Tag Archives: fitness

Some New Workout Milestones (or I’m Doing Better Than I Thought)

Posted on July 2, 2018 | 2 comments

My workouts have been pretty brutal for me lately. I hated that it was so bad and that I wasn’t able to do a lot of what I wanted or felt like I could. And I was thinking that this past week of workouts was finally going to be the time that things turned around for me. They didn’t totally turn around for me and I was still dealing with some issues (which hopefully won’t be the case much longer), but I did have some awesome workout milestones to make up for the challenges I had.

Monday was an endurance, strength, and power workout. And again this class which is usually 3 groups was a 2 group workout. It ended up feeling similar to 3 groups and that ended up being a good thing for me. While my nausea was finally ending, I was dealing with some horrendous cramps. I literally could feel my uterus contracting and that pain was some of the worst pain I’ve experienced. I took a painkiller before my workout, but I knew that it wasn’t going to be the best workout for me.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks and one was on the treadmill (bike for me) and the other was on the rower. Both blocks had a similar format. We started with a 30 second all out and then we had an exercise. Then we did that again before moving on to 2 rounds of 45 second all outs with exercises between. And I made it to the first 1 minute all out each time before the block ended. On the bike, the exercise was a squat to a low row using weights and on the rower it was lunges. On both block I had to take significant breaks to let the pain go away and I was just grateful that I didn’t hurt myself by falling off the bike or the rower.

On the floor we also had 2 blocks. The first block was frogger squats, sit-ups, leg lifts, and squat reach arounds on the straps. The second block was chest flys, bicep curls, plank reaches, and high rows on the straps. Just like with cardio, I had to take a lot of breaks on the floor. I needed to breathe through the cramps (I figured since they are a similar type of pain that you have when you give birth that breathing through them was a good idea) and they really didn’t seem to be getting better or worse through the workout. So I figured I would just do what I could and not worry too much about it.

Wednesday’s workout was another signature workout. This one is called Orange X and the goal is to do certain weightlifting exercises using the highest weight you can. I was looking forward to doing this workout for a few reasons. One is I knew that I had been doing better with weights so I was excited to see what I could do. Another reason was this was my 100th workout of 2018 which actually puts me a little bit ahead of my goal for the year!

The workout had a switch format and I stuck with the bike since I was still feeling a little off. The first block was 2.5 minutes which was a push pace, base pace, and all out pace and then we switched and did the same thing on the rower. Then the next block was a longer one that had a run/row in it. On the treadmill it was .2 miles (the bike is 4 times that) and then a 200 meter row. And each round the treadmills were supposed to increase the incline by 1%. So each round I increased the gears by 1. The final cardio block was more of a standard format with push pace to base pace with an all out at the end.

On the floor, the first block was split in half with half of us starting with the Orange X workout and the other half doing some body weight work. This was to allow people to test as many different weights as they could. I was on the side that started with body weight work and we had sit-ups, lunges, and mountain climbers. Halfway through the block we switched and it was my turn to try the heavy weights. We had a single arm low row, a goblet squat, and a chest press. With low rows, I’m usually using 15lb weights (sometimes 20lb), with goblet squats it’s usually 25lb, and with chest press I’m usually around 20lb or 25lb. But of course I had to push myself. So I started with the low row and used 35lb and while it was tough and probably didn’t look pretty I did it! I would have loved to try the same weight for the chest press, but I knew that laying on my back I was in a riskier position if the weights were too heavy so I tried 30lb. That ended up being the perfect tough weight for me. And because of my coach I tried using a 45lb weight for the first time for my squats! I actually might have been able to go a bit heavier, but my grip wasn’t strong enough.

I was so surprised by what I was able to do and I’m so glad that I tried to do weights that seemed impossible to me! I will still have to ease into using these weights for regular workouts since we usually have more reps to do, but it was a nice confidence boost to realize how strong I am! We had one more floor block in the end where we got to do the Orange X work again and I stuck with my new heavier weights then too.

Friday’s workout was the first one where I seriously thought I’d finally be back on the treadmill. But I need my first treadmill workout back to be one where we have a bit more recovery time or we switch between blocks. And Friday’s workout was an endurance workout with a 23 minute block on the treadmill so I was back on the bike.

We had longer push paces with base paces after. Each round for 3 rounds the push pace got shorter and the base pace got longer and we repeated that for a total of 6 rounds. I was only taking breaks when I needed water which ended up being about every other base pace. But I was also pedaling faster than normal so I think I was sweating more and feeling thirsty more often. I never felt like I was taking a break to catch my breath which was a nice feeling. I know that if this workout was one with shorter blocks I probably could have been fine on the treadmill. But I knew that I’d be back on the treadmill back soon enough.

On the floor, it was one longer block that was bookended by rowing. At the beginning and end of the block was had a 2 minute row for distance. I did beat my first row by about 20 meters when I did the second row, so I was pretty excited about that. And on the floor, we had a lot of mini-band work. We had half of it as lower body work and half of it as upper body work. For lower body work we had bench tap squats using weights, squat front walks, and knee tucks. For all of those the bands were around my calf. And the upper body work were plank side reaches and front raises. Both of those had the bands around my wrist. I was definitely feeling it in my shoulders and quads by the time I was back on the rower to end the workout, but it wasn’t too bad. I was worried I might have overdone it during Wednesday’s workout and I was pleasantly surprised I wasn’t super sore during Friday’s workout.

On Saturday, I was thinking I’d be using the treadmill but I still didn’t. There were 2 reasons why I stuck with the bike. First, this was going to be my last workout of the month and I figured it would be kind of interesting to have a full month of just the bike in my calendar. But the bigger reason was that I was a bit scared. It’s been a very long time since I was on the treadmill and it’s worrying me how I will do. I need to get over this fear and I’m setting a goal to use the treadmill at least once this week, but it wasn’t the case last week.

The workout had a mix of everything. We had a block on cardio that was a normal endurance block with longer push paces with base paces after. We had a block that was run/floor work with 45 second all out paces with frogger squats. And we had a block that was a run/row with 45 second all out paces with 200 meter rows. And the 45 second all out paces were at inclines (or higher resistances for me on the bike). It was a bit tough jumping on and off the bike, but not too bad and I was able to get moving again pretty quickly after the frogger squats and rowing.

On the floor I wanted to try a bit with heavier weights. We had lunges which I used 25lb weights for and upright rows which I used 20lb weights for (both of those are 1 set heavier than I would usually grab). Then we had a 500 meter row and then it was single arm low row and bicep curls with weights. I really wanted to use 15lb weights for my biceps because I knew my arms were getting tired, but they were all being used by other people so I had to use 20lb weights instead. It was good to be forced to use the heavier weights. Then we had a 250 meter row and then more weight work with pullovers and toe reaches. For the toe reaches I had to go low on the weight, but I moved up to a weight heavier with the 30lb weight for my pullovers!

While I didn’t get all the improvements and victories in my workouts that I wanted to have, I still had a lot to be proud of. I did heavier weights than I ever knew I could use and used the heavier weights as a guide for other workouts. And I hit the 100 workout milestone for the year! Those are both things to be very happy with and I just hope the positive momentum keeps going into this week!

