Tag Archives: injury

Getting Back In The Groove (or Recovering From My Sick Break)

Posted on October 12, 2015 | Comments Off on Getting Back In The Groove (or Recovering From My Sick Break)

After only being able to do 1 workout the week before, I was pretty nervous about how my workouts would go this past week. Would it not seem so bad or would I hurt like I did for a few days after my very first Orangetheory workout ever? I decided to not push myself too hard and see how it went.

Monday was definitely a struggle. I felt like I was huffing and puffing through the entire workout but my heart rate stayed pretty low. I sometimes have that problem with my morning workouts, but this one felt worse than usual. I really tried to do what I could, but I felt like I had taken 1,000 steps back in my workout progress. I was also possibly holding back a bit since I knew I’d be at Disneyland that afternoon. I’m just grateful that my calf is starting to feel better because that was one less thing I had to worry about.

My Wednesday workout felt a bit more normal. The only big issue I was dealing with was some horrible blisters that I got on both of my heels (not quite sure what happened, but they are still horrible). I didn’t have any pain leftover from my Monday workout like I thought I would and I was doing things at the same speed/weight that I was doing them before I was sick. The only thing that is still behind pretty significantly is my rowing power. That doesn’t seem to make progress like I would like and I’m wondering if it has to do with my calf, my hip, or maybe a combination of both. I’m adding it to my list of things I want to talk about with hip surgeons when I start meeting with them to decide for sure who will be doing my next surgery (and what my next surgery will be).

Friday I finally felt back to normal. And not only did I feel back to normal from being sick, I felt almost back to normal after the calf injury! For that workout, we spent the first half of the workout (about 26 minutes) on the treadmill without a break. When we had walking breaks, I brought my speed down to 3 miles an hour, but the entire workout time I was at 3.5 miles an hour! I’m almost back to what I was doing pre-injury! I’m still not able to boost my speed during the push and all-out paces, but knowing that I did 3.5 miles an hour for 26 minutes gave me a huge confidence boost! I’m feeling better about my next 5K and that I will be able to PR (even if it’s only a few seconds faster).

I feel like I might be ready to start back at 4 workouts a week occasionally. I’m still a bit nervous on how my calf might feel, but I haven’t had any popping or pulling sensations in it for about 2 weeks now. I think that it’s finally completely healed and I want to get in the extra workouts so I can still meet my 2015 workout goal. I also feel like while I’ve been pushing myself due to injury or illness, I haven’t really been pushing myself for real. It’s just been pushing myself to get back to what I can usually do.

Orangetheory will be doing Hell Week again during Halloween week. I’m feeling pretty sure that I can do 4 workouts that week. But I’m starting to think that maybe I should make it a challenge for myself to workout each day of Hell Week. Last year, they gave out a prize for doing that, but I don’t care about getting a prize. I care about proving to myself that I’m not in recovery mode anymore and I’m back to improvement mode.

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Default ThumbnailAlmost Normal (or Guess I’m Definitely Missing The Dri-Tri) Default ThumbnailAlmost Back To Normal (or Making Progress) Default ThumbnailWorkout Struggles and Wins (or My First Early Workout In A While) Default ThumbnailWorkouts With Modifications (or Dealing With A New Injury) Default ThumbnailStill Taking This A Bit Easy (or Not Going To Push Too Hard) Default ThumbnailTaking A Break To Be Sick (or Hitting A Road Bump)

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Workout Struggles and Wins (or My First Early Workout In A While)

Posted on September 28, 2015 | 1 comment

I’m still on the path of recovery for my calf injury (I laugh now when I think back at how I thought before it would only take 2 or 3 weeks to recover). I’m in a weird balance point of trying to push myself more and more and trying not to re-injury myself. I’m so terrified of another tear but I know that I do need to get myself stronger. It’s a weird thing for me to really want to hold back and push forward at the same time, but I think I’m finally understanding my body more and figuring out things I can do to both protect my muscle and build it at the same time.

