Tag Archives: fitness

Back To My Regular Schedule (I’m Glad My Bad Week Didn’t Start Until This Week)

Posted on November 21, 2022 | Comments Off

Even after doing 5 workouts the week before, I still wanted to keep up with my regular 4 workouts this past week. I like having my routine and I wanted to do what I could to feel like I was back to a typical week in as many ways as possible. I knew I would be a bit tired on Monday after traveling on Sunday and I was prepared to start having my bad week, but I still knew I should try my best.

Monday’s workout was a signature workout. This was Capture The Flag, which I’ve done a few times before. It’s a partner workout where you work with your partner or partners to get as many meters on the rower as possible. My class was a 3 group class, but because of the class size, I was in a 2 partner group. And my partner wasn’t going to use the rower so I knew that we wouldn’t be able to track our rowing meters the way that most teams would do. So we would just do what we could and enjoy the workout.

Since we were a 2 partner group, we did the 2 group workout instead of the 3 partner workout. The person who was on the rower (or elliptical for my partner) just went until the other partner tagged them out. And the other partner did medicine ball exercises and a treadmill (or bike) distance before the switch. The medicine ball exercises were squat to presses, lateral lunges, and double crunches. And all the treadmill/bike distances were pretty short so we were switching every few minutes. The other groups got different flags based on the distance they got on the rower. I was fine not being able to get the flags since I knew I was still working out hard and doing a good job on the rower.

On Tuesday, I was starting to have a bit of nausea but it wasn’t that bad. So I knew it was probably the last workout before I was feeling really bad and I wanted to try to get the most out of it.

For cardio, we had an interesting workout. In the first block, we had rounds of a 1-minute push pace and a 90-second base pace. But in the push paces, we were supposed to increase for the last 15 seconds to make it closer to an all-out. And in the second block, we had 1-minute push paces with an increase for the last 30 seconds and a 2-minute base pace after. Since those last seconds of the push paces weren’t supposed to be an all-out, I didn’t increase my resistance level on the bike and just increased how fast I was pedaling instead.

On the rower, both blocks focused on doing a 200-meter row with as few strokes as possible. In the first block, we had lunges and shoulder presses with a medicine ball between each row. And in the second block, we did forward presses and bicep curls with the medicine ball. I’m usually pretty good about keeping my strokes low when we have a challenge like this one. I averaged about 15 strokes for each row, but I was able to get one down to just 13.

And on the floor, we had 3 exercises in each block. In the first block, we had goblet squats, hip bridges, and sit-ups to rotations. And in the second block, we had low rows, bridge holds with pullovers, and high plank knee taps. I tried to go heavy with my weights when I could, but I couldn’t go as heavy as I would have liked to go with my squats. I know I can normally do better, but at least I did well with my other weights.

By Wednesday, I was feeling pretty bad so I knew it would have to be an easier workout day. And I was able to modify most of the workout to work best for me.

For cardio, the work was all about inclines and recoveries. In the first block, we alternated between a 45-second push pace at a high incline/resistance level and a 1-minute recovery. In the second block, we had a 1-minute push pace at a slightly lower incline/resistance level and a 45-second recovery. The resistance levels for both blocks were much higher than what I normally use so I was pedaling very slowly. But at least I wasn’t too worried about that since I also wasn’t feeling good.

On the rower, we were timed with cardio and had sprints for each block. So in the first block, we had 45-second rowing sprints with a minute to recover. And in the second block, we had 1-minute rowing sprints with 45-seconds to recover. I did a lot better in the first block with the shorter sprints. I think I was going too hard at the beginning of the longer sprints and kept getting burnt out by the end of those rows.

And on the floor, each block had some cluster sets and then regular exercises. For the cluster sets, we did 12-16 reps of the exercises, rested for about 10 seconds, and then did as many reps as we could before resting again. And we did those twice before moving on to the other exercises. The first block had cluster sets of a chest press before doing sit-ups and plank front reaches. And the second block had cluster sets of tap squats before moving on to the same exercises as the first block.

Thursday was my toughest day with how I was feeling, but I was glad it was the end of my workout week. And just like always, I pushed through when I could and went easy when I needed to.

For cardio, the first two blocks were the same. We had a 1-minute base to push pace, 1-minute push pace, 1-minute push to all-out, and 1-minute all-out. And I was using my normal resistance levels and then the levels between the regular ones to work for the pattern. And the last block just had 1-minute intervals with a base, push, and all-out.

On the rower, the first block had rounds of a 200-meter row with single-leg halos using the medicine ball. In the second block, we had 150-meter rows and lunges between each row. My rows were pretty slow, but they were also consistent for each round. So I considered it a victory that my rows weren’t getting worse as the blocks went on. And we finished along with cardio with the 1-minute all-out row.

On the floor, we had 2 exercises for each block. The first block had single-arm shoulder presses and plank dips. The second block had deadlifts and bird dogs. And the last block had double crunches and back extensions. I went slowly with the exercises in each block, but that’s expected with how I was feeling.

Considering I was tired from working out more than normal the week before and dealing with the beginning of my bad week, I’m very happy with how things went this past week. And this week might be another bad week or it might be a bit better. Each day will be a bit of a mystery. And even though I did a family workout for Fake Thanksgiving, I’m still planning on doing a Thanksgiving Day workout on my own!

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Most Of My Workout Week (or Some Improvements and Some New Struggles)

Posted on November 14, 2022 | Comments Off

I had a longer workout week than normal this past week. But for this post, I’m only going to write about the regular 4 workouts that I did and the last one will be in a different post. I had a few things overall that both helped and hurt my workouts. I did try to drink a bit of the protein milk that I normally have for breakfast before my workout instead of drinking juice. That way, I would get a bit of sugar in my system and I also would have some protein instead of working out on an empty stomach. That actually helped a lot and I’m going to keep doing that. But I also spent the week dealing with the congestion that I’ve had for the past week. I don’t feel sick and I’ve been making sure it’s not Covid, but any time that you feel off, it can make your workouts off. But I did my best for this past week.

For Monday’s workout, we had 3 blocks at each section of the room. And for cardio and rowing, we did the same thing for each block.

For cardio, we started with a 30-second base pace followed by a 30-second push pace. We then had a 30-second all-out and a 30-second recovery before repeating that pattern again for that block. Since everything was short intervals, it kept things from feeling too repetitive, even though the workout was the same in each block.

On the rower, everything was also in 30-second intervals. We had 3 intervals with a medicine ball and 3 intervals on the rower. We had good mornings, squats, and squat presses with the medicine ball. Then we had 30-seconds to get onto the rower before we did the same pattern as cardio for the second half of each block.

On the floor, each block had 2 exercises. The first block had single-arm marches with a shoulder press and rollouts on the straps. The second block had front squats with weights and calf raises. And the last block had clean presses with weights and y-raises on the straps.

Tuesday’s workout felt more like an endurance day even though I know it was still a mix of endurance, strength, and power.

For cardio, we had one long block that started with a 90-second push pace followed by a 90-second base pace. We continued to do push paces followed by 90-second base paces, but the push pace got 30-seconds longer each time. And at the end of the cardio block, we had a 1-minute all-out.

On the rower, we were on our own with the timing between rowing and the exercise we had to do. We started with 3 rounds of a 200-meter row where we tried to improve upon our time each round. Then we had knees to elbows, which I do almost like marching in place but I do try to get my knees as high as I can go. Then we had 3 rounds of a 150-meter row with knees to elbows after completing those rounds. I was working on the 3 rounds of a 100-meter row when the block ended. And for the 150-meter and 100-meter rows, I was able to improve upon each row.

On the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had split squat jumps, which I have to do as lunges, and neutral grip thrusters. And in the second block, we had single-arm hip hinge swings, single-arm chest presses, and lateral hop overs. Sometimes I do try to do the hop overs with lowering the bench, but since I was using the bench for other exercises I decided to do skater lunges instead so I didn’t have to take up too much time lowering and raising the bench.

