Tag Archives: Orangetheory

Still Testing Things Out (or Finding Another Advantage With The Bike)

Posted on April 22, 2019 | Comments Off

Recently I wrote about how I was working on increasing my resistance levels on the bike for my cardio work. I know I need to do that every so often because as I get stronger I need heavier resistance to get the same workout. But it’s a hard balance to find and that’s something that I ended up playing with this past week in my workouts.

Monday’s workout was a power day and we had a bunch of 4 minute blocks. After each block we switched stations so we were constantly switching. That can be a good thing since I don’t usually get too tired and can go a lot harder each time I’m on the bike, rower, or floor. Every block at each section was the same which also helped with not thinking too much and just putting my energy into working hard.

For cardio, every block was 2 rounds of 1 minute push paces with base paces after and ending with an all out. I know that last week I worked on increasing my resistance levels on the bike, but I mixed up what I had worked on. So for the first 2 times I was on the bike I had an increased base pace but used my old push and all out paces. I realized my error after 2 rounds and finished using my regular base pace and new push and all out paces. To be honest, I’m not sure which one was better and I’m going to be checking with some of my coaches about if I should focus on increasing my base pace or my push and all out paces. But both ways I did the resistance levels, it felt harder than normal and that was exactly what I wanted.

On the rower, we had 2 rounds of a 45 second all out row with squats after. We kept doing squats until the last 45 seconds when we had another 45 second all out row. The first time I was on the rower I was getting really frustrated because I couldn’t get my wattage up. I only discovered the second time that my rower was not set to wattage but MPH. I’m not as familiar with what MPH I should be doing on the rower so I had to listen to my body more and feel what felt like an all out to me.

And on the floor, we had 1 long plan and we just continued working on it each time we were on the floor. The plan had 3 mini-blocks and each mini-block had 2 exercises that we were supposed to do for 3 rounds. We had pop jacks, push-ups, hip hinge swings with weights, tricep work with weights, squats, and high rows on the straps. After each mini-block we also had sit-ups. I did a little more than 2 full rounds of everything when I finished the last time I was on the floor and I was lucky that I usually ended at the end of a mini-block so it was easy to come back to exactly where I was when I got back to the floor.

Wednesday’s workout was an endurance day and I decided to do the higher base pace and lower push and all out paces. I feel like I’ll be playing around with the resistance levels on the bike for a while to figure things out, but this past week ended up being more of an experiment than anything else.

The cardio was rounds of push paces to base paces with the push pace getting longer each round. Using my old push pace level was really the right choice for this because of how long some of the push paces got. But since my base pace was higher than before, it kept it a challenging workout. I definitely had moments of struggling with the longer push paces, but I allowed myself to take a moment to breathe and get some water and not forced myself to just work through it.

On the rower, we started with 100 meter rows and went up 100 meters each round. And after each row we had squats with the medicine ball that started at 50 reps and went down 10 reps each round. The rows were fine, especially because I never got that high in how far I had to go. But the squats were tough for me. My hip was not having the best day so the squats were starting to hurt me. Just like on the bike, I had to allow myself to take a break and not force myself to go through every rep without stopping. I don’t like doing that, but it’s necessary for me to do it sometimes.

And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had burpees, low rows on the straps, chest presses on the straps, and sit ups. I was very grateful for using the bench for my burpees because it allowed me to get through them quicker than if I was on the floor and having to step back instead of jump back. The second block was a core focused block. We had leg raises, bicycle crunches, hip bridges, straight leg hip raises, and v ups. I actually didn’t make it all the way down to the v ups but I was able to get all the other core work done.

Friday’s workout was a mix of power and endurance which is a pretty interesting mix to have. I played around a bit more with the resistance levels on the bike, but I ended up being more comfortable using my old base pace level and my new push and all out levels.

Cardio had 3 blocks but they all had a similar format. We had rounds of push paces to base paces with an all out at the end. What changed was how long the push and base paces were. The first block was 4 rounds of 30 second intervals. The second block was 3 rounds of 30 second push paces and 1 minute base paces. And the third block was 1 round of a 1 minute push pace and 90 second base pace. Every block had a 30 second all out at the end. The new push paces were tough at times, but it felt much better when I was able to go back to my old base pace which was much easier. And since the intervals were on the shorter side, it helped make the blocks go by faster.

On the rower, we started with a 700 meter row. We were supposed to see what our time was on that row to use for the rest of the rows. I just went with the idea that I did it in 3 1/2 minutes (which was close to what time I finished in). After that first row we had squats with medicine ball front presses and then we were back on the rower for another round. Each time we were on the rower, we were supposed to do 30 seconds less than the round before. Using round numbers make that so much easier which is why I don’t mind using a slightly longer time as my 700 meter row time.

And on the floor, we had 3 blocks. The first block was high rows using weights and skater lunges. The second block was weighted pull overs and sit-up to stand and squats on the bench. I had to split that last one up and did my sit-ups at one time and then did squats at one time since it’s hard for me to get up from the bench. And the last block was a core blast with straight leg raises, bicycle crunches, hip dips, and ending with a plank hold. My core was on fire at the end of that workout, but at least I was able to relax while working after I was done.

Saturday’s workout was a strength day and it felt like another good chance to play around with the resistance levels on the bike. I knew that we were going to have hill work for cardio, but I saw it more as a way to test out a few different resistance levels to see how they feel.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks that were the same. Each block started with a 1 minute push pace and 1 minute base pace. I used my new push level and old base level. Then we had a 4 minute hill climb where we increased the incline/resistance level each minute. I started at 1 level above my old base pace (which is my new base pace) and it ended at my new old all out pace. It really gave me a chance to see how my body felt at all those levels and I focused on that much more than how far I was going each block.

For the rower, the two blocks were the same and very similar to cardio. We started with 1 minute of squats and then we got onto the rowers for a 4 minute progressive row. Our rowers were set to display our mph and the idea was to increase it a bit every minute. I struggled to increase it but I tried to do my best. I wasn’t really able to do it every minute like we were supposed to, but it did go up over the 4 minutes and I was able to go very hard for the last 30 seconds and got the mph up pretty hi

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Working On My Strength (or Feeling More Normal Again)

Posted on April 15, 2019 | 1 comment

I think it was pretty clear that I recently had a pretty bad workout week. It was horrible and I was feeling pretty bad about myself. I knew that it was due to crazy circumstances, but that still didn’t help me feel better about the effort that I did in class. Fortunately, things changed for the better for me this week and I found new things to work on.

Monday’s workout was so much better than the last Monday’s class. I was still dealing with the tail end of my nausea, but I was basically back to normal and I felt much more like myself. We had a strength based class and the rowing had a lot to do with stroke counts which was a nice challenge.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks. Each block had push paces with no inclines and push paces with inclines. We also had inclines for our all out paces. I was using my normal resistance levels on the bike and didn’t really do much to count for incline work except to use my all out resistance level for push paces with inclines. It made me realize that I might need to work on seeing if I should be increasing my resistance levels on the bike again. I’ve been doing the bike for a long time without a treadmill break and I’m not used to that. When I’m not on it as often, I don’t make a lot of changes with my resistance levels. But if I’m going to stick with the bike (which I’m really feeling like I will be doing), I can’t be static in what work I do.

On the rower, both blocks had the same challenge. We had a 150 meter row and we had to count how many strokes it took to do that. When we had squats with medicine balls and the number of reps equaled how many strokes the row took. So the goal was to have your stroke count as low as possible which requires a lot of patience. I’ve gotten pretty good at being slow on the rower for stroke count challenges so I was able to keep my count around 12-13 each time I did it.

And on the floor, each block had 2 exercises. The first block had squats to bicep curls and push-ups. And the second block had sumo squats to upright rows and sit-ups. For the weighted work, I wasn’t doing my heaviest weights, but I was doing better than I have been doing for the past month or so because I really wanted to push myself.

