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Finishing Hell Week (or Fires and Being Tired)

Posted on November 4, 2019 | Comments Off on Finishing Hell Week (or Fires and Being Tired)

This past week of workouts was the end of Hell Week. I was sad that I didn’t work out on Halloween since it’s always fun to work out in costume, but I couldn’t make that work with my schedule. Hell Week was hard and the workouts after it were hard from not getting enough sleep, so it felt like a full week of Hell Week workouts.

Monday’s workout was my 4th Hell Week class. This one was called Us. But even before getting to my workout, things were crazy. We have been having fires here lately, but they usually aren’t too close to my house. But I woke up on Monday morning and saw that there was one much closer. And the evacuation area was very close to Orangetheory. Looking at a map, I realized it was still a few blocks away from where they were requiring people to evacuate and the fire wasn’t too close.

I called the studio to confirm they were still open, and when I got there I saw all the smoke in the air.

A lot of people weren’t in class because they were evacuated in the middle of the night. Our workout coach had been evacuated, but his family was safe and he was still going to coach class. The mood was weird in the room, but I’m glad that we all were there and worked out since there wasn’t anything we could do about the fires.

The workout was a 3 group format even though we only had 2 groups in class. The cardio and floor switched back and forth every 3 1/2 minutes and it was the same format every time we were on cardio or floor. Cardio was always a 3-minute push pace to a 30-second all out. And the floor had hip hinge swings, low rows on the straps, overhead tricep extensions, and single-arm snatches. We had to remember where we stopped on the floor each time we switched and we picked back up where we left off. Because of all the switching we did, I was grateful we didn’t have a full class. It helped to keep things calm and that was needed that morning.

And on the rower, it was simple. We had a 13 1/2 minute row. That’s it. I’ve had a 2 group Hell Week workout where it was a 23-minute row and I’ve had long rows since then. But this time the row was the very last thing I did in class. I would have loved to have rowed the entire time without breaks, but I did need to take some breaks from time to time to either drink some water or tighten the straps on the footplates. We were told to try to keep our split times under 2:30, and except when I was starting back up after a break, I usually was around 2:27. I didn’t get as far as I had hoped to because of the breaks I took, but I still rowed over 2500 meters and that’s a lot!

Wednesday’s workout was the last Hell Week class for me. This one was called Psycho. It wasn’t the hardest workout I’ve done, but it was still a good ending for Hell Week. But what did make it challenging was that we were switching back and forth between cardio and the rower a lot.

This one isn’t the easiest to explain, but basically we did an all out on cardio and then switched to do the all out on the rower. And we went back and forth during the block. When I was starting the block on the rower, it was the same thing with switching each all out. It wasn’t a lot of work, but it was a lot of movement (if that makes sense).

On the floor, we mainly had lower body work. We had burpees, hip hinge low rows, sumo squats with upright rows, regular squats, and full thrusters. I tried to go heavy with the weights when I could, but it wasn’t easy because the exercises weren’t easy.

But even without going super hard, I still completed the Hell Week challenge! I will be getting my Hell Week shirt soon (there was a mixup with the order so most of us get our shirts in a week or so), and all I wanted was to earn my shirt so I’m happy.

Friday’s workout wasn’t a Hell Week class, but it still was tough. I slept horribly the night before and that really made me sluggish in the workout. It is also the start of a rowing focused month, so I knew I was in for a lot on the rower.

For cardio, it was a pretty standard power workout with rounds of push paces, base paces, and all outs. It was nice to have something that wasn’t too crazy on cardio since that’s where I start for the workout.

The rowing had 2 blocks. The first block was rounds of 250-meter rows with 8 squats. And we just repeated that until the block was done. The next block started with a 500-meter row and then we had 16 squats. The row went down by 200 meters each time but the squats stayed the same. If you finished that, you held a squat, but I didn’t make it to the end.

I felt my tiredness kicking in the most on the floor. A lot of the movements were things I had to modify and that was also making me feel a bit low. We had burpees to a squat jack, plank work, plank jacks to push-ups, and low rows on the straps. I used the bench to modify most of the exercises and that helped a bit. But they weren’t easier just because I modified them.

I was feeling a bit better by Saturday. But I still was a little tired. It was a strength workout and I wanted to work with the resistance levels, so being tired wasn’t as big of an issue.

On cardio, we had rounds of push pace and base paces at inclines. I was going higher with the resistance levels on the bike than I normally use for push and all outs. I had a few moments where my legs felt like they weren’t moving much at all, but I know that also means I’m working hard and using lots of muscles.

On the rower, it was all about stroke drills. We started with a 15 stroke count and then we had 15 squats with the medicine ball after. We repeated that again and then the stroke count and squats went down by 1. I worked hard at being slow and powerful with each rower stroke since I know my power isn’t as high as most people. But I was feeling really good after completing the rowing work and I know I was doing more powerful strokes than I normally can do.

And on the floor, we had bench sit-ups to sumo squats (I had to modify this by doing each exercise on its own), lunges with front raises, lunges with lateral raises, plank bird dogs, squats, and double crunches with weights. I really liked this floor block because it did have exercises that challenged me, but there were lots of things I know I’m good at and can have great form.

I’m so glad I made it through Hell Week and succeeded at completing my 5 workouts. And I’m glad I made it through the workouts that I struggled with because I was tired. I’m hoping to get back on a better sleep pattern soon (this is a recurring issue for me), and hopefully that will make my morning workouts a bit better this week.

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Default ThumbnailKicking Off The 12 Days of Fitness (or It’s Like Hell Week Again) Default ThumbnailFeeling More Back To Normal (or A Good Week Of Hell Week Prep) Default ThumbnailFinishing Hell Week (or I Need To Get Back To Running) Default ThumbnailGetting Back To Normal (or Finishing Hell Week and Race Prep) Default ThumbnailFinishing Up 12 Days of Fitness (or This Felt Like A Long Hell Week) Default ThumbnailStarting Off Hell Week (or 5 Workouts And They Were All Hard)

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Starting Off Hell Week (or 5 Workouts And They Were All Hard)

Posted on October 28, 2019 | Comments Off on Starting Off Hell Week (or 5 Workouts And They Were All Hard)

This past week of workouts was an epic one for me. First, it was the start of Hell
Week. I do love Hell Week workouts and enjoy the challenge they bring. But it was a tough week for other reasons too. I was also dealing with the end of the nausea cycle and I did 5 workouts this past week! And 4 of those workouts were back to back! That’s crazy, especially considering everything else I was going through. Hell Week didn’t start until Thursday, so I started the week off with normal workouts.

Monday’s workout was a strength day, and it was also a run/row class (which I usually can only have on Mondays since that’s my only 2 group class). It was a good class even though I wasn’t feeling great because of something that happened at the beginning of the workout. I didn’t realize the cleaning wipes and trash can were right behind the bike. And when I got off the bike the first time, I swung my leg over and karate kicked the can. It fell right over with a huge clunk. I would have been embarrassed if it wasn’t so funny. It really put me in a better mood even though physically I wasn’t feeling great.

The cardio run/row had 3 blocks, and the first and third were the same. Those blocks were the only run/row ones and they were all short segments. The rowing I got to were the 100 and 150-meter rows for each block. And on the bike, all of the things I did were under 2 minutes. We were switching a lot and that was nice. The second block was a more traditional strength block. We had incline work with increasing inclines and I was able to use the resistance levels on the bike.

On the floor, it was a day of lunges. We had 3 blocks and they all had lunges as a part of them. The first block was lateral lunges to suitcase squats (I split these two moves up and did them separately), regular lunges, and hip hinge low rows. The second block had swing lunges (I used the straps to help with these), single-leg bicep curls, plank spiderman (modified by using the bench), and crunches. And the last block had lunges to scaptions and plank low rows. It wasn’t a horrible floor block to do with my nausea, but I did take a few breaks to let the nausea pass when it started to feel really bad.

Wednesday’s workout was the last pre-Hell Week workout. But it felt extra hard because I injured myself on Tuesday. I chipped the bone on my little toe, and even though I buddy taped it there was still some pain. Fortunately, my nausea was done by Wednesday so I was only dealing with one issue. But it still made the workout interesting.

