball after, but getting up from the rower and squatting was too hard for me. I wasn’t lightheaded, but I wasn’t feeling too stable. So I just did the same thing from Monday again and tried to row the entire time. I still was taking lots of breaks but I tried to go a little further each time before taking a break. It still averaged every 100-200 meters, but it gave me something to work on and strive toward.

The floor work was one long block. The idea of it is to get us ready for the Dri-Tri (which I’m not sure I’ll be doing yet). We had bench hop overs, bench tap squats, lunges, plank jacks, push-ups, and burpees. I didn’t do the burpees at all and I modified so many of the other exercises, but I tried to do them as close to how I do them for the Dri-Tri normally. I just added in the breaks that I needed to recover. But I did notice that I was doing better on Wednesday than I had on Monday (plus, I didn’t pass out and need sleep after this workout).

I finally was on the tail end of this cold (which may also be bronchitis) by Friday so I could do a bit more of a normal workout for me. It was another strength based class and I didn’t do exactly that, but I did more than what I had been able to do the past few workouts.

For cardio, the first block I was able to do normally as there was no hill/incline work. I did the base, push, and all out paces at my new resistance levels on the bike. It was harder than I thought it would be, but I think that was because I had been doing so little the past few workouts. The second and third blocks were hill work and I just kept working with my normal base, push, and all out resistance levels. I knew I couldn’t do more and I didn’t want to push myself too hard since I was still struggling with my cough and exercise was making it a bit harder to breathe.

On the rower, we started with a 90 second row and then medicine ball squat presses. Each time on the rower we did 50 meters less than the row before and had the squats between each one. I was doing the squats for the first few rows that I did, but toward the end I was struggling a lot so I just worked on the rowing. I was hoping I wouldn’t have had to modify the rowing work, but I also am very cautious of my limits right now and knew I was getting close to working too hard.

And on the floor we had 2 blocks. The first one was bicep curls, upright rows, and low rows using weights. I did go a bit heavy with the weights and that helped me feel better about my workout. We also had sit-ups which were much harder than I thought they would be and made me cough quite a bit. The second block was a short block with side plank hip dips, plank punches, and then holding a plank. I had to take some breaks while holding the plank, but it was just because it was making my nose run.

Saturday’s workout was the closest to normal for me. While I was still coughing a bit and had some congestion issues, they were so much less than what they had been. Comparing how I felt on Monday to Saturday was such a huge improvement! This workout was an endurance day and I was pretty much back to what I know I could do.

On cardio, we had 2 blocks and they were distance challenges. The first block was a 3 minute push pace, 90 second base pace, and a 90 second distance challenge. And the second block was 2 rounds of a 90 second push pace and 45 second base pace followed by another 90 second distance challenge. I was using my normal push and base pace resistance levels and I used the level between my push and all out pace for the distance challenges at the end. I did manage to do better the second time than I did the first and the overall distance I got on the bike was one of the best ones I’ve ever had!

On the rower, we had one long block. It started with a 2 minute row and then squats. Then we had half the distance of the 2 minute row and pulsing half squats. The pattern continued but the timed row was 90 seconds the next time and 1 minute the last. I was doing close to normal row distances for the timed work and I did all the squats every round. It was so nice to not need to do any modifications for once this past week!

And on the floor we had all mini-band work. The first block had walking forward squats, lateral squat steps, and tricep work using a weight. And the second block had toe reaches, squats to lateral leg raises, and deadlifts. I didn’t go as heavy with the triceps and deadlifts as I know I can go, but they were still heavy weights. I just was getting tired by the end of the class and I had done so much more work than I thought I’d be able to do.

For this week, I’m hoping I continue to keep getting better. There’s a chance I will still be dealing with some symptoms for another week or two which is a bit annoying. But as long as I feel like I’m making some improvements in my workouts or feel like I’m getting close to my normal self I think it will make me feel ok. I’m seriously so ready to have a week that I feel great and I can push myself. I haven’t used the treadmill in a long time and it might be nice to try one treadmill day soon. But I also know that I am not slacking off while on the bike when I can do my normal work. I just have to keep listening to my body and making sure I do what I know is best for me.

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A Week Of Struggles (or Just Tolerating Things Sometimes)

Posted on March 11, 2019 | 1 comment

This past week of workouts was a real struggle for me. I already knew it might be a weird week because of my schedule, but things just were not going my way. I made it to my 4 workouts, but I’ll be honest and say that I really didn’t want to do them all. But I didn’t have a good enough excuse to miss the ones I wanted to miss so I went.

Because I was in Catalina, I missed my usual Monday workout. But a few hours after getting back on Tuesday I made it to an afternoon class to make up for it. I knew it would be a tough class for me for a few reasons. First, this was going to be my first workout since the previous Friday, which is a much longer gap than I usually have between workouts. I was also dealing with my normal hormonal nausea. But I also had the added weirdness of feeling the room swaying from being on the boat earlier. I was not expecting that feeling because I didn’t have it on the boat going to Catalina. For some reason I was more affected on the ride back even though it was a very smooth ride.

The workout was Go Row, which is one of the signature workouts. It did feel a bit funny that I was going to have a big rowing workout while the room felt like it was moving. It was a 2 group class, but the cardio part of class was split between rowing and the treadmill/bike. The first block was a 4 minute row, the second block was a 2 minute row, and the last block was a 1 minute row. I did ok with my row distances, but nothing was super amazing. And the treadmill/bike work was push to all out paces. Because of how I was feeling, I didn’t really do much on the bike. I kept it at my base pace resistance level for the entire time I was on the bike. I knew I had to take it easy and just make sure I was moving.

The floor work was a lot of abs and upper body. The first block was single arm snatches, Spiderman planks, and crunches. The second block was running men, triceps with weights, and alligators on the straps. And the last block was lateral raises with weights and back extensions. I was able to do the plank work normally and not using the bench which was a surprise to me. And I did try to go heavier on the weights to make up for going easier on the cardio work.

Even though I had a Tuesday afternoon workout, I still did my Wednesday morning workout. It’s not easy to have that small of a break between classes, but it’s a good challenge for me. And I was feeling much better and didn’t have the swaying room sensation so the class went much better for me than Tuesday’s did.

The cardio was one long block but it was timed out by us. We started with a 30 second all out pace and a 30 second recovery before completing a distance. After getting to the distance, we had another recovery and continued the pattern. I wasn’t keeping the best track of my distance but I was trying to do my best to do the workout as we were supposed to. But since I was probably only going over the distance before the recovery and not under, I figured that was ok.

The row block was also one long block. We started with 10 strokes for distance and then 15 seconds to recover. Then we rowed until we got to 200 meters. After the row, we had lunges with tricep work using the medicine ball. Every time we went back to the rower we did the same beginning but the row increased by 50 meters. And the lunges/tricep work increased by 2 reps each time. I wasn’t too worried about my row times and I just focused on form. None of my rows were that slow, so it’s good to know that when I’m not focusing on rushing I’m still doing good work.

And the floor was split into 3 short blocks. Every block started with power sit-ups. Then we moved on to the rounds of the different exercises. We had neutral full thrusters and lunges for the first block, strap roll outs and plank jacks for the second block, and squats and calf raises for the last block. Some of the exercises were making me feel a bit more nauseous, but it was manageable with just taking breaks and letting it pass.

Friday’s workout was an endurance day and it was a pretty great endurance day. I was ready to work hard and see what I could do again after having a few odd days earlier in the week. We had two blocks at each station, one long block and one short one, and they were back to back.

For cardio, the first block started with a 3 minute push pace with a base pace after. We then had a 2 minute push pace and a 1 minute push pace before ending with an all out pace. I was using my new resistance levels on the bike and it was hard to do it for the longer push paces. But it felt great to know I could do it and I was able to recover with a base pace after instead of needing a break. The second block was just a 3 minute push pace to an all out and I continued to use the new resistance levels. I was starting to have some nausea issues during that block, but I managed to finish the work before needing to take a break.

The first block on the rower started with a 90 second distance challenge. Then we had medicine ball squat twists before rowing for half the distance we got on the 90 second challenge. We repeated that pattern until that block was done and I made it through 2 rounds of 90 second challenges and 2 rounds of the half distance challenge. The second block was just one more 90 second distance challenge with the squats before rowing for distance until we were done on the rower.

