Tag Archives: Orangetheory

This past week of workouts was just a weird one. I knew it would be a weird schedule due to the holiday, but this was even weirder than that. I already mentioned that I had food poisoning last week, and unfortunately it did affect my workouts.

I don’t know what to say about Monday’s workout. Monday was the day I had food poisoning, but I thought I’d try going to my workout to see how I would do. I know I can work through cramps when I have to, but these cramps were very different. But it was worth trying to see what would happen and I told myself that I could leave if I had to.

And for the first time that I could remember, I actually left a workout. I made it 20 minutes in class before the pain was too much for me and I knew I couldn’t do it anymore. All I had done in the workout was be on the bike, but I don’t think I biked for more than 7 or 8 minutes combined because I pedaled for maybe 30 seconds before I had to stop. I hated having to leave, but I knew that there was no way I could make it any longer in class and I was proud of myself for at least trying.

I was still a bit weak feeling on Tuesday, but I was significantly better than I had been doing on Monday (sleeping for about 12 hours during the day helped). I’m glad I was doing better because I really didn’t want to miss Tuesday’s class. I love working out on Christmas Eve and I was excited to take the class! And as an added bonus, we had a sub coach. While I love all the OTF coaches, I’ve had almost all my Christmas Eve workouts with Coach Bruce. And by some miracle, he ended up being the sub coach for this class! It was like it was meant to be!

The Christmas Eve workout is called Presents or Coal. We draw different cards that tell us what to do for our workout assignment. Some of them are easy (the Presents) and some of them are hard (the Coal). I feel like I usually get Coal when I do these, but I was ready for them. And before we got to that part of the workout, we had a quick tornado around the room with 3-minute blocks.

The cardio block was a 90-second push pace, 45-second base pace, and 45-second all out. The rowing block was a 300-meter row, squats, a 150-meter row, and more squats. And on the floor, we had goblet squats and tricep extensions with weights. And then the rest of the class was split into 10-minute blocks with 1 block at each section of the room.

For cardio, I had a mix of Coal and Presents cards. But none of them were that bad. I had 30-second intervals and distance challenges. I don’t remember the specifics of what I had to do (I should have taken notes), but I remember all of the cards being somewhat similar and never taking too long. I think I had 4 different cards for cardio. On the rower, all of the cards I pulled were Presents. I had 300-meter rows as my longest row. I also drew a card with intervals with squats between each row. But just like with cardio, I don’t remember the specifics but I do remember I drew 3 cards and they all took me about 3 minutes to complete.

On the floor, the cards told us how many of the exercises we had to do and how many reps we had. The exercises were hip hinge swings with weights, lunges, rollouts, and knee tucks. And on the floor, I drew the same card both times I had to get one. It was a Coal card and it said to do all the exercises with 12 reps each. I was starting to get a bit tired on the floor (and I think the weakness of recovering from food poisoning was catching up with me), so I was moving a bit slow. But I just focused on doing each rep as I could and taking breaks when necessary. I was just finishing up my second round of 12 reps when class was done.

I think after feeling so horrible about leaving class on Monday, the Tuesday class was exactly what I needed. I was feeling much better about myself and I needed that. Plus, I got to add to my amazing photo collage of taking Christmas Eve classes with Coach Bruce (we only missed doing class together last year).

I was finally feeling like myself again on Friday. Plus, I was craving a workout since I had 2 days off in a row which doesn’t happen that often. Even though I was excited about the workout, it ended up being a tough one and I did have a few struggles.

The workout was a mix of endurance and power. For cardio, we had a run/walk (or bike/bike slower) assignment that we did at our own pace. The longest distance we had to do was done just once and then we had 30 seconds to walk/recover. Then we had a slightly shorter distance that we did twice with the 30 seconds of recovery between each round. The third distance was slightly less and it was done 3 times. I was working on that third distance when the block ended and we switched to the rowers.

The rowers and the floor both had 5 blocks that got longer for each block. For the rower, the first row was a 100-meter row and then we did frogger squats until the block ended. We had to remember how many squats we did because we used that for the rest of the blocks. Each block, the row went up by 50 meters and we did the same number of frogger squats we did in the first block. Once we finished those, we had to hold a squat until the block ended. I always made it to holding a squat at the end, but I usually only had to do it for about 30 seconds. But all those squats were tough on my hips.

The floor was similar to the row. But instead of having longer rows we had add on exercises. The first block had neutral full thrusters and then sit-ups until the block was done. We had to remember how many sit-ups we did to use that for the rest of the blocks. Each block we added on another exercise and then did the sit-ups and held a plank until the block ended. The other exercises were hip hinge low rows, lateral lunges with a goblet hold, pulsing half squats, and tricep extensions. Even though there was a bit more upper body work, it still was a lot of lower body work and my hips were having a rough time.

Saturday’s workout was a strength day and we had some switching between blocks. Every block was about 6 minutes long and we did 2 blocks at each section of the room.

For cardio, we had shorter intervals and alternated doing push paces and base paces with incline work. The goal is to make the incline work feel the same as a push pace. For me on the bike, this is a bit harder to do because I’m not really using the resistance levels for push paces but I do use them for incline work. Also, I think I might have gone a bit too hard with the resistance levels for the inclines because my legs weren’t moving that much. But at least my heart rate got up really high while I was doing it.