It was a strength day, and there was a lot of hill work for cardio. We had 2 blocks and each block had hill climbs with us increasing the incline/resistance level every 30 seconds. I was working with the resistance levels and they weren’t too high for me on the bike. I was getting to just 1 above my all out level so they didn’t seem as bad as some of the other strength days that we’ve had. I was happy with the work I was able to do and my toe wasn’t hurting too much on the bike which was a surprise.

Unfortunately, I discovered that rowing with an injured toe is very tough. The pain wasn’t as bad as it could have been because of how I taped my toe, but I lost a lot of power not having a flat foot on the rower to push back. The first block started with a 100-meter row and then frogger squats. We kept increasing the rowing by 100-meters each round and had the squats in between. The squats weren’t too bad and a nice break from the rowing. In the second block, we were supposed to row the total we rowed in the first block before doing squats again. But by this point, I was hurting a bit more so I never got beyond rowing the distance I got in the first block.

And on the floor, we also had 2 blocks. The first block was all weight work. We had upright rows, pullovers, and seated twists. And the second block had high rows on the straps, hip hinge reverse fly with weights, and we were supposed to do bear steps. I had to skip the bear steps because of my toe, but doing bicycle crunches was the closest thing I could do to modify it. I was proud of the work I did considering having issues with my toe. And I felt ready for the start of Hell Week, which was going to be the next day.

Because I want to get 5 Hell Week workouts in, I had to add an extra workout at some point because my normal schedule would only get me 4. I was excited for Hell Week so that took over any feeling of nerves from doing so many workouts in a row. And the first day of Hell Week was called Pulse.

This was an interesting workout and it’s not the easiest to explain, but I can share what my group did (every group had a slightly different workout). I started on the bike and the first block was a 14 minute cardio block with rounds of runs for distances or all outs followed by recoveries. We started with a 90-second run for distance and it went down 15 seconds each round. When we got to a 30-second all out, then we started to work our way back up.

Next, we switched between cardio and doing pulsing half squats (which is what inspired the name Pulse for the workout). The timing was the same as it was for cardio, but we alternated what we did during the active time. We did half of them on cardio and the other half was doing the pulsing half squats the entire time. It wasn’t easy to do squats for that long and my legs felt like they were in cement when we finished. But the bike was a nice break from the squats for me.

Finally, we had a run/row type workout for the second block. Again, we had the same timing as we had for the first block, but we switched between having our active time on cardio or on the rower. And the rower person used the cardio when we were on the rower. There wasn’t always a lot of time to switch back and forth, but we did our best to make it work. Even though I spent more time on the bike in that workout than I normally would, I’m glad I had the extra time there. I think if it was on the rower it would have been too hard for me. And the people who had extra time on the floor had to also do burpees and I was grateful to not have to do those.

Only about 14 hours after I finished my first Hell Week workout, I was back for another one. This workout was called Split I and it felt like a mix of a power and strength day. This workout was a bit more straightforward than the day before, which was nice since it was an early morning class for me.

On cardio, we had a workout similar to the Everest class. Every minute, we increased the incline/resistance level. That’s all we did for 14 minutes. There was no decreasing incline after we reached the top and no recovery. The goal was to keep our base pace going as long as we could. For me on the bike, it’s a bit harder since I actually don’t have a specific cadence for a base (I’ve realized I should probably work on this), but I did want to work on the hill work. Because we would be increasing so many times, I started lower than what my base normally is at. But even starting easier than normal, I ended up with a resistance level higher than I think I’ve ever used on the bike. I think it was 3 or 4 levels higher than my previous best. It wasn’t easy and I was moving very slowly at the end, but I did it.

On the rower, all the rows were 400-meters. We were supposed to do different types of squats after each row with increasing reps, but I couldn’t do much more than regular squats. So I added up the total number between each of the types of squats we were supposed to do at that time and just did that number of regular squats. There were so many squats and I don’t know if it would have been any easier if I had a variety of types to do.

On the floor, we had 1 block but it was split into 2 mini-blocks. And the reps were increasing each exercise and round. We had chest presses, overhead triceps with weights, and push-ups for the first mini-block. And the second mini-block had bicep curls, hip hinge low rows, and low rows on the straps. The way the reps worked was we had 3/6/9/12 reps for the first exercise, 4/7/10/13 reps for the second exercise, and 5/8/11/14 reps for the third exercise. The first 2 rounds weren’t too bad, but the second 2 rounds were really hard and I had to go lighter with the weights I used.

And my last (and 5th) workout of the week was on Saturday and it was called Split II (so I got to resolve the cliffhanger from Friday’s workout). It wasn’t exactly the same as Friday’s workout with the way we went back down the inclines, but it was close.

For cardio, we were on our own timing. Every cardio segment was .1 miles (.4 for the bike). We started at the top incline or resistance level and worked down each round. And between each segment, we had ground to press using weights. We started at 1 rep and added 1 each time. My legs were still tired from all the other workouts in the week, but I also knew I had a rest day on Sunday so I was able to go a bit harder. I did manage to make it down the entire resistance level which was a nice accomplishment.

And on the rower and floor, we had a bit of a partner workout. But we were partnered with the person next to us in the same section of the room. So on the rower, I was partnered with another rower and on the floor, I was partnered with another person on the floor.

The row partner workout started with one of us doing an 800-meter row. While the partner was rowing, the other person did rounds of 10 squats and 10 hard pulls on the rower. Then the other partner did the 800-meter row. Next was a 500-meter and 200-meter row with the same pattern. It was hard because there were no breaks, but my partner and I were pretty equally matched with rowing times.

And on the floor, it was a similar idea as the rower. We had 2 blocks and in the first block, one partner did squats while holding a medicine ball and front raises with the medicine ball while the other partner did lateral steps with the mini-band. And in the second block, one partner did plank jacks and plank side reaches while the other partner did front raises with the mini-band around their wrists. Just like with the rower, there were no breaks while on the floor which made it extra hard. My partner and I were so glad when the class was over.

I’ve got 2 more Hell Week workouts this week and then I’ll earn my Hell Week shirt! And getting the shirt is something I am excited about. This week is back to my normal workout schedule which will be nice. But I am proud of myself for challenging what I can do and going for 5 workouts in a week, but I don’t think I want to do that every week (at least, not yet).

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Hell Week To Orange Voyage (or One Challenge To Another)

Posted on November 5, 2018 | Comments Off on Hell Week To Orange Voyage (or One Challenge To Another)

This past week of workouts was split into 2 different Orangetheory challenges. The first 2 workouts were the last 2 workouts for Hell Week. And the last 2 workouts were the first workouts of a new challenge that is lasting all month: The Orange Voyage. It is similar to the idea of Marathon Month where we are tracking the distance we get in all workouts for November. This time, we track all meters rowed and there are different locations we can try to reach.

Monday’s workout was all about inclines and abs. And it was fitting that the name of this Hell Week workout was The House Of The Incline Devil. There was a bit of a mix-up with me getting into class, but fortunately it all worked out in the end for me. I did have to use the bike because there were no more treadmills, but that was perfect because I had already decided that I wanted to do the bike for the workout. I can do so much more with resistance levels than I can do with inclines and I want to take advantage of that!

On the cardio side, we had all incline/resistance work. The first block was 6 minutes of increasing inclines/resistance every minute. I started at my normal push resistance on the bike and went up 1 level every minute. Since I have done some higher resistance levels lately, this wasn’t too bad but it did feel tough. The next both was all power walking work for the treadmills because it was super high inclines. And for the bike, I used all resistance levels higher than I normally would do. Even when I do the high resistance levels, I rarely go above 13. But this time I was going up to 18 and my legs were barely moving while I was working. It was so hard to keep going but I really tried to not take a break during that block since it was only about 3 minutes long. Then those blocks repeated themselves and I tried to match what I had done the first time. But I was glad to get off the bike when it was the halfway mark in class.

