Tag Archives: fitness

Building Up My Running Skills (or Getting A New PR)

Posted on June 6, 2016 | 1 comment

This past week at Orangetheory continued my re-introduction to running. I actually was feeling very scared before this week of workouts because I thought maybe the week before was a fluke and I wouldn’t be able to run again. I thought maybe that was a one week thing and I would be back to struggling during some of my power walking. And I was thinking that maybe the workouts wouldn’t be ones that I could figure out how to run during.

Fortunately, that wasn’t the case for me. I did have to play around a bit with how I added running into my cardio, but it wasn’t too difficult for me. With this past Monday being a holiday, the workout was a 3G class because so many people were signed up. So we only really had about 17 minutes for each block (and one block for the treadmill, one block for the rower, and one block for the floor). The plan for cardio was to do 1.5 miles as fast as possible. I knew there was no way I could do 1.5 miles in the time we had, so I told my coach I was going to try for a mile and he was ok with that. Since I’m still new to running, I didn’t want to go too crazy. But I really wanted to try to do a run/walk mile.

Since I had done a couple of 30 second runs, that seemed like a good plan to me. So I was going with 30 seconds of running followed by a minute of walking. The first few rounds went pretty easily for me. I was feeling really great and I thought that maybe I should try to do a bit more running than 30 seconds. But after I got about half a mile done, I was feeling very tired. I realized after the fact that I did my entire mile at 4% incline (runners only have to be at 1% while power walkers need to be at 4%), so I could have brought my incline down a bit. But once I got halfway done, I knew I was on pace for a great mile PR so I kept going. I kept up the 30 seconds of running/1 minute of walking pretty much the entire time. When I was close to the end, I wanted to try to finish up with about a minute of running so I did about 90 seconds of walking leading up to the last bit I had and I ran for a minute before I completed my mile.

1 Mile

My previous PR was almost exactly a year ago (before the calf tear) and it was 16:30. My dream was to get below a 16 minute mile (so I can do a Disneyland 5K). And while this was the first time I had added running into the mix, I had no idea that I would take an entire minute off of my mile time! I don’t think I could maintain this pace for a 5K yet, but this is such a positive sign to me!

After doing my mile, I still had 2/3 of my workout left. I did struggle a bit with the rest but I tried my best. We had a mile on the rower (1600 meters) and then our floor work was all sets of 100. We did squats, pushups, running men, swimmers, high rows on the straps, hop overs, and triceps dips. I didn’t make it to 100 of each thing, but I got close. But I didn’t really care too much since I killed it on my mile!

Wednesday was an endurance day, so I had to think about how to try to run on the treadmill. A lot of the push paces were between 90 seconds and 3 minutes, and there’s no way I can run that long yet. So I ran for the first 30 seconds of each push pace and then went down to a power walk (and raised my incline) for the rest of it. That seemed to work pretty well for me and I was able to really work on my running form. Because of my hip issues, I have issues walking in a straight line. So on the treadmill, I have to hold on while I walk because I can walk off the belt and if that happened I’m sure I’d fall off. I was holding on while I was running too, but on Wednesday I decided to test myself and I found that I actually can run in a straight line! I’m not sure why I can do that with running if I can’t with walking, but it might have to do with there being less time that my foot is down (and less chance for my hip to slip). While I was running for 30 seconds for my push paces, I did run for the entire minute that we had all-outs.

The floor that day was all arms, abs, and squats. I’m glad the leg work was a bit limited because my legs were feeling a bit weak after all that running. I know that I have to build up my running endurance and while I’ve done lots of walking cardio work, running is a new skill for me to work on. My body isn’t hurting as much as my lungs do when I’m running. But once I’m off the treadmill, I think the adrenaline I’ve got while I’m running goes away and I feel a bit weak. But soon the novelty of running will wear off a bit and I think the floor work will become a bit easier after cardio again.

Friday was a power day, so it was pretty ideal for me for running. We did have some longer push paces (3 minutes and 2 minutes) so I did the same thing I did on Wednesday where I ran for the first 30 seconds and then walked for the rest. That’s a good plan for me so far and I’m pretty happy with it. But after those long push paces, we had a lot of all-outs that were either a minute long or 45 seconds long. So I was trying to do my best to run for the entire time for those all-outs. I didn’t always succeed, but thinking that I ran for 1 minute straight 4 times is crazy considering that it was only about a week ago that I started running. I want to test my limits, but I know I have to take it easy too.

The floor on Friday was a bit tough. The first half was rowing (300 and 200 meters) and a lot of weight work focusing a lot on arms and abs. The second half had the same rowing and a lot of strap and ab roller work. I didn’t get as far in the blocks as I would have wanted to, but my body just wasn’t moving any faster!

Overall, I’m really happy how my running progress has been going. Obviously I wish it was super easy and I could run without having to worry about catching my breath, but that’s not realistic. I’ve got some goals in mind with the running that I think are very feasible such as being able to run for 90 seconds straight by the end of the month. Setting the small goals and milestones is going to be really important for me as I work on running more. I won’t have progress with running like I do with weight work or rowing, but the progress will happen eventually. But for now, I’m just proud of where I am so far and the fact that I’m doing any running at all!

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Default ThumbnailWanting To Run (or Focusing On Running And Rowing) Default ThumbnailBuilding My Endurance (or Lots Of Running) Default ThumbnailBuilding Up Endurance (or Shocking Myself) Default ThumbnailTesting Myself (or Running More) Default ThumbnailFiguring Things Out (or Finding A Balance With Running) Default ThumbnailLots Of Running and Rowing (or Proof Of My Progress)

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Pushing Myself (or So Many Hills!)

Posted on May 23, 2016 | Comments Off on Pushing Myself (or So Many Hills!)

This past week of workouts seemed to all be strength days (or at least partially strength days). I know that Orangetheory mixes things up, but I really did hit the strength days only! Strength days are days where you are supposed to be heavier on the weights on the floor and during cardio you do inclines. Since power walkers always do inclines for push paces and all-outs, strength days are days I try to push my inclines higher (like you are supposed to) and I always seem to struggle with that. So I’m guessing somehow I needed this week of strength workouts to test myself to my limits!