On the rower, all the work we had for both blocks were stroke drills. We always had 15 strokes on the rower and the goal was to go slowly and keep the stroke rate down. For these drills, I’m pretty good at keeping the rate really low. I was much lower than the goals we were given. But I think that makes the rowing harder because my core is involved for a much longer time. In the first block between each row, we had squats with overhead presses using a medicine ball. And in the second block, we had squats with front presses using the medicine ball.

And on the floor, both blocks only had 2 exercises. The first block had bicep curls with weights and leg raises. And the second block had tricep extensions with weights and low rows on the straps. The goal with strength days is to go heavy on the weights, and I did just that. For the weight work, we had a range for the reps and we were supposed to do between 6-10 reps. If you can’t do 6 reps the weight is too heavy and if you can easily do 10 reps it is too light. I was doing either 7 or 8 reps each time, so I think I was using the perfect weights.

Even though this past week started with me having to leave a workout in the middle of it, I feel like it ended really well. I feel much better about having to leave the workout now that I’ve had other good workouts this week. But I also know that I hope that I never have to do that again. Only a few more workouts left in 2019 before I start working on my 2020 goals!

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This past week of workouts was my last workout week with my normal schedule for this year. Because of the holidays, I have slightly different workout weeks this week and next. But I’m excited about those weeks with different schedules, so it should be fun. But this past week, it wasn’t quite as good as those should be. I just had to do what I could and push through when I could.

Monday’s workout was a strength-based class. I was dealing with my normal pain and nausea so I knew it would be a bit tough for me no matter what the workout was. So I tried to do my best to follow the workout but I made changes where I needed to. It was also a switch class, so we had 3 blocks for cardio and 3 blocks on the floor and we switched after each one.

For cardio, all 3 blocks had a similar pattern. We had a 2-minute push pace, a base pace, a base pace with incline, a regular base pace, and we ended with an all out at an incline. The base pace with incline got shorter each block, but the incline went up each block to make up for it. But for me, I used the same higher resistance level on the bike each time we were supposed to be at an incline. It was a high resistance level, but it was easier for me to keep it the same. I really tried to do my best each block to keep going, but I had to take a lot of breaks to let either the nausea or the pain subside. It was frustrating, but I also know that I did my best.

For each of the 3 floor blocks, we started with a 1-minute row. The goal for each of the rows was to be within a certain stroke rate. I lucked out because they were around my normal stroke rate, but I know they were slower than what most people do. Then for each block, we had 1 exercise with a drop set (when you do a lower number of reps with a higher weight and then immediately do a higher number of reps with a lower weight) and one core exercise. The drop set exercises were hip hinge low rows, pullovers, and bicep curls. And the core work was double crunches, seated torso rotations, and plank work. I had to modify the plank work, but besides that, I was able to do all the exercises without modifications.

Wednesday’s workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power and I was finally starting to feel a bit better so that was good. We had 3 blocks in each section of the room. We had a 5-minute block, a 4-minute block, and a 3-minute block. But we didn’t switch between blocks so we did all 3 blocks in one section back to back.

For cardio, we had a push pace, base pace, push pace, and all out. The base and all out were always 1 minute long. The push paces started at 90 seconds and went down 30 seconds each block. I had a few moments when I had to take a break to let the pain or nausea end, but I was able to do a lot more work than I could on Monday. I didn’t do anything with the resistance levels on the bike, but I did focus on my pedaling speed.

For the rower, each block had 1 row and then we had medicine ball exercises. The first block was 750-meters, the second block was 500-meters, and the last block was 250-meters. The goal with the rowing was to keep our strokes per minute the same with each row. It’s not easy to go as slowly as you did with a long row when you do a sprint row. But it was a good challenge and I liked to see what my speed naturally was with each distance and adjust it from there. The medicine ball exercises were things I couldn’t do, so I modified them to be squats with overhead presses. And we did the medicine ball work after each row until the block was done (so we were on the rower just once per block).

And the floor had a mix of strength and core work. The first block had all weight work. We had deadlifts, overhead tricep extensions, and upright rows. Then the next block had one round of the weight work again and then the rest of the block was Bosu work. We were supposed to do bicycles, crunches, and single-leg v-ups on the Bosu. But my body just wasn’t letting me do those exercises. So I did sit-ups, crunches, and then tried to do a different type of crunch to get a third exercise in. And for the last block, we only had the Bosu work, so I continued doing my modified core work. Toward the end of that last floor block, I was starting to get a little nauseous, but I think I was leaning back too far with the sit-ups and that was the cause and it wasn’t my normal nausea.

Friday’s workout was a strength-based class, and I was almost back to my normal self so I could do a lot more. I knew that I would still have to be a bit cautious about how hard I pushed myself, but I could do more than I had done earlier in the week.

The cardio had 2 blocks. Both blocks had a push pace, a base pace, hill work, a base pace, and an all out. I kept my resistance level at my base level (I really should probably stop calling it a base level since I use it so much) and then I went higher than what I used to do for my all out level for the hill work. When we were doing the hill work, I really did slow down a lot with how fast I could pedal but I think that is to be expected. And it was nice to have the other work without hills so I could go faster and feel like I’m doing more.

On the rower, we started with a 90-second row with the focus being on staying within 22-24 strokes per minute. Then we were supposed to have squats with leg lifts and calf raises using the medicine ball. I had to skip the leg lifts, but I was able to do the squats and calf raises. Then we were back on the rower and we were supposed to repeat what we just did, but decrease the row by 50 meters each time. I made things a bit easier on myself by rounding up the number on the rower so I could keep track, but I figured that way I was also doing a bit more work than necessary.