The floor work required a few modifications for me, but I felt really good about what I did. The beginning of the first block was all work using the bench to step on and I can’t do those with my hip. We were supposed to do different types of step down work and I usually do lunges. But I didn’t want to just do 3 rounds of regular lunges. So I did regular lunges, single leg squats using the straps for support, and step back lunges to replace the bench work. We also had bicycle crunches and arm raises with the mini-bands in that first block. The second block was lunge twists using the mini-bands on our wrists and plank work using the mini-bands to step our hands in and out. I did use the bench for my hands for the planks to help with my nausea, but it was still as tough to do the planks that way as I feel like it is on the floor.

I thought everything was going better on Friday, until Friday night. I had been feeling off for a few days but I thought it was just my nausea affecting me a different way. Friday night, I figured out that I caught a cold. When I start feeling sick, it’s usually a few days after I caught it, so I knew that I couldn’t stop it. But I took as many measures as I could on Friday night to keep the cold from getting really bad.

I thought about skipping my workout on Saturday, but my rule is that if I don’t have a fever and my cold is from my neck up (no body aches or anything like that), I should go and try to do what I could. I know that some people might think that it was bad for me to go because I could have gotten someone sick, but the timing of my body showing symptoms is usually a day or so after I stop being contagious. Also, we use antibacterial wipes at Orangetheory and I was careful not to high five anyone or do anything else that might spread germs if there was any chance I was still contagious.

The workout was an endurance, strength, and power day; but for me it was all about just getting through the workout however I could. For the cardio, the first half was incline work and I did work on increasing my resistance on the bike even if that meant my speed and cadence went down. And the second block was just all out paces and recoveries and I used my old resistance levels for that.

On the rower, we had one long block. It started with an 800 meter row and then lunges with twists. The row went down to 400 meters and then more lunges. We were supposed to do 200 meters, lunges, 100 meters, lunges, and then row for distance. But the lunges were making things tough for me so after the second set of them I just stuck with rowing until we were done and moving on the floor.

On the floor, we had two blocks. The first block was push-ups, single arm rows with weights, and crunches with leg lifts. The second block was push-ups to plank jacks, single arm rows on the straps, and side to side crunches. For the exercises that had 2 parts, I had to split them up and do each part separately. I also was taking a lot of breaks just because I was feeling congested. But I made it through the workout and didn’t give up which was all I wanted to do.

I’m hoping that this week will be a bit better. I’m not completely over my cold just yet, but I’m hoping it won’t last through the entire week. I do know how to do workouts when I’m not feeling my best, but I really want to stop having that as an excuse. I feel like I’m in a rut and stuck in my progress because of all my recent struggles and challenges. I just want to have another week where I feel amazing to help me remember how hard I’ve worked so far.

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Getting My 4 In (or Not Missing A Workout If I Can Help It)

Posted on March 4, 2019 | Comments Off on Getting My 4 In (or Not Missing A Workout If I Can Help It)

This past week of workouts was an interesting one for me. First, it was the beginning of my nausea and I had to deal with that the entire week. I thought I might not have nausea until midway through the week, but I wasn’t lucky this time. Also, I had a weird workout schedule. I am pretty set in my routine with the days and times I work out, but when something happens that prevents me from maintaining that schedule, I have to be flexible. I could have just missed the class I knew I couldn’t go to, but my desire to get in 4 workouts a week is higher than my desire to keep my normal schedule.

Monday’s workout was a strength based class and I was dealing with a mix of being overly tired and a little bit of nausea during class. I was already prepared for this week to not be one of my super amazing weeks, so I knew that I had to be careful during cardio to not overdo things and get burned out before the end of the workout.

The treadmill work was a single block that was 14 minutes of work. We only had 2 hill/incline/high resistance levels sections and I was going to some of the highest resistance levels on the bike that I’ve used. For my regular base, push, and all out paces I was using my old resistance levels. I used those honesty because I forgot about the new ones so that was my fault and not me needing to go easy on myself. The nausea wasn’t too bad during the bike so I didn’t need to take a ton of breaks and that made me happy.

On the rower, we had sprint rows with exercises between each row. The rows were all between 100-400 meters and I was going pretty close to my normal speed on the rower. After the first row we were supposed to do medicine ball jacks, but since I can’t do bouncy stuff like that when I’m nauseous I did squats to overhead presses with the medicine ball. After the second row we added on squat front presses with the medicine ball. And after the third round we were supposed to add squat overhead presses with the medicine ball, but since I was already doing those I just did regular squats while holding the medicine ball.

On the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block was lateral lunges, pop squats, and regular lunges. I was able to do the pop squats while using the bench for my hands so my nausea wasn’t too bad. The second block was lunges to single arm presses with weights, sit-ups, and bear steps. The bear steps are done face down similar to a plank and I was worried about doing them with the nausea. I tried them and found that as long as I went slowly I wasn’t having the usual nausea issues. I also had to keep taking breaks during them to sit and let the nausea pass, but that’s still better than I’m used to.

Wednesday’s workout was also a strength workout. We had 2 blocks at each section of the room but they were back to back so we had about 15 minutes at each section.

For cardio the first block was a 2 minute push pace, 1 minute base pace, 2 minute hill, 90 second base base, and a 1 minute all out. I was at my old resistance level for most things but used my old all out level for the hill work. The second block cut most things in half so since it was shorter I used my new resistance levels on the bike. I hadn’t been using them much lately and I was glad I did it in this workout so I could remember that I could do it.

The rower was a similar idea to cardio with one block being longer and the second block cutting them in half. We started with a 2 minute row and then we had lunges to overhead tricep work using the medicine ball. Then we were supposed to do that distance from the 2 minute row again with more lunges and tricep work before rowing for distance. But the tricep work was making me feel nauseous for some random reason so I did the first row. the lunges and tricep work, and then rowed until time was called on the block. I did the same thing with the second block. I know I didn’t get all the work done that I should have done, but I figured rowing longer wasn’t the worst option for me.

The floor was mainly upper body work. We had sit-ups to shoulder presses (which I split into sit-ups and squats to shoulder presses), seated low rows using weights, ab dumbbell twists, chest presses, and lunge low rows. I wasn’t going too heavy on the weights which I regretted after the workout. I was trying to go easy on myself and I realized after it was done that I probably went too easy. It’s a tough balance to find with going easy to not be nauseous and pushing myself too much and not being able to do a lot of the workout. And the balance changes every time I work out and am nauseous.

Even though when I set my 2019 goals I allowed for a few 3 workout weeks, if I can find a way to have 4 workouts even if it’s not with my normal schedule I’ll try my best. And for last week and this week I knew I’d be missing one of my normal workout times. Last week, I knew I’d miss my Saturday workout. So I added in a Thursday workout to make up for it.

Working out on a Thursday meant I went after work in the afternoon. This is the time I used to go when I went to Brentwood for all my classes, but it was so weird for me to do it now. And because I take class at very popular times, I’m used to 3 group classes and didn’t even consider that I’d be going to a 2 group class. It was an endurance based class, but we switched every 5 minutes so that helped.

Every time we had cardio, we had a 4 minute progressive push pace and a 30 second all out pace. I started at my normal base pace resistance level each time and increased it by 1 every minute. That worked out perfectly for me because 1 level above the progressive push levels ended up being my new all out resistance level. It was nice to take the time to work up each block from my base to my all out and it helped to make it feel easier than I thought it would be.

Every time we were on the floor, we had the same thing. We had one long floor block and we picked things up where we left them off. We had static over under crunches, heel toe taps, toe touches, hop overs, squats with weights, side plank work, and burpees. I had to make some modifications for a few things due to my nausea but I was able to do most things the way they were supposed to be done. And the last floor block was a row block where we had the same pattern as cardio with a progressive 4 minute push to a 30 second all out. I knew that I couldn’t push myself on the rower the way I wanted to, so I had a goal just to row the entire time without stopping. I wasn’t able to do that and I had to take breaks for the nausea to pass about every 45 seconds. It wasn’t my best row, but it was at the end of workout so I was tired besides being nauseous.

Friday was my last workout last week. It was also my worst nausea day of the week and my third workout day in a row. There were enough factors working against me that I went into class just feeling like I had the goal of surviving and doing what I could and not really pushing myself. It was a strength based class and my usual 3 group class so I was at each section for about 15 minutes.

