Tag Archives: fitness

Back To 4 Workouts (or More Rowing!)

Posted on May 18, 2015 | Comments Off on Back To 4 Workouts (or More Rowing!)

I finally had another 4 workout week. It had been about a month since my last 4 workout week, and I’m not totally sure how that happened. I’ve been trying to stay on top of getting in 4 workouts every other week, but no matter what happened I’m getting back on track this past week.

I thought with all the rowing we did last week, this would be a light rowing week.

Nope.

It wasn’t as bad as the rowing last week. All of the rowing segments were on the shorter side and some of them were just sprints.

I’m noticing that my rowing form is getting better each week. And I’m able to bend my legs in a more upright way than I did before (my legs used to have to bend more toward the side like a butterfly stretch during rowing). And I’m finally feeling like I’m able to row with very few issues caused by my hips.

I’m still struggling with getting the wattage up high enough, but that’s a tough thing to improve on. There are times where it is exactly where it needs to be, but it’s tough to maintain. So I guess I need to work on rowing stamina.

I also broke a personal rowing record. I was able to row 200 meters in 46.5 seconds! This was a new record for me, I haven’t tracked my 200 meter time in the past. And my records for 100 meters is 19.5 seconds so I’m not really sure if at one point I did 200 meters faster. All I know is for as long as I remember in my Orangetheory workouts I’ve been at about 55 seconds for 200 meters. So I’m happy with this new record!

Beyond my rowing accomplishments, I’m continuing to try to improve my strength work. Unless all the 15 pound weights are taken, I’m always using those for my arms, shoulders, and back work. And I did deadlifts this week with 25 pound weights in each hand. When I started, I was at 8 pound weights in each hand. That’s a huge improvement within the year!

My treadmill work is a bit stalled. I’m still at 3.4 miles and hour and doing my crazy inclines, but I’ve hit a bit of a wall. I can increase my inclines for my push pace (I’m currently at 10% incline), but when we have pushes that are more than a minute or two I find it too difficult. I did do 1 push pace this past week at 11% incline, but I was hurting after that. And my all-outs are at 15% incline which is the maximum incline. I’d like to increase my speed soon, but 3.5 miles an hour feels way too fast right now. So I have to be patient and maybe in a month or so I can go up to that speed.

But one of the things that I’m proudest of from the past week is how well I did with my 4 workouts. I was scared that my body had gotten too used to 3 workouts a week and that the 4th would be a big struggle. The 4th workout wasn’t easy, but it was a typically hard workout struggle and not the struggle of being too tired.

I don’t believe that I will get 4 workouts done at Orangetheory this week due to my schedule, but it’s nice to know that my body will be ok doing them from time to time when my schedule does allow it.

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Getting My Rowing In (or Burning Lots Of Calories)

Posted on May 11, 2015 | Comments Off on Getting My Rowing In (or Burning Lots Of Calories)

It had been a while since I had a run/row day at Orangetheory and I kept asking if we could have one on one of my workout days. I guess this week was the payback for asking for that.

Monday was a pretty normal day. Or at least as normal as a workout could be after going to the dentist in the morning. To be honest, because I was coming down from my panic meds I don’t remember too much about this workout. I know that I got through it just fine and I had moments were I started to wonder if I should increase my weights again. That’s a good sign and I’m hoping to start thinking about which movements I can do with a heavier weight and start doing that this week.

Wednesday was a run/row day. It was a pretty typical run/row set up and I was happy about that. Since rowing is one of my weaker things, I’m always happy to get to have some time to work on improving it. I still struggled with the longer rows, but I’m definitely much better at sprint rows (200 meters and under are sprints in my mind).

I did learn one thing about run/row days that I didn’t think about before. I’ve been averaging 3,000-4,000 steps in my workouts. So I know that I can get those added to my goal of 10,000 steps on my Fitbit on any of my workout days. On run/row days, I still will get some steps in, but it’s much less than compared to a usual workout day. So I can’t keep depending on my workouts as being a big chunk of my steps for the day. I need to get more done at home before working out.