And on the floor, the first block was a mini-band block. We had walking side squats, bench tap squats, and hip raises with the mini-bands. The walking side squats were very difficult on my hips, so I had to go very slowly and take small steps. But I managed to get through them. And the second block didn’t have any mini-band work. We had side lunges while holding weights and full sit-ups.

Saturday’s workout was called Ellen’s Workout and it was named after Ellen Latham who is the founder of Orangetheory. She designed this workout to be the best representation of what Orangetheory is all about. And I really loved this class!

For cardio, we had 2 blocks. The first block was coached with lots of 1-minute intervals and a few 75-second intervals. It was mainly push to base paces with an all out at the end. After doing those intervals, then we had another block where we paced ourselves. We had rounds of .1 miles on the treadmill (or .4 on the bike) and then 30 seconds of recovery. For me, that was just under a minute of pushing myself and then 30 seconds to recover. They were intervals that I’m very comfortable with and feel like I can do well.

Then on the rower, we started with a 1000-meter row. After that, we were supposed to do lunges but I did squats instead. Then we had 3 rounds of doing 200-meter rows with the exercise between each row. And we finished the rowing with another 1000-meter row. I was working on that second 1000-meter row when the block ended and we switched to the floor.

The floor also had 2 blocks. The first block had single-leg squats (which I had to modify and do as regular squats), overhead presses with rotations with weights, bird dogs, and v-ups while using the Bosu (which I had to modify and do as full sit-ups). And the second block had lateral lunges with weights and front raises with weights while kneeling on the Bosu. When this workout was done, I really felt awesome! It was the best I had felt all week and I thought the workout was really good!

I’m excited for this week of workouts. I know we should have some holiday-themed classes this week and next, and I love those themed classes. And I’m excited to see if I can accomplish anything else amazing before the year is up!

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As I wrote last week, the 12 Days Of Fitness were almost like having another Hell Week. Except there were more days for this than there were for Hell Week. And these workouts were just as hard, if not harder, than those. And of course, I ended up making things a bit harder on myself than they probably needed to be. But that’s just how I do things.

Monday’s workout was called Nine Reps Increasing and that was a very accurate description for what it was. Every part of the workout had increasing reps for us to do.

For cardio, we had a run/exercise workout. We had 4 blocks but they were very similar. Our first block was rounds of .25 miles (1 mile for the bike) and then we had ground to presses with the medicine ball each round. We started with 1 ground to press and increased by 1 every time. The distance for cardio decreased each block a bit and we continued working on our ground to presses and increasing them by 1 every time. We didn’t reset those each block, so by the time we finished the last block I was doing 8 of them after my bike work.

On the floor, we had 3 blocks. The first block had shoulder presses, hip hinge chest flys, and bicep curls on the straps. We started with 9 reps for each exercise and each round we added 1 more rep. The next block had side plank hip dips and sit-ups and the reps were based on where we were on the first block. For me, I did 9 and 10 reps in the first block so I started with 11 reps in the second block. The last block had chest presses, pullovers, and knee tucks and again we continued increasing the reps based on what we were able to do in the other blocks.

Wednesday’s workout was Eleven Pikers Piking and it was a power switch day so we had a lot of movement between the different areas of the room. We had 2 blocks that were 4 minutes each and 2 blocks that were 45-second tornados. It was a lot of switching for us to be at each section of the room 4 times.

For cardio, the 4-minute blocks had 30-second intervals with a push pace, a base pace, an all out, a recovery, and then repeating it. I kept my resistance level at my base level and just focused on pedaling quickly. For the 45-second tornado blocks, it was a 45 second all out and again I focused on pedaling quickly.

On the rower, the 4-minute blocks had 300, 200, and 100-meter rows with frogger squats in between each row. One block started at 300-meters and decreased and the other block started at 100-meters and increased. And just like with cardio, the 45-second tornado blocks were a 45-second all out row.

On the floor, both of the 4-minute blocks were the same. We had sumo squats with upright rows, hamstring curls (I did hip bridges with a weight on my hips), rollouts with the ab dolly, and lateral lunges. And the 45-second tornado blocks had 45 seconds of doing pikes on the ab dolly. I can’t do pikes due to my hip issues, so I did knee tucks. I was also struggling a bit with nausea in this workout, but it didn’t prevent me from doing anything. I just had to take a few more breaks than I normally would need to.

My goal was to do 7 of the 12 Days of Fitness, and the only way for me to do that would be to work out on Thursday. I wanted to see if I could get the socks they were giving away to the first 100 people who completed it, but I also knew that there was a good chance that at least 100 people would get it done before the last day (I was right about that, but I still got my 7 days in).

Thursday’s workout was called 12 Runners Running and I had a 2 group class instead of a 3 group one. It was also a strength-based day and I was dealing with the start of nausea. So I struggled a bit to complete it.

The cardio work started with a 4-minute distance challenge. Then we had a 5-minute hill challenge with the incline (or resistance level) increasing every minute. Even with the issues I was having with nausea, I was able to work on increasing my resistance level each minute. I was just pedaling really slowly. After completing those, we repeated it except we had the hill challenge first and finished with the distance challenge.

On the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block started with a 2-minute row for distance. Then we moved to the floor where we had deadlifts, hip hinge low rows, squats to bicep curls, half thrusters, and running man. I modified a few things with each exercise and took a lot of breaks, but I was able to go heavy with the weights. The second block started with a 90-second row and then we moved to the floor. We had lateral step-ups (which I modified to be lunges), sit-ups, and plank work. I modified the plank work to be on the bench instead of the floor, but that’s something I do almost no matter what since I’ve noticed it helps with my hips too.