Wednesday’s workout was another strength day. Strength days used to be really hard on me when I was on the treadmill because I was limited with incline work, but I don’t mind them as much now that I use the bike. But just like on Monday, I know that I’m probably not doing enough resistance work to replicate hills on the bike and I really didn’t do that great with fixing that in this workout.

For cardio, it was mainly done at a base pace alternating between hill work and flat road work. I did use the resistance level between my push and all out paces for the hills, but I know I could do more and I was a little mad at myself after finishing the workout for not doing that. I’m not sure why I have this mental block that I can’t do more because I know physically I can. But maybe I needed this problem to come up so I could be aware of it and start fixing it.

For the rower, it was all shorter rows with squat work between each row. We started at a 200 meter row and then had a 150 meter and 100 meter row. After the 200 meter row, we had regular squats with the medicine ball. After the 150 meter row we had regular squats and ground to press with the medicine ball. And after the 100 meter row we had regular squats, growing to press, and power squats with the medicine ball. The squats were taking me a long time so I didn’t get as much rowing done as I would have liked to. But to keep my hips safe and not hurting I have to make sure that I am not sloppy with my squat form.

On the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had chest presses, knee tucks, and tricep extensions. And the second block had chest flys, sit-ups, and reverse flys. For the chest presses I could go pretty heavy with my weight, but for the other exercises I had to go a bit lighter than I would have liked to. My arms were feeling a bit weak and I think that my arms have always been like that and again I might just need to put some focus into fixing that.

Friday was another strength day (I feel like having all these strength days is a sign that I needed to work on them). Even though the other workouts during the week were also strength days, they all have their own focus and I was able to find different things to work on during this class compared to the other classes.

For cardio, it was a similar pattern to what we had earlier in the week with alternating flat road and incline work. But the incline work was for longer intervals in this class. When we had the hill work for 2 minutes, I was using my normal all out resistance level. To know I could do that for 2 minutes gave me a real boost in knowing what I could do. It wasn’t easy and my legs were sore when I was done, but I did it! When we had our all outs, they were supposed to be on hills so I did 1 level above what I usually use. If I hadn’t done the hills before, I think I could have done a higher level. But it just continued to prove that my biking ability is much more than I’ve been really doing.

On the rower, we started with a 600 meter row. After that we had squats with medicine ball raises and calf raises. Then we had 2 rounds of a 300 meter row with the medicine ball work after. After that we were supposed to have 3 rounds of 150 meter rows and more squat work, but my hips were really starting to hurt me. Friday morning we had a small earthquake very early in the morning and that woke me up and I never got back to sleep. I know sleep helps my body reset and makes my hip get back into alignment. So when I don’t sleep, I’m at a high risk for having a bad hip day and that’s exactly what happened. So instead of doing the squat work after the rounds of the 150 meter rows, I just kept rowing.

On the floor, we had 2 blocks with 2 exercises each. The first block had deadlifts and hollow hold single arm chest presses. And the second block had seated shoulder presses and double crunches. For the deadlifts and shoulder presses, we had a range for the number of reps we were supposed to do. So I went heavier than normal with the weights to test myself. I don’t think I could do the heavier weights if I had to do more than 5 or 6 reps, but since we could do as few as 5 they worked. For the chest presses and double crunches I just used my normal weights for the exercises because both of those things put a bit of stress on my hips and I didn’t want to risk things with going higher with the weight.

Saturday was an endurance based workout, but I ended up treating the class more like a power day. After all the motivation I had earlier in the week with my bike resistance levels, I decided to test a few things out.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks. The first block was 2 rounds of a 2 1/2 minute push pace with a recovery between them. 2 1/2 minutes is a pretty long push pace, but I still decided to see if I could increase my resistance level a bit. I increased it by 1 level (so it was the level between my push and all out pace) and it was tough. 2 1/2 minutes seemed to take forever, but I managed to keep the resistance level there the entire time. The second block was a 6 minute distance challenge. And I decided to use my previous push pace level and see if I could do that for the entire time. I was doing ok with it until about the 4th minute. Then I had to bring it back down to my old push pace level. But to know I did it for that long (plus that I did the previous push paces at a higher level) was the proof I needed that I was due for a change.

On the rower, we started with a 1,000 meter row. That was brutal after all the work on the bike! Then we had 100 jumping jacks to do which was tough as well. Jumping jacks aren’t that easy for me to do, even on my best days. I had to break them up into multiple chunks, but I eventually got them done. Then we had a 500 meter row and we were supposed to do 50 jumping jacks and 50 squats. I skipped the jumping jacks because I could feel my hip getting a bit sore. We had a few more rounds we could do on the rower, but after my 50 squats I was only on the rower for a few minutes before we switched again.

And the floor also had 2 blocks. The first one had upright rows, plank jacks, and knee tucks. And the second one had low rows on the straps, reverse flys, and sit-ups. The weight I wanted to use for the upright rows and reverse flys weren’t available so I had to decide if I wanted to go lower or higher. I tested out going higher with the weights and was able to do it! I don’t know if I’ll be using the higher weights regularly because I did have to take more breaks (so I didn’t get as much work done), but again it was nice to prove to myself that I was having a good week.

I really needed this past week after the week I had before. I needed the boost that I got from doing some great work so I could bring that into this week. I should hopefully be having another good week this week and I want to try to make even more progress!

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Tagged fitness, Orangetheory, strength, workout

Making Challenges More Challenging (or A Dri-Tri First For Me)

Posted on April 3, 2019 | Comments Off

When I did the Dri-Tri this past weekend, I pretty much knew what to expect. I’ve done it several times before and I’ve learned new tips and tricks each time that usually help me. I don’t always improve every time, but I feel better about it each time I do one. So when I got off the wait list for the Dri-Tri this time, I was so grateful because it was another opportunity for me to test myself and see what new things I could figure out.

But even though I knew what to expect, I also knew this one would be very different from the other ones I’ve done. First of all, I was having a bad nausea/pain day. While I’ve had some nausea, this was going to be the worst of all my Dri-Tri attempts. I was prepared for this, but at the same time it’s hard to be prepared until you are in the middle of the workout. Also, this would be my first time doing a Dri-Tri using the bike instead of the treadmill. If I wasn’t having a bad nausea day, I might have debated using the treadmill even though I haven’t been on it for months. But knowing how I was feeling, there was no way to do anything other than the bike.

We had a 2000 meter benchmark row earlier in the week which I found so helpful. I had an idea of what my row time would be since you are supposed to go slower than the benchmark since the row is only the beginning of the Dri-Tri. I still wanted to be under 9:30 even though that would keep me close to what I did for the benchmark. But I’m stubborn and had that in mind. A lot of people in my heat were doing it for the first time, so there was a lot of emphasis before we started to not burn out on the rower. I listened because I knew I needed the reminder too.

Once we started, I quickly found my pace on the rower. I was not worried about anyone else around me or what was happening other than maintaining my pace. There were a few times I noticed I was getting a bit too speedy and slowed things down, but I was pretty steady without too much effort. I tried to zone out since I knew the row would take time, but that didn’t quite happen. But even with my focus on random things, I still did pretty well with my row. I was the last person to finish, but I did it in under 9:30 so I was very happy with that.

The floor was a challenge that I wasn’t totally prepared for. I always remember the floor as being tough, but I forgot how many things we had on the floor that were face down exercises. Those make me more nauseous so it was a tough section for me. I did modifications when I could like using the bench for plank work, but I still needed a lot of breaks to let the nausea pass. But because I do lunges instead of step ups, I feel like I make up some time doing that. The floor could have been much worse, but it still more than I really thought it would be.

By the time I got to the bike, I was ready to be at the final stage. I had a general idea of how long it would take me to do the bike, but I also haven’t really done that far on the bike in a long time. I started a little higher on the resistance level than my base level, but I decided to drop it back to my base level after the first few minutes. If you are running on the treadmill, you don’t have to go faster than your base. I also knew that if I kept it to my base level that I could probably go faster. And since it’s a timed event, going faster is always better.