Monday was not just a strength day, but we didn’t switch between blocks so I was on the treadmill for 30 minutes straight. I managed to do my hills at between 6-10% even though I know I was supposed to do some at 12 and 15%. I used to be able to do those inclines without any issues, and it does make me sad that I’m still not back to where I used to be (and there’s a chance I might never be able to do those higher inclines again). When we don’t switch between blocks, my body is pretty exhausted by the end of the cardio. So by the end of things, I was doing my base, push, and all-out paces at the same incline and just bumping up the speed .1 mph for each of them. I was supposed to up my inclines, but I just wasn’t able to do it.

On the floor, it was very legs focused. We had lots of lunges and squats which are getting better for me. My lunges are still difficult with balance issues, but my form is significantly better. And my squats are much easier and I’m getting closer and closer to being able to use heavier weights while doing them. The only problem I’m having is that my arms aren’t strong enough to hold those weights. I’m struggling a bit with my grasp with the 25 pound weights and that’s with using workout gloves. I’m not sure how to strengthen my arms, wrists, and hands to be ready to hold heavier weights so I’m open to any suggestions.

On Wednesday, it was an endurance, strength, and power day that also happened to be a run/row day. But it still felt like strength only because during the run/row we were doing all inclines. All the rows were 250 meters and I managed to get faster each time I did the row (which is not normal for me). My best row was 250 meters in 57.4 seconds, which isn’t that bad at all! I’m pretty happy I got that row done in under a minute at the end of the cardio block! For the treadmill, we had progressively increasing inclines but decreasing distances. I did .4 miles at 6% incline and 3.5 mph, .2 miles at 8% incline and 3.6 mph, and .1 miles at 10% incline and 3.7 mph. The fact that I’m doing 10% inclines is good because for a long time the highest I could go was 8%. I’m really trying to focus on that improvement versus the improvement I would still need to make to be back to where I was almost a year ago.

On the floor on Wednesday, it was a lot of arm work. I was doing my chest flys at 20 pounds (chest flys are harder than chest presses which I can do at 25 pounds). For my squats I was holding a 25 pound weight and was able to use that same weight for my triceps work too. We also had some planks and pop jacks, and both of those I was able to do on my toes (versus my knees).

Friday was another all strength day. There were 6 blocks total (3 on cardio and 3 on floor) but we did do a switch in the middle. We did 2 short cardio blocks first, then switched to do 2 short floor blocks. Then we went back to do the long cardio block (11 minutes long) and the finished with the long floor block. I was so happy for the switch because it did give my hips and legs some time to rest before the long block. For one of the short cardio blocks, we worked our way down the hill. I started at 10% incline and every 30 seconds we went down 1%. I did that entire thing at 3.5 mph and it didn’t feel too fast for me at any of the inclines. On the long 11 minute block, we worked our way up the hill and my inclines ranged from 6-10% incline. For the last all-out I really wanted to see if I could go higher than 10%, but I was too tired to try it in the end and I’m sure it’s for the best since I don’t want to try a high incline when I’m tired (and my walking form is sloppy).

For the floor on Friday we did all abs for one of the short blocks and while I could do most of the ab work, there was one thing that was about moving our legs that my hips just weren’t going to do. So I did some basic crunches during that time. For the other blocks, they seemed to focus on arms again. We did a couple of rows on the straps and then did chest presses and bicep curls (I did both at 20 pounds instead of 25 because I was dealing with some weird pain on my chest from sleeping weirdly).

Even though this was a 3 workout week, I think I pushed myself pretty hard during all 3 workouts. I pushed myself for some heavier weights when possible, pushed myself for faster rows, and pushed myself for higher inclines. I know that soon I’ll be at whatever the next level is for me in my workouts, but with all the hard work I’ve been putting in it’s tough not to be a little impatient and want to see that improvement now.

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Default ThumbnailWorking On Pushing Things (or Hoping I Am Stronger) Default ThumbnailTaking Things A Bit Easier (or No More Injuries) Default ThumbnailHoliday Workouts (or Hills, Hills, and More Hills) Default ThumbnailKeep Pushing (or Why Was I So Scared Before?) Default ThumbnailPeak Performance Week (or Pushing Myself To The Max) Default ThumbnailTime To Push Myself Again (or Running Some Hills)

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A Shorter Workout Week (or Trying To Go All Out)

Posted on May 16, 2016 | Comments Off on A Shorter Workout Week (or Trying To Go All Out)

This week I did 3 workouts. Since I’ve had a couple of 4 workout weeks back to back (and the Dri-Tri), I was happy to go a bit easier this week. My body was definitely feeling the 4 workout weeks, but even though I was in a bit more pain than usual this past week I didn’t take it too easy.

Monday’s workout was a power day that didn’t switch sides between blocks. I would have really liked to have switched between blocks because doing the 30 minutes straight on the treadmill isn’t the easiest thing for me, but I did the best that I could. We had short push to all out segments (that’s basically what cardio is like on power days). I really wanted to do well on the push to all out segments because these shorter ones are the times that I can try to bump up the speed, but my body wasn’t having it. In fact, I had to do some of the segments slower than normal (basically not increasing the speed for the all outs like I normally do).

While the cardio segment was a bit weaker than normal, I did some great work on the floor. For my pullovers, I was able to use 25 pounds and actually felt like I might have been able to do it with the 30 pound weight. But since the 30 pound weights aren’t kept over by the weight benches, I didn’t think to grab it to try it. But if I’m feeling this strong this week, I’m going to see about grabbing some of the bigger weights. My chest work was done with 20 pounds and my row work was done with 20 pounds until my arms got too tired and I downgraded to 15 pounds. And we did have some sprint rows of 200 meters, but that wasn’t a big deal to me since we had done 2000 meters at the Dri-Tri.

Wednesday was a fun day. It was an endurance run/row day. I didn’t get that far down the chart for the run/row, so I pretty much was doing .25 miles on the treadmill (at 6%) followed by 500 meter rows and then .2 miles on the treadmill followed by 400 meter rows. I think I did the first treadmill distance twice and the first row distance once (and the opposite for the second round). The rows were a bit longer than I usually like, but again I was trying to compare the distance to what I was doing at the Dri-Tri so I wasn’t feeling too bad. On the floor, we had some really long blocks. One of the toughest things we had to do was during one block between every move we had to do walk out push ups. You start standing up, then you walk your hands out until you are in a plank, then do a pushup, and finally walk your hands back to get back to the start. Those are not easy and my shoulders get really tired, but I didn’t give up and even did my push ups on my toes instead of my knees. We ended our floor block doing 3 minutes of abs using a medicine ball (I was using a 10 pound one).