On the floor, we had 2 long ab workout blocks and 1 rowing block. For the rowing block, we had a 6 minute row for distance. I didn’t actually look at my distance when I was done, but I’m pretty sure it was under the goal we were supposed to hit. My legs were so tired from the bike earlier in the workout and I had to take breaks during the row. For the ab blocks, they both had the same exercises. We had static crunch scissors, leg raises, Spiderman planks, swimmers, heel touch crunches, regular crunches, and sprinter sit ups. In the first block the sprinter sit ups were at the end of the workout and we had 90 seconds of those (everything else was 60 reps). Then when we did the ab block again we started with the 90 seconds of the sprinter sit ups and then the other exercises were in the reverse order of what we did the first time.

Wednesday was the final day of Hell Week and my 5th Hell Week workout overall! So I earned my Hell Week survivor shirt which is something I strive to do each year. And since it was Halloween, I also wanted to dress up a bit for class. Some of my friends and I were trying to think of a fun group costume for us to do that would be easy enough to work out in, and I had a moment of inspiration during the workout the Friday prior. Since there were 4 of us and there are 4 types of workouts at Orangetheory (endurance, strength, power, and ESP) we could go as the 4 workouts! I had lots of leftover photo paper and lamination sheets from my Halloween costume, so I made us all little signs to wear on our shirts. Not everyone got it right away, but once they did they loved it!

This workout was called The Nightmare From Hell Weeks Past and it took elements from the past few Hell Weeks and put them into one workout. Most of the workouts this one was inspired by were workouts I had done before so that was pretty cool. We had 3 blocks on each side plus a mini tornado workout at the halfway point and at the end of class.

On the treadmill, the first block was 5 minutes of decreasing inclines. I started at 10% and we went down 1% each minute. Even though this was an incline workout, I decided to stick with the treadmill since not everything was inclined based and I wanted to see what I could do when compared to my bike workouts. I wasn’t able to get my inclines as high as we were supposed to do, but I was close. The second block was rounds of 30 seconds at inclines with 30 seconds to recovery in between. I started at 12% and went down 1% each round. We also had a 1 minute all out at the end, but I walked it. And the last block on the treadmill was rounds of increasing all outs (starting at 30 seconds and ending at 75 seconds) with 30 seconds to recover in between. I walked all of these.

The tornado that we had was the same in the middle of class as well as at the end of class. On the treadmill it was a 1 minute all out, on the rower it was a 1 minute row, and on the floor it was 1 minute of sumo squats using weights. For the treadmill, I walked the all out in the middle of class but ran the one that ended class since I had been on the floor prior to that minute.

On the floor, the first block was a 5 minute row for distance. I struggled a bit because my ESP sign on my shirt was bunching up weird (I probably should have just taken it off for the workout but I wanted to keep it on) so my rowing wasn’t as far as it should have been. The next block was doing continuous exercises without stopping between different elements. We had upright rows to front squats to shoulder presses to lunges; and all of these were done holding weights. The idea was to not drop the weights until you finish an entire round. I had to go much lighter than I normally go for rows, squats, or lunges because I needed it to be at a lower weight for the shoulder presses. But because there was no break between what we did it really felt heavier. And the last block on the floor was all burpee work. We had burpees to bicep curls, burpees with plank jacks, and full burpees. I tried my best for the first round because I didn’t have the bench out like I normally do for my hands. It was much harder to do them going to the ground so I had to go slow and use modifications. After that round I decided to just do some elements from the burpees as their own exercises so I could get through them. So I did bicep curls, plank jacks, and push ups until the block was over and we did the last tornado of the workout. It was a really tough day, but the perfect way to end Hell Week!

Friday’s workout was another strength based day and I was on the bike again. I’m really feeling more like the bike is a choice versus something I have to do when I’m not feeling great, so that’s a very positive change for me. We had 3 blocks on cardio where the first block was a progressive push that for treadmills was increasing speed, the second was a progressive push with inclines, and the last was us picking which we wanted to do. What I did was increase my resistance by 2 levels each minute for the first and third block and increased my resistance by 1 level each minute for the middle block. That ended up being a pretty good plan for me and I was using some really hard resistance levels.

On the rower, we did progressive pushes for the first and third block. It’s not easy to increase the wattage on the rower every minute and I had to be very aware of everything I’m doing while rowing to keep the wattage where it is supposed to be. For the middle block, we had rounds of 30 second all out rows with squats between each row. We didn’t reset the rower the entire time we were on there so I was able to get quite a few meters for the Orange Voyage challenge.

And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first one was longer and we had single arm low rows, bench pullovers, plank work, and high rows on the straps. And in the second block we had plank single arm rows and Y-raises on the straps. I tried to go heavy with the weights, but I know that I’ve used heavier ones for those exercises in the past. I just was feeling tired and let that stop me from trying to use the ones I know I can do.

Saturday’s workout was an endurance day and it was also a switch day. So that allowed me to really work on some awesome running and I’m so glad I had that chance! Since it was a switch day, I could really push myself on the treadmill because I knew I’d have the floor in the middle to let me recover.

We had 2 10.5 minute blocks on the treadmill. The first block was 2 rounds of a 3 minute push pace with a 90 second base pace between and ending with a 90 second run for distance. For that block I took the 3 minute push pace and did it as 1 minute run/walk intervals (so 1 minute of running, 1 minute of walking, 1 minute of running). I walked the base paces and ran the final 90 seconds. The second block was 4 rounds of 90 second push paces with 45 second base paces between with a 90 second run for distance at the end. I ran all the push paces and walked all the base paces. It was a lot of running, but it wasn’t quite as bad as I expected it to be.

On the floor, we had 2 blocks that were pretty much the same. The first block started with an 800 meter row and then we had regular lunges, lateral lunges, bench tap squats, and bench sit up to stands. The second block started with the exercises and ended with the rowing. I was using medium heavy weights for the weighted work and I got both of my 800 meter rows done in under my goal time.

Because this month will be the Orange Voyage challenge, I know that there will be a lot of running through November. But with all Orangetheory challenges, I love to see what I can do and push myself. I successfully completed Hell Week, now it’s time to conquer the Orange Voyage!

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Halfway Through Hell Week (or Finding Lots Of Moments To Be Proud Of Myself)

Posted on October 29, 2018 | 2 comments

I’ve made it through over half of my Hell Week workouts! Of my 4 workouts this past week, 3 of them were Hell Week classes. This week I’ll be doing 2 more so I can earn my shirt for being a Hell Week Survivor. I would be doing all these workouts even if I didn’t get a shirt, but getting some swag is an added bonus! I had heard rumors that this Hell Week was going to be much easier or much harder than the past few years, but I tried to go in with an open mind and see what would happen.

Monday’s workout was my one non-Hell Week workout of the week. It was a strength day, but the way it was set up it didn’t feel like a strength day the entire time on the treadmills. So I got to continue working on my running during some of the blocks which was nice.

For the treadmill, the first and third block were the same and the second and fourth block were the same. Blocks 1 and 3 were the blocks that didn’t feel like strength workouts to me. We had a 1 minute push pace, 1 minute base pace, 1 minute push pace, 30 second base pace, and 30 second all out pace. I was able to run my push and all out paces for both blocks and it didn’t seem as hard as I thought it would. 1 minute seems to be the sweet spot for me with running right now. I’d like to get my endurance back up to where it was, but this is better than not running at all. Blocks 2 and 4 were incline based with short intervals followed by single arm snatches using weights between each round. I wasn’t going to run on an incline so I did those as a power walk and I got 2 rounds in each block.

For the floor, we had 3 blocks and they all felt like strength workouts. In the first block, we had single arm low rows with weights and bench sit-up to stands. I wasn’t using my heaviest weights for the low rows, but I was using one heavier than I did earlier this year. And for the bench sit-up to stands, I usually don’t do those with weights but we were encouraged to do so this time so I tried it. It was tough, but I could feel how much harder I was working doing it that way. The second block had one exercise that included lunges, bicep curls, and shoulder presses as one move. I didn’t go too heavy with the weights for that because I knew it would require a lot of balance for me. We also had goblet squats. And the last block had single arm high rows and knee tucks. With all of the blocks, we were supposed to do rowing for distance if we finished the exercises, but I never made it that far.