I did have a few issues on the bike, but nothing too bad. Whenever I needed some water, I had to stop completely since I’m still not coordinated enough to drink water and pedal at the same time. I also was having waves of nausea during the bike that I had to stop to let pass. I wasn’t sure if the nausea was still from being on the floor or just happening because they happen, but they felt a bit more frequent than I would have thought they would have been. I tried to not stop for too long, but sometimes I just had to.

While I was on the bike, other people were completing their Dri-Tris. I never expect to finish in the first half of the group so I always figure that I will see lots of people finishing before me. I’m never completing against anyone else (even though they do have 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners I’m not eligible due to my modifications) so I don’t care where I rank in finishing. And it is always fun watching people complete it because everyone in the room is cheering them on.

As I was getting close to finishing the distance on the bike, I realized that because the staff was focused on seeing who was close to finishing on the treadmills (because they could easily see those numbers) I would have to pay attention to the time I finished. I didn’t mind that there wasn’t attention when I finished because I honestly wasn’t super happy with my time. While I had no idea how long it would take me to finish with using the bike, I still wanted to finish in under 50 minutes. I ended up finishing in 50:50 and it was a little bit frustrating. Those extra 50 seconds could have been one or two water breaks and I hate that I was so close to the goal I set. But I did finish and that is really the most important thing.

I finished around the middle of the pack, and as soon as I caught my breath and recovered a bit I started to see who was close to finishing their 5K on the treadmills. I joined in to cheer on as each person finished and I was so happy I could be a little bit of motivation as other people were finishing. Everyone who started the Dri-Tri was able to finish it. And that is the only goal that really matters.

There were 2 heats for the Dri-Tri and I was in the first one. I had a few friends in the second one and I promised to stick around to cheer them on. I wasn’t sure how late I’d stay, but I wanted to be there for support for my friends. They were nervous with this being their first Dri-Tri and I wanted to help out however I could.

I ended up staying until all of my friends finished their 5K on the treadmill. I didn’t stay for everyone in that heat to finish because I did need to get home, but I wanted to make sure my friends had support even if it was at the very end of their run. They all did amazing and I am so proud of them for taking on a challenge and kicking butt doing it!

While this Dri-Tri wasn’t the same as any of the other ones I did, I’m glad I did it. I found new challenges I had to overcome and I was able to do it. I also now have an idea of how long it would take me to complete the bike section. There’s a good chance I’ll still be using the bike when the next Dri-Tri happens so I’m glad that I have a goal in mind. And I do also know how to deal with my bad nausea days for the Dri-Tri, although I hope the next one will fall on one of my better weeks.

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Some Dri-Tri Prep Workouts (or Trading One Ailment For Another)

Posted on April 1, 2019 | Comments Off

This past week of workouts were interesting for me. I was finally getting over my bronchitis, but I also started dealing with nausea. It was really annoying timing because the day I was finally feeling better from one thing was the day that I started being nauseous. It was also an interesting week because the workouts were designed to help us get ready for the Dri-Tri. At the beginning of the week, I was on the waitlist for the Dri-Tri, but by Friday I knew I was officially in. I was hoping to get in so I did do my workouts with the assumption that I was prepping for it.

Monday’s workout was the class that was very clearly prep for the Dri-Tri. We had a workout with endurance, strength, and power and the endurance portion of the class was a 2000 meter row benchmark. This is the same distance that we have as the row for the Dri-Tri. While it is a benchmark, we don’t do it that often so I was happy that I had it as a part of my workout so I could have an idea of what I’d be able to do.

I knew I wouldn’t get a personal best with the row because of how I was feeling. I also know that my endurance is still lower than it’s been before so I have to work up to that again. But I still wanted to set a goal time in my head. I would have loved to have been under 9 minutes, but I knew that would be pushing myself too much. I wanted to push myself a little, but also not hurt myself or make it so that rowing throughout the week would be painful. So I went with just wanting to be able to do the row in under 9 1/2 minutes. That’s still better than many of my 2000 meter rows and it seemed like a good number to have in my head.

I was pretty steady with my rowing. I didn’t change up the speed for a majority of the row. I was just going and trying to not push too hard since that is the downfall for longer rows. I kept checking in with my time and my distance and saw I was right about what I would need to be to get to my goal time. But I also knew at the halfway mark that I’m often slower for the second half than the first half and if I wanted to hit my goal I would need to push it at the end. So when I got to the last 200 meters, I just went hard and I made it under my goal!

The cardio work was decreasing distance runs. We were doing our own tracking and timing. For the bike, it started at 2 trips and then we had a minute to recover. Each round went down by .4 with a recovery after. I was trying my best to track my distance each time, but sometimes I got a bit distracted. I always went the full 2 trips if I forgot what distance I started at. I figured overdoing it was better than under-doing it.

And on the floor, we had a mix of Bosu work and weight work. On the Bosu, we had back extensions and running men. For weights we had squats to overhead presses and tricep work. We also had bicycle crunches. I was going heavy for my tricep work and medium heavy for the overhead presses. Even though I was going from being on the ground to standing up over and over, my nausea wasn’t kicking in during that the way I was expecting it to. That was a nice surprise and allowed me to do more rounds on the floor than I thought I would be able to do.

Wednesday’s workout was a strength based class, and it ended up being special because I realized it was my 50th class of 2019! I’m ahead of my goal for my workouts this year and that’s exactly where I want to be. I want to be ahead so that when I do have a week where I can’t do 4 workouts that I already have workouts banked to cover that.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks that had a similar format. We started with doing a distance run/bike and we were supposed to go to a recovery once we hit that distance. I was having a really bad nausea day, so I never hit the distance by the time we were moving on. But that just meant I skipped the recovery time which was fine since I wasn’t pedaling too hard. After the distance each block, we had incline work. We increased the incline/resistance level every 30 seconds and it ended with an all out pace. The way the resistance levels worked for me, I increased the level every 30 seconds and 1 level higher than the hill was my all out level which worked out nicely.

On the rower, we had 2 similar blocks. We started with a 2 minute timed row. After the row we had lunges with rotations for the first block and regular lunges for the second block. Then we did half the distance we got on the 2 minute row with more lunges. And we ended with cutting the distance in half again. I never made it to the lunges after the 3rd row, but I was happy with how I was doing with the rower for all my distances.

And the floor was 1 long block with almost all weighted exercises. For weighted exercises we had kneeling low rows, sitting shoulder presses to stands, hip hinge reverse flies, and double crunches. We also had low rows on the straps. Because of the nausea I was dealing with, I had to go a bit lighter on the weights. I was able to go a bit heavy on the double crunches since I was laying on my back, but the other exercises were bringing my nausea out a bit.

Friday was my last regular workout of the week and the first workout I had were I knew for sure I’d be doing the Dri-Tri. I went easy on myself because of the nausea and because I knew I’d have a hard day the next day. I’m glad I knew to go easy because I would have hated it if I worked hard and was sore and then found out I got off the wait list for the Dri-Tri.

The cardio was 2 blocks with hill climbs. Each block started with a 90 second hill where the incline/resistance level increased every 30 seconds. We had a base pace with no incline work before a 90 second push pace without incline. Both blocks ended with a push pace and an all out pace. I was using my new resistance levels for all the work and the hill work was around the levels I use for my push and all out paces.

On the rower, the first block was timed rows with lunges between each row. We had a 90 second row, 60 second row, and 30 second row. The second block was distance rows with lunges between. The rows were 400 meters, 200 meters, and 100 meters. I did pretty well with how far I got with the timed rows and how quickly I could do the distance rows. But I struggled a lot with the lunges. For the second block, I decided to do squats instead. It can get tough for me to step over the rower to have the space for the lunges and I can do squats just standing over the rower.