After class on Wednesday, I took a quick photo with my friends Dani (who took class with me) and Polly (who was taking the next class).

Triple Buddy Challenge

The three of us are doing the triple buddy challenge that Orangetheory is doing right now (it actually ends on Wednesday this week). We aren’t going to win the challenge, but I still wanted to get a team picture. My two partners have pushed me to do more workouts than I was planning on doing and I worked extra hard because of them. Even though we aren’t going to win, I’m so proud of all of us and I hope there is another challenge coming up that we can be a team for again!

Friday’s workout was a Friday the 13th theme. It started out with a trick. Normally if you are warming up on the treadmill, you start with cardio. But after the warm up, all the treadmills were brought over to the floor and the rowers got on the treadmills. There were 8 blocks total (4 on the floor and 4 on cardio), but we switched after doing 2 blocks on each thing (so we did 2 on floor, 2 on cardio, 2 on floor, and finished with 2 on cardio). I really don’t like starting on the floor, but I tried my best and was just happy that we were switching so I wasn’t going to end my workout with 30 minutes straight on the treadmill.

On the floor, we did a lot of plank work (I’m starting to get back to being on my toes and not having my calf hurt too much), arms, and using the TRX straps to do rows. But we had an entire block dedicated to work on the Bosu. We did Bosu burpees and Bosu pushups (one hand on the floor and the other on the Bosu) back and forth for about 5 minutes. That block was crazy and I was so tired after we completed it! On the treadmill, 2 of the blocks were a run/row that included 13 in it. So we had 1:30 minute row, 1:30 all out on the treadmill at 13%, and 130 meter rows. The run/row was pretty short so my hips weren’t hurting too much. The rest of the treadmill was a lot of push to all outs with a bit of walking recovery. Despite the fact that I started on the floor, since the treadmill time was pretty limited my hips didn’t start to hurt until the last 5 minutes on the treadmill. I’m pretty grateful for that because I know that it can be a lot worse than that and my power walking can suffer when I hurt.

I could have added a 4th workout this past week, but I’m glad that I’m taking the time to recover and get ready for the week. I’m not sure if this week I’ll do 4 workouts or not, but I’ve got a really busy week and I know that the stronger I am the better I can get through my week!

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Default ThumbnailAn Easier Workout Week (or Ignoring My Head And Listening To My Body) Default ThumbnailA Short Workout Week (or I Would Have Ended On A High Note) Default ThumbnailRowing And Partners (or Enjoying A 4 Workout Week) Default ThumbnailJust A Normal Workout Week (or Being Ok With Being Ok) Default ThumbnailAnother Short Workout Week (or Still Can’t Believe My Milestone) Default ThumbnailA Shorter Workout Week (or Doing Some 5K Prep)

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My First Dri-Tri (or Beating My Expectations)

Posted on May 10, 2016 | 6 comments

As I mentioned yesterday, I did the Dri-Tri at Orangetheory this past Saturday. I have wanted to do the Dri-Tri a couple of times before, but they have always been on days that I couldn’t do it for one reason or another. I don’t do a ton of fitness events (mainly just my 5Ks), so to have something to train for and challenge myself with sounded awesome to me.

All the coaches at Orangetheory have been upfront about what exactly the Dri-Tri is. It’s a 2,000 meter row, 300 body weight exercises, and a 5K. For power walkers, you only have to do a half 5K but everything else is the same. And I’ve done all of those elements before. Technically I don’t know if I’ve ever done 300 body weight exercises in a row, but I figured that since it should take me a similar amount of time to finish as it takes to do a class it wouldn’t be that much worse than a class. I’ve done a 2,000 meter row and I’ve done a 5K (and I only had to do half of one), so I wasn’t too worried. But of course, the nerves just got worse every day leading up to the Dri-Tri.

The day of the event, I had to work in the morning (my heat wasn’t until 1:45pm) and I had found the perfect shirt to wear earlier that week.

Strong

There’s actually a workout shirt sold by Old Navy that has my word of the year on it! So of course I had to get it and I figured the Dri-Tri was the perfect opportunity to wear it!

When I got to Orangetheory that afternoon, they had our names on the treadmills and floor stations so there was no confusion on where we needed to go (and I was glad that I got one of my favorite treadmills). There were 12 of us in the heat (they have to keep it small so we all have our own stations) and we started with a group stretch and instructions on how the event would go. We had all the floor work demoed for us and there was only 1 thing that I couldn’t do because of my hip. I got my alternative given to me before we started so I felt pretty ready to go when we were going to start as a group.

Our first event was the 2,000 meter row. I’ve done that distance a couple of times in the past and I know that I can do it in under 10 minutes. But 10 minutes on the row is a long time and I knew it was going to be tough to get through it. I didn’t pay attention to the clock or the distance countdown and just looked at the treadmill in front of me and tried to get into a different head space. People were done with their rows starting at about 6 minutes in and I just kept trying to focus on not stopping. I’m happy to say that I only had to stop one time (the straps for my feet were getting loose so I had to stop and tighten them). And even though I was the last person off of the rower by about a minute and it took me over 10 minutes to get it done, I did it and was happy to say good riddance to the rower for the day.

I knew the floor work wasn’t going to be easy, but I really wasn’t prepared for how tough it was going to be for me. The floor work consisted of pushups (I did mine on my knees), burpees, step ups (I did lunges instead), hop overs, plank jacks, and squats. Each thing was a lot of reps (I think the smallest number was 20) and after we did the cycle one time we had to go back to the beginning and do it again to make it 300 body weight exercises. The pushups were fine and the squats were tough but not unbearable. But the burpees were pretty bad. My hips were starting to lock up and I was feeling a bit dizzy from going from standing to on the ground a lot. But I took breaks when I needed them and once I made it through the first round I knew I was half way through the floor.