I’m learning that if we are going to be on the treadmill for the first half of class uninterrupted (instead of either having a run/row day or switching between blocks), I’ve got to take it easy. Taking it easy is still at 3.4 miles an hour, but I’m not really pushing it any more than that. I’m feeling twinges in my calf when I go faster after being on the treadmill for an extended period of time, so I’m taking that as a sign that I’m not ready for that yet.

But when we are switching between blocks or doing a run/row day (we did both of these in workouts this past week), I’m able to do almost all my treadmill time at 3.5 miles an hour. I’m still keeping the incline on the lower end of things, but I’m testing the waters there a bit too. On Friday, we had very short treadmill segments on the run/row (1 minute or 45 seconds each), so I was able to try slightly higher inclines. But I’m not sure if I’m going to keep pushing myself on the inclines as much because I really want to focus on speed.

Besides the treadmill improvement, I’m still working on my form and other things like that on the rower and on the weights. The rower is tough because of both my hip and calf, but it’s getting better (and less painful). For weights I still have to be careful with some lower body things (I did something on Monday that made my legs hurt through Thursday) but I’m testing my limits there too.

The biggest struggle of my workout week was Friday. Because of my crazy schedule, I had to do a 7:30am workout. I don’t do those that often (I sometimes do 8:30am but that feels so much later than 7:30am), but it was the only way I could get in 3 workouts this week. I’m not sure if it was the early wakeup time or the fact that my heart rate monitor wasn’t registering correctly for the class, but I had the worst time in class. I was constantly dizzy and when I would look at the heart rate monitor for guidance if my heart rate is too high, it was showing false low heart rates. I tried to take my heart rate by feeling my pulse, and my heart was racing higher than it probably should be. I had to take it easy a lot during the rowing and weights segment, but I stuck it out through the entire class.

This week will bring another potential struggle for me. I’m going to be doing 3 workout days in a row. It won’t be the first time I’m doing this, but it will be the first time in a while. It’s not ideal for me to be doing this, but if I don’t I won’t be able to get 3 workouts in for the week and I haven’t done fewer than 3 workouts in a week since starting at Orangetheory. I’m going to try my very best in those 3 classes and I know that even a half-ass workout is better than no workout at all.

And I’ve got the new parking validation stamp from Orangetheory to remind me of that fact.

OTF Validation

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Almost Normal (or Guess I’m Definitely Missing The Dri-Tri)

Posted on September 21, 2015 | Comments Off on Almost Normal (or Guess I’m Definitely Missing The Dri-Tri)

Another week of ups and downs with my workouts. Since I like to end on a positive note, I’m going to start with the negatives.

Last week I was debating whether or not I’d be doing the Dri-Tri this past Sunday at Orangetheory. Then I found out that the Dri-Tri was moved to another date and was going to be a partner challenge, so I got really encouraged by that. I figured that there was no reason now to skip the Dri-Tri and I was all set to find a partner.

Until I found out the date that it was switched to. There is no way I can do the Dri-Tri on the new date. I’ve got one thing I have to do from 8am-noon that day and then I’m working from 2-8pm. Technically I might be able to do it between the events, but with driving time and having to be clean and in professional clothes for work I doubt that I could make it happen.

I believe that this is the last Dri-Tri of the year, so this will now be my second year of not being able to do one. It’s so frustrating because even though I know it will be very tough, I know that I could do it. And I want to prove to myself that I can and now I will have to wait a year to do that. And of course I think that knowing my luck I’ll end up having something else that prevents me from doing the event next year.

But I can’t think like that. I just have to focus on working on my workouts as hard as I can from now until the event next year so my first attempt will be great and I’ll be able to get a fast Dri-Tri time.