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Just Surviving The Workouts (or Hoping Next Week Will Be Better)

Posted on June 25, 2018 | Comments Off on Just Surviving The Workouts (or Hoping Next Week Will Be Better)

I knew going into this week of workouts that I was going to have days of nausea. I was very lucky it didn’t affect me too much the week prior, but since coming off the pill and having regular periods again I have not had a period without nausea. I always hope for the best, but the realistic side of me makes me worried and I try to not let that affect my workout too much.

Monday wasn’t that bad of a day for me. I knew I’d be going to Disneyland after the workout so I wasn’t pushing myself too hard and the nausea was pretty minor. It was a 3 group class and we spent 15 minutes at each section before moving on.

For cardio on the bike, we had 3 short blocks. The first block was a 3 minute push pace with a 1 minute all out pace. The second block was a 2 minute push pace, 1 minute base pace, and a 1 minute all out. And the last block was a 1 minute push pace, 1 minute base pace, 1 minute push pace, and 1 minute all out pace. I stuck with my usual resistance levels but I wasn’t pedaling as fast as I normally could. The nausea waves were coming during my time on the bike, but they were over quickly and not as severe as I know they could be so I felt good about that.

On the floor we had some work that was timed and some work that was by the number of reps. We had skater lunges, seated knee tucks, push ups, chest flies, and bear step plank work. I knew I couldn’t do things where I was horizontal with my face toward the ground because that makes me feel worse. So for the push ups and the bear steps I did modified push ups using the bench for both. It was still tough doing that, but I wasn’t feeling as sick as I would have if I was completely horizontal with my face toward the ground.

And on the rower we started with a 100 meter row with 10 squat presses using a medicine ball. Each round we went up 100 meters on the rower keeping the medicine ball work the same. The goal in 15 minutes was to get to 2,000 meters which didn’t seem that tough since usually I can do 2,000 meters in under 10 minutes. The first few rounds weren’t too bad and I was able to row without stopping and quickly get to the medicine ball work. But as each round went on the rowing was more and more difficult and I needed to take breaks. I got to about 1,900 meters when class was done which was a bit frustrating that I was so close to the goal (I would have rather been at 1,500 meters and been really far from hitting it).

Wednesday was a pretty brutal day for me. I’ve had bad nausea days before, but this was a totally new level of bad. I debated skipping the workout, but I knew that I would be mad at myself if I did that. So I showed up and figured that even if I could barely do anything it would be better than doing nothing.

The cardio portion was similar with rounds of push to all out paces ranging from 1 minute to 30 seconds. I tried to stick with my usual resistance levels on the bike, but my legs were moving very slowly. It reminded me of the week before doing Everest on the bike where it felt like my legs were in jello or syrup on the high resistance levels. But I just kept trying to keep moving and not caring how little I was able to do. I had to take so many breaks to let the nausea pass and I just let my body control what I could do. I had taken 2 medications which are supposed to help with the worst nausea but they didn’t seem to touch how I was feeling this day. Fortunately I have an appointment with my doctor soon so I’m going to ask if there are other options so I don’t have too many days like this.

When we got to the floor, I realized this workout was not designed for the issues I was dealing with. We had 3 blocks and each block started with a rolling burpee. This means we start on our backs on the weight bench and do a sit-up. Then we are supposed to stand, put our feet on the weight bench (so our head is lower than our feet), do a push up, and then put our feet back on the ground to start over with the sit-up. I knew this was not possible for me to do. So I did the sit-up, stood up and turned around so I was facing the bench. I used it to help with my push up so I didn’t have to be horizontal and then turned around to do the sit-up again. It added time to my work, but I needed to do this. The other work we had included some plank work so again I used the bench to put my hands on so I didn’t have to be face down on the ground. When class was done, I was ready to be home and just try to get the feeling of nausea over with. While it did get better after class, it didn’t go away.

Friday was an interesting day. Since starting to go to the Culver City studio I haven’t done many afternoon workouts. My Saturday ones are at 11:20am which could still be considered the morning. But I hadn’t done a 4pm workout in a while. But some of my workout friends were going to take the 4pm class and I wanted to join them for a workout reunion! It was another bad nausea day and I honestly have no idea if working out in the morning would have been easier or harder, but it was going to be an afternoon workout no matter what.

It was an endurance based workout but we did switch between blocks so that helped. But I know that the nausea was awful because my friends kept checking in on me. I guess I looked really green sometimes and really pale other times. They don’t usually see me when I’m this sick so I think it freaked them out a bit. But I just kept reassuring them that I was fine and I pushed through the best I could.

For the cardio, there were 3 blocks that all had a similar pattern. It was 3 rounds of push paces to base paces and ending with a push pace to an all out pace. The first block had the push and base paces for 1 minute, the second block for 45 seconds, and the last block for 30 seconds. I tried my best to just keep pedaling on the bike and I surprised myself a bit by how well I did. I did take lots of breaks to let the nausea pass, but considering how horrible I was feeling earlier it was significantly better than what I was expecting.

On the floor, even though we had 3 blocks it was really 1 long block that we kept working on during each block. We started with a 600 meter row and then had add on exercises. We started with lateral lunges and regular lunges and then each round we added on another thing. We also had hip hinge reverse flys, weighted hip bridges, and sit-ups (which I did as crunches). Then we had a 300 meter row and started with all the exercises and each round we were supposed to take away something. I did the 300 meter row and started doing all the exercises again, but that’s as far as I got.

Even though this was another pretty brutal workout, it was made so much better by having my friends there. It was a rare treat and we talked about trying to make this happen once a month or every other month and I hope we are able to do it!

Saturday was a little better, but still a pretty nauseous day. It was a strength based workout and there were no switches so I was on the bike for about 25 minutes before moving to the floor. There were 3 blocks on cardio and each block started with a longer push, then had 2 rounds of base to push paces, and ended with a 30 second all out. Overall it was easier for me to bike than it was earlier in the week, but when a wave of nausea hit me it was much more severe and literally stopped me in my tracks. Usually I can slow down the bike before letting it pass, but this time I had to stop completely immediately because it just took over. I know this probably sounds so horrible and it’s probably bad that I’m getting used to this, but it’s the reality of my life now.

The floor had 2 blocks. The first block was supposed to be all ab dolly work, but I couldn’t do any of it on the ab dolly. First were roll outs which I couldn’t do because being horizontal with my face toward the ground makes things worse. So I did roll outs with the straps instead. Then we were supposed to do pikes (which I usually do as knee tucks) and that was the same issue with the roll outs. So I did leg lifts instead (which my coach said was basically pikes on my back). And the last thing were hamstring curls which I just can’t do on the ab dolly so I did hip bridges with a weight on my hips.

The second block went better. We had hip hinge reverse grip low rows, sumo squats, and shoulder work. Normally for the low rows and shoulder work I would use 15 lb weights and the squats would be either 20 lb or 25 lb. But I decided to challenge myself to make up for my issues with cardio and did 20 lb weights for the row and shoulders and a 30 lb weight for my squats. It was tough, but not as tough as I thought it would be. We also had 200 meter rows in this block and I did manage to do it in under 40 seconds which is pretty decent for me.

It was unfortunate that I was accurate in this past week of workouts being lots of nausea days. But I think I’m dealing with them better now than I have before and I’m more familiar with the modifications I’ll need to do and what I can do instead. There is a chance that some of this week will still be not so great, but I know that by the end of the week I should be better. And not only will the nausea go away, but I’m finally over this cold I had! So there is a chance I might be trying the treadmill for the first time in about 7 weeks!