Friday was one of the hardest row days since Hell Week. I don’t even know if you could call it a run/row day. It was just a crazy day.

To explain this the best I can, I will call one half of the class the weights section and the other half the rowing section. But you’ll see that that isn’t quite how it split up.

I started on the weights section. We had about 6 different things to do (mainly ab work) on the floor. After getting through those 6 movements, we then had to head to the treadmill. We then had a 90 second push (I did this at 10% incline) followed by a 60 second all-out (I did this at 15% incline). Once we finished on the treadmill, we headed back to the floor to repeat the cycle. I think I got about 3 1/2 rounds down before the 22 minutes were up.

Next was the rowing section. First, we had to do a 1,000 meter row. I managed to do it without resting, but it was so hard and I needed time to catch my breath after that. Once that rowing was done, we used a medicine ball to do 15 shoulder press squats followed by 30 static squat presses. Then we had to do an 800 meter row. Followed by the same medicine ball routine. Then 600 meter row and medicine ball routine. At the end of this 22 minute section, I just finished the 400 meter row.

That is a lot of rowing to do in one workout! Fortunately the vertigo I had been experiencing recently had ended and my sunburn is almost completely healed so I was able to really feel like I did my best during all 3 workouts. Now reflecting on last week I really wish I had added a 4th workout to my week, but since the past 2 weeks were tough on me I was scared to push it. But for this week, I currently have 4 workouts scheduled so I’ll be back on track to reaching my 2015 workout goal.

If anyone from Orangetheory is reading this, I got my rowing fix in this past week. Hopefully this week will be less rowing!

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Not Being So Hard On Myself (or Missing A Workout Goal This Month)

Posted on April 27, 2015 | Comments Off on Not Being So Hard On Myself (or Missing A Workout Goal This Month)

This past week of workouts weren’t my best, but I tried. Last week wasn’t my best week either, and I don’t like that these bad weeks are becoming a trend.

I’m pretty sure that a lot of this pain is coming from the fact that I cannot take my strong painkillers right now. I don’t take them that often, but I probably take them a couple of times a month when I have really bad hip pain. But now, I just have to make my mild painkillers and push through the pain.

I’m also continuing to make sure that I’m getting 10,000 steps in every day, and when I’m having a bad hip day (and not able to take my usual painkillers), that makes my bad hip days last longer.

Even with the bad days, I still managed to get in my 3 workouts (what I consider to be my minimum number of workouts in a week) and I managed to still make progress.

I’m now always at 3.4 miles an hour on the treadmill (except for when we have walking recoveries which are supposed to be at 3.0 miles an hour). I’m doing that same speed even if I’m at 15% incline. Considering that when I started less than a year ago I was at 3.0 miles an hour, I’m pretty darn happy with myself. I’m still hoping to be .2 or .3 miles an hour faster by my next 5K (which will be in November), so I’m trying to figure out when I should bump up my speed another .1.

I’m also pushing myself with my weights more. I don’t always get to use the 15 pound weights, but that’s usually because I can’t find them (those aren’t at all the weight stations so sometimes all the 15 pound sets are being used). But I have noticed that the 12 pound weights are feeling too light now. Just a month or two ago, I was struggling with those weights!

And I’m continuing to improve on my wattage on my rowing. I can sometimes get it up to where we are supposed to be, but my hips have a tough time maintaining that for more that 100 meters. For the longer rows, I just try to stay above 100 watts and most of the time I’m getting that done.

While I am making progress even during my bad days, this past weekend I did realize that I am going to miss a workout goal for the month of April. I had a goal at the beginning of the year that I would do 175 workouts for the year. I have an app on my phone that helps me track my progress and to let me know when I’m getting what I need done each month.

This month (after I work out on Monday and Wednesday) I will have gotten 96% of what I needed to do this month done. I can’t add an extra workout in this week, so I’ll have to be ok with 96%. There were weeks when I wanted to add a 4th workout in, but it just wasn’t possible.