Wednesday’s workout had an interesting cardio challenge. For people on the treadmills, they were doing power walking for most of the block. And because they were using high inclines, that meant I was using high resistance levels on the bike.

We had 3 cardio blocks that all had the same pattern. We had 3-minutes using inclines, and the inclines went down by 1% every minute. And each block ended with a 1-minute all-out within inclines. Since we would have 9 different high inclines/resistance levels to use, I knew I would have to go really high on the bike. For the first block, I felt like I didn’t move that much for those 3-minutes. But each block did get easier and it was nice to have very little resistance when I did the 1-minute all-out each block.

On the rower, we started with a 600-meter base row. After recovering, we did a 300-meter row followed by squats to standing knee tucks. We repeated the 300-meter row and squats to knee tucks 3 times before doing another 600-meter row. I did fine with the first 600-meter row and the 3 300-meter rows. But during the last 600-meter row, I think my congestion was just affecting me a bit more than I thought it would. I had to take quite a few breaks during that row and I wasn’t able to finish before the rowing block was done.

And on the floor, we had 1 long block with 3 mini-blocks. And we were supposed to do each mini-block twice before moving on to the next one. We had lateral lunges and reciprocating rows, bicep curls and rows on the straps, and plank pull-throughs and seated rotations. I was able to get through doing all of the mini-blocks twice and was working on repeating all the exercises again when the workout was done. I don’t always get through all the exercises like that, so I was pretty proud of myself.

And for Thursday’s workout, we had a specialty workout. This was called Shot Clock and it was designed by the NCAA player of the year to be similar to the workouts they do to train for their games. We had 3 blocks for each section of the room.

For cardio, blocks 1 and 3 were the same. For those blocks, we had a 2 1/2-minute distance challenge. And the extra challenge was to go further in block 3 than you did in block 1. And for block 2, we started with 3 rounds of a 30-second push pace and a 15-second all-out. Doing a 15-second all-out is very rare, so we were supposed to try to push ourselves to go faster. And I did try to do that with how fast I was pedaling. And the second block ended with just a 30-second all-out.

On the rower, just like with cardio we did the same thing for blocks 1 and 3. For those blocks, we did 100-meter rows and tried to improve upon our time each time we did it. I was able to do better each time in the first block, but I wasn’t quite able to do that for the last block. And for block 2, we followed the same pattern as cardio with the pushes and all-outs. But when cardio had their recovery after each all-out, we got off our rowers and did quick feet.

And on the floor, the first block was interesting. It was 2 1/2-minutes long and we had 3 exercises in it. We had quick feet, plank jacks, and lateral hops. But our coach told us what to do and when, so we never knew when we’d be switching to a new exercise or how long we’d be doing it. The second block was timed along with cardio and the rower. We had 30-seconds of a goblet squat, 15-seconds of a squat with a calf raise, and during the cardio recovery, we had either side plank reaches or plank hip dips. I did the hip dips since those are a bit easier for my hips. And the last block for cardio was with a partner. We sat back to back and did torso rotations with the medicine ball and passed the ball between us. And we also had push-ups where we passed the medicine ball between us. It was an interesting and different partner challenge and my partner and I were able to get through the exercises pretty quickly so we got in a few rounds of each.

I’m glad that even though I struggled a bit with feeling a bit off, it didn’t affect too much of my workout. I know it wasn’t the best workout week, but it was far from the worst. And like I said, this was just some of my workout week because I had one more workout to go!

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A Little More Of Hell Week (or Trying To Push A Bit More)

Posted on November 7, 2022 | Comments Off

I only had a little bit of Hell Week left this past week and then I was back to normal workouts. But it was also a week that I was feeling a bit better so I was able to push a bit more and try to have a good workout week. I’ve been having too many weeks where I’m struggling due to various issues, so feeling ok for most of the week and going harder was something I really needed to do.

Monday’s workout was the final day of Hell Week. I had already earned my shirt the week before, and I normally don’t get to do more workouts than required to earn the shirt. But with the way the schedule worked this time, I was able to do 5 Hell Week workouts by just doing my regular schedule.

This workout was called Untitled and it was a partner workout. We hadn’t really done a real partner workout since the pandemic (the workout that was similar to a partner workout at the beginning of Hell Week still had blocks determined by the coach and not by our partners), so it was exciting to have something different. But it also put pressure on the workout to make sure I didn’t slack off and let my partners down.

Before we started the partner section of the workout, we had really short blocks in each section of the room. For cardio and rowing, we had a 30-second base, a 30-second base to push pace, a 30-second push pace, a 30-second push to all-out, and 30-second all-out. And on the floor, we did 30-seconds each for good mornings, squats, skater lunges, in and out steps, and boat holds. Then we go to the partner workout.

For cardio and rowing, whoever was in that part of the room was just going as long as it took to have a switch. We didn’t reset the rower and the goal was to get as many meters as possible during the entire workout. And the person who was on the floor controlled the switch. We had 6 exercises we might have to do on the floor, but we only had to do 3 at a time. We had bicep curls, squat to press, low rows on the straps, chest presses on the straps, sit-ups, and plank reaches. But the Hell Week twist was that at random points during the workout, the 3 exercises the floor person had to do switched. And if you were on the floor when the switch happened, you had to start over and do all of the new exercises. So there were times when someone was on the last exercise and then they switched so they had to start over and the people on cardio and rower had to do double the time. Whenever the person on the floor was done, everyone switched.

I had good partners for this workout and I feel like we all were doing the floor exercises at the same pace so nobody was making the person doing cardio or rowing take longer than necessary (other than when the exercises switched). I really enjoyed this workout and felt like it was the perfect way to end Hell Week.

Tuesday’s workout was the first regular workout after Hell Week. It seemed like a lot of people took the day off, but I was ready to get back to normal workouts. And this workout was one where we could pick and choose some aspects of it, so it worked out well to be a bit of a recovery day.

For cardio, the first two blocks were 4 minutes each and we could decide how we wanted to do those 4 minutes. You could do a progressive push, some all-outs and recovery, or whatever intervals you wanted to do. I decided to do a 3-minute push pace into a 1-minute all-out for both of those blocks. I wasn’t going as fast as I might have done if I wasn’t tired from Hell Week, but I did better than I had done when I was feeling bad. And for the last block, we had rounds of 30-second all-outs and 30-second recoveries.

On the rower, the first block was rounds of a 250-meter row and squats. For the second block, we had rounds of a 250-meter row and lunges. And for the last block, we were matched with cardio with the 30-second intervals of all-outs and recoveries.

And on the floor, the first two blocks were at our own pace and the last block was timed. In the first block, we had sumo deadlifts and plank steps. In the second block, we had squat to bicep curls and single-leg downward dog to leg drives. And in the last block, we had 2 options for what we wanted to do for 30-second intervals. I chose to do the work using the TRX straps so I had tricep extensions and bicep curls and we just switched every 30-seconds which exercise we did. My arms were so tired at the end of that last block!

On Wednesday, I was finally feeling more normal and no longer tired from Hell Week. And it allowed me to push myself a bit more in the workout, which was a good thing since the cardio work was really tough!

We had 2 blocks and in the first cardio block, we had 3 hills to do. For each hill, we started at the highest incline/resistance level and it went down every minute for 3 minutes. Then we had a minute to recover before doing the hills again. I had the resistance levels set to start higher than my all-out level, so it was very tough to pedal. And in the second block, we started at an even higher incline/resistance level and every minute it went down until we were at a flat incline for the all-out at the end. Again, I was spending most of my time at a resistance level higher than my all-out so it was really tough. But it was a good challenge to do and I didn’t focus too much on how fast I was pedaling since I knew I was getting the challenge in another way.

On the rower, both blocks started with a 500-meter row. In the first block, after the row we had 2 rounds of tricep extensions and front presses with a medicine ball before getting on the rower again to row for distance until the block was done. For the second block, we only had to do the exercises once before getting on the rower and the challenge was to try to beat the first distance even though the second block was shorter. I was able to get further in the second block, but I think it helped that I didn’t need to rest between reps with the medicine ball before getting back to rowing.