The second round on the floor felt like it took so much longer than the first, but I also knew where I was going to hurt and I took a few more water breaks (and catching my breath breaks) than I did the first time. By the time I had finished it and moved on to the treadmill, I was one of the last people on the floor and I felt like I had already done more than a normal class. But I knew I still had 1.55 miles to go on the treadmill and the sooner I started it the sooner I would finish!

The treadmill sucked. There’s no other way to say it. It was pretty awful. My hips were in so much pain and I knew that there was a good chance this would happen. After doing floor work, my hips don’t always seem to be right so walking can hurt. But since I had to do things in the order of the Dri-Tri, I had to do the treadmill last. I originally thought I’d try to start the treadmill at 3.5 miles an hour, but after less than a minute I realized that was not a good plan. I pretty much did the entire 1.55 miles at 3.4 miles an hour and 6% incline. I had to take breaks every .1 miles or so to press on my hips (that helps to relive the pain), drink some water, and catch my breath.

After being on the treadmill for a few minutes, the first Dri-Tri finisher finished their 5K. People started to finish pretty close together and I was maybe only halfway through my 1.55 miles. By the time I was getting close to the end of my treadmill time, there were only 3 of us left (I was the only power walker in the entire group). I finished by 1.55 miles in a little more than 27 minutes and as soon as I was done I was ready to sit on the treadmill to rest. I knew I couldn’t do that so I stood up and worked on catching my breath and drinking more water. Eventually I sat down on a rower I watched everyone else finish.

My time for the event ended up being 52:40, which is much better than the hour I was expecting it to take me. I really had no clue how long I had been working when I was done (there was a clock on the heart rate screen but I forgot to look when I finished). I knew that it was under an hour, but I had no idea I could have done it in under 53 minutes. That’s pretty amazing and I think it’s a good time for my first every Dri-Tri.

Finisher

We all waited for the last people to finish their 5Ks on the treadmill and it was really great to cheer everyone on. At every stage we were being cheered on and when we were on the treadmills everyone was cheering for each person (it’s not easy to cheer on the rowers or floor). And as the last person was finishing their run, we were all clapping and cheering for them and they had such a huge smile on their face as they finished. It was such a wonderfully supportive room and I feel so lucky that I got to be a part of that experience.

Dri-Tri

They try to do the Dri-Tris at Orangetheory 2 or 3 times a year, so hopefully this is just the first of many for me. As long as I don’t have a conflict that I can’t get out of, I know I’ll be at the next one. It’s a struggle and challenge to do, but I like having things to work toward and now I just want to beat my time of 52:40 so I can say I have a PR!

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Default ThumbnailMore Progress And Steps Back (or Trying My Hardest) Default ThumbnailA Shorter Workout Week (or Trying To Go All Out) Default ThumbnailA Full Workout Week (or Sticking With My Plan) Default ThumbnailMore Running! (or Gaining Endurance) Default ThumbnailDri-Tri Time (or Beating My Own Records) Default ThumbnailTruly My Peak Performance (or Exceeding My Expectations)

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Baby Steps Of Improvements (or Getting Ready For The Dri-Tri)

Posted on May 9, 2016 | 1 comment

First, I will share that I did do the dri-tri at Orangetheory this past weekend. That is going to be tomorrow’s post (I think that event deserves its own post), but my workout week this past week was all about getting ready to do it. I decided on Monday morning that I was going to go for it, so I focused my workouts on how each thing was going to get me ready for it.

Monday’s workout was a switch day that had endurance, strength, and power. I signed up for the dri-tri just before taking Monday’s class, so I went into class feeling a bit nervous about if I did the right thing signing up for it. So I was not only grateful that we had a switch day, all of the blocks were on the shorter side. The treadmill portion of class went ok for me. The improvements in my speed that I had made recently were short lasting so I was back to my usual speeds on the treadmill. It’s frustrating when I was doing really well for a while to be back at my old speeds, but I just have to focus on what improvements I can make. On Monday we also had 600 meter rows, which aren’t sprints but I was grateful for them because I knew I’d have a long row during the dri-tri. The floor work was a lot of arms, shoulders, squats, and abs.

But at the very end of class, we had a little bit of time left so we all partnered up for a quick challenge. One person was holding a squat with their hands out while the other partner did high knees to hit their hands. I was able to keep a pretty low squat so my partner didn’t have to do too high of knees, but when it was my turn I knew I couldn’t do the running style of high knees. So I just pretty much marched in place and tried to get my knees up as much as possible.

Wednesday was a strength day, so that means hills on the treadmill. Hills are not my favorite thing to do, but I’m really trying to be better at them. This time, I’m pretty happy with how I did. My incline was between 4-10% for the entire time (10% isn’t that easy for me), and even though I was supposed to be at a higher incline at times I think I did a pretty good job. I was also able to do some speed increases on the hills which made me happy. After the treadmill work was done, we had a lot of heavy weight stuff to do on the floor. For my arm work and my lunges, I was holding 20 pound weights. For some arm things, I’m getting close to being able to use 25 pound weights, but I’m not quite there yet. But to do lunges with heavy weights makes me happy because for a long time I wasn’t able to use the weights while doing lunges. It’s still tough for me because of balance issues, but I’m starting to build my core up enough so that it is helping me build better balance. We also had a 500 meter row that day. 500 meters isn’t a long distance, but I was still feeling a bit tired at the end of it. And in my head, I just kept thinking that 500 meters is only 1/4 of what I have to do during the dri-tri, so that got to me a bit. But I just tried to focus on getting the row done and figured that since the row is at the beginning of the dri-tri I would feel different then.

Friday was another switch day with endurance, strength, and power. Again, the blocks were relatively short (I think the longest one was 8 minutes) so things were a bit easier for me. I actually ended up doing really great on the hills (still not going higher than 10% incline but the speeds were better). Since it was a switch day, I never spent that long on the treadmill and I started to worry about the dri-tri again (where I would need to do a half 5K on the treadmill), but I just looked at how far I got each block and tried to think about how that is a chunk of what I would do the next day. After the treadmill blocks were all done, I realized that maybe I should have done the bike instead since I was going to do treadmill the next day, but by then it was too late.