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Continuing My Progress (or Still Pushing Through)

Posted on June 18, 2018 | Comments Off on Continuing My Progress (or Still Pushing Through)

After having some great workouts the week before, I was really excited to see what could be done this past week of workouts. I knew that there was a chance that I was going to start feeling nauseous during the week, but I really wanted to see what would happen without setting too many expectations for myself.

My Monday workout is usually a 3 group workout even if there aren’t enough people in class to need the 3 groups. But for some reason this time it was a 2 group workout. But that was fine since we did switch between blocks so I wasn’t on the bike for too long. We also had a benchmark row challenge to do.

When I was on the bike, the blocks were pretty simple with push paces to base paces and ending with an all out pace. Even though it was a strength based day, the treadmills didn’t have much incline work so I stuck with my usual resistance levels on the bike. I did manage to do all the blocks without needing to take a water break in the middle of the block which was nice. I also was doing almost all of my bike time sitting up in the seat instead of leaning over the handlebars which does help add a little bit of core work to the biking.

On the floor, the first block had the benchmark row. It was a 500 meter row and I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to beat my current PR. I wasn’t being pessimistic, I was being realistic. I knew I’d be coughing while on the rower and that my endurance is still lower than normal. But I wanted to get as close as possible to my PR and to row without taking a break. When I was done, I was about 10 seconds slower than my PR which isn’t too bad considering the issues I’ve been having. After the row we also had ab work to finish that block. In the other floor blocks, we had mini band work doing toe taps and squat walks plus a lot of single arm work using weights.

Wednesday’s workout was an endurance day and I was excited to see what distance I could get on the bike. The cardio work was technically 1 long block, but it was broken up into 5 minute segments plus a walking recovery. Each segment was a 3 minute push pace, 1 minute base pace, 1 minute all out, and then the walking recovery. Since I knew it was endurance work, I stuck with my usual resistance levels and just tried to pedal a bit faster than normal. Each of the 3 minute push paces felt like they took forever, but I made it through them. And the only times I took a water break was during the walking recovery. I didn’t get my furthest distance on the bike, but it was very close to my furthest which I had done the week before.

The floor was also 1 long block but also broken up into different segments. The first segment was squats using weights, bicep curls with weights, shoulder presses with weights, and a row. The row started at 300 meters and you did the exercises for 3 rounds with the row going down each time (so after the second round it was 200 meters and after the third round it was 100 meters). Then it moved to 3 rounds of squats, pop jacks, and the same rowing pattern.

Usually with pop jacks (or burpees), I step my feet back and step them back up since I can’t do the jumping motion. I don’t know why I decided to try it, but I discovered in this class that I can jump my feet back! This is the first time I’ve been able to do this ever and it was really exciting! I still need to step my feet back up, but I’m 50% toward doing the exercise without a modification! There was another group of exercises after that, but I didn’t make it that far. But that’s ok because I was happier taking the time to do the pop jacks than to rush through them to get to the last set of exercises.

Friday’s workout was a signature workout for Orangetheory. It was the Everest workout. That means that you are on the treadmill for 23 minutes starting at 2% incline. Every minute you go up 1% until you get to 15% and then you start going down 2% each minute. I’ve done this workout a few times, but doing it on the bike was a different beast for me.

I started the bike resistance at what my normal base resistance is at 6 (my normal push is 8 and my normal all out is usually 10 but sometimes 12). Later I thought this might be a mistake, but it ended up working out ok for me. Every minute I increased the resistance by 1 and for a while it was fine. Even when I got a little above my usual all out resistance I was still feeling good. Then at about 14 it started to feel like I was pedaling through jello or something. I didn’t think I could keep going higher but I was determined to do it. 18, 19, and 20 were impossible resistances and I was barely moving but I was still going. When we finally started to decrease it, I was happy but it took until getting to about 14 again before it felt normal. And when we were done, I was so ready to get off the bike to stretch out my legs!

The first block on the floor was chest presses with weights, hammer curls with weights, squats with weights, and then a 250 meter row. I usually use the same weights for chest presses and squats, but go down to the next weights for my hammer curls. But I couldn’t find any 15 lb weights to do my hammer curls with so I had to use the 20 lb ones. I know my form on my hammer curls wasn’t the best, but I just tried to take my time and broke up the set into smaller sets. I probably would use 15 lb weights again since I prefer to have good form and not feel like I’m swinging my body, but it was a good challenge. And the second block was plank low rows with weights, tricep extensions, and leg raises. The leg raises were definitely a challenge on my hips (and after doing all the high resistance work on the bike my hips were not doing so great), so when I was doing the second round of all the exercises I ended up doing crunches instead. But it still felt like a pretty victorious workout!

After the Everest workout, I knew I’d have to go a little easier on Saturday. On the cardio, we had 5 blocks. Each block started with a 90 second push pace and ended with a 1 minute all out. The second and fourth blocks had a 1 minute base pace in the middle and the third block had a 1 minute base and a 1 minute push pace in the middle. I went back to my usual resistance levels on the bike and I was getting more tired than I had in the past few days. I figured that was due to the hard work the day before and didn’t push myself too much to allow myself to recover.

On the floor, we had 3 blocks. The first block was 3 rounds of rowing with arm raises using the mini-bands and then plank arm raises and crunches. The second block was lateral raises using weights and mountain climbers. And the last block was bench sit-ups to squats, hop overs, and more rowing. I tried to go hard on the rowing in the first and last blocks, but I was getting burned out pretty quickly and having issues with catching my breath so I had to take it down a bit.

I feel really lucky that I wasn’t nauseous much during this past week of workouts. I had a few brief moments where I questioned if I needed my medications, but they passed quickly and I was able to get back without any issues. This week is also another potentially nauseous one so I’m a bit hesitant about what will happen. I would love to be optimistic and say that I won’t be nauseous at all, but I know realistically the I just have to expect the worse while hoping for the best.

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4 Years Of Orangetheory (or Some More Reflection)

Posted on June 12, 2018 | Comments Off on 4 Years Of Orangetheory (or Some More Reflection)

Last week when I was on Instagram I saw that the Orangetheory LA account was announcing what celebratory things would be happening at different studios to celebrate 4 years since the first Los Angeles Orangetheory location opened. It’s crazy to think that it’s been over 4 years since my first class! It feels like I’ve been doing the workouts for forever (in a good way) but it also doesn’t feel like 4 years have passed since that first class where I struggled so much.

Since they were celebrating 4 years, I figured I should celebrate a bit too and I worked on a photo collage of some of my favorite OTF memories. There were way too many photos to include without making them too tiny to see, but I think I came up with a pretty nice collection.

Those photos only show a small representation of all the incredible things I’ve done in my workouts. And while I was going through my photos to pick what I was going to include it really made me reflect on all the things I had accomplished in the past 4 years.

First, I’ve done hundreds of workouts in that time. It still surprises me that I have been able to keep up such a regular workout routine for this long. It was something I never was really able to do before so to have this regularity in my life is amazing and makes me so happy. And while I don’t always look forward to every workout and I sometimes have to drag myself there, I am always happy that I did the class and feel very accomplished. Sometimes I’m tired and sore, but accomplished.

I’ve also brought friends and family to class with me. Some of my friends have become regular workout buddies and some have just done an occasional class with me. But it’s always nice to have a familiar face with me. And while none of my family is nearby or does OTF workouts regularly, we do have our Thanksgiving tradition of going to a workout. We plan on continuing this tradition again this year, but we don’t know who will be joining us. But even if nobody else wants to workout, I know that my dad and I would go. My dad has done occasional classes in LA with me too. And I’ve told him that whenever I make it back to the Bay Area that we’ll have to do a class there too.