But I know that I’ve got plenty of months left this year to make up for what I didn’t do this month. I can do more than 100% in May to make up for it and I feel confident in being able to reach my goal by the end of this year.

So here’s to hoping that while I might have another bad hip week this week, I still can make progress and continue to kick butt in my workouts.

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Giving Fitbit Another Chance (or Doing Laps Around My Living Room)

Posted on April 15, 2015 | Comments Off on Giving Fitbit Another Chance (or Doing Laps Around My Living Room)

I’ve previously written about Fitbit on here. I had a pretty bad experience with them and I returned the Fitbit I bought then almost right away.

I was ok not having a Fitbit for a while. I had used a pedometer in the past and it wasn’t something that really excited me.

But lately, more and more of my friends have been talking about competing against each other on Fitbit. I learned that I could use the Fitbit app and have  my steps counted by my phone. So since that was free, I did it.

But I realized that all the steps I take at Orangetheory didn’t count since I wasn’t holding my phone while I worked out. So I started looking into getting a Fitbit device again.

I looked at the ones you wear on your wrist, but it didn’t seem right for me. First, I already wear a watch so I didn’t want something else on my wrist. And secondly, it probably wouldn’t count my steps on the treadmill at Orangetheory because I have to hold onto the treadmill (balance issues).

So I decided on the Fitbit One. It’s pretty small and I can either wear it on my pants on in the middle of my bra (I’ve been going with the middle of the bra choice since it’s totally out-of-the-way).

Fitbit One Size

During my workouts at Orangetheory, I’ve been putting it on my pants since my sports bra goes up much higher than a normal bra.

It’s nice to count all my steps during the day. And the app on my iPhone is super easy to use and read.

Fitbit Tracking

But what I’ve been loving the most about Fitbit this time (besides the fact that it’s working and syncing perfectly) is the social and competitive aspect of it.

You can be friends with different people on there and see how you rank against each other over the past 7 days. Since I just started using the Fitbit, I’m pretty low in the rankings but I’m moving up.

And through the app they also have a bunch of different challenges that you can do with your friends. Right now, I’m doing a weekday challenge with 9 other people (including my agent). But over the weekend, we did a weekend challenge.

Fitbit Competition

I didn’t win that one (and I don’t think I’ll win the weekday one either), but I had a lot of fun doing it. And it’s really motivating me to get as many steps during the day that I can. I’ve been doing laps around my house between customers at work or while I’m watching tv shows that don’t need that much attention. And since I live in such a tiny house, my laps are only like 5 steps each way.

But every step adds up and since Saturday (when I got the Fitbit), I’ve hit my target of 10,000 steps each day! And all of those steps equal more calories burned, so it will be helping me to reach more goals. This is all wins for me.

Are any of you on Fitbit? I’d love to have more friends to compete against!

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Fitting In My Workouts No Matter What (or Last Workouts Before The 5K)

Posted on April 13, 2015 | 3 comments

It was not easy to get my 3 workouts in this week, but I did it.

I knew that it was going to be an odd week of workouts even before having to go down to San Diego. I had the Hollywood Half 5K on Saturday and knew that I would not be working out on Friday. And there was a chance that I was going to be at Disneyland on Monday with a family friend.

So the original plan was to work out Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday afternoons.

Then my grandpa passed away and my schedule got crazy.

I cancelled my Disneyland plans right away. Then I started to wonder how I could get 3 workouts in during the week.

It’s probably stupid that I was worried about my workouts when there was a death in the family, but I guess that is how I was coping.

I started to think about what time I would have and how late I would be getting back from San Diego on Tuesday to see if I could do a Tuesday evening workout. But after debating it all for a few minutes, I figured out a schedule.

I would do my Wednesday and Thursday workouts as planned and add an early Sunday workout before driving to be with my family.

Sunday morning was not a great workout for me. Again, I had issues with getting my heart rate high enough (I guess the side effect of a speedy heart rate with my new medication went away). I was also pretty stressed out about going to San Diego. It didn’t feel real that my grandpa died, so I was worried that as soon as I got to San Diego it would all hit me (it did, but not in the way I was expecting it to). I tried my best to get through the workout, but I know that I wasn’t doing my best.