Wednesday was the first day of Hell Week and the workout was called The Burpee Ring. And that was a pretty fitting name for it. I started on the treadmill but the cardio and floor had the same timing which was an interesting change.

On the treadmill, we had 10 rounds of 90 second run for distance followed by a walking recovery. Half of the walking recoveries were 45 seconds and the other half were 1 minute. My goal was to see if I could run all 10 of the 90 second run for distances, but I also knew that 90 seconds was a bit long for me at this point in returning to running. But I still wanted to try. I made it through the first 4 rounds as a run and then I had to go to a power walk. To continue working hard, when I did the power walking I didn’t do a walking recovery but just brought my incline back to my base incline. I did 4 rounds of power walking and then did the last 2 rounds as a run again. So at least I did more than half of the rounds as a run.

On the floor, we also had 10 rounds of 90 seconds on and a recovery after. For the floor, we had different types of burpees to do and then we had exercises to do during the recovery time. The recovery exercises were pop squats, pop jacks, and squat jacks. I did the pop jacks and squat jacks just as regular squats. We had one exercise per recovery for the 45 second recoveries and all of them combined for the 1 minute recoveries. I usually had about 15 seconds to actually recover each time. And the burpee types were one per round and we had ultimate burpees, rolling burpees, hand-lift burpees, burpees to bench hops, and burpees with palms to elbows. I did all of these with using my bench for my hands so I could jump back and forth and made some minor modifications with a few of them. But for the most part I did them as we were supposed to do. It was exhausting, but that’s the idea behind Hell Week. And my friends and I were so proud of ourselves for finishing the first Hell Week class!

Friday’s workout was called The Haunting Hills, so I knew it was going to be a hill based workout. But it was also a 3 group workout so I was only going to have to tolerate hill work for about 15 minutes before being able to move to the next part of the room.

The treadmill block was one long block that was at our own pace. For power walkers, we started at 12% incline and had a .125 mile walk. When that was done, we had squats with calf raises and then back to the treadmill to do the same distance but we got to bring the incline down 1%. I rarely use higher than 10% incline when I’m power walking, so doing the 12% and 11% rounds were tough on me. But the distance was short enough that by the time I was wondering if I should bring the incline down the round was done.

On the rower, we had a similar format to the treadmill. We started with a 400 meter row and then pulsing half squats. We round we went down 50 meters on the rower and continued to do the squats between each row. I was more focused on form than pace, but I did get all my rows done in below the goal time. I think my form has gotten really solid lately, so I probably should switch to working on my power and speed so I can get my rows done faster. But I also want to make sure that I don’t sacrifice my form for speed when I do that.

The floor block ended up being the toughest for me. I really thought the treadmill would be, but on the floor we had back to back exercises that used the same muscles. The first block started with bicep curls on the straps followed immediately by seated bicep curls using weights. After 2 rounds of those we had 2 rounds of hip hinge low rows with weights and bridge rows on the straps. Doing the second exercise each time was so hard because my muscles aren’t used to having to be used the same way for 2 things in a row. The second block was triceps on the straps followed by triceps with weights for 2 rounds. And we ended with chest fly followed by chest press. For that last round, I had to go much lighter than normal with my weight. But I still felt like I worked just as hard as if I had the heaviest weight I have used.

Saturday’s workout was called The Carnival of Burning Souls, and it was a crazy one! We had 3 sections that had 3 blocks in each one and we switched every time. Each second had a block that was 1 minute, 90 seconds, and 2 minutes. So we would be on the treadmill for a minute, then the floor for a minute, the treadmill for 90 seconds, the floor for 90 seconds, the treadmill for 2 minutes, and finally the floor for 2 minutes. And we did that rotation 3 times!

On the treadmill, everything was basically an all out pace or a run for distance. So I ran for 1 minute 3 times, 90 seconds 3 times, and 2 minutes 3 times. I did run all of it and I was surprised that the 2 minute rounds didn’t feel as bad as I expected them to be. That might have been because I was on the floor right before doing it. We also had 1 last block at the very end which was 90 seconds long that had 2 30 second all out paces with a walking recovery in between. For all the running except those 30 second all outs were at my normal running speed. For the 2 30 second ones, I increased my speed and I think all my previous running that workout helped to loosen up my body because it just felt great to do it!

All of the segments that I ran were a pretty short distance so I didn’t feel like I had run that far. But I am still tracking my mileage in my workouts when I can, and I have never been more grateful for that! When I got home after the workout and added up every segment that I ran, I did just over 1.5 miles in class! It didn’t feel like that at all and I know I ran almost all of that. There was the warmup in the beginning of class for a couple of minutes and some cool downs each round that had walking, but a majority of the time I was on the treadmill I was running and I can’t believe I did that much distance in my cardio!

On the floor, each segment was just one exercise. So we would do that exercise for 1 minute, 90 seconds, and 2 minutes. Doing just one exercise for that long is not easy, but I I tried my best. The first segment was neutral thrusters. I started with a lighter weight than I usually use, but for the 90 second round I had to go even lighter. I didn’t realize how long 1 minute would feel doing the same thing the entire time and I didn’t want to have issues for the other rounds. The next segment was lunges, which I modified by using the bench for stability. And the last segment was push-ups which I modified by doing them on my knees. And at the very end, we had a 90 second block that was doing each of the exercises for 30 seconds. That felt so easy compared to what we had been doing before!

Comparing this Hell Week to previous ones is a tough thing. I think some of the workouts felt easier and some felt harder. And I’m sure I’ll feel the same way about the workouts I have this week. They might be easier because I’m much stronger than I was before and they might be harder because I’m pushing myself more. But either way, I feel like I did some amazing work this past week in my workouts and as silly as this sounds, I’m really proud of myself!

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Default ThumbnailGetting Back To Normal (or Finishing Hell Week and Race Prep) Default ThumbnailWelcome To Hell (or Pushing Myself Even More) Default ThumbnailFeeling More Back To Normal (or A Good Week Of Hell Week Prep) Default ThumbnailHell Week Part 1 (or Not Pushing It Too Much) Default ThumbnailOrangetheory Week 4 (or I Can’t Believe I’m Halfway Done!) Default ThumbnailFinishing Hell Week (or I Need To Get Back To Running)

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Welcome To Hell (or Pushing Myself Even More)

Posted on October 30, 2017 | 2 comments

This past week of workouts was the beginning of Hell Week. Today is actually the last Hell Week workout for me so I can earn my free shirt, but I did 4 of the 5 workouts I need to earn that shirt this past week. And because Hell Week was going from Tuesday to Tuesday, I ended up doing my first ever 5 workout week in order to get in the workouts I needed!

Monday was my only non-Hell Week workout. It was a mix of power and strength and it was a 3 group class. Because I knew that I’d be doing 4 Hell Week workouts that week and this was the beginning of 3 workouts in a row, I knew it was in my best interest to walk all the treadmill work. We had 2 blocks on the treadmill. The first block was longer pushes that I did at 6, 8, and 10% incline. The second block started with 30 second intervals and ended with 45 second intervals. But that second block was a bit tough so I ended up doing everything at 6% incline instead of working on my inclines like I did for the first block.

The floor had a very interesting first block. It was one long move that included bicep curls, squats, shoulder presses, and lunges in a fluid motion. So instead of doing a set of each thing before moving on, it was just one long movement. I was surprised that I didn’t find this as difficult as I thought it would be. Something about the order of the movements and continuously going helped me and it felt kind of badass to be doing it! The second block was more of a normal format with squats, row work with weights and straps, and mountain climbers. And on the rower the first block was 500 meter rows with lunges between each set and the second block was 250 meter rows were we worked on stroke counts.

Tuesday was day 1 of Hell Week and the name of the workout was Don’t Fear The Burpees. While the burpees were bad, it seems like the rower is what I needed to be scared of that day. I had run into one of my coaches in the parking garage before the workout and he recommended that I start on the rower instead of the treadmill for this workout. And I’m so glad I listened. On the rower, we had 3 rounds of 6.5 minute rows for distance. The first 2 rounds were coached where we were told when to do base, push, or all out paces on the rower. And the last round was on our own and just trying to get the best distance possible. Round 1 I got 1335 meters, round 2 I got 1354 meters, and round 3 I got 1372 meters so I was very happy to have made improvement with each endurance row.