And on the floor, we had 2 blocks as well. The first block had sit-ups to sumo squats, goblet squats, and bicep curls. I had to separate the sit-ups and sumo squats because it’s very difficult for me to do them as a single move. But because I split them, I could go heavier with the weight I used. And the second block was push-ups, squats, and side plank rotations. The second block was a bit harder for me in terms of my nausea, but it wasn’t as bad as it was on Wednesday.

After my 3 workouts for the week, I did feel as prepared as I could be for the Dri-Tri. I am always a little nervous before doing it and I’ve got a little extra nerves this time because I’ve never had to do the Dri-Tri while getting over a cold and dealing with nausea. But I know I did a lot of work during my workouts to be in the best place I could be going into it. My expectations were lower than other times and I was curious to see what would happen. And I’ll be writing about how it went a little later this week!

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Tagged challenge, dri-tri, fitness, Orangetheory, prepared, workout

Still Working On Getting Better (or Starting To See My Normal Again)

Posted on March 25, 2019 | Comments Off

I’m still working through this bug that is in my system, and I knew it was going to take a while. It’s a bit annoying that I can’t get over this, but I’m trying to stay hopeful that I’ll be over it soon. And one of the things that has been helping me see that I am getting over it slowly has been my workouts. Since the last symptoms I’ve been experiencing have been related to breathing (like coughing and being short of breath), working out has been a good way to judge my progress getting over it.

Monday’s workout was a power day, and even though it was a 3 group workout it had a bit of a run/row format. When it was the cardio or rowing block, we switched back and forth. For the cardio block, I was on the bike twice and the rower once and when I was on the rowing block I was on the rower twice and the bike once. But instead of starting with cardio like I normally do, I had to start on the floor this time.

The floor work was one long block that had mini-blocks in it. We first had a mini-block with 3 rounds of chest fly on the Bosu and plank jacks. Then it was a mini-block of 3 rounds of chest press on the Bosu and pop jacks. And the last mini-block was 3 rounds of hip raises and push-ups. After completing all the mini-blocks we did all the exercises as one long block. It was definitely weird for me to start on the floor and I felt strange. I had a warm-up before we started, but I’m used to feeling much more warmed up. I was using close to my heaviest weights for the weighted work which was good. Some of the work on my back was tough because of the congestion I was dealing with, but it was nothing like the week before.

For the bike work (whether I was doing a cardio block or rowing block), it was always the same thing. We had a 90 second push pace, 1 minute base pace, and 90 second distance challenge. I used my new push pace resistance level for the push and I used the level between my new push and all out paces for the distance challenge. They were short bursts on the bike so I was able to go a bit harder than I thought I could. Every time I finished on the bike, I was back on the rower and had a bit of time to rest and get my heart rate back.

Every time I was on the rower, we had the same thing as well. We started with a 200 meter row followed by squats. Then a 150 meter row and squats and a 100 meter row and squats. I never made it to the last set of squats for any of the times I was on there, but I was doing the squats like we were supposed to. I wasn’t modifying things because of how I was feeling and that was such a great feeling. I really was feeling strong and tough while rowing and I even worked on my form a bit more and got some guidance on some hand placement that might help me row better when we have distance rows.

Wednesday’s workout was an endurance day and we didn’t have switches between blocks so I was at each station for about 15 minutes. That is one of the ways that an endurance day is an endurance focus, but it is also all about not having to have recovery time when doing cardio. There is an emphasis about not going below base pace during the block and I worked hard at doing that.

For cardio, we started with a few rounds of push to base pace which increased each round. And without a recovery after that we went into a 4 minute progressive push pace that went into an all out pace. That’s not an easy 15 minutes to do, but I was determined to test myself with how my endurance was doing after being so sick. I did have to take a few breaks to get water (I still can’t drink water while pedaling on the bike), but I never did go below my base pace resistance level. I was using my new push pace level for the regular push paces. And when we did the progressive push, I started at 1 level above my base pace and went up 1 level every minute. It was not easy to keep going and not bring the level down, but I made it through. Since I track the distance I do in workouts I know that I didn’t go as far on the bike as I thought I would, but I think that just means I wasn’t pedaling as hard and quick as I might do with other workouts.

Once I got on the rower, I took a bit of time to recover and get my heart rate down a bit. I can recover my heart rate faster than I could before, so it didn’t take too long. The rower started with 4 rounds of 150 meter rows with squats holding a medicine ball between each row. Then we had 2 rounds of a 300 meter row and the squats became squats with an overhead press. Then we had a 600 meter row and I was working on that row when the block ended. My rows were all under the time goals, but it took me a bit of time to recover from each row and get to the squats which slowed me down a bit.

And on the floor, we had 2 blocks that had a lot of focus on lunges. Several things had to be modified by me, but it was because of my hip issues and not because I was feeling off. The first block had kneeling lunges with overhead presses with weights, regular lunges while holding the weights up, and side plank dips. And the second block had regular lunges without weights, squats, single leg squats, and leg lift abs. My legs were shaky by the end of class, but I honestly felt so good to feel like that.

Friday’s workout was a power day and we had a lot of timing ourselves during the workout. We had repeating distance challenges with cardio and the rowing, but my main focus wasn’t beating my distance but doing each challenge as hard as I could.

For cardio, we had 3 different 4 minute challenges. Each challenge was doing a push pace for a certain distance, having a 30 second recovery, and then an all out for a certain distance. Even though I wasn’t tracking my distance to see if I could beat it each time, I did track it so I could do my push and all out paces for the right amount of time. Each block I was ending my all out pace about 20 seconds before the block ended, so I just kept going with it. I know I was working hard and I was also able to not take breaks to catch my breath or drink water during each block. It was nice to be able to wait to do those things until we had real recovery time.

On the rower, it was also 3 different 4 minute challenges. We had rounds of 30 seconds of rowing and medicine ball squats to overhead presses. This was harder on me than the bike work. As much as I wanted to go hard with my rowing, it was taking me so much time to catch my breath between the rowing and the squats and I didn’t want to lose that time. I didn’t go as slowly as I did when I was really sick, but I did have to row much slower than I wanted to.

For the floor, we had 1 long block that had 3 mini-blocks in it. We had 3 rounds of one mini-block before moving on to the next one. The first mini-block had squats to thrusters and uppercuts. The second mini-block had pull ups on the straps and high rows on the straps. And the last mini-block had skater lunges and sumo squats. I was able to do my normal weights for the weighted work, but I had to modify the pull ups on the straps to be low rows using the straps instead. My body wasn’t acting coordinated enough to do those properly and I didn’t want to do something that might hurt myself.

Saturday’s workout was a strength day, and I was feeling ready for it. I was doing so much good work on the bike and I was ready to play with my resistance levels to simulate hill work. I still wasn’t totally better, but I was going to push myself to prove that I wasn’t as limited as I had been the week before.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks that were very similar. The first block had a push pace, a base pace, a base pace with incline work, a regular base pace, and ended with a push to an all out pace. The second block was the same pattern but the incline work was longer. I used my new resistance levels for all of the regular work. And for the hills I used the level between my push and all out level. The hill work was really tough, but it’s supposed to be tough. Because these blocks were a little longer than the ones on Friday, there were a few times I needed a break to cough and get some water, but nothing compared to what I was having to do before.

On the rower, we started with a 500 meter row and then we had squat to press and calf raises while holding a medicine ball. Then the row went down my 100 meters and the squats increased and calf raises decreased. That pattern continued for the entire time we were on the rower. I was able to do my rowing with a slightly higher average wattage than normal which surprised me. But I think it might have been because I’ve been working on my form so much so I can be an efficient rower. I did skip the last round of squats and calf raises because it was the last minute of the block and I decided to just keep rowing.