And working on my workouts is going better and better. My calf almost feels 100% normal now. I’m still struggling with my inclines a bit, but perhaps I was overdoing them before and that’s what caused the injury to happen. I’m getting the inclines high enough that I can get my heart rate up, and that’s most important to me. I’m not too worried if I’m told I should be at 15% and I’m at 8 or 10%. It’s what I can do right now and that’s all good with me.

And as far as my speed goes, I’m testing out 3.5 miles an hour now. I was able to do it a couple of times in the workouts this past week. And when I wasn’t at 3.5, I maintained 3.4 miles an hour the rest of the workout! I’m so close to where I was pre-injury. I still have a goal of being a bit faster before my next 5K in about 6 weeks. But if I’m able to do my treadmill workouts the week leading up to the race at 3.5 miles an hour, I’ll be happy.

I’m still hoping for a new PR at the race, but my PR expectations are lower than they were before. I know now that being a minute faster might not be realistic. But even if I’m 1 second faster at this race, I’m going to be happy now. That will prove to me that I’m 100% recovered from the injury and I’ll be able to train for speed for my next 5K after this one (that next one will be in the spring).

Now that my power walking is very close to what it was pre-injury, I need something new to focus on improving. I never realized that having a very specific workout goal could be as powerful as it is. I don’t think if I had as specific of a goal for the treadmill that I would have gotten back to (almost) normal as fast as I have. I’d love to get better on the rower. My power is still not as high as I wish it was. But I’m also aware that that might be due to my hips and my calf still healing. And I did recently improve on my weights for the strength portion of the workout, so I’m not sure if I can move up to the next weights very soon. I’m going to spend the next couple of days working on ideas for my workout goals and hopefully I’ll have something to work on soon!

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Steps Forward And Back (or Working On Frustration)

Posted on September 14, 2015 | Comments Off on Steps Forward And Back (or Working On Frustration)

My week of workouts were both good and frustrating. I’ve had this injury for too long (in my opinion) and whenever I feel like I take a step forward I end up taking a step back too.

The next Dri-Tri is this coming Sunday. I really thought I’d be better by then so I can do it, but I’m having some serious hesitations too.

My weight work is doing pretty well. I’m noticing that my balance is getting better and my core got significantly stronger recently. I’m wondering if compensating for my injured calf helped to strengthen my core. Whatever it was, I was finding my weight work to feel easier and more natural this week. This been a while since I’ve had a step forward like that and I’m pretty happy about it. My weakest part are still my arms/shoulders, but I think I can work on those.

My rowing also had some strides forward this week. I’m getting my wattage closer to what it was pre-injury and I’m doing well in my sprints. The longer distances are still my struggle. And that concerns me as far as the Dri-Tri goes. That has a 2,000 meter row. The longest distance I’ve done post-injury has been 1,000 meters (I’ve done 1,600 meters pre-injury). And with that 1,000 meter row I did have to take a bunch of breaks. I’m sure I could do 2,000 meters, just not sure how many breaks or how long it would take me.

But as it’s been lately, my biggest concern is the treadmill. I’m getting closer and closer to my pre-injury speed, but I’m not even close to where I was on incline. I’ve done a few quickie segments at 3.5 miles an hour, but I’m pretty much sticking to 3.3 or 3.4 for now. I’m feeling the muscle in my calf straining so I know I can’t do much more. And for inclines I’m doing pushes at 6% and all outs at 8% or the occasional 10%. I’m not sure if I’d have to do inclines for the Dri-Tri, but if I do those might disqualify me.

I’ve got a few more days to figure out if I’m going to do the event or not. I’m going to ask the staff/trainers about my concerns and try to make the best unemotional choice for me. As much as I really want to do it, I’m worried that pushing myself that hard is going to either make my recovery take longer or possibly even tear the muscle again.

I find it so odd that this injury is frustrating me as much as it is. My hip issues have been an ongoing problem for about 10 years now. And even though I know I need surgeries to correct them still, I put up with it and know that it is what it is. Now I have an issue that is going to be better without medical intervention and in the somewhat near future and I’m beyond impatient and annoyed with my progress. You’d think that I’d be more annoyed with an almost permanent issue than a temporary one.