On the floor we had sprint rows (250 meters and under) that went pretty well for me. My biggest problem on rowing is that when I’m doing them my legs don’t always bend straight (they kind of butterfly out sometimes). And since I’m not bending straight, I’m not able to get as much power in my rows and I know I can. But for these sprint rows, I was bending much better than I think I ever have and the sprints went by really quickly. For the chest presses I was using 20 pounds weights and for my front raises (shoulder work) I was doing 15 pounds instead of 12 pounds. And we had a new move on the floor as well. It was a 4 point plank. Pretty much it was a plank with shoulder touches and then toe touches. I usually don’t do plank work on my toes because of my calf, but this time it ended up being easier to do the work on my toes than on my knees. They are pretty hard to do, but I managed my best and I don’t think I looked too awkward.

After my Friday workout, my nerves for the dri-tri were pretty high. I was thinking back what I had done this past week and tried to relate it to what I knew I would have to do on Saturday. But of course thinking like that stressed me out even more, so I tried to forget it all and just get a decent night sleep since I had to work in the morning before the dri-tri.

And that recap will be coming tomorrow!

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Default ThumbnailDri-Tri Prep Workouts (or The Beginning Of My Workout Week) Default ThumbnailAlmost Normal (or Guess I’m Definitely Missing The Dri-Tri) Default ThumbnailBack To Regular Workouts (or Making Improvements On My Dri-Tri) Default ThumbnailGetting Ready For The Dri-Tri (or Working My Way Through The Workouts) Default ThumbnailThird Time’s Not The Charm (or Being Ok With An Ok Dri-Tri) Default ThumbnailMy First Dri-Tri Relay (or Trying To Not Be Disappointed In Myself)

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Proof Of My Progress (or I Am Doing Better)

Posted on April 25, 2016 | Comments Off on Proof Of My Progress (or I Am Doing Better)

I had a really amazing week of workouts this past week. I wasn’t expecting it to be awesome, but it really was one of those weeks that I wish would happen every single week. I lucked out in the workouts that I went to and I think that also helped to make my week the best one that I can remember in recent past.

Part of the reason why this week was so great was that I had 2 days where it was similar to the run/row format (which I love and makes me so happy). Monday technically wasn’t a run/row. It was a run/floor day. So basically we had an assigned distance on the treadmill (I was doing a quarter-mile at 6% incline) and then I headed over to the floor to do my floor work. The floor stuff was mainly ab work, so it felt nice to get a bit of a rest on the floor after being on the treadmill. We repeated that format for the first half of class before we headed to the rowers.

The rower segment was longish rows (800 meters) followed by arm work and sprint rows. The longer rows were a bit tough for me and I was really tired when I was doing the sprint rows. I tried to focus on technique and form so I know my rows were a lot slower than they should have been. But since that was the second half of the workout, I expected that I’d be pretty tired and it wouldn’t be as easy as if I had done the rowing first.

Wednesday was a pretty traditional run/row day. The one thing that was special and that I loved was that the run/row plan was printed out and taped to each treadmill.

Run:Row Guide

Normally the plan is on a whiteboard on the side of the room and I end up wasting time trying to read it (or walking over to read it if it’s too blurry or there is a glare). So having the plan on my treadmill helped me save time and kept me on track.

The basic format for the run/row for power walkers was that we started with a .08 mile power walk and then did a 100 meter row. Each round, we increased the treadmill by .05 miles and the row by 100 meters. I was trying to keep my walks at 6% incline and 3.5 miles an hour for each one. I wasn’t feeling my usual pain that day and I’m not sure if it was because it was a run/row day (so less time on the treadmill than normal) or it was because I started taking a new supplement for my hips. But it was nice to not hurt and to have a good cardio day. The floor work was a lot of TRX strap work and that seemed to go pretty well for me as well.

Even though each day was awesome, the most amazing day for me was Friday. I knew before going to the workout that it would be a 22 1/2 minute run for distance thanks to friends who had posted workout pictures on Instagram or Facebook after they did the workout in the morning. We had done the same challenge last month, so I had a goal in my head to just do a little bit better than I did then.

Since my treadmill work on Wednesday had gone so well, I decided to see if I could bump things up a bit on Friday. I followed the coach’s instructions for when we should be doing a push pace and when we should be at base pace (we had the option of doing whatever we wanted to get the best distance, but I wanted to follow the plan), but I went faster for both my push and base paces than usual. My base pace was at 3.5 miles an hour and my push pace was 3.6 miles an hour. We had a couple of really long push paces (3 minutes, 2 1/2 minutes, and 2 minutes) and those were really difficult with the increased speed.

But somehow I was getting through it and halfway through the challenge I realized that I will definitely be passing the distance I did the last month. I wanted to see if I could do 1.35 miles and by the last minute I knew it would be close. So for the final 30 seconds of the challenge, I actually ran on the treadmill which I’ve never done before! I was still holding on to the handles, but I was still running! I easily did better than I did last time (which was 1.303 miles), but I was just off a bit from my new goal.

22.5 Minute Run

This challenge was exactly what I needed. I had been feeling a bit down since my last 5K. I really thought I had been making progress lately. And even though I said I didn’t think I would PR at my 5K, in my head I was thinking there would be no way I wouldn’t PR. So when my 5K was one of my slower races, I was really feeling upset. I couldn’t believe that I was so wrong in making progress in my speed and I was questioning if I was just taking it too easy at Orangetheory. So having this challenge and showing that in 1 month I had gone .046 farther than last time gave me such a confidence boost and gave me faith again in myself.

The rest of my Friday workout was a bit of a blur for me since I was on such a high from my awesome progress on the 22 1/2 minute challenge. We did a bunch of squats and had some sprint rows. But to me, all I could think about is how all my self-doubt was for nothing because there is no doubt that I’m making progress.

I’m now also debating about trying running again. I did a tiny distance of running at my last 5K (just the bit leading up to the finish line) and now I did the 30 seconds of running on the treadmill. I had done a bit of running before I had my hip surgery, but I have been too scared to try it again. The hip surgeon I met last week gave me so much good feedback about how my hips are looking pretty good and workout restrictions weren’t even discussed. I’m not going to try to do most of the things that were on the restrictions list (I know it’s way too risky to try ice skating or skiing right now), but I might test out running.