For cardio, we were on our own with timing things. We had plan with how far we were supposed to go with push, all out, and recovery paces and our push paces were supposed to increase inclines each time. I used my normal base pace resistance level as my recovery (I don’t really go lower than that if I can help it even when we have recovery time) and my new all out resistance level each round. For the push paces, I knew I’d be working my way up the resistance levels so I started it at my old push pace level. Then I went up 1 level each time I got back there. When the block was ending, I was using my all out level for my push at an incline. It wasn’t easy to keep going and I took a lot of breaks to let the nausea pass or the pain from the cramps to lessen. But the goal was to just keep going and that’s what I did.

On the rower we started with a 400 meter row. Then we had squats and squat front presses with a medicine ball and a 200 meter row. We repeated the squat work and back to a 400 meter row. That’s as far as I got for the first row block. The second row block was the same idea but everything was cut in half. So we had 200 and 100 meter rows and half the squats we had the first time. Just like on the bike, I had to take a lot of time to rest and let things get a bit better for me. I struggled a lot with the squats too because the motion of squatting down and standing up was affecting me. It sucks to feel this bad, but I knew it was just temporary and I’d be done with it soon.

And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had lunges with front raises or lateral raises using weights, bicycle chest presses, and double crunches. The lunges went fine for me and it was nice to have something feel normal to me. The bicycle chest presses and double crunches weren’t as easy, but I was able to use my normal weights for those so I felt awesome about that. And the second block was goblet squat lateral steps and plank shoulder taps. Those went as well as I expected they would and I just focused on getting through it and taking breaks when I needed them.

My last workout last week was on Friday and my next workout won’t be until tomorrow which is a pretty long break for me. And this week will also be a bit weird with the schedule since I am missing my Monday workout. I’m also aware that it will likely be another bad nausea week. But if I made it through last week, I know I can make it through this week!

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A Week Of Getting Back To Normal (or Still Dealing With The Same Old Issues)

Posted on February 25, 2019 | Comments Off on A Week Of Getting Back To Normal (or Still Dealing With The Same Old Issues)

This past week of workouts went well for me. While I was finally able to work out normally again after getting my stitches out, it didn’t mean that I was completely free of all workout related issues. I still had some random issues I had to deal with, but they are all ones that I’m used to. I would love to have a week where I have absolutely no workout related issues to deal with, but that may never become a reality for me.

Monday’s workout was my last workout with the stitches in, and I was so glad it was the last one. I was tired of having the random pain in my face and having to be careful about how heavy I was lifting because I didn’t want to put any tension on my face. This workout was a power switch day so we were moving around the room quickly and often.

When we were doing cardio, it was a mix of different little cardio blasts. Sometimes we had a push pace with a base pace before an all out and sometimes it was just push pace to all out. They were all about 2 or 2 1/2 minutes long so we were never on there too long. I was using my old resistance levels on the bike because of the issues I was having with the stitches, but I was pedaling much faster than before so that was a sign of improvement.

On the rower, we started with a 2 1/2 minute row for distance and then every time on the rower we based things off of that distance. To make things easy for me I just used 500 meters as the distance so it was easier to remember. Each time on the rower, we rowed 100 meters less than the last time and then we held a static squat until we switched. The rows weren’t all sprint rows, but they were all able to be done pretty quickly and I was always holding my squat for a good chunk of time.

And on the floor, we had the same thing every time we were there. We had a roll out on the straps, high row on the straps, hip hinge low rows with weights, plank jacks, and burpees to bicep curls. I really struggled with the burpees that day (even more than normal), so I wasn’t always doing them each time I was on the floor. I also had to split up the burpees and bicep curls into 2 different things instead of a continuous exercise. But I was getting through everything else much easier than I had before and I was happy that it wasn’t a ton of floor work that I knew would make me put tension in my face.

Wednesday’s workout was a benchmark day. We had the 12 minute run for distance. I haven’t done a lot of benchmark distance challenge on the bike so I was excited to see what I could do. I was finally feeling better with the stitches out and I knew that I could really push myself on the bike.

The idea was to just get as far as possible in those 12 minutes. I started at my push resistance level and realized that I wouldn’t be able to maintain that for a majority of the time and any time after that might be affected by me being tired from the higher resistance level. So after the first minute, I used the resistance level between my base and push and made my focus pedaling as quickly as I could. I know that the baseline for me on the bike is 1 trip every 2 1/2 minutes but I can sometimes go closer to 2 minutes when it’s a quick sprint. But this wasn’t a sprint so I knew not to go too hard in the beginning to try to get that faster time. I was hoping to do 5 trips since that would still be faster than my baseline and was so happy when I did 5.5.

When I was on the rower, I had to go a bit slow to recover but that’s what our coach expected us to do. We started with a 4 minute row for distance and had to remember the distance. I used 800 meters to make it easy to remember. Then we cut the distance in half and had mini-band front arm raises. Each time we were on the rower we went down 100 meters. Even though I was trying to be easy to recover from the distance challenge on the bike, I was still going harder and faster on the rower than I had the past week.

And on the floor, we had one long block. We had single arm hollow hold chest presses, half getups, double crunches with weights, plank pull throughs with weights, and alligators on the straps. I was finally able to use my more normal weights and I could feel it in my body that I had been going easy on myself for a week. It was a little surprising how much I felt the difference when the weights I was using were the ones I was using not that long ago, but I did. I thought about going down in the weights, but I realized that it was a struggle to do them and not that I was doing sloppy form because of the weights so I kept them the same. It really did feel good to be back to what feels more normal to me and I’m so glad that I was able to get some awesome stuff done in that workout.

Friday’s workout was a serious struggle for me. I was at Disneyland the day before (that post is coming this week) and I woke up Friday morning having a horrible hip day. I know that workouts will always be tough when I have those days, but this workout was a class filled with burpees. I was not in a good headspace walking into class because I was already anticipating how hard it was going to be, and it pretty much went how I expected.

It was also a tornado class which means we switch very quickly. We had 6 laps around the room (18 blocks) and the first lap was 3 minutes long and all the rest were 1 minute. If the class wasn’t a tornado, it probably would have been worse, so that probably made things a bit better than they could have been.

For cardio, the first block was a push pace, base pace, push pace, and all out. And the other 5 blocks were all 1 minute all outs. I used my old resistance levels on the bike but even those were a struggle for me. On the rower, the first block was rounds of 10 strokes for distance and 5 recovery strokes. And the other 5 blocks were 1 minute all out rows. The rowing was a bit easier than the bike, but because of the hip pain it was hard sitting down and getting up from the rower. Fortunately we had about a minute to switch every time so I didn’t have to rush too much.

And the floor was almost all burpees. The first block was burpees and squats since it was longer, but all the other blocks were just 1 minute of doing a type of burpee. We had full burpees, reverse burpees, burpees with shoulder taps, burpees with lunges, and push ups to plank jacks (which are just like a burpee except you don’t have to stand up). I used the bench for my hands for all the burpees but I still occasionally had to step back and not jump back. I went slow and took breaks because even 1 minute was too long for me at times, but I did it. It wasn’t my best work and I know it didn’t look pretty, but sometimes that’s all you can hope for out of a workout on a tough day.

Saturday felt like the most normal day of the week for me. I didn’t have issues with my stitches and I didn’t have a ton of hip pain. I did have a little bit of nausea to deal with, but it was very minor and I didn’t even have to take medication to manage it. It was a strength based workout so that meant hills/high resistance levels on the bike and I was ready to challenge myself a bit.

For cardio we had 2 blocks and the idea for both blocks was to have longer hill work each time. We had a range of incline/resistance levels we could use and I tried to go a bit higher than I have for the past week or so. The shorter the hill work was, the higher we were supposed to be with the incline/resistance level. For the 2 shorter ones, I was higher than my typical all out resistance level which was good. And I did the longest hill at my normal all out level which I usually can’t hold for more than a minute. I was surprised that I did so well because I had been going easy on myself for so long.

On the rower, we had all sprint rows. We started with a 300 meter row and then we had 10 frogger squats. Next was a 200 meter row with frogger squats and a 100 meter row with frogger squats. We repeated the 300, 200, and 100 meter rows again but with lunges between. We were supposed to do the row distances again with squats between the rows, but I was working on the last 300 meter row when the block ended.