I’m working really hard at being patient and knowing that this will be a memory and not an issue soon. And there will be more Dri-Tris next year, so this won’t be my last opportunity to do one. I just really had my heart set on doing the one last month (which I skipped due to the injury) and the one this month. I figured I’d be better by now, but I guess I was wrong.

But if things turn for the better, you’ll see a post from me next week recapping the Dri-Tri!

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Almost Back To Normal (or Making Progress)

Posted on September 7, 2015 | Comments Off on Almost Back To Normal (or Making Progress)

I’m feeling really great about my last week of workouts! I’m still at only 3 workouts a week (and I laugh that I use the word “only” in that sentence), but those 3 workouts were really awesome!

I had some workouts where I spent 22 minutes straight on the treadmill and some workouts where the treadmill segments were until 5 minutes. And each of those types of treadmill workouts had their own advantages and made me feel really great about my treadmill progress.

For those 22 minutes straight on the treadmill, I’m still keeping myself at a lower speed than before. I’m starting at 3.3 miles an hour, but I did test out going 3.4 for brief moments. Sadly, I couldn’t stay that long at 3.4 miles an hour for more than a minute toward the end of the treadmill workout. But that’s still progress and I’m getting closer and closer to my speed pre-injury.

But for the quick treadmill segments, I had a milestone (at least to me). One block involved going 1/4 mile on the treadmill and then moving on to strength work (it was like a run/row day but instead of rowing we did floor work between treadmill segments). I decided that since I knew that I would spend less than 5 minutes doing that 1/4 mile, I would see if I could start at 3.4 miles an hour. It didn’t feel that bad so I was able to bump it up to 3.5 miles an hour! I was hurting a bit at the end of that workout, but it wasn’t bad pain so I’m ok with that.

Beyond the improvement with the treadmill, I’m feeling like other parts of my workout are benefitting from my healing.

The most obviously one is the rowing machine. Right after the injury, I really couldn’t row because my leg wouldn’t bend enough (part of that was due to pain and part of that was due to the compression bandage I was using). But that’s not an issue anymore so I can go all out on my rowing like I did before. I’m still a little lower in wattage than before, but that’s all about building the strength back up and not because of my injury. I didn’t realize how much strength I’d lose taking it easy in my workouts, but it was pretty significant. I guess my fear of not doing enough workouts is valid. It’s easy to slip backwards.

The weights part of the workout didn’t really suffer from my injury, but I know I took it a bit easy while recovering. Again, I’m working on building things back up. My struggle there is my stubbornness. I like to use the same weight for as much of the workout as I can. But I know that some parts of me are much stronger than others and there’s nothing wrong with switching weights for each part of the strength workout. But I like to move easily from exercise to exercise so keeping the same weight makes that easy. But I need to slow down, take my time, and make sure I’m using the proper weight for each movement.

And finally, there is one part of my workout that I’m still struggling with quite a bit: the TRX Straps. Some of the moves I’m totally fine with. Pretty much anything where I’m facing the straps is fine. But things where I’m facing away (like chest presses or triceps moves) involve being on your toes to do the moves. When I’m on my toes, my calf muscle is screaming in pain! I’m finding that if I stand in a wide stance it helps, but it’s still the worst part of my workout for now.

While I’m going to be in injury recovery for another few weeks (at least I hope it’s only for a few more weeks), but I’m working on getting out of the post-injury mindset and moving on to the usual just kick ass in my workouts mindset!

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Transitioning Back To Normal (or Going Slow)

Posted on August 31, 2015 | Comments Off on Transitioning Back To Normal (or Going Slow)

This week of workouts was all about testing my limits with my injury. I knew that this week would mark when I could attempt going on the treadmill again, but I wasn’t sure if I was going to push it.