I’ve downloaded the Couch to 5K app for my phone and I’m hoping to find a friend who will want to do it with me. I’m not sure when I’ll try my first running day, but I think it will be in the near future. Until then, I might try running again on the treadmill at Orangetheory (maybe just during the all-out moments) just to see how I feel. I don’t want this boost in confidence to go away any time soon. It’s just so amazing!

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Default ThumbnailMore Progress And Steps Back (or Trying My Hardest) Default ThumbnailGuess I Motivated Myself (or No More Feeling Stuck) Default ThumbnailFeeling More Progress (or Olympic Workouts) Default ThumbnailLots Of Running and Rowing (or Proof Of My Progress) Default ThumbnailMajor Progress (or I Can Run!) Default ThumbnailTaking A Run Class (or Proof I’m Faster and Stronger)

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Working Out While Sore (or Still Recovering From My Weekend)

Posted on April 18, 2016 | Comments Off on Working Out While Sore (or Still Recovering From My Weekend)

Between my 5K from Saturday, dancing my butt off at the wedding on Sunday, and doing a lot of walking with the dog all weekend; my legs were feeling a bit tired this week for my workouts. I was feeling it every morning when I woke up (and I was basically limping in for the first hour or so each day) so I was grateful that all my workouts this past week were in the afternoon so I wasn’t feeling too horrible. But even though I was not as sore during my workouts, I still was trying to be careful because I knew if I worked too hard that I would be sore from longer than I wanted to be.

My first workout of the week was on Tuesday afternoon (I wasn’t sure what time I’d be getting home on Monday so I didn’t want to have to stress about getting back in time for a workout). I was still hurting quite a bit on Tuesday so I was so happy to see that it was going to be a run/row day. Not only was it a run/row day, it was called the easiest run/row day ever! My sore legs were so grateful to hear that!

The run/row format was pretty easy. The first round was a 30 second push pace, 30 second all out pace, and then over to the rower for a 100 meter row. The next round was a 1 minute push pace, 30 second all out pace, and then over to the rower for a 100 meter row. Each round just increased the push pace by 30 seconds and the rest stayed the same. The longest one was a 3 minute push pace and if we got past that we were supposed to work our way back up. I did the first few rounds at 3.7 miles an hour because they were short and I was still feeling a bit slow from my race so I wanted to prove to myself that I can be faster. The next few rounds were at 3.6 miles an hour and the 2 1/2 and 3 minute rounds were at 3.5 miles an hour. I made it through all the rounds, but I didn’t make it back up. But I’m ok with that. I was going really fast for me and even though I was progressively getting slower I was still staying on the faster side for me. And since the treadmill time was so limited, my legs didn’t hurt too much by the time we switched to the floor.

We had a lot of squats on the floor which were fine for me. But then when we did lunges I struggled a lot because my calves were feeling so tight. I knew they were tight a bit because that was the soreness I felt, but I guess I didn’t realize how much the treadmill would affect me. So the lunges were done with less movement than I would normally do, but I felt pretty great about everything that I did.

Wednesday was a day that had all 3 types of workouts (endurance, strength, and power). It was a 30 minutes on the treadmill straight type of day and my legs weren’t having it. I tried really hard to not have to take breaks in the middle of the blocks, but I was really hurting. I realized after class that maybe I should have taken one of my stronger painkillers instead of the ones that I normally take, but since it’s been a while since I’ve needed one of the strong ones I didn’t even think about taking one. During the strength block, I was supposed to go really high on the inclines on the treadmill, but I just kept it at 8% for the entire time even though the runners had to do an incline higher than that. I just focused on finishing the cardio and not working out super hard.

For the floor time, I tried to do all my lower body work with 20 pound weights and all of my arm work with 15 pound weights. We also had a lot of ab work on the floor with medicine balls. Typically I use 8 pounds for a medicine ball, but there were none of those left so I used 10 pounds. I felt the difference (and I felt it in my abs when I woke up the next morning) and while it wasn’t easy I was able to do it.

Friday was another run/row day! Someone commented about how there have been so many run/row days lately and I don’t think they were happy about it. But those really are my favorite days (or a second favorite to partner day workouts). This time the run/row was a bit tougher than the one on Tuesday. For power walkers, the longest walk was .13 miles and the shortest was .05 miles. And for all of us the rows were between 250 and 100 meters. The plan was designed to do at least one entire round of all the segments, and I was able to get through the entire plan and was starting on the first one again when time was called. By Friday, my legs were feeling a bit more normal (having Thursday off helped a lot) so all my treadmill segments regardless of length were 3.5 miles an hour. It helped that all treadmill segments were less than 2 1/2 minutes, but all these little sprints are helping me get ready to bringing my base pace up from 3.4 to 3.5 miles an hour again (where I was before my torn calf).

On the floor, there were a lot of squats and lunges again. For both things, I was using 20 pound weights (one weight in each hand). With my squats those aren’t too bad, but it’s always tough for me to do lunges with weights in my hands because I don’t balance that well with lunges. But I took my time, put the weights down if I needed to steady myself, and was able to make it through. We finished up the floor block with 4 minutes of abs using a BOSU ball and when we were done I was so glad I made it through.

I debated about doing a 4th workout, but I didn’t want to push it too much. Friday was the first day my legs were feeling almost normal again and I didn’t want to overdo it and prevent myself from feeling normal again this week. I’m not exactly sure when my next 4 workout week will be, but it will need to be soon. I’m signed up for the Triple Buddy Challenge at Orangetheory. From April 18th until May 18th I’m partnered up with 2 friends to try to get in 45 workouts between us. So each of us will need to do 15 workouts. I’ve done this before (and we were successful) so I’m not too worried about it. I just need to plan out the next month of workouts to make sure that I do my part or more to make sure my team wins!

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Remembering My Time At Slimmons (or I’m Glad Richard Simmons Is Ok)

Posted on March 15, 2016 | 2 comments

I haven’t really talked too much about what workouts I did before I started this blog. So I pretty much only have talked about my races, SoulCycle, and Orangetheory. But I had done workouts before those. I used to belong to a couple of different gyms around LA. At one of them, I had a personal trainer so that was what got me to the gym (it’s also why I think I connected with Orangetheory so much). At the other gym, I just had a membership and I would go and do some cardio, but nothing special. But there was one other workout place that was special to me in my past.