And on the floor, each block had 3 exercises. The first block had clean to front squats, push-ups, and plank side reaches. And the second block had single-arm neutral thrusters, lunges, and woodchoppers. And as a finisher, at the end of the workout, we had frogger squats. I think I might have made the floor a little easier since the bike work was so tough, but I did try to challenge myself a bit with the weights and allow myself to struggle instead of speeding through the exercises.

Thursday was the day I think I pushed myself the most and also the day that I was feeling the most lightheaded. I did get a chance to talk to my coach after class to try to figure out how to make sure my blood sugar doesn’t keep dropping in class, so I’m hoping that this week might be a bit better for me. I only was dealing with lightheadedness at certain points in the workouts, so I’m glad it wasn’t affecting the entire thing.

For cardio, we mainly had 30-second all-outs for the entire block. We started with 30-second intervals with base and push paces, but only did that twice before starting with the 30-second all-outs. We had a mix of 45-second and 1-minute recoveries between each all-out, which didn’t feel like that much time when we were constantly doing all-outs. I’m much more used to having a base or push pace mixed in there too, so even though we had a lot more recovery time than normal, it wasn’t easy. I mixed things up between using my normal all-out resistance level on the bike and using my base level and just pedaling as fast as possible so I could maximize my efforts on the bike. And I think that was a really good plan for me because I think I was tired but at least the variety helped me not feel too exhausted.

On the rower, we started with a 4-minute row. I had a moment of being lightheaded on the rower, but it passed really quickly so I didn’t have to take a long break. And I focused on just being steady with my rowing and not going too crazy. After the row, we had bicep curls and calf raises with a medicine ball before getting back on the rower for a 2-minute row. We repeated this pattern with cutting the row in half each time and the goal was to beat at least half the distance each time. Because the rows kept getting shorter, I was able to not only do better than half the distance, but my wattage on the rower was going up significantly each time. That was unexpected since I usually am in a very small range with the wattage for all my rows.

And on the floor, we had 3 blocks. In the first block, it was supposed to be all Bosu work, but I had to do them without using the Bosu. We had knee tucks, bicycle crunches, and back extensions. The knee tucks were really hard for me to do, but they always are so I just had to go slowly and rest when I needed to. The second block had step-back low rows and skier swings and the last block had chest presses and lunges. For those last two blocks, the lightheadedness really hit me hard. I just have to sit and let it pass when that happens, so that’s what I did. I didn’t love that it took away from my workout, but I also made up for it by trying to push myself even more when I was doing the exercises. And hopefully, some of the tips I got from my coach will help me moving forward.

I think that this was the perfect way to end Hell Week. I had some really great workouts and I still tried to push myself. And this week, I might be pushing myself a bit more (but I’ll have to share about that when I do my recap) and I’ll be doing my first workout that is not in California! I’m very excited to share about that!

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A Full Week Of Hell Week (or Quickly Earning My Shirt)

Posted on October 31, 2022 | Comments Off

This past week was the start of Hell Week. I do love the different challenges that Orangetheory has throughout the year and Hell Week is one of my favorites. Hell Week has harder than normal workouts, but if you complete a specific number of them, you earn a shirt. I know it seems silly to be excited about a shirt, but it’s about the bragging rights more than anything. This year, you had to do 4 out of the 8 workouts to earn your shirt. And if you do all 8, you earn a gym bag as well. I knew I couldn’t do all 8 workouts, but I was excited to get my workouts in and earn my shirt this year. And since Hell Week started on a Monday, I was able to get in all 4 workouts required for the shirt in the first 4 days! I had the added challenge during the week with dealing with pain and nausea, but I think it was better this past week than it was the week before.

Monday’s workout was called Group Project and it was a bit of a partner workout. It wasn’t a traditional partner workout because the switches were done as a class and you weren’t waiting on your partners to finish something, but the 3 of us in my group still worked together on the workout.

For cardio, you ran or biked for distance until the last 30-seconds of each block when you had an all-out. But you didn’t know how long you’d be in that block, so you had to pace yourself without knowing how long you had to go for. You had a bit of an idea because the timing correlated to the rowing, but it was still something that only the coach knew.

On the rower, each time someone in the group was on the rower they had a different distance. It started with the first partner doing a 200-meter row and then they held a squat until it was time to switch. Some people finished the row and some people didn’t. The next partner had a 300-meter row and a squat hold, and that pattern of increasing the row by 100-meters continued until one partner had a 700-meter row and a squat hold. After that row, the rows decreased by 100-meters each time.

And on the floor, we had the same exercises every time we were on the floor and you picked up where you left off after the last block. We had pull-ups on the straps, plank shoulder taps, upright rows using weights, and lunges. I felt like the only place I could get a bit of a break was on the floor since we were constantly moving around. But it was a good challenge to always be changing what we were doing and I really enjoyed the opening workout of Hell Week.

Tuesday’s workout was called The Distance Directive and it was all about challenging yourself with the distance you could do for cardio and on the rower.

For cardio, the first block was a 6-minute distance challenge where we started at a high incline/resistance level and the incline/resistance went down every 90-seconds. I started higher than I normally am for my all-out to keep it challenging. And after that challenge, we had a 30-second all-out without incline. We were supposed to remember our distance so we could try to beat it in the second block. The second block had rounds of a 1-minute all-out with a 30-second recovery. And each all-out increased in incline/resistance level to match what we had done in the first block. Doing an all-out at really high resistance levels was so tough and I struggled to get my distance up there. But I managed to do the exact same distance in the first and second blocks so I was very happy with that.

On the rower, we started with 4 rounds of a 1-minute all-out row with a 30-second rest after each row. We ended that block with a 30-second all-out. Again, we were supposed to remember our distance to try to beat it in the second block. The second block started with doing half the distance we did in the first block. Then we had lunges to hops to get done before trying to do the second half of the distance from the first block. I just came short of getting to that distance the second time, but I’m happy with how close I got.

On the floor, each block had a buy-in and buy-out exercise to start and end the block. In the first block, we had hop overs and in the second block, we had lateral lunges. Then for each block, we had 3 exercises to do and we had a range of reps to go for so we could test out different weights. The first block had tricep extensions, chest presses, and knee tucks. And the second block had bicep curls, reverse grip low rows, and high plank knee tucks. I was feeling a lot better this day compared to Monday, so I was able to do a bit better with the workout. But I didn’t change up the weights I used on the floor, which I do regret a little bit. I could have tried harder, but I was worried about pushing myself too much.

Wednesday’s workout was called To Hell Or High Wattage, and I think this was the hardest workout of the entire week. We had a coach in class with us for this workout and that coach as well as the one who was coaching the class agreed that this was very hard and possibly the hardest workout for all of Hell Week.

For cardio, we were self-timed for the entire workout. We started with a .25-mile (or 1-mile for me on the bike) push into a 30-second all-out. Then we had pulsing half squats. We repeated the pattern of the 30-second all-out and pulsing half squats 2 more times before doing another .25-mile/1 mile distance and we repeated the pattern again with doing the distance and then 3 rounds of a 30-second all-out with pulsing half squats. It didn’t sound hard when we were being told what the workout would be, but doing it was another thing. The half squats definitely got to me and I knew I would be sore later.

On the rower, we had a lot of timed work. We started with a 75-second push row into a 30-second all-out row. The second block had 3 rounds of a 30-second all-out row with only 15-seconds to recover between each row. The third block had a 2-minute push row into a 30-second all-out row. The fourth block had 4 rounds of a 30-second all-out row with 15-seconds to recover. And the last block was a 2 1/2-minute push row with a 30-second all-out. That was a lot of rowing and very little rest. And I know that rowing has been a weak point for me lately so that made this even more challenging. I was exhausted after the row blocks, and I still had the floor do to.