Wednesday was a pretty good one for me. I was worried that I would feel a bit out of shape from the lack of exercise and the good food from the past few days, but it didn’t affect me nearly as much as I thought. The biggest challenge I had in my workout on Wednesday was the 800 meter row.

We had to do this 2 different times in the workout. We had to write down our first time and then try to beat it the second time. And for every second longer our second time took, we had to do a burpee. I pushed myself like crazy on that rower. My goal was to be under 4 minutes, and I did it!

800 Meter Row

My name is toward the bottom of the board. And you can see that my second time was exactly 1 second slower than the first. So I owed 1 burpee. But considering that my goal was to be under 4 minutes, both my rows were pretty amazing!

After that exhausting workout, I was feeling a bit sore for my Thursday workout. But since it was my final workout before the 5K, I wanted to push myself as much as I could on the treadmill. I wanted to see if I could get a new PR on the 5K, and treadmill training is what will get me there.

The treadmill workout was all hills. I usually hate the hills, but I was grateful for them on Thursday. A majority of the 5K is on a flat road (there are a few hills), so since I’m used to training at an incline the 5K should almost feel like a downhill race.

Besides going hard on the treadmill, I’m still working on upping my weights when I’m doing the floor work. I’m finally starting to see (and feel) the results of the heavier weights. Even though the scale isn’t going down that much, I feel much lighter. And I have some pretty decent sized muscles now (they are just covered up by fat). Hopefully when the scale starts dropping again, the visually results will be seen more because I have more muscle to show off.

I’m so glad I got my 3 workouts in even though I was dealing with so much. I know I say this again and again, but it just proves to me how much of a priority working out is for me now. I never felt like that prior to Orangetheory and it makes me so proud that I’m dedicated to my workouts now.

In tomorrow’s post, I’ll be recapping the Hollywood Half 5K!

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Lots Of Morning Workouts (or Maybe I Can Be A Morning Person)

Posted on April 6, 2015 | Comments Off on Lots Of Morning Workouts (or Maybe I Can Be A Morning Person)

This past week, I had 3 workouts. And 2 of those 3 were in the morning.

I haven’t been a huge fan of morning workouts. Sometimes I have trouble pushing myself or getting my heart rate up high enough.

But I’m definitely getting better at them.

I’m pretty much doing my Monday workouts at 9:30am instead of 4pm now. Like I’ve said before, there’s no reason for me to have an afternoon workout on a day that I don’t have to work. So that 9:30am class is starting to feel more normal to me.

This past Monday my focus was on continuing my speed and heavier weight training. I’m getting more comfortable with both and that’s making me happy. I’m seeing a transformation in how I feel during and after my workouts. And since I’m not seeing a lot of transformation on how I’m looking physically, having some transformation makes me feel like all my hard work isn’t for nothing. And I can’t help but smile at that.

Tough Workout

On Wednesday, since I had the podcast dinner in the evening, I had to do a before work workout. Before work workouts are always early for me (7:30am). It also requires me to wake up an hour earlier than I’m used to. I think that those are going to continue to be tough for me since I’m working out when I’m used to waking up. And I have no desire to wake up an hour earlier every day (I wake up the same time every day because that’s supposed to be better for you).

That workout wasn’t that great for me, but I was there and I did it. I was having a lot of trouble on the treadmill because it was almost all hills, but I took breaks when I had to and got through it.

Friday’s workout was a bit weird for me. I found out bad news on Thursday (more about that tomorrow) and I was just feeling off. It was a run/row day and I’m very grateful for that. It made me have to focus on the workout (since the coach wasn’t telling us during cardio when to transition) and not think about things outside of the workout.

But during the strength section, I had to do down in how heavy the weights were. I think part of that was because I was exhausted. I didn’t get a ton of sleep the night before and I know that being tired affects my workouts a lot.

This week, I’ll do another 3 Orangetheory workouts and then I have my 5K on Saturday. I’m starting to get really nervous about the 5K, but I guess I’ll see how it goes this weekend. And as long as I finish (and don’t finish in last place), I’ll be happy.