Friday’s workout wasn’t a part of the 12 Days of Fitness, but it might as well have been. It was Friday the 13th which is always a tough workout. I also was doing my 3rd day in a row and my pain and nausea were really hitting me. I would have struggled no matter what the workout was. Everything in the workout was themed to be with 13.

For cardio, we had 13 rounds of 30-second push paces to 30-second base paces. And then we ended with an all out. I didn’t change my resistance levels at all and I tried to go a bit faster when we were doing a push pace. But my nausea really prevented me from doing that so I just had to pedal when I could and rest when I needed to.

On the rower, all the rows were 130 meters. Between the rowing, we had squats starting with 13 squats and going down each time. Just like with cardio, I rested a lot during my rowing. And on the floor, we added on exercises each round. The exercises we had were squats, low rows on the straps, triceps on the straps, push-ups, plank jacks, and burpees. I modified any plank type work to be on the bench, but besides that, I was able to do the exercises. I still took a lot of moments to rest and let nausea pass over me, but I’m glad it wasn’t too hard for me to do the floor work.

This week I will be back to normal workouts again, but I also have the pain and nausea to deal with so it won’t be easy. But I’m coming up on the end of the year and I love seeing how close I am to my goals for the year. And I’m starting to think about what fitness goals I want to have for next year and these workouts are really giving me a lot to think about.

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For the first 12 days of December, Orangetheory is doing the 12 Days Of Fitness. These are harder workouts than normal (similar to Hell Week) and they all have different themes. I was excited about the workouts because I love it when we get to do something a bit different. And I don’t mind the harder workouts because I like to prove to myself that I can do them.

Monday’s workout was 2 Crew Rows. And the workout really did have 2 sets of crew rows. It was a 2 group class and the workout was divided into cardio/floor and row (so it was a run/floor instead of a run/row). Every block was 10 1/2 minutes and we switched between the blocks.

Both of the cardio/floor blocks were the same. It started with a .2 mile run (or .8 for the bike) at a flat incline and every time we got back to cardio we increased the incline by 1% (or 1 gear on the bike). After the run, we had lunges with weights, hip hinge swings, and low rows on the straps. We kept doing that rotation for the entire block and when we got back to cardio/floor for the second block we started the cardio at the incline that we ended the first block on.

For rowing, we had lots of crew rows. Crew rows are when one person on the rower is the leader and everyone is supposed to match their cadence and speed. It’s not easy to do this, especially if you aren’t on a rower next to the leader. But it’s a good challenge. The first crew row we had was 4 minutes and we were supposed to be at 24 strokes/minute. The next one was 2 minutes at 26 strokes/minute. Then 1 minute at 28 strokes/minutes. And it ended with 30 seconds at 30 strokes/minute. Between each crew row, we had 1 minute to recover where we could row at our own speed and not have to match anyone. The second block had the same crew rows but we started with the 30 seconds one and ended with 4 minutes. I was never the leader, but I was fine with that. I was just focusing on my stroke rate and trying to match the leader each time and that’s all I needed.

Wednesday’s workout was 4 Falling Hills. And that was a very good explanation of what we had to do. Cardio was one long block but the rower and floor switched back and forth.

I’m not going to write out all that we did for cardio, but it was a lot! We had 14 minutes of hill work. Every minute was a different incline and there was no pattern or reason for the order. We had some high incline work and some medium incline work. But there wasn’t a walking recovery or a flat road recovery until the 14 minutes were done. I was struggling a bit for this workout because my hips were in a lot of pain (it was raining so I had pain from that). I did play around with the resistance levels on the bike, but I wasn’t doing it exactly how I should have done them. But doing some incline/resistance work is better than nothing.

The rower and the floor were the same every time we were there. For the block that I started on the rower, I had rower, floor, rower and for the block I started on the floor I had floor, rower, floor. Each of those little blocks was 4 minutes long so we were switching every 4 minutes. On the rower, we had a 1-minute all out row, 10 lunges (which I did as squats), a 1-minute row, and 1 minute of lunges (again, I did them as squats).

And on the floor, we had all timed work. We had 1 minute of bench low rows with our left arm, 1 minute of bench low rows with our right arm, 1 minute of pullovers, and 1 minute of standing triceps with weights. We were all told to go easy with the weights since doing something for a minute isn’t easy. I also had to work through how I could do the low rows because I wasn’t able to do the bench work. I tried just bending over, but that started to hurt me as well so I ended up doing them while sitting on the bench. It was a little frustrating, but my friends reminded me that I still did the exercise and that’s what counts.

Friday’s workout was 6 Legs A Shaking and it was a very accurate workout name! This was a really tough class and I was so grateful to have a 3 group workout so I wasn’t at any section of the room for too long.

The cardio work was rounds of 1-minute all out with 1-minute recoveries. And each time we had an all out the incline was supposed to increase by 1%. I knew that if I started the bike at my normal base resistance level that I wouldn’t be able to increase it by 1 every round, so I started a bit lower than normal. In total, we had 7 all outs and even with starting lower than normal I was so tired by the end.

On the rower, we started with a 1000-meter row. This was a long row to start with and I tried to not take breaks. After that, we had goblet squats before moving on to a 750-meter row. I was able to finish that, do the squats, and get started on the next row when the block ended. While I do enjoy long rows because they give me a lot of time to work on my technique, my legs were already so tired from the bike so rowing wasn’t as great as it could be.