And on the floor, we had drop sets which means we do a low number of reps with a higher weight for an exercise immediately followed by a higher number of reps with a lower weight. For the first block we had shoulder press drop sets and the second block we had deadlift drop sets. The first block also had sit-ups and hip bridges and the second block also had leg lifts and crunches.

Considering how easy I went on myself the week before, I was so happy that I was able to get back to my normal work and even sometimes do a bit better than normal. It’s always nice when I can prove to myself that taking an easy week doesn’t have to be a setback. And I think that having new issues has made the normal issues I deal with during my workouts a bit easier for me to tolerate. Of course, I say that now when my nausea isn’t that bad. This week and next week will likely be my bad nausea weeks and I’m hoping that they aren’t too horrible. But if they are, I know what I need to do.

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A Low Key Workout Week (or Working Through The Stitches)

Posted on February 18, 2019 | Comments Off on A Low Key Workout Week (or Working Through The Stitches)

I knew this past week of workouts was going to be a weird one. I knew that 3 of the workouts would be while I had the stitches and I had no idea how it would affect me. But I was prepared for it to be bad and I think that preparation did help. It wasn’t an easy week to work out and it was hard in ways that I wasn’t expecting it to be, but the preparation to make it an easier week helped me not feel too bad about what I could and couldn’t do.

Monday’s workout was a strength based class, and I will be honest that I wasn’t in it 100%. I was still dealing with the end of my nausea, but that was only a little part of my distraction. Even though I have said I was excited to have the surgery with my dermatologist, I was nervous the day of. I knew it would be fine, but I just wasn’t looking forward to needles and potential pain and I know that it made me not focus completely on my workout.

The workout was a switch format so I was at each section of the room for 6 minutes before switching (we did 2 full rounds around the room). For cardio, we started with a 90 second push pace and then we had rounds of 30 second push or all out paces but with added incline/resistance levels. I was able to use my new push and all out resistance levels and even went above that for the hill work. It wasn’t my highest resistance levels I’ve used, but it was up there. Even though my focus wasn’t totally in the workout, I usually do zone out a bit on the bike since I don’t have to focus on it as much as the treadmill. So I wasn’t affected too much for cardio, even though I still know I could have done better.

For the rower, the first block we started with a 250 meter row and then we had lunges with tricep extensions using a medicine ball. Each time we returned to the rower we went down 50 meters but the lunges stayed the same. And for the second block on the rower, we had the same format but the exercise between the rows was a squat twist with the medicine ball. I feel like I struggled the most with my lack of focus on the rower. I wasn’t able to get my wattage up to where it usually is when I’m having an off day and things were just taking me so long to do.

On the floor, the first block was lower body focused with mini-band work. We had forward walks, lateral walks, and toe reaches all with the mini-band on our legs. My hips were starting to get a bit sore with the lateral walks, but I also know that my feet weren’t totally straight (my natural stance is with my feet pointed out) and I think that might have made my hip hurt more than it should have. And the second block was all upper body focuses with shoulder presses, bicep curls, shoulder raises, and upper cuts. I went with medium heavy weights for the weighted work, but they felt like they were heavier than I’ve ever used before. I don’t know what was causing it to be so hard, but I really think the focus issue was the main culprit.

The rest of my workouts this past week were affected by having the skin surgery Monday afternoon. I figured I would be sore after and that would make me need to go a bit easier with the workouts. But there were a few other factors that ended up affecting me too. First, because of where the incisions and stitches are, I can’t really move my face too much. I figured this wouldn’t be an issue in a workout but then I realized when I lift heavy weights I have tension in my face. So I had to go light with the weights. Also, because of the pain in my jaw, I wasn’t eating regular food for the first few days. I was doing all liquids and I know my calorie count was way too low. I didn’t have the same energy I normally do and I had to take breaks when I was feeling lightheaded. I really tried my best, but I also know that everything I did the rest of the week was affected by this.

Wednesday’s workout was endurance, strength, and power and it was the first workout after getting the stitches. I was so paranoid that I was going to do damage to my face somehow and I really was cautious. For the cardio, I did my old resistance levels on the bike but didn’t do any additional resistance levels when we had hill work. I just kept using my old push pace level and not worrying about anything else.

On the rower, the first block we had started with a 150 meter row and squats with front presses with a medicine ball. We repeated that until the block was done and I didn’t do too horribly with it. The second block was 30 second all out rows with the same squats with recovery between. Again, I wasn’t doing too horribly with the rowing and that was probably the part of the workout I was able to work the hardest during.

On the floor, we had one long block. We had lunges with weights, lunges without weights, tricep extensions, plank jacks, and squats. It was during the triceps that I discovered that I had to go easy on the weights to not hurt my face (that is the weirdest thing, but it’s exactly what the situation was). I still feel like I was using decent weights, but I wasn’t working as hard as I am used to.

Friday’s workout was a strength class, and while I was in less pain and more used to having to be easy with the weights this was the workout where the lack of food hit me the hardest. I never thought I would pass out or anything, but it was very strange realizing that my stomach was so empty during class.

The cardio had 2 blocks with hill work. The first block had a 30 second hill, 60 second hill, and 90 second hill and the second block had a 90 second hill and 2 minute hill. I went very easy on the resistance levels for the hills and ended up staying between my base and all out resistance levels. It felt hard because of me being tired, but I probably could have done a bit more if I really tried.

The rower started with a 1000 meter row. This terrified me, but somehow I managed to do it without needing a break in the middle. After that we were supposed to do 100 jumping jacks. I made it through 50 and knew I couldn’t do more. Then we had a 500 meter row and more jumping jacks and some squats. I just did the squats and when I finished those the time was called so I didn’t make it through any other rounds.

The floor was 2 block and it was upper body based. The first block was a chest press, single arm low row with weights, and heel touches. And the second block was hollow hold single arm chest press, double crunches, and plank work. I was prepared to use easier weights this time which helped and I got through 2 rounds of all the exercises each block.

Saturday’s workout was the closest to normal I felt the entire week. I was still dealing with being a bit tired due to not eating enough and I knew I would have to be easy with the weights so I didn’t put stress in my face, but it was still so much closer to normal. It was an endurance workout, but because of how some things were done it felt closer to a power day for me.

For cardio, we had multiple rounds of 2.5 minute distance challenges. The first time, we were supposed to be in a push pace the entire time. Then as we did each round, we had a base pace to start the distance challenge. That would require us to go harder during the push to be able to match the distance each time. I was using my normal base resistance and my old push resistance on the bike to take it easy and I didn’t do any all out resistance levels. I was pedaling hard and was able to match my distance each time, but I wasn’t working as hard as normal.

On the rower, we stared with a 2.5 minute row for distance. After that, we had lunges with tricep work using the medicine ball. Then we went back to the rower and were supposed to go 100 meters less than what we did in 2.5 minutes and keep repeating the pattern. Even though I went further than 500 meters in the 2.5 minute challenge, I decided to use that as the distance to measure from so the math was a bit easier for me. I did much better on the rower than I had done before and didn’t need the breaks I thought I would need. I still wasn’t rowing as hard as I could because I could feel the stitches pulling a bit from me tensing my face, but I just tried to find what was the line between going hard and going too hard.

And on the floor, we had 3 blocks. The first block was a core blast with mountain climbers, toe reaches, leg lifts, and sit-ups. This block went well because I got to rest a bit from the rowing and it wasn’t hard for me with any of the issues I had been dealing with. The next block was a mini-band block with squats to leg lifts and forward walks using the bands. And the last block was a weight block with skier swings and lunges. I had to go easy on the weights to not have any strain on my face, but I was not that much lower than I normally use.

Considering how worried I was about how this past week would go, I was pretty proud of myself. I did encounter issues I wasn’t expecting, but I quickly figured out what I needed to do and I worked around what I couldn’t work through. The next few weeks are going to be a bit weird for me. This week I will have the stitches in for one workout and I don’t know yet if I will have any issues or restrictions to deal with when the stitches are out but the incision is still healing. And then the 2 weeks after this I will not be doing my normal workout schedule due to some things I have planned. I do think I found a way to still get in my 4 workouts each week, but there is a chance it might only be 3. I just have to play it by ear and see how things go.