I spent Monday on the bike again. I’m not a huge fan of working out on the bike, but it’s not the worst thing. I struggled again with getting my heart rate up because when I’m bent forward holding on the handlebars my heart rate monitor isn’t flush against my chest. But I managed and did what I could (even if the screen wasn’t necessarily showing my accurate heart rate).

After my workout on Monday, I spend the day at Disneyland. I did wear a compression bandage, but I did a lot of walking that day. I was probably close to 4 miles of walking over the entire day, which is the most walking I’ve really done since the injury. I was having issues with pain from time to time, but it wasn’t unbearable. So I decided that I would test myself on the treadmill on Wednesday.

Fortunately, my new compression sleeves arrived before my Wednesday workout. I got a set of them (one for each leg), but I went to my workout just wearing one on my injured leg.

Compression Sleeve

Wednesday’s workout ended up being the perfect workout to test myself on. It was a partner workout and my treadmill segments were under 4 minutes each time. I felt great! I was going slow, but I was still going faster than I had when I started at Orangetheory. I slowly increased my speed, but I never got to what I was at pre-injury. I’m a little concerned since I have a 5K in about 2 months, but hopefully I can get myself up to my previous speed in that time.

Friday’s workout made me realize that I’m still limited in what I can do. I did try wearing the sleeves on both legs after a recommendation from one of my coaches, but I’m not sure if I like that yet or not (I’ll probably try it another time or two before I decide). But on Friday, all the treadmill blocks were one after another. So I had about 30 minutes straight on the treadmill.

I did ok with that. I had to decrease my speed compared to Wednesday halfway through the treadmill time because I was starting to hurt, but with doing that and taking some breaks I was able to finish the treadmill segment on the treadmill and not taking time on the bike.

Obviously, I’m not fully healed yet. I still have some pain when I’m walking regularly around my house or while doing errands. And on the treadmill I had a few scary moments with a quick intense pain but those went away quickly and I don’t feel any additional tears in my calf. I really want to get back to normal, but I need to learn to be patient with myself. It’s not easy when my focus for so long was to push myself, to go faster, and to get higher inclines.

My plan is to stay on the treadmill from now on unless there is a pain that is unbearable or really scares me. I know I need to work on my endurance and muscle strength and hopefully I can spend the next few months just focusing on getting myself to where I was last month and not where I thought I’d be.

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Learning How To Maximize My Injury (or Feeling More Normal)

Posted on August 24, 2015 | Comments Off on Learning How To Maximize My Injury (or Feeling More Normal)

It’s been another interesting week of workouts. I’ve had some setbacks with my injury, but it has been getting better. I’m still using compression bandages most of the time (yesterday was my first day trying to get around without a bandage and it was pretty painful) and I’ve ordered a couple of different compression sleeves to wear for my workouts soon. The bandages get loose during the workout and I’m finding that I’m having to adjust them a lot. So hopefully the compression sleeves will help.

Since I’m still recovering (and will likely still be recovering for another week or so), I’ve been working really hard at getting better at the bike at Orangetheory. It’s very different from using the treadmill and I still find that I’m not getting quite as good of a workout on it. Part of the reason it isn’t as good of a workout is the pain from the injury, but I also know that I’m scared to push myself because I don’t know what my limits are on it yet like I do on the treadmill.

I’ve had to be ok with not meeting my splat points goals during the workouts. It’s very tough for me to get my heart rate up high enough on the bike. But on Wednesday I tried really hard to increase the resistance and to sit up on the bike instead of using the handlebars. And that effort really did pay off.

Workout Summary

It wasn’t easy getting my heart rate up, but I proved that I could do it. So while I know that this might not happen for every workout on the bike, I know that it is possible and that I can try my hardest to get to that point.