And on the floor, I had to do a lot of modifications because it was a lot of work I couldn’t do. We started with single leg sit to stands (which I can do) and then it was single leg work on the bench (which I can’t do). Instead of the bench work, I did regular lunges as well as high knees using the straps. We also had sit-ups to stands with a dumbbell and toe reaches. By the end of the workout, my legs were definitely shaking!

Saturday’s workout was 7 Bells A Swinging and I was still recovering from Friday’s workout. Fortunately, this workout was a bit more upper body so my lower body could still rest.

For cardio, we had rounds of distance challenges along with regular pushes. The distance challenges got shorter and the push paces got longer. But all the blocks were the same length so it wasn’t too bad. And I ended up having bonus time on the bike because the rower I was supposed to use ended up breaking. I tried to use it after they fixed it, but it was sticking a lot and I knew that I could injure myself trying to make it work. So I did the bike for my rowing work and that had distance challenges along with squats using a medicine ball.

And on the floor, it was an interesting format. Our main exercises were push-ups, chest fly to tricep extensions with weights, tricep extensions on the straps, and plank punches. Between each exercise, we had another exercise to do. The first round we had single-arm hip hinge swings and in the second round we had skier swings. After the second round we could just do the main exercises. I went into that workout with tired legs and I left the workout with tired legs and arms!

We finish out the 12 Days of Fitness this week and I’m excited to see what else is coming up. The year is almost over and I’m so close to many of the goals I set for myself. I can’t wait to see what I can accomplish in these last few weeks!

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This past week of workouts was a mix of really great workouts and really bad workouts. I knew it was possibly going to be a mix like that, but I don’t know if I expected it to be such a big swing back and forth. But I managed to get through the tough days the best I could because I knew it would be better toward the end of the week.

Monday’s workout was not my best day. It was the day that I wrote my short post about how I was going through a tough time. When I went to my workout, I wasn’t feeling as bad as I did when I wrote that. But I knew I wasn’t doing well. And I knew that the workout had the 500-meter row benchmark and I really wanted to try my best for that.

The workout was a strength-based class, but the cardio work didn’t have inclines. We started with a 2-minute push pace, 1-minute base pace, and 30-second all out before having a recovery. We continued that pattern but took 30-seconds off of the push pace each time until we just had a 30-second all out at the end. I tried to start the workout with my normal base level on the bike, but I wasn’t able to do that. So I had to start a bit lower than that and I worked my way up to my normal base. But I wasn’t pedaling fast or consistent. I just had to do what I could when I could and be ok with that. The nausea wasn’t much worse than I normally have, but the pain was significantly worse and I was struggling to focus on pedaling when the pain was that sharp. I was so annoyed because I felt like I wasn’t really working out, but I just had to keep reminding myself that something is better than nothing.

When I got to the 500-meter row, I wasn’t feeling horrible and was even a bit optimistic that I could do an ok job. And when I started I was shocked at how strong I was rowing. My split time was so low that it would have easily gotten me a PR on the row. And I was feeling great for maybe the first 200-meters. But right around the halfway mark, my nausea hit me so hard and so strong that I was sure I was about to throw up in class. I never felt nausea that strong while working out and it scared me a bit. I immediately stopped rowing and worked on breathing through it and seeing if I had to leave the room. I was able to get through it, but my rowing time was ruined because of it. I was determined to finish the row, but I had to go very slow and easy. For the first half, I was pacing at 1:55 which would have been amazing. The second half I was pacing at over 4 minutes. I think it ended up taking me about 3:30, but I didn’t really look at my time when I was done and didn’t track it.

On the floor, I was able to do most things without modifications. We had swing lunges that I had to do as regular lunges, hollow hold chest presses, plank work which I had to do as high rows with weights while standing up, alligators on the straps, and rollouts on the straps. I did go slow with the exercises and took lots of breaks, but I was able to go heavy with the weights and I did get 2 rounds of all the exercises done.

I was still a bit nauseous going into Wednesday’s workout, but I was doing much better than how I was on Monday. Wednesday’s workout had a mix of endurance, strength, and power and if I was feeling awesome it might have been a day I tried the treadmill again instead of the bike. I don’t mind the bike the way I did before, but there are occasional workouts that make me wonder if I should go for the treadmill. And this one was like that.

For cardio, all we had were all outs. We had 4 all outs that were 1 minute long and 5 all outs that were 30 seconds long. The recovery time after each of the 1 minute all outs got longer each round. Then we went back to a shorter recovery when we switched to 30 second all outs but each round the recovery got longer. It would have been an amazing chance to work on my running and see what I could do, but I knew that my nausea wouldn’t allow me to try that at all. So I focused completely on my pedaling speed on the bike. I didn’t play around with the resistance levels since we were doing such short intervals. But I did try to pedal a bit faster with each of the all outs so it would be like I was increasing the speed on the treadmill.

On the rower, we had 100, 300, and 500-meter rows. Between each row, we had medicine ball exercises. They were supposed to be lunges with shoulder presses and tricep extensions but I modified the lunges to be squats. I struggled a bit on the rower, but since they weren’t benchmarks I didn’t feel the same pressure that I did on Monday to go hard and do them quickly. I took my time and took breaks when I needed to. I was seeing a pattern of needing to let the nausea pass after I rowed about 150-200 meters. It did break up the rowing nicely, but I would have preferred to not need breaks at all.