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A Week Of 3G Workouts (or Pushing Myself When I Feel Stuck)

Posted on February 11, 2019 | Comments Off on A Week Of 3G Workouts (or Pushing Myself When I Feel Stuck)

This past week of workouts was during the worst of my nausea, but fortunately this time it wasn’t quite as bad as it has been the past year or so. I still had some really bad days, but they weren’t during my workouts. I still wasn’t feeling great, but it was nice to have a slightly less worse week than I was expecting because it allowed me to do some good work.

Monday’s workout was an endurance day and I thought the class would be 2 groups since that’s what my Monday class normally is. But it ended up being a 3 group class so I was at each section of the room for about 15 minutes. That worked for me because I was dealing with a bad nausea day so I appreciated changing things up often because that seemed to be tricking my nausea a little bit.

On the cardio side, we had all 30 second push paces with base paces after them. The base paces started at 30 seconds and increased each time. The goal on endurance days is to be able to maintain base pace after a push, and that’s exactly what this workout was designed to do. I used my normal resistance levels on the bike and I know that I need to step it up a bit because it was a bit too easy for me to get back to my base pace even with how off I was feeling.

On the rower, we had decreasing rows with different types of squats between each row. We started with a 250 meter row and then we had squat calf raises, regular squats, and pulsing half squats. We also were supposed to do jumping jacks, but I can’t do those when I’m nauseous so I just skipped that part of the workout. All the rows were essentially sprint rows, but they weren’t very fast for me. But I was still able to do the rows under the time we are supposed to be under which is a victory for me when I’m feeling off.

The floor work was a good mix of lower body work with mini-band work. The first block was all mini-band work with weighted front squats, bicep curls, and squat walks. I still struggle a bit with the mini-bands because they roll up my legs and get very tight, but I’m getting better and keeping them smooth or fixing them when they twist up. And the second block had regular lunges, lateral lunges, and upper cuts. None of those moves had the mini-bands so they went a bit easier for me.

Wednesday’s workout was a benchmark workout day. We had the 200 meter row benchmark and my goal wasn’t to beat my previous PR but to get close to it. We had a 3 group class and we were switching about every 4 minutes around the room.

For cardio, we had the same block every time we were there. We had a 45 second push pace, 30 second base pace, 45 second all out, walking recovery, and another 45 second all out. Because we went to the rower right after cardio, we were told to not overdo things so we would be ready for the row. The focus was on rowing so we had an easier cardio block. I was using my normal resistance levels even though I think I need to increase them because of that, and my cardio went well even with feeling off.

The row blocks were all similar with starting with a 200 meter row. Then we had squat work with a medicine ball and then back to the rower. The first block, I thought that would be my block to do my best 200 meter row. I wanted to be between 40 and 41 seconds, and I was able to do exactly that! I was exhausted after it, but it felt great to hit my goal. The second time I was on the rower I didn’t do quite and well and expected to do the same for the third block. But someone my third block ended up being my best 200 meter row at 40.2 seconds! The squat work we had after each 200 meter row were squat to press, squat to front press, and static squat front raises. I really didn’t get much rowing done after the squat work because I took a bit of time to recover after the first row, but I usually got at least 50 meters in before the block ended.

And on the floor, we had 2 exercises each block. The first block was low rows on the straps and neutral thrusters with weights. The second block was single arm squats to shoulder presses and pullovers using weights. And the last block was plank low rows with weights and crunches. The only one I really had issues with were the plank low rows, but I used the bench so I wasn’t totally face down to the ground and took my time getting into and out of my plank.

Friday’s workout was endurance based and for the cardio portion we had 3 different runs (or bikes) for distance. The first 2 were 3.5 minutes and the last one was 4 minutes. The goal was to do at least a push pace the entire time and I was able to do that for the first 2. But by the last one my nausea was affecting me much more so I set the resistance level to be between my base and push levels. But even though I had to go down a bit in my resistance, I was able to pedal the entire time without needing a break.

On the rower, we started with a 90 second row and we had to remember what distance we did. Then we had sumo squats and frogger squats before we went back onto the rower. We were supposed to do 50 meters less than what we rowed in 90 seconds and then do more squats. Every time we were on the rowers we were supposed to go down 50 meters. I didn’t want to worry too much about the distances or doing the math, so I made things easy on myself. I know that we are supposed to do at least 100 meters every 30 seconds. So in 90 seconds, that would be 300 meters. I know I went further than that in that 90 second row for distance, but using even numbers just made things easier for me and I didn’t have to waste time thinking about what I had to do next.

The floor work was split into 2 blocks. The first block had lateral raises, front raises, and upright rows using weights. After the first round we had crunches on the Bosu. Then we did the weight work again and had back extensions on the Bosu. And the last round was the weight work again and both crunches and back extensions. The second block was plank leg lifts and knee tucks which were supposed to be done on the Bosu, but I did the leg lifts with my hands on the floor.

Saturday’s workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power and it was the opportunity I was looking for to work on increasing my resistance levels on the bike. We had 3 mini blocks for cardio that all had a 90 second push pace, a base pace, a 30 second push pace, and a 30 second all out. The difference we had was in that base pace and it got shorter every time. The first time I did my bike work at my normal resistance level and remembered what I was thinking on Wednesday about increasing the levels. So for the next 2 times, I increased the push and the all out levels by 1 resistance level (I kept the base the same). It wasn’t easy when I tried it because it was hard plus I was dealing with my nausea. But the fact that I was able to do it proved that it was exactly what I needed!

On the rower, we started with a 100 meter row and medicine ball squats. Each round went up 50 meters with the row and down 5 reps on the squats. Then we switched and started with a 250 meter row and medicine ball squat presses. Each round went down 50 meters with the row and we increased the squat reps. I don’t know if my nausea just decided on that time to kick in or it was a result of the harder resistance levels, but I was hurting during the row. I know I was going very slow for myself and I tried to not think about it.

And on the floor, we had one long block that was an add-on block. We started with dumbbell ground to presses and then each round we kept adding on more exercises. We added tricep work on the straps, push up to knee tucks using the ab dolly, rollouts using the ab dolly, and hip bridges. After getting to all the exercises, we started to take them away, but I only started my first round taking things away when the class ended.

My expectations for this week of workouts isn’t too high. I have my little surgery with my dermatologist this afternoon and I have no idea if it will affect my workouts. I have already cleared with my doctor that I will be able to work out as long as it’s not the next day, which fits in perfectly with my workout schedule. But if I’m feeling sore or off, I know that I can’t push myself too much because I will have stitches in my face. But if anyone is used to working out with random modifications, it’s me. And I’m curious to see how it all goes.

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Finding My Strength (or Continuing To Find New Ways To Push Myself)

Posted on February 4, 2019 | 1 comment

After having a tough week of workouts with weird injuries, I was so grateful to be back to normal (or at least my normal) this past week. I still had struggles with the usual things in my workout, but I had some amazing moments as well. I was able to find some ways to focus on what I could do on the floor instead of what I did on the bike and I feel like that really made me feel amazing.

Monday’s workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power and while it felt like a typical workout is was also a tough one. I was feeling a little off for a few different reasons when I got to class, but when I saw the workout I was pretty excited about it. There have been so many unique workouts lately but it’s always nice to have a classic class.

For cardio, the first block was 3 rounds of a 90 second push pace and a 45 second base pace ending with a 30 second all out. The second block switched things so it was 45 second push paces and 90 second base paces ending with an all out. I struggled a bit with my normal resistance levels on the bike, but I did use them. And the last block was with inclines so we had 4 different all out paces with different hill/resistance levels. I was getting a bit higher than my typical all out level, but it wasn’t quite as high as some of the other hill work I have done in the past.

On the floor, we had Bosu work and rowing. The first block was tricep extensions with weights while kneeling on the Bosu and push-ups with one hand on the Bosu and one hand on the ground. And after 3 rounds of those we had a 100 meter row. The second block was chest fly with weights while laying on the Bosu and low rows using the straps for 2 rounds and then a 200 meter row. And the last block was pullovers with weights and back extensions which were both done while laying on the Bosu and then a 400 meter row after 1 round. I had a little bit of a struggle with the back extensions while laying on my stomach so I had to take those slow. But I also know that going slow also can mean that I’m working harder and have better form so I think it worked to my advantage.