Back in 2008 when I met my friend Alex, she was telling me about her favorite workout in LA. And that place happened to be Slimmons Studio, the fitness Studio that Richard Simmons started. It sounded cool to me on its own, but then I found out that you get to work out with Richard himself! So soon after Alex and I met, I joined her for a workout at Slimmons with Richard.

It wasn’t an easy class, but I didn’t feel awkward or weird at all. Richard was so great about offering modifications for all fitness levels and abilities. I had so much fun in the class listening to Richard be ridiculous and yelling at us. The music was great and everyone in class had fun.

The class was $12, but I got a membership for $50 that let me go to classes for only $10. I wasn’t going super regularly, but I tried to go once a week to class. Richard was teaching on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday (with Saturday being the most crowded), so I usually could find a night that fit into my schedule. And when Richard wasn’t there teaching, one of his other teachers would teach and they were just as amazing as he was.

Besides having my friend Alex in class with me, I started making friends because I would see the same people each week. One of my current bosses (who was also my boss at another job) is someone I met at Slimmons. In fact, I started working for her because after class I had mentioned I was looking for work. The company she was with then had an opening, I got an interview, and then I got a job! I even met a blogger who had lost 150 pounds when he recorded a video in class for the Ellen DeGeneres show (yes, you can see me in the background in the video).

And once I started sharing online that I was working out with Richard Simmons each week, my friends wanted to come with me.

Richard Simmons Justin's Birthday Richard Simmons

I even convinced my parents to come to a class. My dad came with me alone first. I don’t think he believed me when I said it could be a tough class, but he’s not really a dance person. So he had to focus a ton on the choreography and I think he believed me afterward that it’s not a joke class. After my dad came with me, the next time my parents were in town we convinced my mom to come too. My parents were talking with Richard after class when my mom mentioned that our dog, Dante, was waiting in the car for us. As soon as Richard heard we had a dog, he made my mom go out to get him so he could meet Dante.

Richard Simmons With Mom and Dante

I did stop working out with Richard Simmons shortly after that photo with Dante was taken. It had nothing to do with the workout, but someone happened that upset me. The basic details was I was told that I won a scholarship to work out at Slimmons and when I tried to claim my prize, I was told I didn’t win it. That was before my parents were in class with me. Then when my parents were in class, Richard said something about how I wasn’t taking advantage of the scholarship he had given me. I told him that there must have been a misunderstanding because I was told I didn’t get it. Then I called the next day to find out about the scholarship and was told that I didn’t win it and would have to keep paying for class. It’s not a big deal, but I was upset and didn’t really feel like going back.

While I wasn’t in class regularly, I always saw updates from my friends about Richard and the antics from his class. And then I started seeing posts about how he hadn’t been teaching lately. Then I saw posts about how nobody had really heard from him in a while. People assumed that he was dealing with health issues and would eventually appear again, but eventually over 2 years had passed and nobody had really seen him.

Even though I had been hurt by what happened, I was hoping that Richard would make an epic return to Slimmons and he would be ok. Then this past weekend an article came out claiming that Richard was being held hostage by his housekeeper. People who knew Richard well were saying how this was very unlikely and the person claiming this story was also trying to promote an e-book, so it seemed like maybe he just wanted publicity.

Fortunately, Richard did do a phone interview yesterday saying that he’s fine and not being held hostage. He didn’t really sound like the same Richard to me. He seemed very subdued and not as vibrant as he was in class. But he didn’t sound in distress or in harm. So I’m thinking that maybe he took a break from teaching 3 days a week (and usually traveling and teaching the other 4 days a week) and needed some time to himself. He might be enjoying the calm or using it to recover from something, but there’s nothing wrong with that.

I know that so many people had their lives changed by Richards Simmons. Lots of friends lost weight, regained confidence, and improved their lives by meeting with him and going to his class. Even though I had my negative experience the last time I was there, I benefitted a lot from him too. From making friends to finding a day job, from feeling like I can work out at any size to trying to do a regular fitness routine; all of these things were made possible because of my time at Richard’s class.

I do hope that he will return to teaching in the future. I have a bunch of friends who want to check out the class and I want to go back too because I want to see how I do with all the training I’ve been doing at Orangetheory. I bet I’ll be stronger than I was last time (but I might not do as well with the choreography). Hopefully I’ll have the chance to take his class again one day, but for now I’m just glad that he did that interview to prove that he’s ok.

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Pushing A Bit Too Much (or Glad I Took The Weekend Off)

Posted on March 7, 2016 | Comments Off on Pushing A Bit Too Much (or Glad I Took The Weekend Off)

This week I had 3 workouts. I had originally planned for 4, but I was so exhausted after Friday that I knew that a Saturday workout wasn’t in the cards for me. I really did push myself hard this week and I think that my body was done after those 3 workouts.

Monday was an afternoon workout for me (instead of a morning one) because of an appointment I had that morning. I’m pretty used to my Monday morning workouts, but I still prefer afternoon ones so I was fine moving my workout. It was a run/row day, so that made me pretty happy too. Any time I don’t have to spend a full 30 minutes on the treadmill is a good day for me. All the segments in the run/row were pretty doable for me so I used the time to try to push myself in my speeds. I was actually able to do 1/4 mile (a little more than 4 minutes) at 6% incline and 3.5 miles an hour. That’s the longest I’ve done 3.5 miles an hour since my calf injury and it’s another sign that I’m almost back to where I was before my injury. It wasn’t easy to do that fast for that long, but it was a big step for me and I’m glad that I pushed myself to do it.

The floor work on Monday was an interested adventure. It was a single block (about 23 minutes) that had 6 exercises in it. We had to go through the 6 exercises continuously (each round had a different number of reps), but every 3 minutes we had to pause. Every 3 minutes we would get a 1 minute exercise to do (like burpees). After that minute we went back to the regular 6 exercise plan and pick up where we stopped. It was very different from what I’m used to, but I actually really liked the plan. It helped to break up a long block of floor work and since the 1 minute exercises were different and didn’t repeat, it almost felt like a break when we had them.