On the floor, we had some blocks that were timed with the rowers and some that were at our own pace. For blocks 1, 3, and 5; we paced ourselves with the exercises. We had single-leg squats (which I did as regular squats) and rollouts using the straps. The rollouts were extra tough because I had gotten my flu shot the day before, so I was a bit sore. But I’m glad that I was only sore and didn’t feel worse. In blocks 2 and 4, we had exercises during the 30-second intervals and rest in the 15-second intervals. All the exercises were single-arm snatches, but sometimes we focused on one side for the entire 30-seconds and then switched sides when it was the next interval, and other times we had alternating sides during the 30-seconds so you had to put the weight down on the ground to switch hands. When we had the alternating ones, I know I did deeper squats to get the weight on the ground, and that added to the soreness I was already feeling.

I was very sore on Thursday. I knew that I would probably feel that way since I was doing 4 Hell Week classes in a row. But I was excited to earn my shirt in that workout. This workout was called Switch The Core Concept, and I’m glad that it was a bit easier on my legs so I didn’t hurt more.

For cardio, we started with a 1-minute push pace into a 30-second all-out. Then for the rest of the workout, we had 30-second all-outs and recoveries. I believe it was a total of 12 all-outs, but I honestly lost count. We started with having a 1-minute recovery and after a few rounds, it decreased to 45-second recoveries. And I believe the last 6 all-outs only had 30-second recoveries. It was a lot to do and not a lot of time to recover during the entire block. I kept my resistance levels the way I normally have them, but I know I didn’t pedal as fast as I normally would.

On the rower, we had an interesting challenge. We set our rowers for a 2000-meter row and the goal was to get as much of it done as possible. We started timed with cardio with a 1-minute push row to a 30-second all-out row. Then we had overhead presses and front presses with the medicine ball. When we were on the rower, we started with rounds of 30-second all-out rows with the medicine ball exercises between each row. After a few minutes, we had 45-second all-out rows with a decreased number of reps for the exercises. And for the last few minutes, we had 1-minute all-out rows with even fewer reps of the medicine ball exercises. I knew I wouldn’t get 2000-meters done, but I was hoping to get at least 1500-meters completed at the end of the block, and I did just over that. I was so happy that I saw I only had 500-meters left of the 2000-meters when there were about 5 seconds left in the block.

And on the floor, it was all core work, as you could guess from the name of the workout. It was one long block and it was a lot. We had plank low rows, weighted crunches, bicycle presses, weighted v-ups, plank pull-throughs, and weighted hip bridges. I had to go a bit lighter for some of the weights because of how sore my legs were. But I’m glad that I didn’t have to do more squats after Wednesday’s workout. I rested when I had to on the floor, but I tried to limit it since I knew that this would be my last workout for the week.

After doing 4 Hell Week workouts in a row, I totally earned my shirt. Unfortunately, the shirts I’ve earned don’t fit me but I still collect them because maybe one day I will fit in them. I lost my first Hell Week shirt, so I only have 8 or the 9 that I have earned. But I still think it’s a very impressive collection.

Even though I have completed the Hell Week challenge, I will still have one more Hell Week workout since Halloween is today. And I’m hoping that I do just as well with that workout as I did this past week to finish out a fun but tough OTF challenge!

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Pre-Hell Week Workouts (or Getting Myself Ready)

Posted on October 24, 2022 | Comments Off

I knew this past week would be tough for me because I would likely be dealing with pain and nausea. Fortunately, that’s all I had to deal with this past week because the side effects from the new medication weren’t affecting me the same way as they did the week before. I have gotten into a good routine in the morning to make sure that I’m feeling ok and I’m glad it was working. Even though I would have loved to feel great during my workouts, at least it was only issues that I’m used to. And it also got me ready for Hell Week, which is starting this week.

Monday’s workout felt like more of an endurance day even though I know there were also strength and power elements in it. Maybe the way I get through workouts when I’m nauseous makes them seem more like endurance days.

For cardio, we had one long block but we had a lot of recovery time in it. We started with a 2-minute base pace and then had a 1-minute push pace and a 30-second all-out. After the all-out, we had 3 minutes to recover and get back to our base pace when we were ready. We repeated that pattern again and then we ended with a 1-minute all-out. Because my recovery and base pace resistance levels are the same on the bike, I did the recovery by pedaling very slowly and then increasing my cadence until I was at what I do for a base pace.

On the rower, we had one block with 3 mini-blocks in it. We were supposed to do each mini-block 3 times. The first mini-block had a 200-meter row and jump squats, which I did as squats with calf raises. The second mini-block had a 150-meter row and lunges. And the last mini-block had a 100-meter row and squat jacks, which I did as regular squats. I didn’t get through all of the rounds of the 100-meter row, but I got through most of it which is better than a lot of my recent classes.

And on the floor, we also had a long block with mini-blocks. The first mini-block had goblet squats and reciprocating rows with weights. And the second mini-block had deadlifts and leg raises. We were supposed to do the first mini-block twice before moving on to the second, and I was on my second round of the second mini-block when we were stopped to do a 1-minute finisher of hop overs, which I did as lunges.

On Tuesday, we had an interesting workout. We had 4 blocks at each section of the room and they got shorter each time. And the workouts within each block were either the same or very similar so we had a lot of chances to do each thing.

For cardio, the first block had a 2-minute push pace, 1-minute base pace, and 30-second all-out. For each block after that, the push pace got 30-seconds shorter so for the last block we only had a 30-second push pace.

On the rower, we were timed with cardio so we had the same intervals. We did push rows and all-out rows. But instead of having a 1-minute base pace, we had a minute to do forward and back hops, and then we could rest if there was any time left. I couldn’t do the hops, but I did do shuffle steps instead and I usually had about 15-seconds left to get back on the rower and ready for the all-out row.

And on the floor, almost everything was timed to be 30-second intervals. For the first block, we had squats to bicep curls, lunges, plank rows, bicycle presses, plank jacks, and squat jumps. The plank jacks were the only thing not done as a 30-second interval. For those, we had 1-minute to do 12 of them and then could rest for any extra time. And each block, we lost one of the 30-second exercises. There wasn’t any time between exercises like we sometimes have, so we were rushing to get from one exercise to another to make sure we didn’t lose too much time in the transition.

On Wednesday, my nausea was really kicking in and it was pretty hard for me to get through a lot in this workout. I was trying to manage it with medication, but it didn’t help me much this day. For each section of the room, we had 2 blocks.

For cardio, we started with a 2-minute push pace followed by a 1-minute base pace. Then we had a 30-second push pace to a 30-second all-out. Then we had a quick recovery before doing another 30-second all-out. For the second block, we started with a 1-minute push pace instead of a 2-minute push pace. We repeated the same pattern but we had 4 all-outs in this block instead of the 2 we had in the first block.

On the rower, the first block had distance rows with an exercise between each row. We were told to make sure we weren’t going too fast with the row because if you finished all 3 you were supposed to be in a squat hold. But I knew with how I was feeling, there wasn’t any worry that I would get through all 3. We had a 400, 300, and 200-meter row. And between each row, we had good mornings which are similar to deadlifts without a weight. In the second block, we started with small crew rows. We were paired with the person next to us and we were supposed to row together. I had the person I was paired with be the leader since I knew I would have to take a break at some point. But I only needed one break during a 2 1/2-minute crew row which is much better than I thought I would do. After the crew row, we did the same all-outs we had for cardio. I did better with those since they were short.

On the floor, both blocks had 2 mini-blocks and the first mini-block each time used the mini-bands. In the first block, we started with hip bridges and torso rotations using the mini-band. And then we had lateral step-ups and low rows. The second block started with toe reaches and single-leg bridges (which I did as regular hip bridges). And then we had shoulder presses and step-ups with bicep curls. I lowered the bench so I could do the step-ups. I didn’t go too heavy with any of the weights I used, but I’m glad I did try all the exercises as much as I could.

I was feeling almost the same on Thursday as I did on Wednesday, so it was pretty rough. But I still pushed through and did everything that I could.