After doing all that rowing, I was very nervous about the treadmill workout which had all the burpees in it. My legs felt like jello and I knew that I had to walk on the treadmill. The fact that I walked at my normal power walking speed was a victory enough for me because I was feeling so tired. The treadmill segments were all pretty short and after each segment we headed to the floor to work on burpees. There were 4 types of burpees we had to do and each round we did more of each type. I only made it to the third round because I was taking a lot of breaks. But I was still glad I did the rowing first because I don’t think I would have done any better if I had done things in the opposite order.

Wednesday’s Hell Week workout was called Don’t Breathe. This was originally going to be another walking day for me since this was my 3rd workout in a row, but as soon as I saw what the workout would be I decided to work on running. The first block on the treadmill was 8 rounds of 30 second all out paces followed by 30 second walking recovery. I was able to do all 8 of those at 5mph. The next block was 5 rounds of 45 second all out paces followed by 45 second walking recovery. And the last block was 3 rounds of 1 minute all out paces with 1 minute of walking recovery. And we ended with a 90 second all out. For the second and third block, I did all the running at my normal push pace of 4.5mph. But to do that much running felt awesome and I was so glad that I was there for that workout!

The floor was 1 long block with progressive work. Every round started with the same 3 things (bicep curls, tricep work, and rows on the straps) and each round we added one more core movement to the end of that. The core work included bicycle crunches, regular crunches, heel taps, and hip dips. Also, each round we had increased the number of reps we had with the first 3 moves of the round. We started at 10 reps and the last round was 25 reps. It didn’t seem too bad in the beginning, but at the end it was very difficult to do 25 bicep curls or rows on the straps. While this wasn’t the hardest Hell Week workout, it was still tough and I pushed myself a bit more than I normally would.

Friday’s workout was called 28 Reps Later. I wanted to run, but I was dealing with a bit of lack of sleep and just wasn’t feeling like I could. The treadmill work was all runs for distance which I usually love for running but this day was just something I had to get through. We had a 3, 4, 5, and 6 minute run for distance and I really didn’t focus too much on the distances I was getting. But I did try to play with both incline and speed with my walking. So when we were doing longer pushes, I would first increase my speed from 3.5 to 3.6mph and the next minute I would bring the speed back down but increase my incline. It was something different from what I normally do and it helped to make the distance runs more interesting since I wasn’t focused on the distance.

The floor work is where the name for the workout came from. We had a slightly different format where we did 28 reps of one thing before going to the rower to do a 280 meter row. Then we’d come back to the floor and do 28 reps of another thing and did the rower. So it felt a bit long since there wasn’t any variety in the floor work between each row, but I tried to break things down in my head so I wasn’t just waiting to get to 28 reps. The moves on the floor includes walk outs to push ups, lunges, side plank crunches, and pop jacks. My rowing wasn’t anything great and I was almost using it as recovery time after doing so many reps on the floor.

And Saturday was my first time having a 5th workout in a week! I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to do it, but I’m so glad I did. I had to take it easy because I was dealing with a bit of hip pain that day, but that was ok because it was a 3 group workout. This one was called Thighday The 13th and I really felt like my thighs were on fire. Every section had 2 blocks and I started on the treadmill. The first block was rounds of 90 second push paces with inclines. The idea was to get to 13%, but I was keeping it at 6 and 8%. And the second block was rounds of 45 seconds at 13% incline and then we went behind our treadmills where we did 13 goblet squats and then 13 normal squats. For this block, I did have the treadmill at 13% since it was only for 45 seconds but I decreased my speed a bit.

On the floor, the first block started with hop overs and then had skier swings, tricep work, and push ups. The second block was mountain climbers, squats, froggers, and lateral raises. I felt pretty good on the floor and it didn’t seem too tough for me, but that could be that I wasn’t feeling as tired from the treadmill work. And the rower was kind of the opposite of the treadmill. The first block was either 130 or 260 meter rows with 13 goblet squats and 13 regular squats after each row. And the second block was 90 second rows for distance. We had 3 rounds of those and I got 315, 325, and 349 meters on those. I was very happy to get better with each row even though I was getting more tired each row.

By the time you are reading this, I’m probably done with my workout today so I got my Hell Week shirt! But to know that I did my first 5 workout week this past week was almost a bigger victory. It wasn’t that long ago that a 4 workout week seemed to be impossible and that is now the norm for me. I don’t think a 5 workout week will become the norm for me, but I’m not saying never. But to prove to myself that I am stronger than I thought I could be is exactly what Hell Week is all about. And to not only do those workouts successfully but to do more workouts in a week than I ever have is the best thing ever!

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Default ThumbnailHalfway Through Hell Week (or Finding Lots Of Moments To Be Proud Of Myself) Default ThumbnailHell Week To Orange Voyage (or One Challenge To Another) Default ThumbnailFinishing Hell Week (or I Need To Get Back To Running) Default ThumbnailFeeling More Back To Normal (or A Good Week Of Hell Week Prep) Default ThumbnailHell Week Part 1 (or Not Pushing It Too Much) Default Thumbnail12 Days Of Christmas Workouts (or This Feels A Lot Like Hell Week)

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12 Days Of Christmas Workouts (or This Feels A Lot Like Hell Week)

Posted on December 12, 2016 | Comments Off on 12 Days Of Christmas Workouts (or This Feels A Lot Like Hell Week)

This past week of Orangetheory was the main part of the 12 Days of Workouts that they have going on. Technically last week had the beginning of it and next week will be the end of it, but the bulk of the workouts were during this past week. I managed to do 4 workouts in the week, which I thought would be fine. But I had no idea that these workouts would resemble Hell Week as much as they did!

Monday’s workout was not only super rowing focused, it was a back to back partner challenge class! I love partner classes because there is no way you can slack off in them. Your partner is waiting on you so you can switch, and I never want to let them down. I had no idea that the rest of the week was going to be as tough as it was, so I was pretty happy to go for it on Monday! I would regret that a bit later as I was exhausted at Disneyland later that day, but at the time it was awesome!

The first half of class was a challenge where the person on the rower determined the pace. I got to partner up with my friend Terry (he is one of my Monday workout friends who is pretty competitive). For this challenge, one of us was on the treadmill while the other was on the rower. The rowing segments were 1,000 meters, 750 meters, 500 meters, and 250 meters. When you were done, you switched spots (so we each had to do each of the rowing segments). I know I was slower than Terry, but he didn’t make me feel badly about it. And we actually were able to get through all of the segments before the challenge was done!

For the second half of class, it was a competitive challenge so I ended up with a different partner. I actually ended up in the only 3 partner group so things were a bit easier on us. With everyone else, there was one person on the floor (who determined the pace) and the other person was on the rower. And the challenge was to see how many meters you and your partner could get in the rest of class. With my group, we had one person on the floor, one on the treadmill, and one on the rower. And not everyone was rowing (they used the bike instead) so we didn’t get to track our distance. It was a tough challenge even with the breaks my group got on the treadmill. The floor was squats, push-ups, and ab work and it seemed like we were going at a crazy pace! But I’m proud of the work that I got done that day and that I didn’t let any of my partners down.

Wednesday’s workout was endurance focused and we had a 700 meter row challenge. Normally, I can do 700 meters on the rower in about 3:30 (sometimes 3:15). It’s a longer row challenge and sometimes I push too hard in the beginning and get burnt out before I’m done. This time, I was hoping I could do under 3 minutes and decided to try to focus on pacing myself in the beginning and then increasing my speed and power as the time went on. My focus paid off because I got an awesome row time!

That was below the time I was hoping for! For the rest of the workout, I did my usual stuff. For the 3 minute push paces I did my 1 minute intervals and for all the shorter push paces I ran for the entire time. That’s starting to become more comfortable so I’m happy with that progress. And when we got to the floor, we had a couple of types of squats and arm work.