Wednesday’s workout was the Orange X workout, where we try to go as heavy as possible with weights. It was a 3 group class so I had a block on the bike and rower before I got to do the Orange X challenge. We were advised to go a bit easy to save our strength for the floor work, but I was already going easy on myself because I was nauseous.

The first block on the bike was rounds of push paces to base paces with the time going down each time. The second block on the bike was the same except every segment was half of the time we had in the first block. The first block on the rower was rounds of 400 meter rows with chest presses and shoulder presses with a medicine ball between each round. And the second block on the rower was rounds of 200 meter rows and we were supposed to do lunges between each round. But I was not feeling so great so I just stayed on the rower for that entire block.

The Orange X challenge is all about doing single arm low rows, goblet squats, and chest presses with the heaviest weight you can use. I’ve always surprised myself with the weights I could use during these challenges and I was determined to try to improve again. The only one that I knew it couldn’t really improve on just yet is the chest press because I already struggle a lot with the heavy weight I use for that and I don’t want to hurt myself. I actually probably should have gone down to a lower weight because it was harder than I was ok with. I don’t like having the weights above my body when I am scared that I might drop them.

But I knew that I could improve with the low rows and goblet squats. In the past, I’ve used 35lbs for that (I may have used 40lb weight once but I don’t believe so). This time, I decided to go big and go for 45lbs. It was much heavier than I’m used to and I couldn’t do 10 reps in a row without a break, but I did get them done. And with the goblet squats I know we are always pushed to do so much more than we already do. I’ve used 45lbs before and it seemed amazing but I know I can do more. I did one round with 60lbs but when I was on the floor for the second block all the 60lb weights were gone so I went up one higher and managed to do the squats with 65lbs! The most difficult part is holding the weight in my hands and not the squat, but I still felt it in my legs and butt. It was hard and I was exhausted when I was done, but I did it!

After the heavy weightlifting on Wednesday, I was just on such a workout high. I knew I could push myself more on the floor and I needed to find moments to do that. I didn’t have as many opportunities to do that as I would have liked, but it also gave me an extra boost of motivation to work on tracking my floor work more because I need to find a way to know if I’m making progress or stuck using the same weights for months.

Friday’s workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power and we spend 15 minutes on each section of the room without switching. For the cardio portion, we started with endurance work with a 6 minute distance challenge. I don’t reset the bike too often because it’s not as quick as resetting the treadmill, so I didn’t focus too much on the distance. Instead, I worked on increasing how fast I pedaled while keeping the bike resistance at my push pace level. The second block was power based and we had 2 rounds of 45 second all out paces. And the last block was a 3 minute distance challenge with extra resistance. The goal was to do half the distance we did in the 6 minute challenge, but I focused more on not slowing down the bike.

The rower focus followed the same pattern as the cardio. For the endurance part, we started with a 400 meter row and we went down 100 meters each round. And between each row, we had 12 frogger squats. The power row was the same as the treadmill with 2 rounds of 45 second all out paces. And the last block was do to half the row distance and half the frogger squats each round (starting with a 200 meter row and going down 50 meters each time with 6 squats).

The floor was one long block. We had deadlifts, dumbbell swings, weighted lunges, regular lunges, and sit-ups. I usually use 25lb weights for my deadlifts and 20lb or 25lb for my swings. But I couldn’t get a 25lb weight since other people were using them. I didn’t want to go to a lower weight since I just proved to myself I could do better, so I went with a set of 30lb weights. The deadlifts and swings weren’t easy with the heavier weight and my hands need to get use to holding them, but I did it. I used lighter weights for my weighted lunges since I have balance issues doing those, but that didn’t feel like a letdown after doing the heavier ones. I was just so happy to prove to myself again that I can do more than I had been trying.

Saturday’s workout was a power day, and it was a very intense power day! We had 3 groups, but the treadmills (or me on the bike) and the rowers worked together in a run/row type format. The plan was the same for 3 rounds each time, it just changed which part of it you started with.

They were all 4 minute blocks. The first 2 minutes had the cardio side doing a 30 second push pace, 30 second base pace, and 1 minute all out. The first 2 minutes on the rowers was a 200 meter row, 20 squats, and the rowing for distance if there was time. Then the cardio side went to the rowers and the rowers went to the cardio side and both had a 1 minute all out. I did that 4 minute block 6 different times (3 when I started on the bike and 3 when I started on the rower), and it was hard! Because of how the class rotated, I did all 6 blocks back to back instead of having 3 and then the floor block before the next 3. But I was glad to get it all done and I tried to catch my breath as much as possible when switching from the bike to the rower or the other way around.

On the floor, we had 1 long block. We had single arm snatches, low rows on the straps, squats, sit-up rotations with weights, and running men. I used my normal weights for the weighted work because I was so tired from all the cardio work. I knew my form was probably going to be sloppy and I didn’t want to risk hurting myself with trying a new and heavier weight. I stuck with focusing on my form and taking the breaks where I needed them. And I really did need them a lot on the floor!

One of my workout goals this year was to track my floor work better. We are already through 1/12 of the year and I’ll be honest that I haven’t been good at trying to figure this out. I’m still struggling with how to do it, but I’m just trying to write it down somewhere for now. I don’t want this year to fly by and I realize I am using the same weights that I’ve been using all year. I have shown myself that I need to work harder because I can do it. And I can only work harder if I know what I have done before.

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Default ThumbnailStill Testing Things Out (or Finding Another Advantage With The Bike) Default ThumbnailA Week Of Getting Back To My Normal (or It Doesn’t Take Long To Lose Strength) Default ThumbnailFinally Gaining Endurance (or Finding Little Victories) Default ThumbnailBirthday Workout Week (or Continuing My Progress) Default ThumbnailContinuing My Progress (or Still Pushing Through) Default ThumbnailShort Workout Week (or Finding Ways To Fit It All In)

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A Week With Weird Injuries (or I’m Making Excuses)

Posted on January 28, 2019 | 1 comment

I said last week in my post about my workouts how I didn’t want to keep making excuses for why I was using the bike over the treadmill. And of course, this week I feel like I do need to explain myself a bit. But at least it’s not because of my normal reasons. This past week, my workouts were a struggle because of weird issues with my body. Over the weekend leading up to this past week, I hurt my neck. I think I slept on it funny, but it was causing me a lot of pain through the week. I know it’s nothing too bad, but it still affected me. And once that was starting to feel better toward the end of the week, I did something to my hips and quad muscles. It might have been another weird sleep thing, but I knew I had to go easy on my body. I guess I should be grateful that I am used to working with limitations because I was still able to get some good work done this past week.

Monday’s workout was a very interesting class. When you were on the treadmills you had cardio/floor work and the other half of class was doing rowing and cardio work. The pacing of things were determined by the person who started each block on the cardio side. We had 3 blocks on each side, but since we switch stations during the block it really felt more like 6 blocks on each side.

When you started on cardio, every time you started with a distance run (I was on the bike). There was a time limit 3 minutes for getting to the distance, but most of us were done in 2 minutes or under. After completing the distance, you headed to the floor. The first block had single arm neutral full thrusters and burpees. The second block had skater lunges and push ups. And the last block had hip hinge reverse flys and lunges. Everything in that block seemed to go by so quickly, but we made up for cardio time when we were doing the other half of the workout.

When you started on the rower, you rowed until the person on your treadmill was done with their distance. Then you switched to the treadmill (or bike) to be at base pace until the last 3 minutes of the block. Those last 3 minutes were a push pace, base pace, and all out pace. We repeated that for all 3 blocks we started on the rower. This workout was much more cardio and strength work, but it was a nice challenge to have and it felt very different from what I’m used to which made it fun.

Wednesday’s workout was an endurance day and we stayed in each section of the room for 15 minutes before switching so we had 1 lap around the room. For cardio, we had push paces to base paces for a few rounds. The push pace and base pace matched each time and we started with 2 minutes each and went down to 60 seconds each ending with a 30 second all out pace. I stuck with my normal resistance levels for the bike but tried to work with the speed a little. It wasn’t anything amazing, but I was able to just keep going which is sometimes all I can ask for in a workout.

On the rower, we started with a 250 meter row and then had arm raises using the mini-bands. Each time we were back on the rower we decreased the row but kept the arm raises the same. I decided to try using the medium mini-band for the arm raises to see if I could do it. Normally I would use the lightest one, but I was able to use the medium one without too much trouble. I could really feel the difference in how hard I was working, but it wasn’t so hard that I struggled with completing them. We don’t use the mini-bands that often, but I think I need to start using harder mini-bands with my arms.