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My 2nd MVP (or Kicking Butt In My Workouts)

Posted on February 9, 2015 | 1 comment

Another 4 workout week done! I’m not sure if the rest of this month I’ll be able to keep doing 4 workouts a week. But that’s due to scheduling issues and not my motivation or how I’m feeling.

I had another morning workout on Monday because of my audition. I’m really trying to love the morning workouts, but I’m still not used to them. And because of scheduling issues, I can’t take a later morning class on those days that I need the morning workout.

I have similar dizziness issues at all my workouts, they are just more extreme in the mornings. And I’m starting to wonder if this is an inner ear issue and not a food related issue (although I know taking my painkillers on a not completely full stomach isn’t helping). I’ve been having issues since I was sick last year, and part of that sickness was an ear infection. So I’m thinking that when I feel dizzy (which usually happens when I switch from a sitting/laying down workout to a standing one) is the result of that ear infection. Sadly, there’s nothing really that I can do about it. I just have to accept it.

Wednesdays workout was pretty awesome! The coach, JZ, named me the MVP of class! I got my MVP status because I let her know that we were already at a push pace when she said that we needed to move on to a push pace. So even though it was a mental accomplishment and not a physical one that got me my MVP status, I’m just as happy with it!

JZ MVP

Friday was a class that truly challenged me. Normally, I find leg/hip movements to be challenging. I’m pretty good with arm movements. But in this workout, we had a block where we had to do tons of tricep dips (12-16 each time) and then walk out push ups (2-6 each time). Holy moly my arms and shoulders were sore after that block! Also, since my workout gloves don’t cover the bottom of my hands, my hands were killing me! Fortunately I didn’t get any blisters or cuts on my hands, but they looked pretty bruised for a day after the workout.

Saturday was my favorite workout of the week. It was a tornado style class, which means that we moved around from treadmill to rower to floor work a lot during the class. Each block was about 2 minutes long and there were 5 rotations (or 15 blocks). I love this type of workout because when I’m getting tired on the treadmill, rower, or floor; it’s already time to move on to the next block.

But just because those blocks were short, it didn’t make them easy. Almost the entire time on the treadmill was at a push or all-out pace (or 10-15% incline for me) and 2 minutes of rowing is pretty tiring! Even the 2 minute floor blocks were tough. 2 minutes of burpees or push-ups is a lot! I did have to make more breaks that I would have liked to, but I still got it all done!

This coming week, I know I’ll have a morning workout today. And I’m debating about adding another morning workout on Thursday because it turns out I can’t make my Friday afternoon class and I’m supposed to start my temp job this week. If I don’t, I can do a Thursday afternoon class and I’d be super happy with that.

I know that I’ve said this before, but knowing that I’m making my workouts a priority in my life is such a big step for me and I’m proud of myself for the commitment that I’ve made to Orangetheory. It’s a little tough when my schedule is getting crazy, but I know that this craziness won’t last long and I can find more workout times soon.

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Final Days Of The Nike Challenge (or How To Work Out When You Can’t Breathe Through Your Nose)

Posted on December 22, 2014 | 1 comment

The Nike ID Challenge at Orangetheory ended this past week. But I ended up having a new challenge during the week because I got sick.

Monday was workout #15 for me for the Nike ID Challenge, so after that workout, I knew that I was going to be winning the shoes. I went to a morning workout that day because of the Tweetup that evening, and it felt very different to me than an evening workout. I’m so used to going at 4:15 that when I work out early, it is a little confusing to me. I’m used to going home after a workout and starting to decompress from my day. This time instead, I went home and got ready for my day.

On Wednesday, I was definitely sick. I felt a little better than the day before, but I was still taking lots of medicine to help me feel better. I tried my very best at the workout, but since I was feeling off, I didn’t do nearly as much as I normally can do. But as my dad always says, it’s all about being consistent in working out, not always having the best workout ever. So by going while I was sick, I was making sure I stayed consistent.