Friday’s workout was endurance, strength, and power and it was a good one! For the endurance block on the treadmill, I had my usual intervals for the 3 minute pushes and running for the shorter ones. And during the power block, we all 90 second intervals so I could run the entire time. But where I had some great progress was during the strength block. I’ve said I needed to work on my running at inclines and this was a great workout to test it with. We had 2 different hill challenges, the first one where the incline increased and the second where it decreased. For the increasing one, I was able to run at 3% and 5% and then for the higher inclines I was walking at 10% and 12%. We had some flat road recovery between the hill challenges and when we started the declining hill challenge I was actually able to run for 30 seconds at 9% incline! It was really hard, but I made it through. I walked after that and then did the 5% incline at a run again! I’m curious with my next 5K how long I would have to run up the bigger hills. I think it might be more than 30 seconds, but it can’t be that much longer!

After the running on the inclines, I was happy that the floor work was a bit easier that day. We had rowing on each floor block (between 150-600 meters) and mainly ab work to do that day. We didn’t have to use that weights that much and being able to do ab work was a nice rest after the running. It wasn’t easy, but it was easier than having to stand and try to lift weights.

And Saturday’s workout may have been one of my favorite workouts we’ve ever had at Orangetheory! This workout was a power workout and it seemed to be custom-made for me! For the treadmill, with the exception of a 2 minute push in the beginning of the workout, it was completely 1 minute all outs with 1 minute walking recovery in between! This is exactly the intervals I’m used to doing and I took advantage of that.

I started my all outs at 5 mph and was increasing by .2 mph for the first few intervals. Then it was starting to get a bit tough running that fast and being able to recover so I was only increasing it by .1 mph. I was going a lot faster than I’m used to doing especially since when I usually do my super fast speeds it’s the very end of the treadmill time. But when we were down to the last 3 intervals I decided it was now or never to push myself. I had pushed myself the entire week with the workouts and I didn’t want to skip doing that on Saturday. So I did 6 mph for one, 6,5 mph for the second to last interval, and for the last minute on the treadmill I ran at 7 mph. I don’t know if I’ve ever run that fast in my entire life. It was incredibly difficult and I was thinking of slowing the speed down a few times during that minute, but I made it through! And even though this wasn’t the farthest I’ve done on the treadmill in class, it is the farthest I’ve gone in under 30 minutes in class. And technically this distance within this time is faster than what I was doing my last 5K at.

After that running, I wasn’t ready for the floor work that day and it wasn’t an easy one either. There was only 1 long block for the entire time. We had rowing and then we were doing various exercises in between. I’ll admit that I was taking more breaks during the floor work that I probably should have, but it was a tough day and I was having a lot of trouble catching my breath. There were a few times I was starting to feel a bit light-headed (the problem with Saturday workouts is that I usually don’t eat lunch right before going) and I wanted to take it easy on myself. But I still got a good chunk of the floor work done before time was up.

This was a pretty incredible week of workouts for me. I got to work on a lot of my rowing skills including working on my rowing endurance. And I made some amazing progress with my running in my speed and with the inclines. I said that since I wasn’t going to hit my workout goal for 2016 that I was going to focus on making each of my workouts the best one it can be. And I think I really did get that done with these 4 workouts.

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Getting Back To Normal (or Finishing Hell Week and Race Prep)

Posted on November 7, 2016 | Comments Off on Getting Back To Normal (or Finishing Hell Week and Race Prep)

This past week of workouts was a 3 workout week, but I didn’t go easy on myself at all! My week started with the end of Hell Week and then my last 2 workouts were very focused on getting ready for my 5K. I was feeling pretty much completely normal, so I saw no need to try to take it easy and decided to go all out on the 3 workouts that I had.

Monday was the end of Hell Week and it was a Trick or Treat 3G workout. That meant that on each part of the workout (treadmill, floor, rower) we pulled a card from a plastic pumpkin and it told us what to do. There were some good cards (the treats) and some cards that were really tough instructions (the tricks).

I got to start on the treadmill and first pulled a Treat card. I had to do 30 second push paces, 30 second all out paces, and 30 second walking recovery for 3 rounds. I was running for both the push and all out paces, but I was keeping my speed the same since the walking time was less than I’m used to. I got through that card pretty quickly and then went over to pull my next treadmill card. It was another Treat card that said I had to do 1 minute push paces, 1 minute all outs, and 30 second walking recoveries. I did walk the push paces at 8% incline, but ran much faster for my all out pace than I did for the first card. I only made it 2 rounds before the time was done and I headed over to the floor.

My first card on the floor was a Trick card. I had to start with 31 burpees before moving on to the workout plan. Those 31 burpees were not easy at all and I had to take breaks after 4 or 5, but I did manage to get through it and was able to move on to the rest of the floor work. It was a good mix of upper and lower body work and I had to do pushups, ab work, and lunges. Just as I was finishing up all the work, it was time to switch over to the rower for the end of the workout.

On the rower, I pulled another Trick card. It was to for 3100 meters and we only had about 13 minutes left in class for the day. I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to get my full 3100 meters in, so I decided to just try for the best and see what I could do. I did have to take breaks every so often because I was so exhausted from all the other hard work that day, but I managed to get just about 2200 meters done before class was done.

And after completing my 5th Hell Week class, I was officially a Hell Week Survivor and earned my shirt!

hell-week

Wednesday we were back to normal workouts, but they weren’t easy! That day was a strength day so I ended up doing quite a bit of walking. We had a lot of higher hill work and most of my walking was done at 10-14% incline. We did have a few things at a flat incline so I was able to run for those, but a majority of my work was walking at an incline. We also had a mini run/row assignment that day. I ran .15 miles (which took me about 2 minutes) and then rowed 300 meters. I didn’t make it through that many rounds of the run/row, but it felt good to get that running practice in.

When we got to the floor, I was able to work a lot harder than normal and it felt really great! We did have some ab work which wasn’t so great for me (I’m still occasionally feeling weird pressure in my stomach when I do sit-ups or crunches) but the rest of the work was either at the level I was at before or better. I was able to do squats and lunges with better form (and less stability issues) and was doing my arm work at 15 pounds. And when we did pullovers, there were no 20 pound weights for me to use so I had to use the 25 pound ones. It was a struggle to use the heavier weights, but I was able to get through the sets and realized that my strength didn’t get worse with my time taking it easy.

My last workout of the week was on Thursday (I didn’t work out on Friday since I had the race on Saturday morning). It was a power day and that made me so happy. Power days are usually my best days to work on my running and I needed that confidence boost before race day. Most of the time, we had a lot of the same stuff on the treadmill. It was push pace to all outs and usually they were 45 second intervals. So that was 90 seconds of running and then we’d usually have a minute to walk to recover. This was a more intense interval than what I do when I work on my running on my own, so this was a great way to build some extra endurance for the race. And once we were done on the treadmill, I realized that I had reached a workout goal. For a while, I have wanted to get to 2 miles during the treadmill time in a workout. That would mean I was close to 15 minute miles during class. So it was great to see this screen when I was done.

2-miles-otf

On the floor, we had a bunch of upper body work. I was doing chest presses and we had lunges that had weighted twists (I really felt that in my shoulders). And to finish the workout, we had a short rowing block. It was a similar pattern to the treadmill where we had 45 seconds intense rowing and then 30 seconds to recover. And after that workout, I felt as ready as I could be for my race on Saturday.

This ended up being a great week of workouts for me. I gained a lot of confidence I lost after being sick and finally was feeling more like myself and able to do my best on my race. I’ll write about the race tomorrow, but if you follow me on social media, I think you know how it went!

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Hell Week Part 1 (or Not Pushing It Too Much)

Posted on October 31, 2016 | 2 comments

Last week was the first part of Hell Week at Orangetheory. Technically part 2 of Hell Week is only today, but it’s still covering more than one week. This year, to earn the Hell Week shirt, you have to complete 5 out of the 8 days. Before I got sick, there was no question that I was going to do this. I signed up for all my classes and got super excited about it!