And on the floor, we had one long block. All of the exercises had 5 reps per side so they went really quickly. We had single leg sit to stands, suitcase squats with a weight, half getups with weights, and a hollow hold chest press with weights. I did go heavy for my squats since I know that I can go heavier than I think I can. And it did help that there weren’t a ton of reps for each exercise so I could test out what I could do. I didn’t have to worry about doing them for a long time or worry that my form would get sloppy over time.

Overall, I felt like this past week of workouts was really all about proving to myself that I’m doing better than I thought and that I’m not as sick as I was the week before. It’s so hard to judge progress in so many different aspects of life, but pushing myself with workouts and seeing how I felt during them really did help.

Of course, I’ll probably be better toward the end of this week and that’s when my nausea will likely be kicking in. It sometimes feels like I never get a break from having tough workout weeks, but I’m trying to reframe my mindset and think of them as challenges to overcome and not just tolerate.

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Tagged fitness, Orangetheory, sick, workout

Another Week Of Sick Workouts (or At Least I Did Something)

Posted on March 18, 2019 | Comments Off

This past week of workouts was such a tough one for me. I knew I was getting over this cold, but I really thought I was doing better than I really was each day. You usually feel better in the morning than the evening when you are sick, but this took a much harder hit on me than I honesty thought it would. It really became a week of just doing anything and not thinking too much about it. I wasn’t always able to actually do the workout we were supposed to do, but I did something.

Monday’s workout was a strength day but it wasn’t really a strength day for what I was doing. For cardio on the bike, I just set it to my base pace resistance level and kept it at that for the entire time. I wasn’t focused on increasing the resistance levels or when we were supposed to be in a push or all out pace. I just kept pedaling and doing my best. I know that research says if you are sick from the neck up (which I was) that light exercise is good for you. I figured that’s exactly what I was doing.

On the rower, we were supposed to do increasing row distances with jumping jacks between each row. There was no way for me to do jumping jacks, so I did a similar thing with the rower that I did with the bike. I just tried to keep rowing the entire time. I had to take breaks every minute or so because I wasn’t fully able to breathe through my nose, but again I just figured doing something was better than nothing. It wasn’t a hard workout and I wasn’t sweating much, but it was better than just being in bed missing out on doing what I could.

For the floor, I was much closer to what we were supposed to do. The first block had lateral lunges to single arm thrusts and then ab work. I had to split the lunges and single arm thrusts into separate moves, but that’s pretty normal for me. For the ab work, it was tough at times to be on my back, so I did the work on the bench instead of the floor so it was easier for me to sit up when I needed to. The next block had the same exercises but we also added sumo squats which I was able to do without modifications. And the last block was the lunges, squats, and chest presses. I wasn’t using my normal heavy weights, but they weren’t that much lighter either.

While I was feeling better than I had the past few days before this workout, clearly I was still sick because when I got home and showered, I fell asleep for almost 8 hours!

Wednesday’s workout was the Infinity workout and I was a little disappointed that I would have to do some more big modifications for this one. We were supposed to track distances for the cardio and rowing, but because I had to change so much up I didn’t track anything. It didn’t seem fair to track distances if I wasn’t doing the proper workout.

For cardio, the bike work was the same for me as it was on Monday. Even though we had different push paces throughout the time we were doing cardio, I didn’t worry about them. I just set the bike to my base pace resistance level and went the entire time at that. I took breaks when I needed to and it wasn’t as often as Monday, but it still happened a lot. I did what I could and tried to just remember that I was only there to do a light workout as I was still sick.

On the rower, we were supposed to do rounds of 100 meter rows with jumping jacks with the medicine ball in-between each row. I did the first 100 meters and tried to do squat presses with the medicine ball after, but getting up from the rower and squatting was too hard for me. I wasn’t lightheaded, but I wasn’t feeling too stable. So I just did the same thing from Monday again and tried to row the entire time. I still was taking lots of breaks but I tried to go a little further each time before taking a break. It still averaged every 100-200 meters, but it gave me something to work on and strive toward.

The floor work was one long block. The idea of it is to get us ready for the Dri-Tri (which I’m not sure I’ll be doing yet). We had bench hop overs, bench tap squats, lunges, plank jacks, push-ups, and burpees. I didn’t do the burpees at all and I modified so many of the other exercises, but I tried to do them as close to how I do them for the Dri-Tri normally. I just added in the breaks that I needed to recover. But I did notice that I was doing better on Wednesday than I had on Monday (plus, I didn’t pass out and need sleep after this workout).

I finally was on the tail end of this cold (which may also be bronchitis) by Friday so I could do a bit more of a normal workout for me. It was another strength based class and I didn’t do exactly that, but I did more than what I had been able to do the past few workouts.

For cardio, the first block I was able to do normally as there was no hill/incline work. I did the base, push, and all out paces at my new resistance levels on the bike. It was harder than I thought it would be, but I think that was because I had been doing so little the past few workouts. The second and third blocks were hill work and I just kept working with my normal base, push, and all out resistance levels. I knew I couldn’t do more and I didn’t want to push myself too hard since I was still struggling with my cough and exercise was making it a bit harder to breathe.

On the rower, we started with a 90 second row and then medicine ball squat presses. Each time on the rower we did 50 meters less than the row before and had the squats between each one. I was doing the squats for the first few rows that I did, but toward the end I was struggling a lot so I just worked on the rowing. I was hoping I wouldn’t have had to modify the rowing work, but I also am very cautious of my limits right now and knew I was getting close to working too hard.

And on the floor we had 2 blocks. The first one was bicep curls, upright rows, and low rows using weights. I did go a bit heavy with the weights and that helped me feel better about my workout. We also had sit-ups which were much harder than I thought they would be and made me cough quite a bit. The second block was a short block with side plank hip dips, plank punches, and then holding a plank. I had to take some breaks while holding the plank, but it was just because it was making my nose run.

Saturday’s workout was the closest to normal for me. While I was still coughing a bit and had some congestion issues, they were so much less than what they had been. Comparing how I felt on Monday to Saturday was such a huge improvement! This workout was an endurance day and I was pretty much back to what I know I could do.

On cardio, we had 2 blocks and they were distance challenges. The first block was a 3 minute push pace, 90 second base pace, and a 90 second distance challenge. And the second block was 2 rounds of a 90 second push pace and 45 second base pace followed by another 90 second distance challenge. I was using my normal push and base pace resistance levels and I used the level between my push and all out pace for the distance challenges at the end. I did manage to do better the second time than I did the first and the overall distance I got on the bike was one of the best ones I’ve ever had!

On the rower, we had one long block. It started with a 2 minute row and then squats. Then we had half the distance of the 2 minute row and pulsing half squats. The pattern continued but the timed row was 90 seconds the next time and 1 minute the last. I was doing close to normal row distances for the timed work and I did all the squats every round. It was so nice to not need to do any modifications for once this past week!

And on the floor we had all mini-band work. The first block had walking forward squats, lateral squat steps, and tricep work using a weight. And the second block had toe reaches, squats to lateral leg raises, and deadlifts. I didn’t go as heavy with the triceps and deadlifts as I know I can go, but they were still heavy weights. I just was getting tired by the end of the class and I had done so much more work than I thought I’d be able to do.

For this week, I’m hoping I continue to keep getting better. There’s a chance I will still be dealing with some symptoms for another week or two which is a bit annoying. But as long as I feel like I’m making some improvements in my workouts or feel like I’m getting close to my normal self I think it will make me feel ok. I’m seriously so ready to have a week that I feel great and I can push myself. I haven’t used the treadmill in a long time and it might be nice to try one treadmill day soon. But I also know that I am not slacking off while on the bike when I can do my normal work. I just have to keep listening to my body and making sure I do what I know is best for me.