Wednesday was a switch day, so it was another day that I didn’t have to do the full 30 minutes on the treadmill straight. It was a strength day, which means lots of inclines on the treadmill. I always do inclines since I’m a power walker, but I tried to push my inclines a bit more that day since that was the goal of the day. I’m still struggling with going higher than 8% incline for a long time, but we had an interesting walking break in the workout that allowed me to work on that. Everyone had to do a power walk at 10% incline for 3.5 minutes. Since everyone was instructed to walk, we could slow down our speeds (even the power walkers). I did my 3.5 minutes at 3.1 miles an hour and was able to stay at the 10% incline for the entire thing. It wasn’t easy and my hips were feeling pretty sore after we were done, but it wasn’t as bad as the pain I’ve had in the past so I’m trying to think of it as improvement.

With strength days, we are also supposed to use heavier weights when we are on the floor. So I decided to go for it and did all of my bicep work with 20 pound weights. When the reps are lower that’s not that difficult for me, but the higher reps rounds were really tough and I could feel my arms getting so tired by the last few reps. But that’s exactly what we are supposed to feel. I know I was doing great with the weights I had chosen for my floor work because my Wednesday coach, JZ, came over and was very impressed that I wasn’t using 12 or 15 pound weights.

Friday was the day that kind of broke me. I have no clue why I was so tired (I didn’t get as much sleep as usual, but that wasn’t enough to make me as tired as I felt), but the entire workout felt like it was a struggle for me. For a lot of it, I felt like I was underwater and couldn’t move fast enough. It wasn’t supposed to be a switch day, but I’m so thankful that it ended up being one. I have no idea if I would have been able to do the treadmill blocks back to back.

On the treadmill, we had a couple of long push paces. I was doing them at my usual speed and incline, but I was barely able to make it a minute before I needed to step onto the rails and catch my breath. My heart rate was really high and I was sweating like crazy too and I don’t think I was pushing myself that much harder than I normally do. I just wasn’t able to keep up with what I do most days. On the floor, I worked on pushing myself (I was able to do squats with a 20 pound weight in each hand), but again I was exhausted and had to take several breaks during each block. It was really frustrating to feel so weak while working out, but I’m hoping it was a weird issue (maybe I was getting sick?) and it won’t return again.

With my days off over the weekend, I was dealing with a bit of soreness and feeling a bit off. But I’m hoping that after 2 rest days I’ll be back to normal this week and ready to get back to what I’m used to doing. I’m not used to having such an extreme off day, but maybe I needed it as a reminder of how far I’ve come lately.

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Workout Celebrations (or A Week Of Awesomeness)

Posted on February 29, 2016 | Comments Off on Workout Celebrations (or A Week Of Awesomeness)

I really had a great week of workouts this past week. I was very nervous that I’d have a bad week (more on that in a bit), but it ended up pretty good and I think that I could not have improved on it.

My first workout of the week was on Tuesday morning. I got home late on Monday night from Sacramento and had my WIF meeting on Tuesday afternoon. So my only workout time option was 7:30am on Tuesday. I’m not the biggest fan of those early mornings, but they’ve become much more tolerable as I’ve done more. Bruce (who is usually my coach on Fridays) was my coach that morning and he saw me in the lobby while he was wrapping up the 6:30am class. I think he was pretty shocked to see me since he usually only sees me in the afternoon.

Tuesday Morning With Bruce

I was super happy to see that Tuesday’s class was a run/row day! That means less time on the treadmill for me so I try to do speed training. Most of my treadmill segments were at 3.5 miles an hour, but I did do some bits at 3.6 miles an hour and it didn’t feel as difficult as it did the week before! So that’s some good improvement for me. And the rowing was 200 meter sprints, so I was able to really push myself on those without getting too tired.

Even though I was pushing myself a lot in class, my heart rate stayed pretty low. I’m thinking it was a false reading because I was really out of breath in class and felt like I was pushing myself as much as I normally do. Maybe it was low because I was tired or something, so I didn’t let the low heart rate affect me too much.

Wednesday was another fun class because it was my Wednesday coach JZ’s birthday class! Technically her birthday was later in the week, but it was the Wednesday class closest to her birthday so that counts too. The treadmill section of class was a solid block (so 30 minutes without the breaks on the floor) and it was full of push paces. It almost felt like almost every part of the treadmill time was a push or all out with very limited base paces between them. Most of the push paces were 1 or 2 minutes so they were a bit long but not too long. I was able to maintain my regular push pace of 3.5 miles an hour (which isn’t easy on the long treadmill days). But with all those push paces (and the incline associated with them), my hips were hurting me pretty badly by the time we got to the floor.

I’m not sure if the treadmill time was too tough on me or I was just having an off day, but I was having some serious issues with my balance on the floor. I was trying to do my best, but I was spending a significant time trying to balance myself and not doing the workout. I was able to do at least one round of everything on the floor, but I can usually do at least 2 rounds.

After the class, of course we had to take a birthday photo with JZ!

Happy Birthday JZ!

My last workout of the week was on Friday (I only did 3 workouts this week). It was a switch day, but the switching between blocks wasn’t the way we usually do them. For me starting on the treadmill my blocks went treadmill, row, treadmill, floor, treadmill, and finishing on the floor. The treadmill rows were pretty tough with long push paces including a 3 minute push pace (which is the longest we do). That 3 minutes seems to take forever, but I was able to get through it and didn’t hurt too much. And for the brief all outs we had to do, I was able to do 3.6 miles an hour even after the really long push pace.

My legs were feeling wobbly after the treadmill blocks, so I was a bit careful on the floor blocks. We were supposed to do running man and plank jacks on the Bosu for one of the blocks, but I knew that it would be too much for me. But I was able to do them without modifications on the floor. There was a time that I couldn’t do either move at full speed, so to know that I’ve improved enough to not need modifications for the basic move made me feel really proud of myself.

This coming week will either be a 3 workout or 4 workout week (I’m still trying to decide if I’ll go on Saturday). But I’m happy that I’ve been pushing myself more and more each week because I’m really starting to see some big improvements in my workouts, strength, and endurance. Even if I’m not losing weight right now, improvements are signs of progress and that’s really what I want!

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