After getting sick, while I still knew I’d do my 5 Hell Week classes, there was a bit of hesitation. I didn’t want to push myself so much that I got worse but I didn’t want to not try either. So I tried to take it day by day and figured out what the best plan for each day would be for me. And last week, as planned I got 4 of my Hell Week workouts done! And each of those days ended up being a 3G workout, which I actually think helped me survive it despite the pain in my stomach!

hell-week

Monday’s workout was a hill based one, but I knew that I would be on the bike for it. I was able to increase my resistance on the bike a bit more than I had done the past few workouts. Plus, I was able to increase the resistance for the hills as well. It was still a bit of a struggle on the bike and I had to take some breaks while riding it, but it was much better than the week before. When we were on the rower, we had to row and then do squat arm work with weights. The rower was still tough because of my stomach so I was rowing pretty slowly. And the weight work was also tough because my body didn’t want to bend like normal. But I took breaks when I needed to and even though I didn’t do as much work as I would have liked to, I still did something. And finally, I was on the floor doing lunges, planks, and mountain climbers which surprisingly didn’t bother me too much!

By Wednesday, I was feeling so much better. I thought about going on the treadmill that day, but I knew that I would want to push myself more than I should so I stuck with the bike. And it’s a good thing that I did that because the workout had a distance challenge element to it. We had 2 segments that were 6 minutes each on cardio. The first time, we were given guidance on when we should be in base, push, and all out paces. The second time we were just supposed to beat that original distance. I really went crazy on the bike and I think I was working harder on it than I normally do on the bike! And I was very happy to see that I was able to beat my first distance when I had my second attempt.

bike-challenge

Next we had a rowing challenge that was set up the same was as the cardio challenge. 6 minutes to do our best, and then we did it again to try to beat the first time. The rower was still a bit tougher for me than it normally is, but I was very happy to see that I was able to row for the entire 6 minutes both times without stopping! And again, I beat my distance the second time (which I was not expecting at all)!

row-challenge

Finally on Wednesday, we had our floor work which had some lunges and mountain climbers (again those weren’t bugging me so I was able to work hard on them). We also had some arm work and I really wanted to use 12 pound weights again. I didn’t feel ready to use my normal 15 pound weights, but when I looked around all the 12 pound weights were being used by other people. So I was forced to use the 15 pound ones (I wasn’t going to use the 10 pound ones) and while it was a bit of a struggle I managed to get through and felt very accomplished!

Friday was the first day that I went back to using the treadmill. I knew my next 5K was coming up, and I wanted to see how I was doing after taking time off and feeling sick. I know that my expectations for what I would be able to do at my race need to be reevaluated because I’ve had those set-backs, but I still want to train as much as I can. For this workout, we started with a round of 3 minutes at each station. For the treadmill and rower, the plan was a 2 minute push and a 1 minute all out pace. I was able to do that for the rower, but for the treadmill I did a 1 minute run, 1 minute walk, and 1 minute run. The running felt different to me, but it wasn’t impossible. And on the floor for those 3 minutes, we had squats.

For the rest of the workout, we had a 3 partner workout. It was a rotation between the rower, treadmill, and floor and the person on the floor controlled the pace (the floor work was squats, lunges, and ab work). On the treadmill, we were supposed to run for the time it took for the partner from the floor to tag us out. And on the rower we were working toward how far we could row as a group for the workout (so we didn’t reset it between people). For the treadmill, I tried to stick with a 1 minute run/1 minute walk pace. I was able to do that for most of the time, but I did do one round where I just walked for the entire thing. But considering how awful I had felt a week prior, I’m very happy that I can still run and I have hopes that I can do a run/walk pace for at least part of my upcoming race.

And I have to say, as a team we did a lot of rowing for that workout! We didn’t place in the top 3, but the fact that our total was 6666 during Hell Week was pretty funny and I enjoyed that.

group-row

By Saturday, I was feeling a bit tired from all the work I had put in. Even though I was taking it a bit easier than normal during Hell Week, the workouts are very intense and tough. And of course, I’m very competitive with myself and try to see how far I can push myself. It’s not the best trait I have, but it really did push me hard when I planned on going easy on myself.

Saturday was a tornado style workout. We were never on one thing for that long and kept moving around a lot. We started and ended the workout with the same thing: 3 minutes on each section. For the treadmill both times, I did the 1 minute run, 1 minute walk, 1 minute run plan. And on the floor we had to do ultimate burpees and hop overs. But in the middle of the workout, everything was a 1 minute section. That’s very short so we were moving before you knew it! I stuck with running for the 1 minute I was on the treadmill. On the rower, I had to take it a bit easy because that was the only time I felt I had to rest. And on the floor, we pretty much always had to do burpees (that was the theme for the day). By the end of class, I was ready for a nap and to relax!

Today will be my last Hell Week workout (so I can earn my free shirt!) and then I’ll have 2 more workouts in the week before my 5K race. It’s so soon and I’m trying not to be nervous about race day. If I can’t run at all, I’m still going to do it and finish and that’s what is important. But hopefully the 3 workouts I have this week will prep me for the race as much as possible!

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Default ThumbnailGetting Back To Normal (or Finishing Hell Week and Race Prep) Default ThumbnailHell Week To Orange Voyage (or One Challenge To Another) Default ThumbnailWelcome To Hell (or Pushing Myself Even More) Default ThumbnailFeeling More Back To Normal (or A Good Week Of Hell Week Prep) Default ThumbnailThis Felt Like Hell Week (or An Unexpected But Fun Workout Week) Default Thumbnail12 Days Of Christmas Workouts (or This Feels A Lot Like Hell Week)

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An Off Week (or Being Ok Being Weak)

Posted on October 24, 2016 | Comments Off on An Off Week (or Being Ok Being Weak)

I had a weird week of workouts this past week. When I started the week, I had no idea that I would be getting so sick on Wednesday. But even though I was in the hospital that day, I still managed to get 3 workouts in (it was originally going to be a 4 workout week, but I’m proud of my 3).

Monday obviously was my best workout day. This was before I got sick and I was pushing myself quite a bit. It was a strength day and we didn’t switch between blocks, so I had a long time on the treadmill. I still am not running hills, but I decided to run the flat parts that I could and get my inclines as high as possible. We started the workout with a 2 minute push pace that I ran in full and we ended the treadmill time with a 1 minute push and 1 minute all out (both minutes were run). And in the middle we had 2 30 second all outs that I was able to run.

But besides those parts, I was walking the rest of the treadmill time. Hills are tough in general for me, so running hills is not a priority for me right now. I was keeping my inclines pretty high most of the time by averaging between 8-12% incline with my usual walking pace. The hills are starting to feel more like they did before I hurt my calf, so I was very happy with that. It’s been a long time since the hills felt like that, so I saw that as a huge improvement and something to be proud of.

The floor work was a bit tough for me. My abs were hurting (I thought it was because of the MRI, but I’m now wondering if it was something related to my current issue). When we were doing ab work, I was able to do it but things were tougher for me than normal. I wasn’t able to get up from being on the floor as easily as I usually can and I decided to be a bit careful with my weights for the rest of the floor work. I wasn’t going with really light weights, but I took it a bit easier than I probably would do on a strength day.

Wednesday’s workout didn’t happen because I was still in the hospital at that time and there was no way that I could go anywhere once I was done. I honestly thought that there was going to be a chance that I couldn’t do any more workouts for the week, but I decided that since the doctor I saw said I could work out once I was getting better I figured it was worth trying. I told myself that if I could only make it 10 minutes into the workout before I had to leave, that would be ok. So I kept my already scheduled Friday and Saturday workouts.

Friday was really a challenge for me. I know I must have been getting better, but it was hard to believe that. I was still hurting so much and there were only so many positions that my body could be in that made the pain go away. There was no way I was going to walk on the treadmill (even if I kept it really slow, I would be tempted to push myself more), so I went onto the bike. I kept the resistance very low and didn’t pedal too fast the entire time I was on there. It wasn’t easy, but I made it through.

Friday was a run/row day, and I think that was the best thing I could have had. I didn’t spend too long on the bike for a stretch and the rower had the ability to be a good way for me to stretch a bit. My bike time wasn’t fast, but I wasn’t pushing myself at all. I just wanted to make it through what I could. The rower wasn’t that great for me (crunching my body up was hurting my stomach), but I just did a bit of a lazy row and got all the meters in that I needed to. My coach knew I was dealing with health stuff, so he wasn’t pushing me that hard and kept checking in to make sure I was doing ok.