For the floor, we had a really challenging workout. Normally, we do all the exercises in a block one after another so we don’t feel too exhausted or burned out. The idea of this workout was to get burned out. For all exercises we had 12, 10, 8, 6, and 4 reps; but we had to do all those rounds of each exercise before moving on to the next exercise. We had one leg squats using the bench, lunges, sumo squats, lunges with weights, and single arm shoulder presses. I sometimes would just try to do as many as I could in a set before a break and just made sure that they all added up to 40 reps (the total we had to do), but I also tried to split them up properly when I could. It wasn’t easy, but it was such a relief when we got to move on to the next exercise.

Friday’s workout was a power day, and even though we only had 1 lap around the room we had 4 little blocks on cardio and the rower which helped the time go by quicker. The blocks were the same length on both sides. We started at 2 minutes and then had 2 1/2, 3, and 3 1/2 minute blocks to follow.

For cardio, we started with a 1 minute push, 30 second base, and 30 second all out. Then we had a push before the all out. Then the base pace got longer for the last two blocks. My legs and hips were feeling the worst this day so it was a struggle to use the bike. I used my normal resistance levels but I was pedaling very slowly. Even my base pace resistance level felt like a hill to me and it was hard not to feel frustrated. I know that I didn’t pick to feel this way and doing something is better than nothing and I tried to focus on that as much as I could.

On the rower, every block started with a 200 meter row and then we had exercises with weights to finish out the block. First we had front raises and then each block we added on something else. We added hip hinge low rows, sumo squats to front raises, and shoulder presses. I might have gone a bit too heavy with the weights for this work but I really felt like I had to make up for what I didn’t get to do on the bike. And on the floor, we had one long block that had all medicine ball work. We started with woodchoppers and then had 3 rounds of lunges to tricep extensions and sit-ups to shoulder presses. Then we had more woodchoppers and rounds of side lunges to front presses and sit-ups to torso rotations. While my legs didn’t hurt too bad with this block, it wasn’t easy on my neck. I know that I have to go easy when my neck is feeling weird because it would be very bad to hurt my neck more. I took breaks when I needed them and tried to be very aware of my posture and how I was holding my body.

Saturday’s workout was a 3 partner workout and it was a special workout for Australia Day (although I don’t know how the workout connected to that). Also, while my neck was still a little sore my hips were feeling better so I was excited to work with partners and not scared I’d be holding them back.

We started with 3 minute blocks on each section of the room before we partnered up. We had a 3 minute run (or bike) for distance, 3 minute row for distance, and 3 minutes doing floor work ending with burpees until time was called. We had to remember our distances and how many burpees we did and then we got into groups of 3.

For a majority of the workout, we were doing the partner workout. Each of us was trying to match what we did in those 3 minute blocks and whoever finished first started the switch. So it could be the person on the floor, rower, or bike who finished first. I was lucky with my partners that we were all using the bike so that made things a bit easier. And I think we were equally matched so we all had our turn finishing first. The other exercises on the floor were lunges, bicycle crunches, plank punches, and full burpees. Since I use the bench for plank work, I did lose a little time getting that set up and put back each round (I didn’t want to keep it out as my partners needed that space to work). But on average we were switching every 3 minutes and it was a good amount of time to work hard before feeling exhausted.

My group did 3 rounds around the room (9 total switches) when the partner part of the workout was done. Then we had 3 blocks similar to how we started the workout, except this time we had 90 second blocks. The goal was to get half of what we were able to do when we had the 3 minute rounds at the beginning of the workout. I didn’t quite make it there on the bike, but I did make it there on the rower.

I’ll be honest, this recap was a bit of a struggle because I tried to do it without making excuses with my neck and hip issues. But I realized that those excuses were not to explain away why I was using the bike but why I might have had a tough time in the workouts. I still pushed through and was very proud of myself and I think that is what is most important to me.

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Default ThumbnailAn Up And Down Week (or Working Through The Same Frustrations) Default ThumbnailA Week Of Nauseous Workouts (or Just Doing My Best) Default ThumbnailA Week Back On The Bike (or Focusing On The Good) Default ThumbnailA Week Of Struggles (or Just Tolerating Things Sometimes) Default ThumbnailAnother Week Of Sick Workouts (or At Least I Did Something) Default ThumbnailTaking Things A Bit Easier (or No More Injuries)

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Having Some Realizations About My Workouts (or Still Adjusting My Thinking)

Posted on January 21, 2019 | Comments Off on Having Some Realizations About My Workouts (or Still Adjusting My Thinking)

Before I get into my workout recap, I want to mention something that I realized this week. Here’s a little behind the scenes with my workout recap posts: I work on writing these throughout the week. After each workout I write the section for that day’s class because I never would be able to remember it otherwise. And because I do that, things might seem a bit disjointed or I repeat things. And when I was working on the recap of last week’s workouts, I realized that I often will give my reason or excuse for why I’m using the bike and not the treadmill. There’s no reason I need to do that, but I feel like I have to explain myself. I might still do that from time to time, but I’m going to be making an effort to not do that as much as I have.

Having that realization was kind of a game changer for me. It happened midway through the week and it really made me think about the reasons I’ve been giving myself for using the bike. This is something I’ve been struggling with for a while and I’ve said before how I’ve been working on my mindset. But even when I was working on my mindset, I didn’t realize that I was putting negative thoughts into it by putting reasons and justifications when I was writing these posts each week.

Now, on to the workout recap.

Monday’s workout was a strength based class. I’ve been working more and more with the resistance levels on the bike so it was exciting to see what I would be able to do this time. We didn’t have that high of inclines/resistance levels to work with this time, so I didn’t do anything too crazy. But I am noticing that the resistance levels that seemed like my legs were pedaling through jello before now seem much easier. It’s really motivating to feel the progress in the resistance levels that I’ve been making because I still struggle to notice the progress a lot with the bike.

On the floor, we had 5 blocks and 4 of them were add on blocks. Everything was timed for us and those 4 blocks started with lateral lunges with shoulder work. The combination of the lunge and shoulder work was a bit tough for me so I split them into 2 different moves instead of one smooth move. Each block we added on another exercise like static over under, sit-ups, and static crunch heel taps. The last block started with a plank and then had all the ab exercises (but not the lunges). With the ab work, I had to modify almost everything. With the weather we’ve been having in LA, my hip has been hurting and I had to make things a little easier on my hip. But I’m working on figuring out how to make things easier on my hip but not easier in general.

Wednesday’s workout was a 3 group class (I think now my Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday workouts will all be 3 group classes) and it was a mix of endurance, strength, power but it did feel much more endurance and power based. For cardio we had 2 different 6 minute distance runs (or bikes). The first one was paced by the coach with different push and base paces and the second one was on our own. For the second one, I used the resistance level between my base and push and I was able to go further on the second attempt than I had on the first.

On the rower, we started with a 5 minute row for distance. I was able to get just over 1000 meters in 5 minutes and then we had squats to shoulder presses with the medicine ball. Then we were supposed to row half the distance we did before and then more squats to shoulder presses. Finally we cut the row in half again with more squats, but I was still working on my row when the block ended. And on the floor triceps with a dumbbell, chest presses on the straps, sumo squats, and single arm chest presses. I did go a bit heavier on my weights than I normally do because the weights I usually use were being used by other people. That is a good motivation to move to heavier weights, but I also was lucky that all the rep counts were really low.

Friday’s workout was another strength based day, but we only had limited hill work. We had 2 blocks for each section of the room and we switched between blocks (there were 6 blocks total). For the cardio blocks, we had similar patterns. We had a push pace, base pace, base pace at incline/higher resistance level, flat base pace, and an all out pace at an incline/higher resistance level. For the first block I did 2 levels higher than my normal all out level for the incline work and the second block I did 3 levels higher. Those levels made my legs work so hard, but it was a really good hard feeling!