For cardio, the first block was rounds of a 2-minute push pace and a 1-minute base pace. And the push pace had increasing inclines/resistance levels so each time it got harder. The second block had rounds of a 1-minute all-out and a 1-minute recovery and the all-outs had increasing inclines/resistance levels. I did get to use resistance levels higher than I normally would, but I was already struggling on the bike so I couldn’t really tell how much harder it was than normal.

On the rower, we were timed along with cardio. We did 2-minute rows in the first block and then had a minute to do forward and back hops (which I did as shuffle steps). I was happy to see that I was able to do the row without stopping each time and I actually got further with my distance each time. And in the second block, we had 1-minute all-out rows and then we were supposed to do jumping jacks. But I was getting really nauseous after the rows and I ended up using that minute to rest and let the nausea pass.

And on the floor, we had 2 blocks and each block had 2 exercises so we were supposed to go slowly and use heavy weights. In the first block, we had step-downs to toe taps and single-arm high rows. For the step-downs, I lowered the bench and did the first round without weights to make sure I had enough balance for it. But I did use light weights after that and it was a good challenge for me. And the second block had single-arm chest presses and crunches. Fortunately, those exercises weren’t too bad for me.

This week is the start of Hell Week and I should be earning my shirt during my workouts this week. But I also know I might have worse pain and nausea this week as well. So there’s a chance it will be a double Hell Week for me. I’ll just have to see how it goes.

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Another Week And More Weird Workouts (or I Think This Was Hell Week Prep In Multiple Ways)

Posted on October 17, 2022 | Comments Off

I have had so many weeks where my workouts were affected by various medical issues. I’m starting to be used to it, but it’s always a surprise for me and what ends up affecting what I can and can’t do. But as always, I pushed through all my workouts this past week. But I think this past week of workouts was also harder to get us ready for Hell Week.

Monday’s workout was a first for me. I’ve never had to leave class early, but this time I knew I would have to. I had my appointment with the doctor in bariatric medicine that morning, and I had meant to change what time I was going to work out. But by the time I remember I needed to do that, it was too late. And it ended up working out ok because if I had done the later class, I would have still been at my appointment since it took so long.

Since I was going to leave early, I only did the cardio and rowing portions of the workout. It wasn’t ideal to skip the floor, but that’s how it worked out so I could get home in time to shower before I had to leave for my appointment. I was still having some hip/back pain, but it was much better than how it was at the end of the week before.

Cardio was pretty simple. We had rounds of a 2 1/2-minute push pace followed by a 90-second base pace. I did use the new resistance levels for all of my cardio work and it’s starting to feel more normal to me. It’s still a challenge, but it doesn’t feel like I’m struggling quite as much. And we ended cardio with a 30-second all-out.

For the rowing, everything was a stroke drill and we were supposed to keep our stroke rate pretty low. We had 3 different stroke drills with 3 different exercises and we repeated each drill and exercise 3 times. We had 20-stroke drills with side hops, 15-stroke drills with front and back hops, and 10-stroke drills with high knees. The exercises were a bit tough on my hips, but I just went slowly and took breaks in the middle of them when I needed to. And as soon as I finished my last round of the 10-stroke drills, I had to leave class so I could get home. Just like when I’m dealing with pain and nausea, I know some workout is better than no workout. But I don’t want to have to leave a class in the middle again if I can help it.

Tuesday was a really tough workout. It was the first day after taking the new medication, and I had some side effects from it. I’m going to be taking steps to help make sure that doesn’t affect my workout too much (like drinking a little juice before working out to get some sugar in me), but I didn’t do that before this workout since I didn’t know. But also, it seemed like everyone was saying this workout was really hard so it wasn’t just me.

For cardio, we had 4 blocks. Blocks 1 and 3 were the same and blocks 2 and 4 were the same. For blocks 1 and 3, we started with a 90-second push pace followed by a 1-minute base pace. And we ended those blocks with a 1-minute base pace at an incline/high resistance level to make it feel like an all-out. And for blocks 2 and 4, we had all 30-second base pace intervals but the incline/resistance level increased every 30 seconds. I was mainly using the same resistance levels that I’ve been using the past few weeks, but I did make sure the highest level I used was higher than my new all-out one.

For rowing, we had the same thing for blocks 1 and 3 and similar things for blocks 2 and 4. For blocks 1 and 3, we had a 3 1/2-minute row for distance. That was a long row, and it was harder than normal because I could tell my blood sugar was dropping. I did take breaks during the rowing and they were a bit longer than I usually take for pain because I wanted to make sure that I didn’t make myself sick. But I have gotten pretty good and being aware of my body and how I’m feeling so I did ok. And for blocks 2 and 4, we had 30-second intervals with different exercises. For block 2, we had halos and squats with the medicine ball. And for block 4, we had overhead presses and squat jacks with the medicine ball.

And on the floor, we had one long block with different mini-blocks. For each mini-block, we did the exercises twice before doing the next one. We had bird dog low rows and mountain climbers, single-arm tricep extensions and bench hop overs, and plank low rows and squats. When the workout was done, I just got through the second round of the last mini-block.

I was doing better on Wednesday. I still didn’t have a chance to have something to drink before my workout, but I think the side effects were affecting me less than the day before. So I wasn’t quite as worried about how drops in blood sugar might hit me.

For cardio, we were on our own with some distance challenges. We had rounds on the treadmill/bike and then after getting to each distance we had squats. I made it to the 3rd distance in the challenge, which seems to be about how everyone else did as well. I used my new push pace resistance level for all the cardio work.

On the rower, we were timed for everything. We had 3 blocks and each block was different. In the first block, we had rounds of a 1-minute push row followed by a 30-second all-out row. In the second block, we had rounds of a 30-second push row followed by a 30-second all-out row. And in the third block, we just had 30-second all-out rows. I did try to get my rowing wattage up for the all-out rows compared to the push rows, but they weren’t getting as high as I know I can get them.

And on the floor, we also had 3 blocks. The first two blocks had 2 exercises each and the last block had one exercise. The first block had bicep curls on the straps and lateral lunges. The second block had incline chest fly with weights and sit-up to stand with shoulder presses. I couldn’t do the sit-up to stand because it was bothering my hips, so I focused on doing the shoulder presses instead. And the last block had single-leg squats using the straps, but I did them as regular squats. But since we used the straps for support for those, I was able to get much deeper into my squats than I normally can.

I think Thursday was probably my best day this past week. I did buy some juice so I could drink something with a little sugar before working out. It helped me feel better, but that could also be because I might be getting used to this new medication. But I think for at least a little while, I’m going to make sure I drink something before working out just in case.

For cardio, we had a pretty simple workout but it was tough! We had 3 rounds of a 3-minute push pace followed by a 2-minute base pace. Doing a 3-minute push pace isn’t unusual, but doing so many of them in a workout isn’t something we normally do. And since I have increased my push pace level, that added even more to it.

For cardio, we started with a 250-meter row and then had bicep curls with a medicine ball. We then did a 200-meter row and bicep curls and reduced the row by 50 meters each time. And once we did a 100-meter row, we then repeated that row again and the exercise changed to lunges as we increased the row by 50 meters each time. I only did one round with the increasing rows, but I also know that I took longer getting on and off the rower than I normally do.

And on the floor, we started with a stability circuit. We had balance shoulder presses, balance deadlifts, and bird dogs with toe taps. After those, we had similar exercises where we focused on strength. We had kneeling shoulder presses, single-arm deadlifts, and side plank leg lifts. For the balance exercises, I couldn’t really do them as balance things, but I tried to find ways to challenge myself where I could.

As much as I want to hope that this week will be easier for me, I know it won’t. I’m already dealing with pain and nausea, so that will be part of what challenges me. And I don’t know if I’ll have any of the other issues I’ve been dealing with kicking in again too. But I’m just going to keep going, and I’m making sure that I’m ready for Hell Week when it starts soon!