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Saying Goodbye To A Workout Buddy (or Hanging Out In Normal Clothes)

Posted on March 14, 2019 | Comments Off

I’ve been very lucky with finding amazing people in my Orangetheory classes. In every class time that I take regularly, I’ve found a group of people who have become friends. Sometimes we only see each other in class, but we still are more involved in each other’s lives than just seeing each other for that hour of the workout. I find these workout friends one of the reasons why I’m always so motivated to go to class. I don’t want to miss my time with the people I only see once or twice a week. And when someone isn’t in class, it does feel like something is missing.

Finding friends in my workout classes isn’t something that happens right away, but it naturally happens over time. But I feel like my bond with my friends in my Wednesday and Friday Culver City classes happened faster than most. There was something about us that just clicked and we’ve been a pretty strong group for a while. We have a texting group that we use for workout related texts, but we also text each other random stuff throughout the week. It’s been amazing having them in my workouts and we were so sad when one member of the group announced she was moving to NYC.

Of course, we are excited for her because it’s an amazing career opportunity, but we will totally miss having her in class. So we had to have a goodbye outing because it was feeling like the end of an era. Since we all live right by downtown Culver City, it was easy for us to pick a place there. And we let the guest of honor pick where to go and she wanted to go to Public School 310. We were there during happy hour so we got a couple of different things to share among us.

We were having a great time just hanging out and eating delicious food. It was also the first time we were hanging out without having a workout so we were seeing each other in non-workout clothes for the first time. It was a nice change from our usual hangouts and it was fun just enjoying time together.

We were giving the friend moving away a bit of a hard time and joking how she shouldn’t be moving, but we all know it’s a good thing. And she’ll be back from time to time so we know we will see her again soon (she mentioned that she should be back in the next month or so for a weekend and we will all hopefully work out together then).

And of course, we had to get a group photo together. We asked the waitress to take one, and we did get a few normal ones. But this one happened after one person knocked into our dishes and I think it is much better (even if I look like a bit of a goober).

Our dinner lasted a few hours and then we all had to go our own ways. But it was a nice hangout for us and a nice way to celebrate the amazing friendship that we have been able to form just from being in a workout class together. Hopefully we can have another epic hangout the next time the 4 of us are in the same place.

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Tagged friends, happy hour, Orangetheory

A Week Of Struggles (or Just Tolerating Things Sometimes)

Posted on March 11, 2019 | 1 comment

This past week of workouts was a real struggle for me. I already knew it might be a weird week because of my schedule, but things just were not going my way. I made it to my 4 workouts, but I’ll be honest and say that I really didn’t want to do them all. But I didn’t have a good enough excuse to miss the ones I wanted to miss so I went.

Because I was in Catalina, I missed my usual Monday workout. But a few hours after getting back on Tuesday I made it to an afternoon class to make up for it. I knew it would be a tough class for me for a few reasons. First, this was going to be my first workout since the previous Friday, which is a much longer gap than I usually have between workouts. I was also dealing with my normal hormonal nausea. But I also had the added weirdness of feeling the room swaying from being on the boat earlier. I was not expecting that feeling because I didn’t have it on the boat going to Catalina. For some reason I was more affected on the ride back even though it was a very smooth ride.

The workout was Go Row, which is one of the signature workouts. It did feel a bit funny that I was going to have a big rowing workout while the room felt like it was moving. It was a 2 group class, but the cardio part of class was split between rowing and the treadmill/bike. The first block was a 4 minute row, the second block was a 2 minute row, and the last block was a 1 minute row. I did ok with my row distances, but nothing was super amazing. And the treadmill/bike work was push to all out paces. Because of how I was feeling, I didn’t really do much on the bike. I kept it at my base pace resistance level for the entire time I was on the bike. I knew I had to take it easy and just make sure I was moving.

The floor work was a lot of abs and upper body. The first block was single arm snatches, Spiderman planks, and crunches. The second block was running men, triceps with weights, and alligators on the straps. And the last block was lateral raises with weights and back extensions. I was able to do the plank work normally and not using the bench which was a surprise to me. And I did try to go heavier on the weights to make up for going easier on the cardio work.

Even though I had a Tuesday afternoon workout, I still did my Wednesday morning workout. It’s not easy to have that small of a break between classes, but it’s a good challenge for me. And I was feeling much better and didn’t have the swaying room sensation so the class went much better for me than Tuesday’s did.

The cardio was one long block but it was timed out by us. We started with a 30 second all out pace and a 30 second recovery before completing a distance. After getting to the distance, we had another recovery and continued the pattern. I wasn’t keeping the best track of my distance but I was trying to do my best to do the workout as we were supposed to. But since I was probably only going over the distance before the recovery and not under, I figured that was ok.

The row block was also one long block. We started with 10 strokes for distance and then 15 seconds to recover. Then we rowed until we got to 200 meters. After the row, we had lunges with tricep work using the medicine ball. Every time we went back to the rower we did the same beginning but the row increased by 50 meters. And the lunges/tricep work increased by 2 reps each time. I wasn’t too worried about my row times and I just focused on form. None of my rows were that slow, so it’s good to know that when I’m not focusing on rushing I’m still doing good work.

And the floor was split into 3 short blocks. Every block started with power sit-ups. Then we moved on to the rounds of the different exercises. We had neutral full thrusters and lunges for the first block, strap roll outs and plank jacks for the second block, and squats and calf raises for the last block. Some of the exercises were making me feel a bit more nauseous, but it was manageable with just taking breaks and letting it pass.

Friday’s workout was an endurance day and it was a pretty great endurance day. I was ready to work hard and see what I could do again after having a few odd days earlier in the week. We had two blocks at each station, one long block and one short one, and they were back to back.

For cardio, the first block started with a 3 minute push pace with a base pace after. We then had a 2 minute push pace and a 1 minute push pace before ending with an all out pace. I was using my new resistance levels on the bike and it was hard to do it for the longer push paces. But it felt great to know I could do it and I was able to recover with a base pace after instead of needing a break. The second block was just a 3 minute push pace to an all out and I continued to use the new resistance levels. I was starting to have some nausea issues during that block, but I managed to finish the work before needing to take a break.

The first block on the rower started with a 90 second distance challenge. Then we had medicine ball squat twists before rowing for half the distance we got on the 90 second challenge. We repeated that pattern until that block was done and I made it through 2 rounds of 90 second challenges and 2 rounds of the half distance challenge. The second block was just one more 90 second distance challenge with the squats before rowing for distance until we were done on the rower.

The floor work required a few modifications for me, but I felt really good about what I did. The beginning of the first block was all work using the bench to step on and I can’t do those with my hip. We were supposed to do different types of step down work and I usually do lunges. But I didn’t want to just do 3 rounds of regular lunges. So I did regular lunges, single leg squats using the straps for support, and step back lunges to replace the bench work. We also had bicycle crunches and arm raises with the mini-bands in that first block. The second block was lunge twists using the mini-bands on our wrists and plank work using the mini-bands to step our hands in and out. I did use the bench for my hands for the planks to help with my nausea, but it was still as tough to do the planks that way as I feel like it is on the floor.

I thought everything was going better on Friday, until Friday night. I had been feeling off for a few days but I thought it was just my nausea affecting me a different way. Friday night, I figured out that I caught a cold. When I start feeling sick, it’s usually a few days after I caught it, so I knew that I couldn’t stop it. But I took as many measures as I could on Friday night to keep the cold from getting really bad.

I thought about skipping my workout on Saturday, but my rule is that if I don’t have a fever and my cold is from my neck up (no body aches or anything like that), I should go and try to do what I could. I know that some people might think that it was bad for me to go because I could have gotten someone sick, but the timing of my body showing symptoms is usually a day or so after I stop being contagious. Also, we use antibacterial wipes at Orangetheory and I was careful not to high five anyone or do anything else that might spread germs if there was any chance I was still contagious.

The workout was an endurance, strength, and power day; but for me it was all about just getting through the workout however I could. For the cardio, the first half was incline work and I did work on increasing my resistance on the bike even if that meant my speed and cadence went down. And the second block was just all out paces and recoveries and I used my old resistance levels for that.