And on the floor, I had a lot that needed to be modified. We started with lunges (I had to skip using weights for this one to keep my balance), lateral lunges to half thrusters (I modified this by splitting up the movements into 2 different exercises), plank jacks to pop jacks (I modified this by using the bench for my hands), hamstring curls using the straps (I did weighted hip bridges instead), and sit-ups using the straps (I did these on the floor and skipped the straps). It was a bit odd that every exercise had to be changed to work for me, but they felt close enough to what we were supposed to do so it didn’t feel like I was changing everything.

Friday’s workout was better than the other days and I was almost back to normal. It was a strength-based class which meant I would have higher resistance levels on the bike. But it ended up not being too bad so I was able to handle it and my nausea wasn’t kicking in as much as I was afraid it would.

For cardio, the first block was coached and the second block was on our own. The first block was a mix of 1-minute push paces at inclines and 45 seconds of a base pace with no incline. The inclines weren’t that high so I was using resistance levels around my push and all out levels. The second block was .1 miles (.4 for the bike) at inclines with 45 seconds to recover after. .4 on the bike takes me about a minute so it was very similar to the first block for me.

The rower was also 2 blocks. The first block was rounds of 200-meter rows and 6 squats between each row. 200 meters was a good distance for me to work with and I was able to handle it without needed to take breaks. We weren’t supposed to reset the rower during that first block because for the second block we were supposed to do the distance we got in that first block and then 25 squats. The distance for the second block was a challenge for me and I did have to take breaks every 250 meters or so. But I did make it to the squats so I was proud of that.

And the floor work was 1 long block but we had drop sets within the block. We had drop sets of bicep curls and hip hinge low rows as well as regular sets of plank work and triceps on the straps. I tried to go heavy for the drop sets since that is the goal, but after one round I realized I couldn’t go as heavy as I wanted to without my nausea kicking in a bit. I was still using 2 different sets of weights, but it wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be.

Saturday’s workout was really amazing for me. I was shocked by how much better I was feeling compared to Friday. But that also meant that I would have a great workout and not worry too much about it. The workout was endurance-based, but it felt more like a power day for me. We had 2 blocks at each section of the room and we switched after each block (so we did 2 laps around).

For cardio, the first block had 2 rounds of push paces followed by a base pace and then we ended with a 90-second distance challenge. The second block was the same pattern, but the push paces were shorter and the base paces were longer. The goal was to get to the same distance on the second block even though we weren’t in a push as long. For me on the bike, I knew that wouldn’t be too tough to accomplish because I don’t really have a huge difference between my base and push speeds. I kept my resistance level at my base level the entire time and I ended up going further in the second block which was awesome!

On the rower, the first block started with a 150-meter row followed by squats. We then had a 250 and 350-meter rows with squats between and if you got through all that then you rowed until the block was done. The second block was the same except we started at the 350-meter row and went down. Just like with the cardio, we were supposed to get to the same distance in the second block as we did in the first. I struggled a little with the 350-meter row, but I think that was more due to being tired than anything else. And I was just about at the same distance between both blocks.

On the floor, the first block had single-leg squats, lateral squats, and hip hinge reverse flys. The second block had sit-ups to squats (which I had to split into 2 different moves), scaption raises, and plank low rows. The modifications I had to do for the floor work was more about my hip issues and not nausea. And I was able to go a bit heavy with the weights even though it wasn’t a strength day.

I loved that I ended on such a good workout. I felt like I made up for the bad workout days and that I am ready to go for this week. I might have 4 workouts in because I might be adding in an extra day, but if I go with what I have planned I’ll have 3 workouts this week. But one of them will be my family workout on Thanksgiving and I’m really excited about that!

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I knew this past week of workouts were going to be tough for me because my nausea was going to start at some point. I try not to stress out about this happening because I know I can get through it. But it doesn’t necessarily make it easier when I’m dealing with it. All I can do is work hard where I can and modify what I can’t do so they are things I can do.

Monday’s workout was themed for Veterans Day, so we covered all the sections of the room to celebrate the strength of different military branches. So even though my class was a 2 group class, it really felt like a 3 group one. It also felt extra tough, but I think it was designed to be that way.

For cardio, we had a 12-minute distance challenge. But instead of going at our own pace for the challenge, it was coached and we had different push paces or incline work. I kept the resistance at my base level for the push and all outs, but I did work with it for the incline work. And the end of the 12-minute challenge was 90 seconds on our own so I did try to go extra fast for that section. Then we moved to the rower to finish our cardio work.

The rower was essentially a 9.5-minute row for distance. We did have different times that we did the rowing together as a group and then we had a break to do squats. But whenever the break is doing more exercise, it doesn’t feel like much of a break. I tried to not rest during the rowing, but I was getting tired toward the end and was starting to feel my form getting sloppy. So when I noticed that, I took a quick break to catch my breath and refocus so I could get back to my rowing with the correct form.

And on the floor, we had the same exercises for each block. We had low rows on the straps, squats, sit-ups, plank jacks, and leg raises. Each block had a different number of reps that we were supposed to do, but it was always the same exercises. And at the end of each block, we had a 1-minute plank hold. I did change up the order I did the exercises (sometimes doing them in the regular order and sometimes doing them in reverse order) so I was able to do all of them at least a few times. But it was still hard with the high rep counts and having the same muscles getting sore each block.

Wednesday’s workout was a power day, and I was glad because that’s when my nausea started. Power days have the most recovery time for me and I really needed it. Fortunately, my nausea wasn’t too bad that day, but it was still causing issues for me from time to time.