I also had a pretty great bike day on Friday. We didn’t switch between the blocks the entire workout (only once to switch from cardio to strength) so I was on the bike for a long time without a break. I did take little breaks on my own to drink water or to adjust my compression bandage, but I did ride for 25 minutes (the timer on the bike stops when I stopped pedaling so there really was 25 minutes of riding).

PR Bike

I was also pretty proud that I passed 10 miles on that cardio block. I had it in my head that it would be amazing if I got to 10 miles. So getting that extra .1 was a nice surprise.

Besides making strides with my cardio on the bike, I’m also getting better at rowing. I’m still not totally able to do a full row, but I’m getting closer and closer and I think that once I’m wearing compression sleeves and not the bandage that I should be able to (I feel so much pressure when my leg is bent and I think the pressure is the bandage and not the injury). We had a lot of rowing this past week, and while my wattage and distance isn’t close to what it used to be, it’s much better than last week.

And while cardio and rowing aren’t the best with the injury, it’s not really hurting my strength workout. Some things I can’t quite do, like lunges, but pretty much everything else is stuff that doesn’t bother me. I’m focusing on my form right now and not increasing the weights (I figured that’s probably the best right now) and I am totally feeling the difference! Even with the same weights (or sometimes even lower weights) that I was using before, I’m feeling the burn in my arms and legs during the workout more. And some of the weird aches that I had post-workout in my back and shoulders aren’t there anymore so I think the form improvement is a good thing.

This week I should be getting my compression sleeves in time for 1 or 2 of my workouts. So I should be able to see if those make enough of a difference to feel more normal. And Wednesday marks 2 weeks since the injury and I may try seeing how the treadmill feels. I’m a little nervous to test the treadmill since when I did it at the first workout post-injury it was horrible. But obviously that was way too soon to test out my calf. Maybe with over a week of treadmill rest it will feel different.

I know I said this before when I’ve had other pains or when I was sick, but in a weird way I’m glad I had this injury. I’m proving to myself that I’m not using it as an excuse to be lazy and not try. I’m just finding new workarounds for things and continuing to try to kick butt as much as possible.

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Trying To Be Patient (or Did I Re-Injury Myself?)

Posted on August 19, 2015 | Comments Off on Trying To Be Patient (or Did I Re-Injury Myself?)

This torn calf is really a pain in the butt! I’ve been doing ok with my workouts because I’m super cautious, but I’m having a lot of trouble outside of Orangetheory.

While I’m at home, I’ve been trying to keep my leg elevated when I can and icing it throughout the day. I’m also wrapping it up in a bandage for compression a good majority of the day (I have to take it off to shower, sleep, and when my skin starts to get irritated). I’ve also bought some compression sleeves for my legs that I can start wearing at home or while working out to help.

But even with being that careful, several times a day I have a pain that is very similar to what the original injury felt like. I’m not seeing any additional bruising so I don’t think I’m tearing my muscle more, but it’s definitely not good. Every time it happens, I have a quick moment of panic and then try to just be more carefully with how I’m walking.

I do feel progress and that I’m getting better. And it’s only been a week since the injury and it says online that it can take a month to recover. I’m just not patient with things like this.

I was the same way with my hip surgery. After my surgery I had to be on crutches for 6 weeks (I had 2 weeks on crutches before surgery). For the first month after surgery, I wasn’t able to go without my crutches. Those last 2 weeks, however, I was rarely using them inside my house (I’d still use them outside where the ground wasn’t as even). I felt so guilty about doing that when I did, but a couple of years after my surgery the rules were changes where patients only had to spend 4 weeks after surgery on crutches. So I technically did was the future policy would be.

I know that many people with a torn calf would be on crutches while it heals, but since others have not done so and have been able to recover I’m ok with no using them. I’d rather try to push myself a little bit every day instead of doing nothing for a few weeks and then trying to rebuild my strength.

Until I don’t have any pain left I’m going to stay with restrictions. I won’t walk unless I have to (it makes getting 10,000 steps in a day tough but I’m just making it each day) and I’m only going to use the bike for cardio in my workouts. I’ll continue to do the R.I.C.E. method and hopefully in a few weeks I’ll be back to normal.