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PRs and Pain (or Another Up and Down Workout Week)

Posted on October 10, 2022 | Comments Off

I had a mixed workout week this past week. I had some really great things and some not-so-great things happening. But fortunately, I decided to focus more on the positive things and I think that was reflected in my workouts.

For Monday’s workout, we had a lot of power work, so it was a good day for me to push myself. I felt so much more like myself, but I still have some work to do to build my strength again. But I still challenged myself where I could.

For cardio, the first block was very short with a 45-second push pace, 30-second base pace, 30-second push pace, 45-second base pace, and 30-second all-out. Because those two push paces were the only ones we had for the workout, I increased my resistance level on the bike to be one higher for those. In the second block, all we had were all-outs and recoveries. We had 2 rounds of a 1-minute all-out, 2 rounds of a 45-second all-out, and 2 rounds of a 30-second all-out. And as the all-outs got shorter, the recoveries got longer. I probably could have pushed myself a bit more in the all-outs and maybe I should have worked on increasing my all-out resistance level, but I’m trying to limit how much I push myself so I don’t overdo things.

On the rower, the first block was matched with cardio so we had the push rows and base rows. And for the second block, we had 500-meter rows with squats between each row. This was to prepare for the 500-meter row benchmark, which I’m not expecting to do too great on. But I proved to myself that I could do the row without stopping and that was going to be my main goal.

And on the floor, we had one long block with 3 mini-blocks in it. And we were supposed to do each mini-block twice before moving on to the next one. The first mini-block had mountain climbers and superman extensions. They were both supposed to be on the Bosu, but I did the mountain climbers without it. The second mini-block had goblet squats and sumo squats, and both were with weights. And the last mini-block had hip dips and bridge pullovers. Again, both of those exercises were supposed to be with the Bosu, but I did the hip dips on the floor instead.

Tuesday’s workout was a benchmark day and we had the 500-meter row. That is a really weird distance to do because it’s not a sprint like the 100-meter row and it’s not something you have to be careful about pushing yourself with like the 2000-meter row. It’s a mix of making sure you push hard but also not burning out in the beginning. And my only goal for this benchmark was to not need breaks during the row.

First, I had a short block with cardio since I was in the second group to go to the rowers. That short block was rounds of a short push pace followed by a 30-second walking recovery. We weren’t supposed to go too hard since we wanted to save our energy for the row.

Next was the benchmark row. We had more time than we needed to get it done, so we had extra time to warm up or get ready. But I just wanted to get started because I wasn’t expecting too much. We see a lot of information on the screens of the rower, and one thing we can see is our 500-meter split time. I noticed pretty quickly that my split time was a lot lower than I expected and it might be possible for me to get a PR. But I knew that if I went too hard then, I wouldn’t be able to maintain what I was doing. So I tried to keep everything steady and just keep going. Once I noticed I had less than 100 meters to go, I just went for it knowing that I was going to feel very exhausted when I was done. And somehow I got a new PR! This was less than a second faster than my last PR, but the last one was before the pandemic so this felt like a huge victory!

Next, we had a short block on the floor which wasn’t too intense since some people had the floor before the row. We had hip bridges, high rows on the straps, and torso rotations.

Then we went through all sections of the room again for longer blocks. For cardio, we started with rounds of a 1-minute all-out and 45-second recovery. Then we had rounds with 45-second all-outs and 30-second all-outs. I didn’t do any increases with my all-outs since I was exhausted after the benchmark. On the rower, we started with a 350-meter row followed by lunges. And each time we got back to the rower we decreased the row by 50 meters. And on the floor, we had lunges, plank pull-throughs, chest fly with weights, and side planks. Again, I was feeling how hard I worked for the benchmark and my floor work wasn’t too great. But I was feeling amazing after getting a new PR!

On Wednesday, I was feeling a bit sore but I thought it was due to how hard I went in the row benchmark combined with sitting for so many hours at work after. I know now that this was my back or hip pain coming back. But I didn’t know that at the time so I still tried to push myself.

For cardio, we were supposed to have a distance challenge and then exercises after each distance for the first block. But the exercises we had were both things that I knew I couldn’t do, plus I know getting on and off the bike can be tough when I’m sore, so I decided to just focus on doing my work on the bike. This isn’t ideal, but it’s one of the rare modifications I do from time to time. We had decreasing distances for cardio and we were supposed to increase either incline or speed each time. I just increased my resistance level on the bike for each distance and made sure I had a bit of recovery between each one to make up for not having the time off the bike with the exercises. And in the second block, we had rounds of a 30-second all-out and a 45-second recovery. Because I have been trying to challenge myself, I did increase my resistance level for the all-outs.

On the rower, the first two blocks were the same. We had rounds of a 30-second push row followed by a 45-second base row. And the goal in the second block was to beat the distance from the first block. And in the last block, we had 30-second all-out rows and then 45 seconds to do 10 squats. Any extra time we had in those 45 seconds was to recover and catch our breath.

And on the floor, everything was timed with 30-second and 45-second intervals. In the first block, we had either calf raises or squat jacks for 30 seconds and hand-release push-ups for 45 seconds. In the second block, we had lunges for 30 seconds and v-ups for 45 seconds. And in the last block, we had burpees for 30 seconds and plank jacks for 45 seconds. For that last block, I did use the bench for my hands to make things a bit easier for me.

On Thursday, my back/hip pain was worse, but it still wasn’t as bad as it had been the month before. So I had to be a bit easier on myself again, but I’m glad I was still able to do better than I had last month.

For cardio, we had mixes of push paces to all-outs and all-outs that were before and after recoveries. I continued to use the higher resistance levels for both my push pace and all-outs, and I’m proud of myself for doing that since I hadn’t increased them in a while. I’m hoping I can still continue to do that, but just proving it to myself was a big thing. The push paces and all-outs ranged from 30-seconds to 1-minute, and the recoveries matched the all-outs.

On the rower, we started with a 3-minute row. I did have to take a few breaks during this row, but I really tried to push myself to not take those breaks. After the row, we had squats. Next was a 90-second row and we were supposed to get at least half the distance of the 3-minute row. And then we had a 45-second row where we were supposed to get half the distance of the 90-second row. I might not have done great for each distance compared to normal, but I did always beat half my distance from the row before.

On the floor, we had one buy-in exercise and then we had mini-blocks. The buy-in exercise was double twist crunches, which was tough for me to do. But I did them slowly and was able to get them done. Then we did each mini-block twice before moving on to the next one. We had leg lifts with the straps and lateral lunges, and I did my best with the leg lifts with the pain I had. Next was high plank to push-up holds and suitcase squats. And finally, we had squats to Y-raises and reverse fly with weights. And for the last minute, we had around-the-world raises which were supposed to be kneeling but I did as a standing exercise.

I’m so glad that I did have some good wins this past week with my PR and working on increasing the resistance levels on the bike. But it’s unfortunate that my pain was kicking in again and making things not as great toward the end of the week. I have a feeling the pain will continue to be a factor this week, but I’m trying to stretch as much as I can in the hope that I can reduce the pain even a little bit. And I am hoping I can see a doctor soon to get some confirmation about what is going on because it is worrisome that this pain returned so quickly. But I have worked through pain so many times in my life and I will just continue to do so, both in my regular life and in my workouts.

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Having Some Improvements In My Week (or Realizing I Need To Work On Building Things Back Up)

Posted on October 3, 2022 | Comments Off

I’ve had a pretty rough time lately with my workouts. I feel like it’s been a long time since I’ve had a good week. I had a regular bad week, then it was my back issues, then feeling sick after my booster shot, and finally, my bad week returned again. I still was doing my workouts each week, but I kept having to modify things or go easy on myself. And because I’m stubborn, going easy on myself for an extended time isn’t easy for me. But finally, this week, I was starting to get a bit better. I had a bit of pain and nausea at the beginning of the week, but it was the best I had felt in a while.