On the rower, we had one long block. It started with an 800 meter row and then lunges with twists. The row went down to 400 meters and then more lunges. We were supposed to do 200 meters, lunges, 100 meters, lunges, and then row for distance. But the lunges were making things tough for me so after the second set of them I just stuck with rowing until we were done and moving on the floor.

On the floor, we had two blocks. The first block was push-ups, single arm rows with weights, and crunches with leg lifts. The second block was push-ups to plank jacks, single arm rows on the straps, and side to side crunches. For the exercises that had 2 parts, I had to split them up and do each part separately. I also was taking a lot of breaks just because I was feeling congested. But I made it through the workout and didn’t give up which was all I wanted to do.

I’m hoping that this week will be a bit better. I’m not completely over my cold just yet, but I’m hoping it won’t last through the entire week. I do know how to do workouts when I’m not feeling my best, but I really want to stop having that as an excuse. I feel like I’m in a rut and stuck in my progress because of all my recent struggles and challenges. I just want to have another week where I feel amazing to help me remember how hard I’ve worked so far.

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Tagged fitness, Orangetheory, sick, struggle, workout

Getting My 4 In (or Not Missing A Workout If I Can Help It)

Posted on March 4, 2019 | Comments Off

This past week of workouts was an interesting one for me. First, it was the beginning of my nausea and I had to deal with that the entire week. I thought I might not have nausea until midway through the week, but I wasn’t lucky this time. Also, I had a weird workout schedule. I am pretty set in my routine with the days and times I work out, but when something happens that prevents me from maintaining that schedule, I have to be flexible. I could have just missed the class I knew I couldn’t go to, but my desire to get in 4 workouts a week is higher than my desire to keep my normal schedule.

Monday’s workout was a strength based class and I was dealing with a mix of being overly tired and a little bit of nausea during class. I was already prepared for this week to not be one of my super amazing weeks, so I knew that I had to be careful during cardio to not overdo things and get burned out before the end of the workout.

The treadmill work was a single block that was 14 minutes of work. We only had 2 hill/incline/high resistance levels sections and I was going to some of the highest resistance levels on the bike that I’ve used. For my regular base, push, and all out paces I was using my old resistance levels. I used those honesty because I forgot about the new ones so that was my fault and not me needing to go easy on myself. The nausea wasn’t too bad during the bike so I didn’t need to take a ton of breaks and that made me happy.

On the rower, we had sprint rows with exercises between each row. The rows were all between 100-400 meters and I was going pretty close to my normal speed on the rower. After the first row we were supposed to do medicine ball jacks, but since I can’t do bouncy stuff like that when I’m nauseous I did squats to overhead presses with the medicine ball. After the second row we added on squat front presses with the medicine ball. And after the third round we were supposed to add squat overhead presses with the medicine ball, but since I was already doing those I just did regular squats while holding the medicine ball.

On the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block was lateral lunges, pop squats, and regular lunges. I was able to do the pop squats while using the bench for my hands so my nausea wasn’t too bad. The second block was lunges to single arm presses with weights, sit-ups, and bear steps. The bear steps are done face down similar to a plank and I was worried about doing them with the nausea. I tried them and found that as long as I went slowly I wasn’t having the usual nausea issues. I also had to keep taking breaks during them to sit and let the nausea pass, but that’s still better than I’m used to.

Wednesday’s workout was also a strength workout. We had 2 blocks at each section of the room but they were back to back so we had about 15 minutes at each section.

For cardio the first block was a 2 minute push pace, 1 minute base pace, 2 minute hill, 90 second base base, and a 1 minute all out. I was at my old resistance level for most things but used my old all out level for the hill work. The second block cut most things in half so since it was shorter I used my new resistance levels on the bike. I hadn’t been using them much lately and I was glad I did it in this workout so I could remember that I could do it.

The rower was a similar idea to cardio with one block being longer and the second block cutting them in half. We started with a 2 minute row and then we had lunges to overhead tricep work using the medicine ball. Then we were supposed to do that distance from the 2 minute row again with more lunges and tricep work before rowing for distance. But the tricep work was making me feel nauseous for some random reason so I did the first row. the lunges and tricep work, and then rowed until time was called on the block. I did the same thing with the second block. I know I didn’t get all the work done that I should have done, but I figured rowing longer wasn’t the worst option for me.

The floor was mainly upper body work. We had sit-ups to shoulder presses (which I split into sit-ups and squats to shoulder presses), seated low rows using weights, ab dumbbell twists, chest presses, and lunge low rows. I wasn’t going too heavy on the weights which I regretted after the workout. I was trying to go easy on myself and I realized after it was done that I probably went too easy. It’s a tough balance to find with going easy to not be nauseous and pushing myself too much and not being able to do a lot of the workout. And the balance changes every time I work out and am nauseous.

Even though when I set my 2019 goals I allowed for a few 3 workout weeks, if I can find a way to have 4 workouts even if it’s not with my normal schedule I’ll try my best. And for last week and this week I knew I’d be missing one of my normal workout times. Last week, I knew I’d miss my Saturday workout. So I added in a Thursday workout to make up for it.

Working out on a Thursday meant I went after work in the afternoon. This is the time I used to go when I went to Brentwood for all my classes, but it was so weird for me to do it now. And because I take class at very popular times, I’m used to 3 group classes and didn’t even consider that I’d be going to a 2 group class. It was an endurance based class, but we switched every 5 minutes so that helped.

Every time we had cardio, we had a 4 minute progressive push pace and a 30 second all out pace. I started at my normal base pace resistance level each time and increased it by 1 every minute. That worked out perfectly for me because 1 level above the progressive push levels ended up being my new all out resistance level. It was nice to take the time to work up each block from my base to my all out and it helped to make it feel easier than I thought it would be.

Every time we were on the floor, we had the same thing. We had one long floor block and we picked things up where we left them off. We had static over under crunches, heel toe taps, toe touches, hop overs, squats with weights, side plank work, and burpees. I had to make some modifications for a few things due to my nausea but I was able to do most things the way they were supposed to be done. And the last floor block was a row block where we had the same pattern as cardio with a progressive 4 minute push to a 30 second all out. I knew that I couldn’t push myself on the rower the way I wanted to, so I had a goal just to row the entire time without stopping. I wasn’t able to do that and I had to take breaks for the nausea to pass about every 45 seconds. It wasn’t my best row, but it was at the end of workout so I was tired besides being nauseous.

Friday was my last workout last week. It was also my worst nausea day of the week and my third workout day in a row. There were enough factors working against me that I went into class just feeling like I had the goal of surviving and doing what I could and not really pushing myself. It was a strength based class and my usual 3 group class so I was at each section for about 15 minutes.

For cardio, we were on our own with timing things. We had plan with how far we were supposed to go with push, all out, and recovery paces and our push paces were supposed to increase inclines each time. I used my normal base pace resistance level as my recovery (I don’t really go lower than that if I can help it even when we have recovery time) and my new all out resistance level each round. For the push paces, I knew I’d be working my way up the resistance levels so I started it at my old push pace level. Then I went up 1 level each time I got back there. When the block was ending, I was using my all out level for my push at an incline. It wasn’t easy to keep going and I took a lot of breaks to let the nausea pass or the pain from the cramps to lessen. But the goal was to just keep going and that’s what I did.

On the rower we started with a 400 meter row. Then we had squats and squat front presses with a medicine ball and a 200 meter row. We repeated the squat work and back to a 400 meter row. That’s as far as I got for the first row block. The second row block was the same idea but everything was cut in half. So we had 200 and 100 meter rows and half the squats we had the first time. Just like on the bike, I had to take a lot of time to rest and let things get a bit better for me. I struggled a lot with the squats too because the motion of squatting down and standing up was affecting me. It sucks to feel this bad, but I knew it was just temporary and I’d be done with it soon.