But not only do I have friends in class that I brought with me, I’ve made amazing friends in class. When you see the same people every week, you start to form a friendship. It’s so nice to have the support of people I know in every class and it also helps to make me look forward to a workout even if I’m not necessarily looking forward to the exercise part. And not only do the friends I’ve made in class make me feel that way, but the coaches I have do that too. Several of the coaches have been my coach since I started and they’ve seen my progress and the setbacks I’ve had. But they always support and encourage me no matter what’s happening.

I’ve also accomplished some fun things in this last 4 years. That includes doing 4 different Hell Weeks (in my photo, I thought I had only done 3 but I was wrong), several Dri–Tris including a relay, and a running class. I never thought I could do any of these things before and I can’t wait until I can do more of them to see what progress I’ve made. And the progress isn’t just in class for me. I’ve made huge improvements in my 5K races. Once I’ve gotten better and can be on the treadmill again, I want to start making a plan to do another 5K race. The race might not end up being in 2018, but I want to have a plan in place so I can create a training schedule and have some goals in mind.

The last 4 years of workouts has really been life-changing for me in so many ways. The physical changes have been awesome, but the mental ones have been even better. I’ve become more confident, more comfortable with myself, and have discovered how strong I really am. And I’ve realized that despite what I might look like, I am an athlete and there’s no denying that. It’s an empowering thought to have and I never knew that it would be something I thought about myself.

4 years of workouts have changed me and have flown by. And I can’t wait to see where I am physically and mentally after the next 4 years.

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Continuing To Get Better (or Still Finding Wins In My Workouts)

Posted on June 11, 2018 | Comments Off on Continuing To Get Better (or Still Finding Wins In My Workouts)

I’ve been using the bike for my workouts for a while now and I’ve finally started to be able to find my groove as far as challenging myself goes. I’ve had a few different ideas with challenges on the bike and this past week I was able to try them out in my workouts.

I was feeling excited for Monday’s workout with how things went the previous week. I did still have to fight the little voice in my head telling me to try the treadmill because I knew that I shouldn’t. But it was extra tempting because not only was it a power day (which means short push or all out paces), but it was a 3 group workout so the time on the treadmill was shorter than a 2 group class.

I ended up started the workout on the rower and the rower and treadmill workout were actually the same. There were 5 little blocks within the block that were push to all out paces with walking recovery in-between. All of the all out paces were 30 seconds and the push paces started at 30 seconds and went up 15 seconds each time. And for the rower, we did push to all out rows with recovery rows in-between. That meant we would be rowing for 14 minutes. I would have loved to have been able to do that without stopping, but that just wasn’t going to happen. I did limit my breaks to when we had recovery time, but I did have to take a break during each recovery. I had a goal in my head for how many meters I would have liked to have rowed (which was much lower than what I know I could do normally), but I didn’t make it to that goal.

For the treadmill time, I was on the bike and all I wanted to do was see if I could go a majority of the time without needing a break. I stuck with my normal resistances for the push and all out time and during the recovery time I was at my base resistance. Doing that made me realize that I probably could work on increasing my resistance on the bike. I haven’t been doing that since these levels were what I had been using before I was sick, but before I was sick I wasn’t working on the bike as often as I have lately. So this is proof that I’m getting stronger even if my endurance is still down a bit. During the 14 minutes on the bike, I only took 2 breaks and that was because I needed a drink of water. I’m not coordinated enough to drink water and pedal at the same time, but maybe I’ll get there one day!

And the floor was one long block with pull ups on the straps, squat swings using weights, lunges, and squats using weights. I was using my normal weights for the weighted work but it was a little bit of a struggle. I know that I push myself harder on the bike to prove that I’m getting better and that is causing my floor work to not be as strong. I could try doing the floor work first, but to be honest I love my routine and I really don’t know if I want to change it. But even with the floor work not being excellent, it was still good and I was using what I used before I was sick. Using my normal floor work weights is awesome and I don’t have to prove to myself right now that I could do better than that. I do need to keep working on increasing my weights to get stronger, but it doesn’t have to be my focus while I’m also focusing on getting my endurance back.

Wednesday was Global Running Day and Orangetheory had a workout designed for that. It was a 23 minute run for distance and as much as I would have liked to have seen if I could get anywhere close to what I was able to do in the past, I knew this was not meant to be my first workout back on the treadmill. So I decided to use this workout to see what I could do as far as endurance goes on the bike. We also had distance goals to hit that corresponded to various ribbon colors, but based on what the distance was I pretty much knew even before starting what ribbon I’d be at so I wasn’t too worried about that. I just wanted to see how long I could be on the bike before taking a break.

Since it was 23 minutes straight, my original idea was I wanted to wait until at least 10 minutes went by before taking a break. I felt pretty certain that I could do this as far as needing a breathing or coughing break, but since I need to take a break to drink water too I wasn’t totally sure I wouldn’t need water in the first 10 minutes. But since I set that goal in my head, I made it just past 10 minutes before taking my first water break. I went another 8 minutes before my next one. And the entire 23 minutes I never needing a breathing or coughing break. I was really happy with how well I did and when I finished I totally forgot that I set the resistance to be at my push pace resistance at the beginning and never changed it! So I did the entire thing as a push pace!

The floor was 3 blocks and I knew that they would be a bit tough after the cardio. The first block was using the mini-bands for plank work as well as hammer curls plus bench sit-ups to squats. The second block was a 4 minute distance row. I did get over 800 meters which was what we were supposed to at least get to, but I know that in better circumstances I could have done much better. And the last block was upright rows using weights, ab dolly knee tucks, lateral arm raises using weights, and rollouts using the ab dolly. The last block got really tough and I was coughing a lot, but I just took the time I needed to recover before moving on with the workout.

After a big endurance workout on Wednesday, I was glad that Friday was a power day. I’ve got it in my head that I’m going to stick with the bike for at least a little bit longer so even though this could have been a good day on the treadmill I was on the bike. Every block was 4.5 minutes and there were 4 blocks on each side.

The first 3 blocks on cardio were a similar format with a push pace, a base pace, and then a push to all out pace. The difference was that the first push got shorter and the second push and all out pace got longer each block. It was pretty easy for me to not worry about taking a break during each block since they were short and I tried to keep my water breaks between blocks short so I wasn’t taking too much time away from pedaling. The last block was 4 all out paces with walking recovery between and that was the block that I struggled with. I was having a pretty horrible coughing fit during that entire block and it wasn’t getting better with drinking water. I did have to take breaks during each recovery to try to get whatever was caught in my throat out, but whatever it was wasn’t leaving and I finished cardio still coughing up a storm.

The floor was also 4 blocks, but the last block was a rowing one. The first block was single arm snatches with weights and speed skater lunges. The second block was pull-ups on the straps and sit-ups with rotations. And the third block was high rows on the straps and bench hop overs. My coughing was continuing during the floor and I was having to take breaks to let it pass. I started to cough so much I was getting a bit nauseous, but it was mild compared to what I normally have to deal with. The last block was rowing with the same pattern as the treadmills with the 4 all out rows with recovery rows in-between. My rowing was ok, but it wasn’t that strong and my form was getting a bit sloppy. I was trying to slow down to make sure my form was better and not worrying about the distance, but I just struggled. It wasn’t the best way to end a workout, but I was glad I got through it considering how much difficulty I had with all the coughing and the issues with breathing.