The cardio was really interesting. We started with a 1-minute push pace to a 1 minute all out and then a recovery. Then we kept the push pace at a minute and did rounds with a 45 second and 30 second all out (with recovery after each all out). Then we repeated the round with a 1-minute push pace and 30 second all out before working the push pace down 15 seconds each round. It was fun working with the push to all outs so many times in a row. I kept my resistance level the same each time and focused on pedaling. And I did try to keep my breaks to when we were in a recovery minute since the active time was so quick.

The rower worked along with the treadmill but we didn’t do the same thing. We started with a 300-meter row and then 15 squats after that. If we finished those and the treadmill was still not to their recovery we had to hold a squat. Each round we went down 50 meters on the rower but the plan with the squats stayed the same. I got to the squats each time, but I never finished them before the treadmills were in their recovery. So I never had to hold a static squat. But it was a lot of fast work and fast rowing and I enjoyed it.

And the floor was 1 long block with mini-blocks in it. We repeated each mini-block twice before moving on to the next one. The first mini-block had push-ups and hip hinge low rows with weights. The second mini-block had push-ups with plank work and skater lunges. And the last mini-block had child’s pose push-ups and sumo squats to high rows with weights. I did all my push-up work using the bench and I had to break up the sumo squats and high rows into 2 different moves. But for some reason, it didn’t feel like that much modification even though I had to modify over 50% of the exercises.

Friday’s workout was a signature workout. This one was Catch Me If You Can. The goal is to hit certain distances at specific times to keep going. If you are on the treadmill and you don’t make it to that distance (aka get caught), then you power walk at a high incline for the rest of the time. You want to keep running because you want to get as far as you can over the entire block.

The odd thing about doing this on the bike is that if you don’t get caught you are pedaling for distance. If you do get caught, you are doing the same thing. I was very nauseous that day and I would have worked harder to hit the distance goals if I was feeling better. But it was nice to know that I could pretty much do the same thing either way on the bike. I made it to about the halfway mark with the distances before I wasn’t hitting the goal anymore. I wasn’t trying to take too many breaks while I was still hitting the distances because each break got me closer to being caught. But once I wasn’t worried about it anymore, I allowed myself to relax a bit and go easy on myself when I needed to. I think pushing myself might have been a bit too much because the rest of my workout was harder than I thought it would be.

On the rower, we started with a 600-meter row and then 20 squats. Then it was 2 rounds of a 300-meter row and 10 squats. There were supposed to be 4 rounds of a 150-meter row with 5 squats, but I only made it through 2 rounds before the block was done. Doing the 600 and 300-meter rows were so tough on me. I really couldn’t do more than a minute of rowing before I had a really bad wave of nausea or a horrible cramp. I had to take so many breaks to let them pass before I could start rowing again. But I knew that I still had the floor work to do and I didn’t want to push myself to a point where the floor work felt impossible.

I had to do a lot of modifications on the floor. It was supposed to be a day with lots of Bosu work and I didn’t use it at all. The only things I did without modifications were skier swings with weights and y raises on the straps. We were supposed to do plank jacks and crunches on the Bosu and I did them both on the bench. And we were supposed to do back extensions, but I can’t do face down work when I’m nauseous. So I asked my coach what a good modification would be for those and he told me to do lunges instead. I was glad when this class was done because I really needed to rest and recover after it.

Saturday’s workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power. I was having another bad nausea day, but I was trying to be hopeful that maybe this would be the end of the really bad nausea days and the rest of them would be a bit easier (I guess we’ll see if that’s true this week).

For cardio, we worked with both push paces and base paces at inclines. The goal was to feel the same way with pushes and inclines because they are supposed to be equally hard on us. The first block had a 2-minute push pace as well as a 2-minute base pace at incline. The second block had the same idea but they were 1-minute intervals instead of 2. I kept the resistance level at my base level for any work that didn’t have incline and used the level between my push and all out for all incline work. I didn’t worry too much about changing up the resistance levels for the hills to feel the same throughout because the nausea makes it hard for me to judge how I really feel.

On the rower, we started with a 450-meter row. We were supposed to do lunges with hops between each row segment, but I did squats since that’s easier for me. I really don’t like having to hop out of the rower and I can do the squats by just unstrapping my feet and standing up. After the squats, the row went down 50 meters and that pattern continued the entire block. The goal was to get down to the 100-meter row before the block was done, but I was working on the 300-meter row when we were done on the rower and moving to the floor.

The floor work had 3 main exercises and then add on exercises. The 3 main ones were full thrusters with weights, plank rows, and burpees. I modified the plank rows and burpees to be using the bench and I didn’t go as all out with them as I can when I’m feeling ok. The first round we added on sit-ups which I modified to bicycle crunches. In the second round we did the sit-ups (or crunches for me) and also straight leg hip raises. I didn’t finish the third round so I never added on that exercise, but that’s ok because it was back extensions and I knew I couldn’t do those.

I know we have a benchmark coming up this week and I’m hoping I’m feeling a little better for that. And I know the nausea should be ending this week so that is something for me to look forward to. But if it’s still bad through the entire week, I know I can just do what I can and I will get through it one way or another.

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I feel like the past few weeks of workouts have all had something crazy or dramatic. I’ve had to deal with nausea, Hell Week, fires, and other injuries. Things just haven’t been easy for me lately, but I’ve been pushing through and trying my best. And while this past week of workouts wasn’t simple, it was nice to have a week that didn’t feel like I was dealing with a lot of outside factors affecting my workout.

Monday’s workout was much more normal when compared to the past Monday when we had the fire. There was no more smoke in the air and most of the people I see in my Monday classes were there. I’m glad that the fires weren’t as bad as they were, but we are still dealing with a lot of fire danger here.

The workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power; but to me, it felt much more like a power day. We had 30 minutes in each section of the room, and that allowed me to get a lot of work done on the bike.

Cardio had 3 blocks. Each block had a run/bike for distance, a recovery, and at least 1 30-second all out. The first block had a 6-minute distance challenge and 1 all out. The second block had a 3-minute distance challenge and 2 all outs. And the last block had a 90-second distance challenge and 3 all outs. I started the first distance challenge with my push resistance level, but I realized to be able to do my best with the distance I had to put it back to my base level. And I kept that base level for the all outs as well because my coach encouraged me to use those to work on my speed and not the wattage I was getting on the bike. The 6-minute distance challenge was tough because I haven’t had a long-distance challenge like that in a while. But after we were done with cardio I had one of my highest distances on the bike I’ve gotten.

The floor work also was 3 blocks. Each block started with a row and then we had the floor work. The first block had a 600-meter row, the second block had a 300-meter row, and the last block had a 150-meter row. I was using the ideas I had learned the week before with how to use my feet to maximize my power. My power is still lower than most people can get, but it was higher than I normally do and I was able to do the rows very quickly. And the exercises we had on the floor were froggers, skater lunges, plank forward reaches, single-arm snatches, reverse chest flys, reverse mountain climbers, single-arm clean to presses, and planks with leg raises. I kept my weights a bit lower than normal because most of the weighted work involved my hips and I was having a bit of a rough morning with my hips. But I had good form and got a lot of each exercise done.

Wednesday’s workout was a strength-based class and it was also a switch class. We had 2 blocks at each section of the room and we switched after each block. It was nice to have shorter blocks and breaks after working hard.

The first cardio block wasn’t too much of a strength block. We had rounds of push paces to base paces with an all out at the end. There were no inclines/resistance levels used. But it was a block designed for us to really feel how a push pace feels for us. The second block had rounds just like the first one, but instead of push paces, we had incline work. The goal was to make the inclines feel the same as the push paces did without changing our speed. It was a good block even with the incline work and I enjoyed testing myself and what I could do on the bike.

The first rowing block started with a 100-meter row. Then we had medicine ball work and did a 200-meter row. We increased the row by 100 meters each round until the block was done. When we got back to the rower for the second block, we started at the distance we ended on and then decreased the rowing by 100 meters each time. I did have to modify the medicine ball work a bit to work for me, but I was happy with what I did otherwise.

And on the floor, we had cluster sets. Cluster sets are 3 rounds of the same exercise but with low reps. This allows you to go heavier on the weight than you would if it was 1 round with more reps. The first block had cluster sets of chest presses and the second block had cluster sets of goblet squats. We also had lunges, pikes, and plank twists during those blocks.

Friday’s workout was the only one that had a bit of a weird issue. I had my MRI on Thursday (more about that tomorrow) and I was dealing with a few odd side effects from it. I had a lot of soreness in my arm where the IV was and I was feeling very dehydrated even though I drank a ton of water the day before. I had to adjust things to work around these issues, but it wasn’t as bad as many other things I’ve had to deal with.

For cardio, the first block started with rounds of push paces to base paces. I only focused on speed and not adding resistance because the next part of the block was hill work. And the end of that first block was a 2-minute distance challenge. The next block was rounds of 30-second intervals so I focused on speed again.

For the rower, we started with a 90-second row for distance. After that row, we had medicine ball work and then we worked on rounds of rowing, going down 100 meters each time. The rower ended up being a struggle for me. The pain in my arm was really affecting me and preventing me from pulling back on the rower properly. I ended up going pretty slow so I could do my best, but I wasn’t able to do what I know I could do.

The floor had a few issues with my arm too, but it wasn’t as bad as the rower. We had squats, skater lunges, shoulder presses, deadlifts, plank pull throughs, and hip bridges. I did modifications on most of the upper body exercises to work around my arm pain, but it also ended up being a good block to stretch my arm out and I was in less pain at the end of the workout than I was at the beginning.

I think Saturday’s workout was my best workout of the week. I think it helped that we switched every 3 1/2 minutes so everything was really quick for me.

For cardio, we started with a 2-minute push pace, a 1-minute base pace, and a 30-second all out. The next block took 30 seconds off the push pace and put a 30-second push pace before the all out. And the last block took another 30-seconds off the first push pace and put it with the push pace before the all out. I did work with the resistance levels on the bike for all the blocks, but I also tried to focus a lot of my pedaling speed.

The first two blocks on the rower matched cardio. When cardio had a base pace, the rowers did squats. But we had the same push and all outs. For the third block, we redid the distance we did for the second block and held a squat for the rest of the time. I’m glad rowing was much easier for me than it was on Friday, but I did still have a little bit of soreness left. So I did take a few breaks on the rower to massage the pain away, but I was able to have proper form again.

And on the floor, every block had mini-bands. We had 2 exercises for each block, which was fine since the blocks were so short. The first block had full thrusters with weights and side walks. The second block had squats and overhead tricep work. And the third block had reverse flys and front walks. We were supposed to have the mini-bands above our knees, but I can’t get them to stay there without rolling and hurting me. But I was able to keep them below my knees and not rolling which is a victory.

People joked that this past week was almost like another Hell Week, and it was hard but in the best way. And I’m glad I had a week that was strong when I’m potentially going to have a tough week this week. I say this all the time, but having these good weeks really does help me feel better about the bad ones.

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