And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had lunges with front raises or lateral raises using weights, bicycle chest presses, and double crunches. The lunges went fine for me and it was nice to have something feel normal to me. The bicycle chest presses and double crunches weren’t as easy, but I was able to use my normal weights for those so I felt awesome about that. And the second block was goblet squat lateral steps and plank shoulder taps. Those went as well as I expected they would and I just focused on getting through it and taking breaks when I needed them.

My last workout last week was on Friday and my next workout won’t be until tomorrow which is a pretty long break for me. And this week will also be a bit weird with the schedule since I am missing my Monday workout. I’m also aware that it will likely be another bad nausea week. But if I made it through last week, I know I can make it through this week!

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Tagged fitness, Orangetheory, workout

A Week Of Getting Back To Normal (or Still Dealing With The Same Old Issues)

Posted on February 25, 2019 | Comments Off

This past week of workouts went well for me. While I was finally able to work out normally again after getting my stitches out, it didn’t mean that I was completely free of all workout related issues. I still had some random issues I had to deal with, but they are all ones that I’m used to. I would love to have a week where I have absolutely no workout related issues to deal with, but that may never become a reality for me.

Monday’s workout was my last workout with the stitches in, and I was so glad it was the last one. I was tired of having the random pain in my face and having to be careful about how heavy I was lifting because I didn’t want to put any tension on my face. This workout was a power switch day so we were moving around the room quickly and often.

When we were doing cardio, it was a mix of different little cardio blasts. Sometimes we had a push pace with a base pace before an all out and sometimes it was just push pace to all out. They were all about 2 or 2 1/2 minutes long so we were never on there too long. I was using my old resistance levels on the bike because of the issues I was having with the stitches, but I was pedaling much faster than before so that was a sign of improvement.

On the rower, we started with a 2 1/2 minute row for distance and then every time on the rower we based things off of that distance. To make things easy for me I just used 500 meters as the distance so it was easier to remember. Each time on the rower, we rowed 100 meters less than the last time and then we held a static squat until we switched. The rows weren’t all sprint rows, but they were all able to be done pretty quickly and I was always holding my squat for a good chunk of time.

And on the floor, we had the same thing every time we were there. We had a roll out on the straps, high row on the straps, hip hinge low rows with weights, plank jacks, and burpees to bicep curls. I really struggled with the burpees that day (even more than normal), so I wasn’t always doing them each time I was on the floor. I also had to split up the burpees and bicep curls into 2 different things instead of a continuous exercise. But I was getting through everything else much easier than I had before and I was happy that it wasn’t a ton of floor work that I knew would make me put tension in my face.

Wednesday’s workout was a benchmark day. We had the 12 minute run for distance. I haven’t done a lot of benchmark distance challenge on the bike so I was excited to see what I could do. I was finally feeling better with the stitches out and I knew that I could really push myself on the bike.

The idea was to just get as far as possible in those 12 minutes. I started at my push resistance level and realized that I wouldn’t be able to maintain that for a majority of the time and any time after that might be affected by me being tired from the higher resistance level. So after the first minute, I used the resistance level between my base and push and made my focus pedaling as quickly as I could. I know that the baseline for me on the bike is 1 trip every 2 1/2 minutes but I can sometimes go closer to 2 minutes when it’s a quick sprint. But this wasn’t a sprint so I knew not to go too hard in the beginning to try to get that faster time. I was hoping to do 5 trips since that would still be faster than my baseline and was so happy when I did 5.5.

When I was on the rower, I had to go a bit slow to recover but that’s what our coach expected us to do. We started with a 4 minute row for distance and had to remember the distance. I used 800 meters to make it easy to remember. Then we cut the distance in half and had mini-band front arm raises. Each time we were on the rower we went down 100 meters. Even though I was trying to be easy to recover from the distance challenge on the bike, I was still going harder and faster on the rower than I had the past week.

And on the floor, we had one long block. We had single arm hollow hold chest presses, half getups, double crunches with weights, plank pull throughs with weights, and alligators on the straps. I was finally able to use my more normal weights and I could feel it in my body that I had been going easy on myself for a week. It was a little surprising how much I felt the difference when the weights I was using were the ones I was using not that long ago, but I did. I thought about going down in the weights, but I realized that it was a struggle to do them and not that I was doing sloppy form because of the weights so I kept them the same. It really did feel good to be back to what feels more normal to me and I’m so glad that I was able to get some awesome stuff done in that workout.

Friday’s workout was a serious struggle for me. I was at Disneyland the day before (that post is coming this week) and I woke up Friday morning having a horrible hip day. I know that workouts will always be tough when I have those days, but this workout was a class filled with burpees. I was not in a good headspace walking into class because I was already anticipating how hard it was going to be, and it pretty much went how I expected.

It was also a tornado class which means we switch very quickly. We had 6 laps around the room (18 blocks) and the first lap was 3 minutes long and all the rest were 1 minute. If the class wasn’t a tornado, it probably would have been worse, so that probably made things a bit better than they could have been.

For cardio, the first block was a push pace, base pace, push pace, and all out. And the other 5 blocks were all 1 minute all outs. I used my old resistance levels on the bike but even those were a struggle for me. On the rower, the first block was rounds of 10 strokes for distance and 5 recovery strokes. And the other 5 blocks were 1 minute all out rows. The rowing was a bit easier than the bike, but because of the hip pain it was hard sitting down and getting up from the rower. Fortunately we had about a minute to switch every time so I didn’t have to rush too much.

And the floor was almost all burpees. The first block was burpees and squats since it was longer, but all the other blocks were just 1 minute of doing a type of burpee. We had full burpees, reverse burpees, burpees with shoulder taps, burpees with lunges, and push ups to plank jacks (which are just like a burpee except you don’t have to stand up). I used the bench for my hands for all the burpees but I still occasionally had to step back and not jump back. I went slow and took breaks because even 1 minute was too long for me at times, but I did it. It wasn’t my best work and I know it didn’t look pretty, but sometimes that’s all you can hope for out of a workout on a tough day.

Saturday felt like the most normal day of the week for me. I didn’t have issues with my stitches and I didn’t have a ton of hip pain. I did have a little bit of nausea to deal with, but it was very minor and I didn’t even have to take medication to manage it. It was a strength based workout so that meant hills/high resistance levels on the bike and I was ready to challenge myself a bit.

For cardio we had 2 blocks and the idea for both blocks was to have longer hill work each time. We had a range of incline/resistance levels we could use and I tried to go a bit higher than I have for the past week or so. The shorter the hill work was, the higher we were supposed to be with the incline/resistance level. For the 2 shorter ones, I was higher than my typical all out resistance level which was good. And I did the longest hill at my normal all out level which I usually can’t hold for more than a minute. I was surprised that I did so well because I had been going easy on myself for so long.

On the rower, we had all sprint rows. We started with a 300 meter row and then we had 10 frogger squats. Next was a 200 meter row with frogger squats and a 100 meter row with frogger squats. We repeated the 300, 200, and 100 meter rows again but with lunges between. We were supposed to do the row distances again with squats between the rows, but I was working on the last 300 meter row when the block ended.

And on the floor, we had drop sets which means we do a low number of reps with a higher weight for an exercise immediately followed by a higher number of reps with a lower weight. For the first block we had shoulder press drop sets and the second block we had deadlift drop sets. The first block also had sit-ups and hip bridges and the second block also had leg lifts and crunches.

Considering how easy I went on myself the week before, I was so happy that I was able to get back to my normal work and even sometimes do a bit better than normal. It’s always nice when I can prove to myself that taking an easy week doesn’t have to be a setback. And I think that having new issues has made the normal issues I deal with during my workouts a bit easier for me to tolerate. Of course, I say that now when my nausea isn’t that bad. This week and next week will likely be my bad nausea weeks and I’m hoping that they aren’t too horrible. But if they are, I know what I need to do.

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Tagged fitness, Orangetheory, workout

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