When we moved to the floor, I decided there was no point in me trying to use my normal weights. I needed to keep things easy, and that means easy weights too. So when I usually would use 15 or 20 pound weights, I was using 10. I felt a bit pathetic and weak, but I had to keep telling myself that I was feeling like crap and wasn’t letting that keep me from the gym. Most of the floor work was focused on arms, but there was some ab work as well. I knew the ab work wasn’t going to happen, so I just skipped that part and did more arm stuff. I ended up leaving class a bit early because the last 3 minutes was a core blast, and I knew I couldn’t do any of it. Plus, I was feeling a bit exhausted since that was my first real workout or movement since I got sick.

I went into Saturday a bit more optimistic. I knew I could do the bike and make it through a workout with significant modifications. It helped the nerves go away since I knew I could do it. I got on the bike again and even though it was a power day (my favorite) and there were a bunch of push and all out paces, I didn’t do any of that. I just tried to ride the bike at a steady resistance and cadence for the entire time. I did have to take some breaks (my stomach would hurt or I needed to stretch out a bit), but I did ride for a good amount of time. The computer on the bike stops when I stop, and in the end it said I was on it for 25 minutes. Not too shabby at all.

The floor work was a bit tougher for me, but I stuck with my Friday plan and used 10 pound weights again. We had a bit of squat work to do and I was modifying those and doing what I could. I was feeling my muscles working so even if I felt like I wasn’t doing much, I was doing something. We had some ab work that I skipped (like toe touches) and some ab work that I tried (mountain climbers which were very difficult but doable) and we had a bit of rowing as well. My stomach wasn’t hurting more at the end of the workout than it did in the beginning, so I consider that a victory.

This was not the workout week I was expecting to have. But I did my best to make it the best I could. I’m not disappointed in myself since I know that it would have been so easy to decide not to go at all. But I still wish I wasn’t hurting so I could have done more.

With Hell Week starting this week (and going through the beginning of next week), I’m still planning on doing all the workouts I have signed up for. I’m hoping that I won’t be in pain for all of the workouts and can really push myself to see what I can do, but if I have to be on restricted exercises I’m going to try to make the most of it. I want to earn my Hell Week shirt and I know what I need to get it!

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Default ThumbnailA Full Workout Week (or Sticking With My Plan) Default ThumbnailA Week On The Bike (or Ending My Year By Taking It A Bit Easy) Default ThumbnailHell Week Part 1 (or Not Pushing It Too Much) Default ThumbnailA 4 Workout Week (or Only A Few More Weeks Of 2015 Workouts) Default ThumbnailBusy Workout Week (or Maybe Overdoing It A Bit) Default ThumbnailTaking It Easy (or Trying Not To Be Hard On Myself)

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Extra Running Time (or Figuring Out What I Can Do)

Posted on October 17, 2016 | Comments Off on Extra Running Time (or Figuring Out What I Can Do)

This past week of workouts at Orangetheory were pretty great for me. I’ve been getting ready for Hell Week (I just booked all my Hell Week classes so I can get the shirt for completing it) and I’m starting to trust that my body can handle more than I think it can. My progress is still slower than I thought it would be, but I’m seeing improvements that keep me happy. I also think this past week of workouts went well because I only did 3 workouts (and skipped my run/walk training that I do on my own) so I had more energy. But just because I did fewer workouts doesn’t mean that I was slacking on things.

Monday was a power workout day. We had a bunch of really short blocks so we never were doing something for that long. Each block was only 4.5 minutes long and on the treadmill it was going by really quickly. I ended up running for 2 minutes at a time for each of the treadmill blocks that we had. 2 minutes still feels tough to me, but I’m able to do it more and more often on the treadmill so I’m feeling pretty great. I figure the more that I do 2 minute runs, the better the 1 minute ones will feel during my next race.

After doing about 20 minutes on the treadmill, we switched over to the floor where again we had super short blocks. We were only doing the sets for the same 4.5 minutes so I didn’t get too tired of any strength exercise. The focus was on arms but we also had a bunch of lunges to get through. And after that, we had about 10 minutes left in class so we did a quick partner workout.

It was basically a run/row where one partner was on the treadmill and the other was on the rower for 1.5 minutes. The treadmill was a push pace for a minute followed by a 30 second all out. I did run for the entire thing, but I wasn’t pushing my speed up too much for the all out time since I was pretty tired at the end of the workout. On the rower, we rowed for 1.5 minutes and we were supposed to not reset the rower between switching. But I think my partner kept resetting the rower because at the end of 4 blocks of this it showed we rowed 400 meters (which is what is usually done in about 1.5 minutes).

Wednesday was an endurance run/row day. I’m not a huge fan of endurance days, but I love run/row days so I was feeling pretty ok going into the workout. The run/row was one of the tougher ones I can remember. Each of the run segments was .5 miles. Since I do the run/walk instead of just running or just walking, I try to split the difference between the run distance and the walk distance (which is half of the run distance). So I settled on doing .37 miles for each of the treadmill segments.

For each time I did the .37 miles, I ran for 2 minutes and then walked for 1 minute. I finished it with running for whatever distance I had left, which usually ended up being a little longer than 2 minutes. I probably could have increased my speed to that I could have gotten that done a bit faster, but since I’m focusing so much on running for 2 minutes at a time, I didn’t want to work on speed at the same time. It ended up being  pretty great pace for me and I was tired but feeling good after each treadmill part.

For the rower, we had a 600 meter row each time. The first time, it was just 600 meters straight and the second time it was split up a bit so we had a break on the rower in the middle. There were 4 rounds we were supposed to get through, but I had a bit of a delay on the rower because the foot straps weren’t working and I had to find a different rower to work on. So I made it to the 3 treadmill part and felt ok with that.

On the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block was pretty normal where we had a set number of reps to do for each exercise and we did as many rounds as possible. But the second block was insane! We had exercised to do, but instead of having a set number of reps, we had to do each thing for 1 minute and was told when we could move on. It got tough because I didn’t always know how much longer was left in the minute and I didn’t want to burn myself out. We had 2 rounds of each exercise for that minute and with a lot of exercises being squats I was feeling it when we were done.

My last workout of the week was on Friday which was another power day. We didn’t switch between blocks and while it was a power day, it really felt more like an endurance day. Each of the treadmill blocks had the same format: a push pace, 1 minute at base pace, and a 30 second all out pace. After each block, we had a minute to walk and recover. But those push paces started out at 3 minutes and then they got shortened by 30 seconds each time. For the pushes from 3 minutes down to 2.5 minutes, I ran for 2 minutes of that time. And for all of the ones 2 minutes and under I ran for the entire thing. I did run my all outs at a pretty fast speed (the best one was 6.3 miles an hour), but that was because it was short and I had some base pace walking before it.

The floor work was split into 2 blocks. The first one had a pretty good variety of things we had to do. Some things were using the TRX straps like triceps work, some things were body weight like squats, and we got to use the ab dolly to do some knee tucks and push ups. It was one of my favorite floor blocks that we’ve had in a while since the variety was really great and the way it was set up I didn’t have any muscle group feeling too tired from exercise to exercise. The second floor block was a mix of squat work using the medicine ball and rowing and we were running between the floor and the rowers the entire time.

I’m shocked that I was able to do 2 minutes of running for each of my workouts this past week. I think that I’m finally in a better spot to keep working on my endurance in my running and might try to push things a bit more in the next few weeks. I still think that for my next race, doing 1 minute intervals will be the best option for me. But like I said, the better my running endurance is by race day the easier those intervals will feel for me. This week of workouts will be the last week before Hell Week (which will go through the last 2 weeks of this month) so I better make sure I’m ready!

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Default ThumbnailMaybe Not That Much Running (or Training For Thanksgiving) Default ThumbnailRunning And Walking (or Accepting My Limits) Default ThumbnailBuilding My Endurance (or Lots Of Running) Default ThumbnailFiguring Things Out (or Finding A Balance With Running) Default ThumbnailSetbacks and Goals (or Still Figuring Out What’s Next) Default ThumbnailBuilding Up My Running Skills (or Getting A New PR)

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