Saturday’s workout was endurance, strength, and power based and I had my friend Elizabeth in class with me. We hadn’t been in a class together for a while so it was nice to have her there. And she decided to try using the bike with me so that was an added bonus for me since it’s sometimes a bit lonely being alone on the bike. There were 3 blocks on the treadmill and the first and third blocks were both challenges for distance. Both blocks had some push and all out paces plus a 3 minute distance challenge. For the distance challenge, I used my push pace resistance and was just able to beat my distance the second time I did it. I biked further during this class than I had in any other class and that was awesome. I’ve gotten used to the patterns I have on the bike so I can see when I’m making improvements.

On the floor, we had 3 blocks as well. The first two blocks had a focus with using the BOSU ball. We had running men, kneeling shoulder presses, crunches, plank jacks, sit-ups, and hip bridges using it. I wasn’t able to use the BOSU for the plank jacks, but I did for everything else. I usually don’t try doing hip work on it because I like having more stability for hip work, but I tried it and while it did take me longer to do the set I was able to do it. The last block was a 750 meter row which I did just under my time goal and then chest presses and rollouts using the straps.

Overall, this past week of workouts had a lot of successes for me. There were moments where I had moments of wanting to skip the bike and test myself on the treadmill, but I’m glad I didn’t because I still struggle with getting over this cold. And being forced to use the bike for as long as I have is really giving me an idea of goals to have when I use the bike in the future. I am looking at reorganizing how I track workout records on my own and I think I really do need to add a bike category so I can track my progress.

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It’s Mayhem Time (or Working My Way Through Some Tough Workouts)

Posted on May 28, 2018 | Comments Off on It’s Mayhem Time (or Working My Way Through Some Tough Workouts)

This past week of workouts was a themed week at Orangetheory. It was called Mayhem and the idea was the week would be all really difficult workouts. It seemed similar to what Hell Week is like and I was really excited about it. You needed to complete 4 out of the 6 workouts to get a water bottle and I thought I’d be able to do that. But then I realized the week was Sunday-Friday and not Monday-Saturday. So unless I switched up my days I wouldn’t be able to get the water bottle. As much as I love free swag, I just wanted to keep my normal schedule. So while I wasn’t working toward the 4 workout goal for Mayhem, I still had my 4 workouts and I wanted to work hard and do my best!

Usually my Monday workouts are at the Brentwood studio and they are the one class I go to each week that has a 3 group workout. But because of some scheduling things, I couldn’t do my normal Monday class. I needed to be ready earlier than normal. And in the past when I had things like my improv class, I would go to the class that was an hour earlier. But now, I figured I might as well go to the Culver City studio for the workout. Not only is it closer but it’s actually 5 minutes earlier than the class I would have gone to in Brentwood. So it was a win for me.

The workout was called Commotion and it was a pretty crazy workout. I started on cardio and it was almost all rowing. We had decreasing rows with so many squats in-between each round of rowing. There were 5 rounds (starting at 500 meters and going down to 100 meters) and then we had a 6 minute run for distance. I did it on the bike at my normal base resistance. The goal was to get back to the rower to start working increasing rows, but I only had about 30 seconds after completing my 6 minutes on the bike left so I stayed on the bike instead of wasting the time switching to the rower.

On the floor we had 1 long block that had increasing exercises. The first round we had bicycle crunches and hip bridges. The next round we added on chest presses using the straps. The next round added on triceps on the strap. The next round added on lateral raises with weights. And the last round added on front raises with weights. I managed to get through all of those rounds and made it to the bonus round which was 100 reps of running men. I didn’t get through even 30 reps before time was done, but I was happy that I got to that point in the workout!

Wednesday’s workout was called Epocalypse and it was a partner workout. Not only that, it was a 3 partner workout so it was like I got my 3 group workout in that I missed on Monday! There were 2 long blocks and at all times the rower was the person in control of the switches.

The first block had the rower doing 5 rounds of a 200 meter row and 10 squats (a total of 1000 meters and 50 squats). While they worked on that the person on the treadmill ran with increasing the incline 1% each minute. I was on the bike so I increased the resistance by 1 every minute. And on the floor we had burpees, seated knee tucks, plank work, and pull ups using the straps. I was a bit worried about it being a partner workout because I was feeling a little nauseous during the workout, but it seemed like my group was pretty equal in the time it took us to complete the row and my group didn’t seem to mind that I might have been a little bit slower.

The second block had the rower do a 500 meter row, 50 squats, and another 500 meter row. So it was the same distance and number of squats as the first block just with a bigger emphasis on endurance. The treadmill (or in my case, bike) person went for distance with increasing each minute. And the person on the floor it was high rows on the straps, rollouts on the straps, pullovers using weights, and sit-ups to squats. With both of the blocks, we pretty much were out of time after all of us completed the row. So we all got to use each part of the room twice (once in each block) and that seemed to work out well for me.

Friday was the last Mayhem workout and it was called Disturbance. It was a strength based workout and while I was starting to feel better from the cold I got, I had some pretty bad nausea that morning. But I figured I’d find some sort of balance for myself and would do my best.

On the cardio, as it’s been for a while (and will probably be for a while longer), I was on the bike. And I decided to do my best with doing the resistance changes. I had my resistance level at the same number as the incline would be for power walkers. The highest resistance I got to was 10 (which is sometimes what I use for my all out resistance) but most of the time the resistance was not that much higher than I was used to. The pattern was to do 90 seconds of incline work, a minute at base pace, 90 seconds at a push pace, and 1 minute at a base pace. We repeated this pattern 4 times to get through the 23 minute block. I was having to take my breaks to let the nausea go by, but since this is something I’m used to it wasn’t too bad.

On the floor we had 5 exercises and a row. Each round we dropped one exercise (so the second round had 4 exercises, the third round had 3, and so on). We had power jacks, speed skater lunges, low rows on the straps, plank work, and sit-ups. I was really slow on the floor work because I was feeling pretty awful by that point in the workout. I was taking breaks between exercises and in the middle of working through one exercise. But I figured that just taking my time and getting through what I could was the best I could do. I made it through 2 rounds (and did a 200 and 400 meter row) and was starting on the 3rd round when time was done. I really would have loved to have made it to the 5th round, but it just wasn’t meant for me that day.

Saturday’s workout was back to a non-Mayhem workout, but that doesn’t mean it was an easy one! It was another strength based workout and again I was on the bike. Usually strength workouts mean inclines on the treadmill (and extra resistance for the bike), but this time the treadmill had no inclines so things were much easier for me.

We had 3 blocks on the cardio side which all had rounds of push paces to base paces. I kept my push pace resistance at 6 and my base pace resistance at 4 which is what I normally do. My nausea was still pretty bad so I was taking a lot of breaks during the cardio. I do the bike on my nauseous days because the bouncing caused by walking on the treadmill makes me queasy. But this time, even the movement on the bike was making me feel that way! But I tried to pedal as hard as I could when I was going to make up for the time I was taking breaks and got my distance to be what I usually can get to when we have the first half of class on cardio without switching.