Another fun thing that happened on Wednesday was I got some workout gloves. My workout friend, Sarah, has been using them for a while and loves them. And since I’ve been getting some blisters on my hands from the weights, rowing, and TRX work; I figured I should get some gloves too. They were a little weird to use at first, but I quickly got used to them. And they do make a big difference in how strongly I can grip during my workouts. I’m hoping when I’m feeling better that with this better grip I can use some heavier weights.

Friday was my last workout of the week. Since the Nike ID Challenge was officially over then, I had to go in a bit early to have all of my challenge tasks to be verified. I came prepared with my checklist that I made.

IMG_4313

Everything was fine, so I know for sure now that I am one of the winners and I’ll be getting my free shoes! I can’t wait until we get to design them so I can see what they look like.

Friday’s workout was very similar to Wednesday’s. It turns out the worst day of my cold was Thursday, so by Friday I was finally starting to feel a bit better. But even though I was getting better, I still was coughing a lot and having trouble breathing through my nose. So I tried to take it easy. It’s not simple to do that when I’m really trying to push myself, but I tried. It was a run/row day and I tried to take a little break between the run segments and the row segments (instead of racing from one to the other). After the workout, I was exhausted, but I was so glad that I went.

Now that the Nike ID Challenge is over, I have another challenge to look forward to. There will be a national weight loss challenge and there will be 1 winner out of all the Orangetheory locations participating (the last weight loss challenge was just for the location I go to). I’m totally going to enter the new challenge, but it’s going to be really tough when I can’t see my competitors in my workouts with me. But I know a lot of people at my Orangetheory are hoping that I’ll be able to place in the top 3 and I don’t want to let them down.

But until that challenge starts (I think it begins in a month), I’m just going to focus on getting over this cold and doing everything I can to end 2014 in the best shape I’ve been in for a long time.

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4 Workout Week (or Getting Some Friends To Come Try Orangetheory)

Posted on December 8, 2014 | 2 comments

I’ve passed the halfway mark in the Orangetheory Nike ID Challenge. This challenge hasn’t been easy for me, but that’s the point of it.

Monday was an awesome day. My friend Teresa and her boyfriend Adam were able to come and work out with me. Teresa had been wanting to come with me for a while, but it just wasn’t working out for her. But once she realized that if she and her boyfriend came now they would be helping me win a challenge, it got them to the class!

I was hoping that they would be able to start on the treadmills with me, but because the class was so crowded, they started with the strength section. So I didn’t exactly get to work out with them, but we did chat afterwards and they seemed to have had a great time (although tired from the tough workout)!

The Monday Challenge was actually part of the workout on Monday. It was the fastest 1 mile run you could do. For power walkers, it was the fastest 1/2 mile at 10% incline without your hands ever touching the rails. Sadly, because I don’t walk evenly due to my hip issues, I have to hold on while I walk (I’ve fallen off before). So I wasn’t technically able to participate in the Monday Challenge, but I still did my fastest 1/2 mile I could do!

After class, I got a picture with Teresa because that is one of the pictures required for the Nike ID Challenge. We decided that we were going to pose in superhero poses, and our coach Bruce and the business manager Jonathan decided to join us.

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Wednesday’s class was tough because my body was just hurting so much. The weather here is making me feel more pain than usual, and I was hoping to not have to take more painkillers than I needed. I pushed through, but when I got home I ended up taking my painkillers on a schedule (which is something I try not to do too often because it means that I have 2 painkillers in my system at all times).

On Thursday, my body reacted to taking more painkillers than I had in a while and I got sick. I thought it might have been food poisoning at first, but I was having different symptoms. With food poisoning, I can’t keep food down. But I was eating toast and bananas and having no issues with them. So while I can’t be 100% sure that the painkillers caused the issue, they were the main variable in my day.

Friday, therefore, wasn’t so great for me. I was still feeling the effects of the day before so I tried cutting back on my painkillers again. And that lead me to feeling a lot of pain in the workout. It was so bad that the coach, Whitney, even noticed and kept checking in on me. It wasn’t my best workout (but probably not my worst either), but I just kept telling myself that even a crappy workout is better than no workout.