On Monday, I was doing a lot better but I think my nausea was the worst this day compared to the rest of the week. But it was very manageable compared to how it can be and I had taken medication to help make it even more tolerable. And that really did help me a lot.

For cardio, we started with a 3 1/2-minute push pace followed by a 1-minute base pace. The push paces got 30-seconds shorter each time and the base pace stayed the same. And at the end, we had a 1-minute all-out. I normally don’t love long push paces, but I did this time. I was able to go at my own pace with the resistance level I use for my push paces and I tried to be pretty steady with how fast I was pedaling on the bike through all the push paces. I did have to take some rest during the push paces, but that’s normal for me at this point.

On the rower, we started with rounds of a 300-meter row and squats. That was a good length row for me because it wasn’t a sprint but it wasn’t so long that I needed to rest during my row. I know I have a ways to go with getting my rowing back to where it used to be and to get even better, but having good rowing challenges like this distance help. And we finished our rowing with 1-minute intervals of a base, push, and all-out.

And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The longer block was all about working and resting so we were encouraged to rest after each exercise instead of doing them as a circuit. The exercises for that block were step-ups, rollouts on the straps, single-arm low rows with weights, and planks with toe taps. I did lunges instead of the step-ups and I used the bench for my hands for the planks since I knew that would help keep nausea from getting worse. And the second block was short but it was a tough core blast. We had planks and hollow holds and we just held each one until we couldn’t do it anymore and then we switched exercises. We had 2 minutes of that and I switched about every 30 seconds.

Tuesday’s workout was an interesting challenge for me. I was feeling better so I was pushing myself a bit more, but it was a harder workout so I noticed my limitations more. Because I’ve had so many bad weeks in a row, I know I’ve gotten a bit weaker. And it seemed most noticeable in this workout.

For cardio, we had rounds of a push pace followed by a base pace with an incline. Because my push pace on the bike is done by increasing the resistance level, I did my regular level for my push pace and went to the level between my push and all-out to do a base pace with incline so it would be a bit more challenging. We started with a 30-second push pace and 30-second base pace and the intervals went up by 15-seconds each round until we got through half the block and then they went down by 15-seconds each round. And we finished with a 30-second all-out. Because the base paces were technically harder for me than the push paces, it felt like we had no breaks at all during the block. I did try to limit any rest I needed to take to be during the base paces, but it wasn’t easy.

On the rower, we had all sprint rows. We started with 2 rounds of a 200-meter row and we were supposed to do butt kicks between each row. But I did high knees instead. Then we had 2 rounds of a 100-meter row that was supposed to be an all-out. And then we got to rest for however long it took to do each row. And then it was back to 2 rounds of a 200-meter row but we had high knees to elbows between each row that time. I did make it to the last row, but not the last exercise before we had a 30-second all-out at the end of the block.

And on the floor, we had one block with 2 mini-blocks. We were supposed to do the first mini-block 3 times before moving on to the second one. The first mini-block had chest presses with weights and push-ups. And the second mini-block had squats and bench step-downs. I did do the step-downs instead of modifying them to lunges for this workout. I have been hesitant to do step up or downs because of my back, but I think I’m finally better. I have occasional twinges in my back, but that’s probably pretty normal for me at this point. I’m not dealing with the same pain I had before. And for the last 30-seconds on the floor, we had a low push-up hold.

Wednesday’s workout was one that I had done earlier in the month, but it was when I was feeling much worse so it was nice to repeat it again. I was curious how much better I would do in the workout this time compared to before.

For cardio, we started with a 3-minute push pace followed by a 30-second all-out. Then we had a 3-minute recovery where we could get back to base pace when we were ready before doing another 30-second all-out. We repeated the recoveries and all-outs another 3 times before the block was done. My recovery resistance level on the bike is the same as what I use for my base pace, so I recovered by just making sure I was pedaling slower.

On the rower, we followed the same pattern as cardio starting with a 3-minute push pace and then the 30-second all-outs and 3-minute recoveries. But for all the all-outs, we did a crew row so we had to match the pace with someone else on the rower. When we were in our crew rows, we were pretty quick to get in sync with each other, so that was pretty cool.

And on the floor, we had 1 block with 2 mini-blocks. And you only did the first mini-block once before only doing the second mini-block for the rest of the time. The first mini-block had low rows on the straps, tricep extensions on the straps, and single-leg airplanes (which are like deadlifts without the weights). And the second mini-block built upon those exercises with reciprocating low rows with weights, dumbbell tricep extensions, and deadlifts. I did have to go a bit lighter with the weights than I would have liked, but I tried to get heavier with them during the block to push myself a bit more.

And Thursday’s workout was another repeat from earlier in the month for me. Again, I was curious how I would do compared to when my back was hurting.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks and both blocks had 1-minute intervals with a base pace with an incline and a base pace without an incline. The incline went up each round within the block, but they were higher in the first block than in the second block. And both blocks ended with a 30-second all-out. Because we were using a variety of inclines/resistance levels, I was using a lot of the levels I normally do for my push and all-out. And I realized that I might be ready to try increasing my push pace or all-out level soon. I don’t know if I’m ready to increase both, but it’s been a bit of time since I increased my base pace level so I might be due for a new challenge.

On the rower, we started with 2 rounds of a 400-meter row with lateral hops and high knees between each row. Then we had 2 rounds of an an 800-meter row with the same exercises. I was only starting to work on the second 800-meter row when we had our 30-second all-out row to finish out the rowing for the workout. But I felt like I did pretty decent with the first 800-meter row, even though it’s a longer row for me.

And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block was designed to be a circuit so we were not supposed to rest between exercises. We had goblet squats, high rows on the steps, and push-ups. I really wanted to try to go heavier with my weight fo the goblet squat, but when I tried it I could feel my back tense up so I picked a lighter weight instead. And for the second block, we were supposed to rest between each exercise so we could challenge ourselves more. We had split stance bicep curls and jump lunges, which I did as regular lunges. And to end the block, we had squat step outs.

I felt like this past week of workouts was a good week to work on getting back to my old normal. I know I still have a lot of work to get back there and I do still feel a bit weak at times, but I think I had some good improvements this week. And I can only hope that I can improve even more this week.

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Tagged fitness, Orangetheory, workout

Pushing Through A Tough Workout Week (or At Least It’s What I’m Used To Dealing With)

Posted on September 26, 2022 | Comments Off

I’m very grateful that during this past week of workouts, I was dealing with very little back pain. I still have some back pain, but it’s very infrequent now and it’s not affecting too much of my day-to-day life. Unfortunately, as expected this week, I was dealing with quite a bit of cramps and nausea. But since those are regular monthly occurrences for me, at least I know how to manage them and I think it made this past week of workouts a bit easier for me in an odd way.

For Monday’s workout, things were probably the best for me with only a little back pain and minimal nausea. And for each section of the room, we had 3 blocks.

For cardio, the first and third blocks were the same. We had rounds of a 30-second all-out followed by a 45-second recovery. With short intervals like that, it feels like it goes by quickly so I really did like those blocks. For the second block, we had a 5-minute distance challenge which was much harder for me to do. I feel like the longer I bike sometimes, the faster nausea hits me. I don’t know why that happens, but it’s something I’ve noticed in the past few months.

On the rower, we did the same thing that we did for cardio. The first and last blocks were actually much better for me than I expected and I did really well with the rowing in those blocks. But for the 5-minute challenge row, I struggled a lot. But as always, I took breaks when I needed to and got back to work as quickly as I could.

On the floor, the first and third blocks were timed with one exercise being for 30-seconds and the other exercise being for 45-seconds. In the first block, we had skater lunges and push-ups. And in the third block, we had neutral thrusters and lateral lunges. For the second block, we were on our own for timing and it was all core work. We had double crunches, sit-ups with shoulder presses, and seated torso rotations. This block was the only one where my back caused an issue. I discovered I’m still not able to do sit-ups, so I did crunches instead so I didn’t hurt my back more.