The floor had 3 blocks, but the middle one was more of a row block. The first block was lunges, high rows using weights, and toe touch ab work. I used 15 pound weights for my lunges and rows and a 12 pound weight for my toe touches. I’m really trying to use weight during ab work and I was glad I went for a slightly heavier weight for that. The second block started with a 300 meter row. We then had front raises using both weights and the mini-band. The band went around my wrists and I had to keep my arms apart (pulling against the resistance of the band) while doing front raises. I had my weights a bit lighter than normal but that was because of the extra work from the mini-band. And the last block was uppercuts and squats with weights. I was struggling at the end of the floor work, but it went better than my cardio work did.

I’m so glad I did the Mayhem workouts that I did. I would have loved to have done 4, but considering the circumstances I had there was no way for me to do that. But it did get me back into a good groove with my workouts and pushing me in the limited ways I can be pushed right now. And it got me very excited to see what will happen during Hell Week this year! I really want to get back to more of my normal workout stuff (including running) and I feel some extra motivation to try to see if I can get back there by October now!

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Getting Back To My Workouts (or Dealing With Not Being 100%)

Posted on May 21, 2018 | Comments Off on Getting Back To My Workouts (or Dealing With Not Being 100%)

After having half a week of workouts off last week due to being sick, I was so ready to get back to Orangetheory! I knew at the beginning of the week that I was  probably a bit weak from taking time off, but I just needed to get back to my normal routine.

On Monday I was still feeling a bit sick and knew my workout was going to have to be a light one with much less intensity than I’m used to. It was a 3 group strength workout, but to be honest my focus on the workout was just to get through it.

I used the bike instead of the treadmill and I really didn’t focus at all at what we were supposed to be doing as far as incline/resistance. I kept my bike at what it usually my base pace resistance and never moved it from that during the 15 minutes I was on it. I had to take breaks to catch my breath or to cough probably every 2-3 minutes, but even doing the bike for 2 minutes was exhausting me. It was shocking how out of shape I felt, but I had to keep telling myself that it wasn’t necessarily being out of shape but still dealing with being sick.

Next I was on the rower where we had rowing and shoulder exercises. We started with a 500 meter row and did decreasing rows for the first half and then for the second half started at 100 meter rows that increased. Between each row, we used the mini-bands on our wrists to strengthen our shoulders. Just like on the bike, I had to take breaks during the rows. I would have loved to have done each row without a break, but I knew that was not going to happen. But I just tried to focus on the fact that I was there instead of what I wasn’t able to do.

And for the last part of class I was on the floor where we had 2 blocks. The first block was squats with weights, hip bridges, deadlifts, and side plank leg lifts. I used lighter weights than normal for my squats and deadlifts and they still felt heavy for me. The hip bridges were a bit tough because of my nose being stuffed up, but I still was able to do them and used a weight during them as well. And in the second block we had the mini-bands on our legs to do suitcase squats with a weight and squat walks. While these were a bit easier for me to breathe during, they were still tough for me to do and I had to take several breaks. This workout was far from being one of my great ones, but it felt great to be back and to be getting back to my normal life.

I was still feeling a bit congested on Wednesday, but I was definitely on my way to getting better. But I still needed to work on my endurance and getting back to normal so I stuck with the bike. This workout was a mix of endurance and power but for my time on the bike I didn’t really focus on that. I again just stuck with the resistance I use as my base resistance on the bike normally and tried to go as long as I could without taking a break. I still needed breaks every few minutes, but it wasn’t as often as I needed them on Monday. Technically we had 5 blocks, 3 as power blocks and 2 as endurance blocks, but I didn’t worry about that since I just wanted to work on my cardio and getting myself to where I was before I was sick.

On the floor, during the 3 blocks that were power based we had rowing blocks. The first 2 blocks were 150 meter rows with squats between each row and the last row was 30 seconds of a push row and 30 seconds of an all out row. For the 150 meter rows, I just worked on not needing a break and fortunately I was able to do that. And for the push and all out row, I just rowed. For the endurance blocks on the floor, the first block was chest presses while laying on the Bosu, sit-ups on the Bosu, and Y-raises using the straps. And the second block was lunges while holding a weight and triceps using a weight. I was so happy to be back to using a weight that I would normally use. I did have to take some breaks to catch my breath or to cough to clear my lungs (I knew I sounded gross but I warned people near me about that), but it was much closer to normal for me than I was expecting.

I was still working on getting better on Friday, plus I saw that the workout was going to be strength based, so I was on the bike again. But even though I go a bit easier on the bike, I did take it up a step compared to the past 2 workouts. I did increase my resistance for push pace, all out pace, and incline times. But I didn’t do a ton of variation with the resistance. I used the same resistance for my push pace resistance and all inclines. I didn’t want to push things too much. But I did increase it more than that for the all out resistance. It’s baby steps towards being back to my normal self. And while it is slower than I would like or expected, at least I am seeing some progress.

On the floor, we had 3 blocks. The first block was mini-band work. We had squats with single leg lifts and lateral squat walks. I was happy that I was able to do both with less difficulty than expected. The single leg lifts aren’t easy and with being congested I was worried I’d have very little balance, but that wasn’t the case. I did have to take more breaks than I would have liked during the block, but I’ve learned that will just be the case while I work on getting better. The second block was bicycle chest presses, lateral raises, and lunges. I was using slightly lighter weights than normal and I struggled with the bicycle presses since I was on my back and it was a little bit more difficult to breathe. But again, I pushed through and did better than expected. We ended with a 4 minute core blast which was definitely not one of my best core blasts. I was tired and starting to realize that I might have overdone it a bit earlier in the workout. But I did what I could and still felt impressed and happy when the workout was done.

On Saturday, I was feeling a little bit better but also was a bit sore from going hard at Friday’s workout. So even though this workout was a power based one that was a run/row and it would be ideal to test myself on the treadmill, I stuck with the bike. It was tough to not do the treadmill when I was feeling like seeing what would happen, but I just kept reminding myself that by doing the bike I was going to be able to be back to the treadmill sooner instead of getting sick again.

The run/row for me started with 3 rounds of .4 miles on the bike. After the first round I had a 300 meter row, the second round had a 200 meter row, and the last round had a 100 meter row. The second block had the same row pattern but the bike distance was .6 miles. I was using similar resistance levels to what I was using on Friday but I was able to pedal faster which helped me work harder. And when I had the rowing everything was under the time goal. I even managed to get within 1 second of my 100 meter row PR! I was not expecting that at all.

When I got to the floor we had 2 blocks. The first block was low rows on the straps, crunches, and plank punches. But between each of the exercises we had a round of lunges. And the second block was tricep work on the straps, toe reaches,  and mountain climbers with speed skaters between each exercise. I started the first block going pretty fast through everything. I even was using a weight on my chest during the crunches which was something extra. But when I got to the second block, my breathing issues kicked in. I had to take a ton of breaks to cough and catch my breath. I still got through everything, but I struggled. But in the end, I still did better than I had done in the previous workout. And that’s all I can hope for right now.

I honestly think I may end up being on the bike for a longer time than I thought. I’m still dealing with congestion and being short of breath. If this doesn’t go away in a few more weeks I’ll go to the doctor, but I know that with a cold it can take a few weeks to have all symptoms go away. But until I feel better, the bike is the safer option for me and I’m able to be a little bit easier on myself. But at least I’m back at my workouts and I am seeing progress and improvement. I’m just ready to be back to my normal self already!