For the row blocks, we started with a 400 meter row and then had squats with overhead presses and calf raises using the medicine ball. Every round we went down 50 meters on the rower and did the exercises between each row. They were all pretty short rows which was nice after having cardio blocks but I wasn’t as fast as I would have liked to have been. And on the floor for the first block we had deadlifts, shoulder presses, and leg raises. For the deadlifts and shoulder presses we had drop sets. That means we had a low rep count with a higher weight immediately followed by a higher rep count with a lower weight (we had 4 reps and then 12 reps). I went really heavy for the low rep count and it was a nice relief to have the lower weights after. And the second block was a block where I had to modify everything. What I did was lunges with weights, bench tap squats, and crunches.

Saturday’s workout was probably my favorite workout of the week. My hip pain from the rain was finally done and the class was a really great workout with lots of switching. It was an endurance day, but everything went by quickly so it didn’t really feel like endurance work.

We had a 3 group class and the rower and cardio sections did kind of a run/row format. I started on the bike and I started with a 4 minute bike for distance. Then I was on the rower for a 2 minute row with squat twists with the medicine ball. Then it was back to the bike for another 4 minute distance challenge. When I was on the rower side, I did the 2 minute row with squats for the first and third parts and another 4 minute distance challenge on the bike in the middle. Since the cardio side uses the rower second, those blocks were back to back for me so I got all the cardio work done together.

On the floor, we had 2 blocks. The longer block had weight work with bicep curls, upright rows, and hip hinge low rows. After those we had ab work that added each round that we did. I only made it through the first 2 rounds so I had static crunch scissor kicks and sit-ups. The second block was shorter and it was all work using the straps. We had Y-raises, high rows, and low rows. My arms and shoulders were killing me by the end of the workout!

I’ve been using the bike exclusively for a while and I’m still torn on how to work the treadmill into my workouts again. In another week or so I’ll be back to being nauseous so it’s a weird thing to try to figure out. But maybe this time is exactly what I needed to do so I could keep having these realizations to be happier with using the bike.

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A Week Of Bike Work (or Working Through Nausea and Pain)

Posted on January 14, 2019 | Comments Off on A Week Of Bike Work (or Working Through Nausea and Pain)

I knew going into this past week of workouts that it wasn’t going to be a great week. I’m trying to be less pessimistic about the issues I have, but it’s not easy all the time to find a positive side to them. But I do try to remind myself that I at least knew this was coming so I could be prepared. I don’t necessarily know which will be ok days and which will be really bad days, but I’m always prepared. And fortunately this past week did have some bright spots for me even with all the issues I had to deal with.

Monday’s workout was an endurance day and we had the 1 mile benchmark run. I knew that there was no way that I could use the treadmill, so I was going to do my first benchmark bike attempt and I was excited to see what would happen. Because I track my distance on the bike each workout, I have an idea about how long a distance would take me, but I had no idea what my PR would be since I never did that benchmark on the bike before.

When you use the bike, it’s 4 times as long as the treadmill. So the treadmill had a 1 mile run and I had a bike ride of 4 trips (there is a debate if 1 trip is really 1 mile or not). On average, that would take me about 10 minutes to do, but I was hoping to do it in under 9:30. I knew that I had my nausea working against me, but I really wanted to try to push through the nausea and keep going instead of taking a break to let it pass. In the end, I did my benchmark in 8:58 which was significantly faster than I thought I could do! And I did manage to not take any breaks during that time, but I paid for doing that in the rest of my workout. I was dealing with so much nausea and each time I had a wave of nausea I had a very intense cramp. It wasn’t fun. The rest of cardio was a run/row, but I didn’t get that far into it. My benchmark took longer than most people and I was slow on the rower. But I got through 3 rows and was working on the next bike distance when cardio was done.

On the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had hip hinge low rows with weights, low rows on the straps, plank rows with weights, and straight leg hip raises. I couldn’t do the plank work so I did single arm hip hinge low rows with a weight. And I also couldn’t do the straight leg hip raises so I did regular crunches. The second block was shorter with sumo squats to high rows and leg lifts. Fortunately I was able to do both of those exercises so that was nice to not need modifications for at least a little bit of the workout.

Wednesday’s workout was an interesting one. With cardio we had treadmill/bike work alternating with exercises and for the floor we had exercises alternating with rowing. Every single block was 2 minutes long and we were constantly moving.

I started on the bike where all the 2 minute treadmill/bike blocks were a push pace for 2 minutes. I was able to use my push pace resistance level even though I couldn’t go as fast as I usually can. The 2 minute blocks between the biking was 3 rounds of 30 seconds on and 15 seconds rest of speed skater lunges, squats, lateral lunges, and sit-ups. I was able to do all those exercises with limited modifications and when I was starting to get nauseous that seemed to be when we had our 15 second break.

On the floor, we had the same pattern of 3 rounds of 30 seconds on and 15 seconds of rest with the exercises. We had bench sit-ups to stands, plank jacks, and then one round that had all the ab exercises in it. And when we were on the rower we had a 2 minute push row. Just like with the bike, I was able to get through it but I wasn’t going as hard or as fast as I normally can. I think I really lucked out with this workout having as much rest as we did because I wasn’t doing anything for that long at one time. I was prepared for so much worse with my nausea and it was nice to be pleasantly surprised.

Friday was the hardest day for me. I wasn’t really feeling nauseous anymore, but I was having horrible cramps with intense pain. I don’t know why my painkillers weren’t helping me, but it was some of the most intense cramping I’ve had that I can recall. All I could do when a cramp hit me was to stop and breathe through it. It’s on days like this one that I’m extra grateful for all my amazing coaches because they know what I’m dealing with and they don’t stress out over seeing me take breaks. They will check in on me, but I’m not always feeling like I have to explain or defend myself.

This workout was a 3 group endurance workout and my only focus was to get through it the best that I could. For cardio, we had 2 blocks that were the same. The idea was to increase our base pace so we could get more distance in the second block, but I didn’t worry about that. I didn’t reset the bike so I only know the distance I did over the entire cardio time. They were pretty classic endurance blocks with a long push pace, a base pace, a shorter push pace, a base pace, and an all out. I was happy with the easy to follow plan so I could just focus on trying to do what I was able to do and not having to worry about what part of the block we were in.

For the rower, we started with a 600 meter row and then we had squat front raises using a medicine ball. The idea was to decrease the row 100 meters each round. I only made it through 3 rounds before the rowing was done, but just like my feeling with cardio I knew I did the best I could with having to take as many breaks as I had to.

And on the floor, I needed a lot of modifications due to the exercises we had. We first had bench toe taps and plank work. I can’t do bench work like that due to my hips, so I did lunges instead. And I did my plank work using the bench so I wasn’t totally facing the ground. Then we had squats and crunches, which I could do just fine. And we ended with bench crossovers and mountain climbers, which I couldn’t do. I did skater lunges and used the bench for my mountain climbers so I was able to do something.

I was finally feeling more like myself by Saturday’s workout. I still wasn’t totally back to normal, but it was the best of the days that week. We had an endurance, strength, and power day and it was a good but hard workout!

For cardio, we started with endurance work with push paces to base paces that kept getting longer. Then we started doing hill work and we finished with a bunch of all out paces that were both on flat incline and hills. I was going almost my normal speed on the bike and I was using all of my resistance levels. I even was able to increase my resistance levels to do the hill work although I wasn’t doing the highest levels I know I could do. I had to take very few breaks during the cardio work and most of those breaks were me needing to drink water (I can’t drink water and pedal at the same time yet).

On the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had full thrusters with weights, single arm snatches with weights, and plank jacks. I know I went too light with my weights, but I was feeling a bit off doing them. It was almost like a light nausea feeling mixed with seasickness. So I went a little easy on myself. And I was able to do the plank jacks normally so I knew that was a sign I was doing much better! The second block was rowing and work using the Bosu. We started with a 400 meter row and then did kneeling shoulder work and hip bridges with the Bosu. Then a 200 meter row and back extensions and sit-ups on the Bosu. We were supposed to do a 100 meter row after that, but I didn’t make it to that point in the workout.

Considering I had a goal to be more enthusiastic about being on the bike, I think I did really well this week. I did have some negative feelings about how I was feeling, but that was more about how I felt and not thoughts about being on the bike. I even had moments that I was excited to be using the bike like figuring out my benchmark time for it. I’m still trying to figure out how to use the bike more often than the treadmill and the main idea I keep coming back to is to just use only the bike. I know it might not be the best plan for me, but I think it might be what I need to do while I keep figuring out my options. But whether I use the bike all week this week or do the treadmill a bit, I know it will be a good week of hard work!

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