For Tuesday, we had an endurance focus for our workout. For cardio, we started with a 4-minute push pace with a 90-second recovery after. We continued that pattern with decreasing the push pace each round and ended with a 30-second all-out. Just like with Monday, the longer intervals were tougher for me to do, but it was manageable and I felt like I did better than Monday even though I felt worse.

On the rower, we focused on 250-meter rows so they were shorter which was nice. And between the rows, we had squats to alternating knee to elbows. That exercise was a bit more challenging for me, but I took it slow so it almost was like a back stretch for me and that was helpful both for the workout and for making my back feel ok.

And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had tricep extensions and lunges. And the second block had lateral step-ups, hip hinge swings, and push-ups to planks. I did use the bench at the lower setting for the step-ups and also for my hands with the push-ups. And for the hip hinge swings, I had to go a bit lower with the weight than I would have liked to because of my back.

On Wednesday, my nausea was really kicking in and I was feeling pretty rotten. I was smart the night before and made sure to take my anti-nausea medication before going to bed, which can sometimes help me in the morning.

For cardio, we were timed on our own. We started at the highest incline/resistance level for the shortest distance. After completing it, we had a 1-minute recovery. Each time, the incline/resistance level decreased but the distance increased. The resistance levels were pretty high for me, so I did take quite a bit of time to get through some of the distances. I think that combined with how I was feeling made things very slow for me and I only got through about half of the distances we were supposed to try to do.

On the rower, we started with a 500-meter row. After that row, we took a quick recovery break before doing a 100-meter row. After the 100-meter row, we were supposed to do squats and jumping jacks. I only did the squats since I knew I couldn’t do jumping jacks. We were supposed to repeat the 100-meter row and exercises 5 times before moving to the final row, but I only got through 4 rounds.

And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block was 10 reps for each exercise. We had goblet squats, front raises, lateral raises, and reverse flys. In the second block, we were timed. We had neutral thrusters for 30-seconds each time and plank pop jacks for between 1-minute and 20-seconds. The plank pop jacks were definitely a challenge, but I did my best using the bench for my hands.

Even with how bad I was feeling this past week, I think I’m finally getting used to the new schedule I have set with doing 4 days in a row. On Thursday, I was feeling pretty bad, but I know that was due to nausea and not doing 4 days in a row. And like always, I just tried my best even though this was a very endurance-focused day and that’s extra challenging for me.

For cardio, we had one block and we started with a 3-minute push pace followed by a 90-second base pace. We continued that pattern with the push pace decreasing by 30-seconds and the base pace decreasing by 15-seconds. And we ended our cardio work with a 1-minute all-out.

On the rower, we did the exact same thing as we did for cardio. So that made it a 14-minute row, which is a very long row. I knew that this would be tough on me, but I wanted to see if I could get to at least 2000-meters. That would be a slow row for me since I know I can row 2000-meters faster, but with how I was feeling I thought that would be a good challenge for me. I did try to keep rowing during the base row intervals since that would add distance, but I did still need to take breaks during some of them. But I didn’t unstrap my feet for the entire thing, so that was a small victory. And when the row was done, I got just over 2000-meters, so I was very happy!

And on the floor, we had one long block that was back-to-back work. That meant we were not supposed to stop between exercises and ideally use the same weights for the entire thing. I did use the same weights which meant I was using slightly lighter weights than normal for a few things, but that worked out ok for me. We had regular squats, bicep curls, front squats, uppercuts, deadlifts, low rows, side plank reaches, and single-leg v-ups. I changed the v-ups to crunches, but besides that, I did all the exercises the way we were supposed to do. I didn’t know if I could do the front squats, but because I was using lighter weights than normal, I could do them without making my hips hurt. That was something I wasn’t expecting, and now I know that for that exercise I should probably just go lighter with the weights instead of changing the type of squats that I do.

Considering how I thought this past week would go, I am very happy with what I was able to do. I knew I’d have struggles, but I found ways to work around a few of them. And with this week likely being another week with a lot of pain and nausea, I hope I can continue that trend and push through that time with some new modifications that make the exercises work for me.

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Tagged fitness, Orangetheory, workout

Watching The Dri-Tri (or Cheering On A Friend)

Posted on September 21, 2022 | Comments Off

Since I started at Orangetheory, I have done almost every single Dri-Tri. I did miss the first one that happened after I started working out because I had a mammogram that day and I wasn’t sure how I’d feel after. I went to the studio to support the people doing it, and I remember how much I regretted not signing up and doing it myself. I really felt like I was left out and missed doing something that everyone seemed to be so proud to complete. Fortunately, I have been able to have that feeling for almost all the others that have happened since I have done all the others.

I didn’t feel as accomplished after I did the sprint one or after I did the at-home one, so I have always tried to do the full Dri-Tri every other time. Of course, when I did the at-home one, I had no option to go one at the studio since everything was shut down. I just did the best that I could with the circumstances at the time.

I’ve been very proud of myself for doing the Dri-Tri. I always have a moment when I start to wonder why I’m doing it again and think that it’s pretty miserable, but when I’m done I’m so happy that I proved to myself that I could. I never regretted doing one, no matter how horrible I might feel while doing it. Even when I completed one while feeling nauseous or if I didn’t get sleep the night before, I’m always so glad that I pushed myself to do it and proved to myself again what I’m capable of.

But when the Dri-Tri was announced the most recent time, I knew there would be a good chance I would need to miss it. It was announced right after I hurt my back, and I had no idea how long the recovery would take. I was really hoping that I would be feeling ok the week of and then I could sign up. But even though I feel significantly better, I’m still dealing with regular pain in my back and I knew that pushing myself to do the Dri-Tri wouldn’t be a smart choice. I was annoyed I had to make that decision, but I knew that I would really regret it if I tried to do it and had to quit in the middle because I hurt my back again.

There is always an option to go and cheer on people doing the Dri-Tri, and I used to try to stick around after I was done with mine to cheer on the people after me. But since I wasn’t going to do it this time, I wasn’t originally planning on going to cheer anyone on. Plus, almost all the times were while I was working, and I didn’t want to have to take time off work. But then my friend Erin asked me about doing it and how she was thinking of trying it for the first time. I told her that I couldn’t do it, but if it was during a time I wasn’t working, I would go and cheer her on.

She was able to get a spot in the first heat, which was before I had to start work. So I headed over to Orangetheory in my regular clothes (which felt weird to be there in something other than workout clothes) to cheer on Erin and everyone else in the first heat.

I’m so glad I went. I had fun cheering on Erin and supporting her while she completed her first Dri-Tri. And yes, I did feel like I was missing out a bit, but I think the positives outweighed the negatives. That was different from the first time I missed doing the Dri-Tri and was there to cheer people on. I think I knew I had to make this choice and it was better to be there to support than to not be there at all. And it was exciting seeing everyone who was able to get it done in incredibly fast times! I usually don’t get to see that as much when I’m focused on my own challenge.

The next Dri-Tri will be in about 6 months or so. They typically do them twice a year. And I have every intention of doing it then. I hopefully won’t have something wrong at that time that really prevents me from competing. I know I can’t guarantee that, but I’m really being mindful of the aches and pains I have so I don’t have another situation with an extended recovery time again.

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Tagged dri-tri, fitness, friends, Orangetheory, support, workout

Tag Archives: fitness

Back To My Regular Schedule (I’m Glad My Bad Week Didn’t Start Until This Week)

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Most Of My Workout Week (or Some Improvements and Some New Struggles)

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A Little More Of Hell Week (or Trying To Push A Bit More)

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A Full Week Of Hell Week (or Quickly Earning My Shirt)

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Pre-Hell Week Workouts (or Getting Myself Ready)

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Another Week And More Weird Workouts (or I Think This Was Hell Week Prep In Multiple Ways)

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PRs and Pain (or Another Up and Down Workout Week)

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Having Some Improvements In My Week (or Realizing I Need To Work On Building Things Back Up)

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Pushing Through A Tough Workout Week (or At Least It’s What I’m Used To Dealing With)

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