 

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A Very Short Workout Week (or Having Some Sick Days)

Posted on May 14, 2018 | Comments Off on A Very Short Workout Week (or Having Some Sick Days)

Going into this past week of workouts, I honestly was expecting it to be pretty normal. I was starting to feel good again and I was looking forward to seeing what the workouts would be. And as always, when I have any expectations they seem to not happen that way. And this week of workouts really was that way.

Monday’s workout was a power switch day and it was a 3 group workout. All those things are pretty much my favorite types of workouts so to have them all together made me so happy! I just wanted to be back to my normal workout feeling after having a few weeks of feeling off in a row. And this workout did just that for me!

We had 3 blocks at each station and I started at the treadmill. The first and last block were the same with a 2 minute push pace, 1 minute base pace, and then a 30 second all out pace. I was doing my normal speed and inclines for those. I was having a bit of hip issues (my hip had popped out on Sunday evening and I don’t think it was totally back on Monday morning) but overall I was so happy with those short blocks. The second block on the treadmill was a bit longer But it still had a similar pattern to the short blocks. We had a pretty much a repeat of the first block, then a walking recovery, a shorter version of the first block, a walking recovery, and we ended with a 30 second all out pace. This block was a little bit harder on me with my hip, but I was still at my normal speed and inclines.

We were only on the rower for the first and last block (my class wasn’t full so we had almost a hybrid of the 2 group and 3 group class format). The first block was decreasing rows with medicine ball squat presses between rowing. And the last block was increasing rows with medicine ball squat presses between rows. The first time I did front presses and the second time I did overhead presses. And on the floor, we had bench sit-ups to squats (which were weirdly tough for me because my feet didn’t quite hit the ground during the bench sit-ups) plus an ab exercise for the first and third blocks. And in the longer middle block we had regular lunges, speed skater lunges, and sit-ups. That longer block was getting me so tired and my legs felt so heavy, but I was able to keep going! Overall, this workout was exactly what I needed to feel back to myself and to help me shake the nerves I was having knowing I’d be going to the dentist after my workout.

Wednesday’s workout was an endurance day with long blocks. I was feeling a little off in the morning, but nothing too bad. I figured that sweating in a workout would help me feel better and I was excited to see what we had to do.

The treadmill was a 22 minute block that had 4 rounds of 4 minute progressive push paces. For a power walker, that meant increasing the incline every minute for those 4 minutes. Since I was feeling a bit off, I took things a bit easier than normal and increased my incline by .5% each minute instead of 1% like I have in the past. It was a tough workout and those progressive push paces were making me work hard, but I felt so accomplished each time I got through one!

The floor was also a long block that had mini-blocks inside of it. The first mini-block was dumbbell swings, tricep extensions with weights, and lunge shoulder presses. We had 3 rounds of those exercises and then we had an 800 meter row. I focused on just being at a steady pace with the row and got it done in under 4 minutes. Next was a mini-block of high rows on the straps, triceps on the straps, and these interesting sit-up type moves called half get ups. Then it was a 400 meter row. After that, we were supposed to complete the exercises as 1 long block. I was just getting started at that when time was called.

I had planned to go to workouts on Friday and Saturday, but being sick prevented me from going. It’s rare that I’m so sick that I can’t work out. And I’ll be writing about my days of being a sniffling mess tomorrow. But it was a tough decision for me not to go to class those days. I know there was no way I could do the workout, but I still waited until the last minute to cancel my class. I just kept thinking how not going to class would be tough on the various goals I have set for myself with workouts. But if I had tried to go, I think that things would have been so much worse for me.

I’m hoping to be back to my workouts this week. I know I will need to take things easy and slow because I’m still not totally better, but I am antsy to be getting back to my normal routine!

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Another Weird Workout Week (or Dealing With A Different Type Of Nausea)

Posted on May 7, 2018 | Comments Off on Another Weird Workout Week (or Dealing With A Different Type Of Nausea)

I wrote recently about having to go to the doctor and get on antibiotics for an infection. Doing that kind of messed with my workouts this past week. I thought I was going to have a week with nausea only at the beginning of the week, and it ended up being a week that was full of feeling off.

Monday’s workout was the last day of my mileage challenge and I knew based on how I was feeling that I would need to be on the bike for the workout. I was a little bit disappointed I wasn’t ending the challenge on the treadmill, but I already knew I passed the half marathon mark on the treadmills so I was excited to see what distance I could get for the month for the bike. It was a strength based workout, which means inclines on the treadmill, so I wasn’t too sad to miss inclines since they aren’t my favorite.

It was a 3 group workout so we were at each station for about 15 minutes. On the treadmill/bike, we had 2 blocks. Each block had a 2 minute hill and a 1 minute hill. I tried to add extra resistance to the bike for the hills, but I ended up mainly sticking with the resistance levels I use for my push or all out paces. I know I wasn’t working that hard (my lack of sweat was a sign of that) but I was doing what I could do considering how I was feeling. I tried to limit my breaks and managed to do better with that than expected, but I also know that I would have liked to have even fewer breaks.

I was on the rower next where we had one long block. It was decreasing rows starting at 500 meters and between each round of rowing we had shoulder work using the mini-bands. I wasn’t too worried about my rowing times so I just focused on my form. And the shoulder work wasn’t easy but it was a nice break from the rowing. I was able to get down to the 100 meter row before time was called and was pretty happy that I didn’t have to take any mid-row breaks. And I finished on the floor where we had 1 long block with rows with weights, strap tricep work, chest fly using weight, bicep curls with weights, sumo squats with weights, and sit-ups. I was a bit worried about how I would feel with everything, but it was awesome to not need any modifications and was able to use the heavier weights for almost all the weighted work.

I was hopeful going into Wednesday’s workout because on Tuesday I wasn’t feeling nauseous anymore, but then the antibiotics I took was starting to make me feel off. But even with that, I was determined to get back onto the treadmill for the workout. When I found out it was a strength day with inclines on the treadmill, I was a bit nervous about that. But I decided that I just needed to see what I could do. Fortunately we did switch between the blocks so I wasn’t on the treadmill for more than about 7 minute at a time.

On the treadmill, we had a 2 minute hill in each block. For the runners, the first minute was running at incline and the second minute was power walking at a very high incline. I tried to do a similar thing with walking at my normal speed for the first minute and then going to the very high incline but slowing down my speed for the second minute. I definitely had to take more breaks than I would have liked because of how I was feeling on the antibiotics. I also was feeling really out of breath which might have been due to not being on the treadmill for a while or the antibiotics. I’m not totally sure which one it was but it didn’t really matter to me. I just knew that when I was feeling really off that I needed to take a break and get some water.

When we were on the floor, every block started with a 300 meter row. I really wasn’t paying too much attention to my row times but I do know that I got slower with each block. After the row, we had 2 exercises each block. We had goblet squats, hammer curls, front squats, reverse flys, single leg squats using the straps, and sit-ups. I usually don’t do single leg squats but decided since the first round was doing 6 on each side I could try them. It took me forever to do them, but I managed to get it done! I know my form wasn’t the best, but just being able to do single leg squats when I was so sure I couldn’t do them really helped to make me feel better when I was looking for victories in the workout.

After feeling off on Wednesday, I was hopeful that things might be better on Friday. Things really weren’t, but the workout was something that ended up being easier on my body. It was a run/row workout but we switched every 4.5 minutes so I was never doing treadmill work for very long.