I know that some people might say that this is a sign that I need to slow down. I don’t see it that way at all. I just see it as a challenge to get past and prove that I don’t have to stop my momentum to get through it.

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Default ThumbnailFearing The Worst (or Trying To Hope For The Best) Default ThumbnailSteps Forward And Back (or Working On Frustration) Default ThumbnailInjury After Injury (or I Swear It’s Not Because I’m A Klutz) Default ThumbnailWorkouts With Modifications (or Dealing With A New Injury) Default ThumbnailBeing Patient With Myself (or Being Ok With A 3 Workout Week) Default ThumbnailLearning How To Maximize My Injury (or Feeling More Normal)

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Workouts With Modifications (or Dealing With A New Injury)

Posted on August 17, 2015 | 14 comments

This was an interesting week of workouts for me. I was feeling great from doing 4 workouts the past week and had every intention of doing the same this week. But then everything changed for me.

My Monday workout was fine. I was a bit tired from my birthday fun the night before. I swear that I was sweating out cake during the class. I might have been a bit sluggish, but nothing too extreme. I continued working on increasing my weights and my treadmill speed and felt like I was finally getting into a good groove of taking my workouts to the next level.

Then on Wednesday, my right calf was bugging me all morning. I thought maybe I slept funny because it felt like a bruise or that my calf muscle had been squeezed all night (like a charley horse). I didn’t think too much of it because I figured a workout would help get things stretched out.

I gave the coach for the class a heads up that I was feeling sore, and she said to take it easy. I got on the treadmill to warm up at 3 miles and hour, and after maybe walking for a minute I felt a pop in my muscle and my vision went white.

I was terrified that I did something horrible, but the pain decreased a bit when I stopped walking and my vision returned to normal after a second. So I hopped off the treadmill and went over to the bike for my cardio. I told the coach what happened and she noticed that a bruise was forming on the back of my leg. She said that I needed to not push myself and to not do anything that would hurt me.

I stayed on the bike for the entire cardio portion and really took it easy with the weights. By the end of the workout, the bruise on my left was from my calf down to my foot and I was still in pain when walking.

After consulting with my mom and dad, we figured that I must have torn my calf (the bruise is from the blood from the torn blood vessels). There’s nothing you can really do for this type of injury besides rest, ice, and elevation. So that’s what I did all evening.

Busted Calf

Even with the pain, I knew that I wasn’t going to skip my Friday workout. I decided against doing a 4th workout for the week, but I was going to get my 3 in for sure.

By Friday, the pain was about half as bad as it was on Wednesday. I wrapped a compression bandage on my calf and went to my workout. I tried the treadmill but it was just too painful for the speed that I would need to get my heart rate up. So I moved back to the bike again (guess my birthday bike ride was getting me ready to work out on the bike at Orangetheory). The bike hurt a little, but I was ok. I had lots of issues rowing because I couldn’t bend all the way, so I did little half rows. And I used lighter weights for the lower body work, but that meant that I increased the weights for my upper body.

I’m so used to working out with my hip issues or when I get sick, but this is an entirely different thing. With the type of tear I have, I should be close to 80% better either today or tomorrow and fully recovered in a week or two. This sucks, but it’s not the end of the world. I just have to continue with extra modifications and remembering that it’s all about consistency.

Hopefully this week will be a bit better with my workouts, but if not, I know that soon enough that I will be back to my normal self.

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Being Ok At A Beginner Speed (or Not Trying To Impress My Friends)

Posted on August 3, 2015 | Comments Off on Being Ok At A Beginner Speed (or Not Trying To Impress My Friends)

I had a pretty great week at Orangetheory, even though I was worried it would be tough. I’m still adjusting to my new medication levels (it’s affecting my heart rate more than I expected). But I also hurt my toe over the weekend. I’m not sure what happen, but I looked down and my big toe was black and blue and a chunk of my toenail is missing. I don’t remember hurting it, but obviously I did. I was still able to walk with the injured toe, but it was pretty painful so I knew that I would have to take it a bit easy.