Saturday was my 4th workout of the week. I’ve only done with once before, and I felt it in my body then. Going into the workout I thought that maybe it wouldn’t hurt as bad as the last 4th workout, but after about 15 minutes my body was feeling it.

I know that getting myself to the point where I can do 4 tough workouts in a week is something to work toward. My body is adjusting to 3 workouts in a week (although they are still tough workouts for me) and I’m noticing a difference in my heart rate in class. It’s tougher for me to make it into the orange zone than it used to be. And between workout blocks my heart rate drops down towards a normal rate so much quicker than it used to. These are great things and proof that I’m getting stronger and healthier. But it also means that I need to start pushing myself harder. This isn’t easy in the cardio portion of class because my hips limit what I can do on the treadmill. I can try using the bike or elliptical, but since I know I can do those, I’d rather push myself on something that I struggle with.

Overall, while these workouts weren’t record breakers for me, I’m proud of the work that I got done. I have another 4 workout week coming up this week, and I’m changing up the schedule of when I’m doing them a bit. I’m really nervous, but I’m going to try my best.

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Checking Things Off The List (or 4 Workouts In 1 Week)

Posted on November 24, 2014 | Comments Off on Checking Things Off The List (or 4 Workouts In 1 Week)

This past week was the first week of workouts for the Nike ID Challenge that my Orangetheory is doing. I have every intention of winning those shoes and I’ve been planning out how exactly I will accomplish each task (although I do still need to find 3 people who want to take a free class before 12/17).

Monday’s workout was a tough one (as always), but definitely doable. At the end of the workout, we had the Monday Challenge. One of the tasks for the Nike ID Challenge is to do 2 Monday Challenges. Since I do them every week, this is probably going to be the easiest thing to check off my list.

The Monday Challenge this past week was a 2 minute row. We have done this challenge before and because I push myself so hard in the first minute, the second minute is always a killer. But I tried to pace myself much better this time. The second minute was still tough, but it didn’t seem unbearable until the last 30 seconds. And I got 50 more meters this time than I did the last time we had a 2 minute row for the Monday Challenge!

Before Wednesday’s workout, I had a chance to do one of the Instagram tasks for the Nike ID Challenge. I got a picture of not one, but two of my favorite Orangetheory coaches!

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And yes, we deliberately posed like that so we could get the Orangetheory logo in behind us.

Friday’s workout was possibly the toughest one yet. There were a lot of hills and I had a lot of trouble catching my breath again when we were doing the walking breaks between the blocks of treadmill intervals. As soon as I got home, I started regulating my painkillers because I knew that the next day would be one of the most challenging yet.

In order for me to get 15 workouts in before the end of the challenge, I have to go 4 times a week most weeks. Part of the issue is also that next week I will only be at my Orangetheory location for 2 classes because I’ll be out-of-town most of the week.

So this past week, I also worked out on Saturday. I’ve done back to back workouts before, but this is the first time that I’ve had 4 workouts in a single week.

I was hurting pretty badly from Friday’s workout still, but I knew I had to try my best.

Before class, I checked off another Instagram picture for the Nike ID Challenge.

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These fabulous ladies that I’m with are Sarah and Brittany. They are my workout buddies. I used to get to work out with Brittany every class, but she switched class times. So I don’t get to see her unless I’m doing a class that isn’t a part of my usual schedule (like Saturdays). Sarah takes the same Monday, Wednesday, and Friday classes that I do. She always saves my favorite treadmill for me and motivates me throughout the class to keep going. We had to take a picture for the Challenge of our Orangetheory family, and these ladies are a huge part of my family there.

The Saturday workout wasn’t necessarily a hard class, but my soreness made it seem that way. But I got through it and burned a ton of calories.

This week will be a 3 workout week. 2 at my usual location and 1 at the location in La Jolla (which doesn’t count for the Nike ID Challenge). It will be a nice break from my 4 workout week this past week!

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