The idea of the run/row was that it was a 400 meter row and a .25 mile run (.13 mile walk for me). Some blocks would start with the row and some blocks would start with the run. The idea was to get back to whatever thing you started on before time was called for the block. So if you started with the row, the goal was to do the row, do the run, and get back to the rower. For all of the blocks, I never made it back to what I started on. I wasn’t that surprised that I couldn’t do that since my rowing was pretty slow. I was doing ok on the treadmill considering how I was feeling but that was because I was usually only on it for a few minutes at a time.

And on the floor we had something interesting. We had 5 moves for each block and they were always the same. We had lateral lunges with weights, ground to press with weights, pull-ups on the straps, shoulder presses, and crunches. Everything was timed so we did 45 seconds of each exercise except the crunches which was 30 seconds. Even though they were the same 5 things each block, they were done in a different order each time. We always ended with crunches, but the other 4 moves switched around from block to block. Since things switched up each block, it never felt repetitive. But I was feeling a bit sore in a good way after the workout was done.

And on Saturday, I finally was starting to feel almost totally better. I still was dealing with a bit of nausea, but it was so little compared to how the previous few weeks were that I wasn’t going to let it get me down too much. And I was able to prove it to myself in the workout.

The treadmill portion had 3 blocks but the first 2 were the same. It was supposed to be a 5.5 minute run for distance with intervals alternating push pace and base pace. But since as a walker that just means adjusting the incline, I decided to go for the entire 5.5 minutes at my push incline of 6%. I can’t remember the last time I was at that incline for that long, but I’m so glad that I push myself to do it. I did have to take a few breaks to let the nausea pass and drink some water, but it was much better than I expected to do. And for the last block, it was 5 all out pace intervals with 3 of them being a minute, 1 being 45 seconds, and the last one being 30 seconds. I was pretty happy with how I did in the treadmill blocks, especially since it was for about 25 minutes when you add it all up.

On the floor, we had 1 long block with rowing and 7 different exercises. It was a bit of a complicated format to try to explain on here, but basically we had 3 mini-blocks within the big block. Each mini block started with a 250 meter row and plank jacks. Then we had 5 rounds of 5 reps of 2 different exercises. The exercises included dumbbell swings, burpees, chest presses with weights, low rows with weights, shoulder presses with weights, and pop jacks. With having to do 5 rounds of 5 reps, I knew we had 25 reps in the mini block. I didn’t want to have to switch every 5 reps so I split it into 2 rounds doing 15 in one round and 10 in another. I know I probably should have split it up into the rounds of 5, but I just didn’t want to have to keep switching because I didn’t want to have to think. But even with my modification I know I still had an amazing workout!

Considering what I had to deal with this past week of workouts, I’m pretty happy with how things turned out. I’m hoping this week will go better because I finally finished my antibiotics yesterday and I shouldn’t be dealing with hormonal nausea for another week or so. And I’m even more motivated to keep pushing myself because I am trying to keep doing my mileage challenge and seeing how many miles I can get done in May!

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Default ThumbnailDri-Tri Prep Workouts (or The Beginning Of My Workout Week) Default ThumbnailA Bad Workout Week For A Different Reason (or I Guess I Was Too Optimistic) Default ThumbnailSome Nausea And Benchmarks (or A High And Low Workout Week) Default ThumbnailA Good Workout Week (or Only Dealing With Old Issues) Default ThumbnailFirst Week of Workouts After The Challenge (or Weird Workout Times) Default ThumbnailA Very Weird Workout Week (or Food Poisoning And Holiday Workouts)

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Mileage And Motivation (or Another New Challenge)

Posted on May 1, 2018 | 1 comment

Yet again, the beginning of a month bring the end of one monthly challenge and the beginning of another. I have struggled in the past with coming up with some ideas for these challenges, but fortunately I found a good list online that I’ve been using for some inspiration, So hopefully my challenges keep being interesting (at least to me).

In April, my monthly challenge was doing a version of what Orangetheory was doing as a challenge. Orangetheory was doing a marathon challenge where they had different distances for what you should strive for based on if you are a power walker, running, biker, or strider. I knew I couldn’t really do the challenge officially since I would be using both the treadmill and bike, but I decided to track my mileage on my own.

For some classes, it was super easy to track. If we were on the treadmill (or bike) for half the class and then switched, I could just take one photo at the end of the cardio time and when I got home I put it in my planner. But if we were bouncing around a lot of had a run/row, things were a bit more complicated. There were plenty of times that I would come home and have 7 or 8 photos of distances that I would need to add up to figure out how much I did. I was worried that there may be times I would forget to take a photo, but that never happened. It was probably because I was too terrified to forget so every time I went to a workout I kept saying to myself over and over again “don’t forget to track the mileage”.

I felt pretty confident that even with having to switch between the treadmill and the bike that I could do the half marathon challenge on the treadmill. Over the month, I ended up doing 15.929 miles in the workouts I had using the treadmill. I was happy that I went beyond the half marathon and didn’t really have a goal to hit once I got past that. And on the bike, I did 30.1 miles. The bike challenge was to do 105 miles, but that was based on the idea of only using the bike during the month. Out of the 17 workouts I did last month, I did 4.5 workouts on the bike (the half one was when I did a warmup and the start of one block on the treadmill before switching to the bike for the rest of the workout). Considering how few workouts were on the bike, I was pretty happy with the distance I did!

Overall in April, I did 46.029 miles in my workouts. Since this was the first time I tracked mileage in workouts, I don’t have anything to judge this against. But I am thinking about maybe making this a regular thing so I can see how one month compares to another. I’m not totally sure that I’ll keep this up, but it’s an idea I’ve been playing with and I’m going to see how things work out for me.

After a good physical monthly challenge, I wanted to do another mental one for May. While I’m not very new-agey with many things, I do have affirmations I read every day. I mainly use an affirmation app that gives me a new affirmation each day and I like having that as a focus for the day. It’s good motivation for me especially when it’s exactly what I need to hear that day. I’ve been using this app for years and it works for me, but I want to take things a bit further this month.

I’m not sure if I’m considering these more affirmations or maybe they are intentions for the day, but my challenge is to write down what I want to focus on each morning. I want it to be my motivation for what I want to do and what I want my attitude to be about. It may be that I write down that I want to focus more, or to organize my space, or just to relax. I’m a bit open-ended with how this will be because I’m not exactly sure what will resonant the most with me. But I want to do this each morning to set some sort of focus before I get too distracted with the craziness of the day.

I’m planning on using the weekly pages in my planner to write these in. I currently use the evening section of the weekly page to write my gratitude list each evening, so I feel like it will be nice bookends for my day to write my intention/affirmation in the morning section and my gratitude list in the evening section.

I’m excited to have another challenge that should help me focus and remain positive. I’ve had a few things challenge me lately that have brought down my mood. And while I’m not expecting to be positive all the time, it will be nice to have something that at least puts a little bit of my focus on something positive in the morning while I get ready for my day.

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Default ThumbnailContinuing To Work On Myself (or More Reflective Challenges) Default ThumbnailMay Challenge Recap (or It’s Time For Meditation) Default ThumbnailA Week Of Tough Workouts (or Frustration As Motivation) Default ThumbnailIt’s A Fitness Challenge (or Being Calm and Plank Time) Default ThumbnailHope And Health (or I Don’t Have The Motivation To Do A Bigger Challenge) Default ThumbnailMonthly Challenge Check-In (or Doing My Own Version Of An OTF Challenge This Month)

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