But the problem is, I don’t want to take it easy. I’m finally feeling like I’m making regular progress in my workouts and not trying to stay comfortable at the levels I’m working out at for a long time. I don’t want to go backwards in my progress, but I also know that if I go too hard, it can make an injury worse.

So this week, I tried to focus on making my form as good as I could and not focus on doing things heavier, stronger, faster.

On our Wednesday workout, we had distance rowing to do. One was 500 meters and the other was 1000 meters. I hate long rows. I think that 200 or maybe 250 meters is the most idea distance for me to do. Whenever we have rowing for distance, there is always a guideline for how long it take you to complete it. I can’t remember what the speed is for intermediate or advanced rowers, but I know that for beginner rowers you are supposed to do 100 meters every 30 seconds. I still consider myself a beginning rower because I’m not able to push back with my legs as much as I’d like because of my hip issues. So while I may be fast, my force when I push back on the rower isn’t as much as I’d like.

So for the 1000 meter row, the goal was to do it in under 5 minutes (I think the range was 2:30-5:00, but I can’t be too sure of the lower number). When the distance is shorter, I never really have an issue maintaining an average of 100 meters every 30 seconds. But for the long rows, I always overdo it in the beginning and then tire out and have to take a break at some point. So that screws up my timing. But this time, I decided to focus on maintaining a good speed and not rush and see what I’m able to do.

Those 1000 meters seemed to take forever. It wasn’t fun. I’ll admit that I really didn’t want to finish them. But I really want to do one of the Dri-Tris in the future and those have an even longer rowing distance. So I pushed myself and just told myself to keep going even if I felt like I was going at a snail’s pace.

Finally, I finished and I looked at my time. I managed to finish in 4:54.9! I was the last person in the group to finish the row, but I don’t care at all. I managed to do 1000 meters averaging a speed a bit faster than 100 meters every 30 seconds! That really was a nice positive boost for me.

On Friday, one of my friends came for her first class (she ended up getting a membership so I’m going to get to work out with her on a pretty regular basis!). I do act like a bit of a show-off around new friends coming to class, but since I was hurting I didn’t feel like doing that as much. I just made sure that my friend knew what was going on in the class (it can be a bit overwhelming when it’s your first class) and tried to encourage her as much as possible. She was much better than I am at many of the elements of the workout, but that’s ok. Everyone has their own beginning point and hers is a bit more advanced than mine is.

Instead of trying to be a show-off, I worked on my rowing (it was a run/row day) and seeing if I can keep getting my push pace on the treadmill to be faster. Our rowing distance was based on how long it took us to complete the treadmill segment, so I had extra motivation to go faster on the treadmill.

I usually do about 3.7 miles an hour on the treadmill for push and all out paces. I’ve been experimenting a little with 3.8 miles an hour. On Friday, I also tried doing 3.9 miles an hour. I’m able to do it for about a minute, but I don’t know if I can do it as a push pace for an entire workout (I’m thinking I can do 3.8 miles an hour for an entire workout’s push paces and plan on trying that when my toe is healed).

That workout on Friday was one of the toughest ones that I’ve experienced at Orangetheory. I’m so proud of my friend for kicking butt at it. Another friend who was there joked that my friend wouldn’t get a membership now because of how tough the workout was, but she did get one and is planning on coming with me this Friday for another workout!

I love having friends at my workouts. Some of my usual crew hasn’t been in a workout with me for a while because there are other locations that are closer to their homes (when the West LA location opens I’ll probably switch to there since that’s closer to where I live). But until I change locations, I’m going to keep trying to bring more and more people with me to keep pushing me and to help make my workout hour a friend hour too.

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