Tag Archives: Orangetheory

Testing Myself (or Running More)

Posted on June 20, 2016 | Comments Off on Testing Myself (or Running More)

I’m so happy to share that the knee pain I was dealing with recently finally went away! I have no clue what was causing it or how I made it stop, but it did and I’m so grateful for that. And I needed a good week because I had another 4 workout week this past week and I wasn’t going easy on myself.

Monday wasn’t my best day (I’m starting to wonder if Mondays are too early for me to be good workouts). While I wasn’t having knee pain, I was dealing with some hip stuff. I could feel the clicks in both hips and I was getting the pressure pain I get a lot. But even with that, I was trying to go hard in my workout. It was an endurance day and we didn’t switch between blocks, so I knew I had to pace myself on the treadmill. We had some 2 and 3 minute push paces, and I stuck to walking those. I’d like to try running for the first 30 seconds of them again soon, but I was scared with the hip pain that day. But even though I was walking for the pushes, I was still doing my running for the all outs. That day we also had endurance rows (400 and 500 meters) and I know that those were to get us ready for Peak Performance Week (which is this week!).

Wednesday was a power day without switching, but that was perfect for me to practice my running with! I’ve quickly learned that the best days for me to run are the power days because we have a lot of all outs and walking recoveries (exactly what I need). This time, we had all outs in blocks of 3 and it repeated 3 times. First we did an all out for a minute, then a walking recovery, then an all out for 45 seconds, and a walking recovery, and finishing with an all out for 30 seconds. We were encouraged to bump up the speed on the all outs as they got shorter and for the first time I followed that advice! When we were doing them for a minute, I stuck with 4.5 miles an hour which is what I’ve been doing. For the 45 second all outs, I ran at 4.6 miles an hour. And for the ones that were 30 seconds, I ran at 4.7 miles an hour. I’m pretty happy that I was able to make speed increases and I’ve learned that the additional .1 faster feels much easier as a runner than it does as a walker. So I might have to keep trying to get faster while I’m also trying to build endurance.

That day on the floor, it was a lot of squats which I did with 25 pound weights. I also used that same weight for my tricep work, but when it came time for abs, I’m glad that I didn’t have to use weights because I was exhausted!

Friday was a run/row day. I was excited for this because I knew that I could test my running again during the run/row. All of the rows were 150 meters, so those were pretty easy. But the run part was a bit longer. It started for me at .25 miles, then down to .2, then to .15, and finally to .1. I walked for the first 3 sets (.25-.15 miles) because I knew that I couldn’t run that long and I didn’t want to push it too much. But when it came to the .1 miles part, I decided to see if I could run it. Before, the longest I’ve run is for a minute, and I know that it’s not .1 miles for me in a minute. But I’ve been hoping that at some point this month I could run for 90 seconds, so I figured this was the best time to try something in between. I’m happy that the longer run wasn’t as horrible as I thought it would be and I think that my endurance is really getting better because I wasn’t feeling like I was dying at the end of it. But that day I did run for the longest distance and longest time I’ve done so far.

Run

For my Saturday workout, I did end up using the bike like I’ve said I would on 4 workout weeks. I really did want to try running again, but I also want to pace myself and make sure that whatever that knee pain was doesn’t return. It was a good choice because not only did we not switch between blocks, it was a strength day which means more hills on the treadmill. On the bike, it just meant more resistance. I was trying to go hard on the bike, but my body was just so tired from the week (the heat has been making it tough to sleep) so I just focused on continuing to pedal and not to focus on the resistance levels.

The floor block on Saturday was actually pretty cool. It was a single block for the entire time that started with rowing and then had a bunch of other things we added on. The rowing started easy at 150 meters, but it kept going up and once I was rowing 450 meters I could feel my body being done with it. The highest I had to row was 600 meters and while my time for it was pretty bad, at least I finished. The rest of the stuff on the floor included squats, shoulder presses, and doing arm rows with weights. It was a fun block because I knew I had the time to work through each exercise and I wasn’t worried about when the blocks would switch. But at the end of the class, I was ready to take a nap!

With this week being Peak Performance Week, I’m excited to see what I’ll be able to do. I know that Friday is the mile challenge, which is always the big one for me. But since I recently had the PR on my mile, I’m not going to get too crazy about it. If I beat that time, that will be awesome! But because I know I made some seriously leaps to get that PR, I just want to be close to that time to prove that it wasn’t a fluke.

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Default ThumbnailExtra Running Time (or Figuring Out What I Can Do) Default ThumbnailMore Running! (or Gaining Endurance) Default ThumbnailTesting My Running (or Holidays and Friends) Default ThumbnailBuilding Up My Running Skills (or Getting A New PR) Default ThumbnailFiguring Things Out (or Finding A Balance With Running) Default ThumbnailLots Of Running and Rowing (or Proof Of My Progress)

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Taking Things A Bit Easier (or No More Injuries)

Posted on June 13, 2016 | Comments Off on Taking Things A Bit Easier (or No More Injuries)

This past week of workouts ended up being a week of being cautious. I have no clue what happened, but on Monday morning last week I woke up with a very stiff knee. I didn’t do anything over that weekend that should make things hurt, so I’m wondering if I slept in a position that tweaked something. The knee pain is almost only at night (it wakes me up if I shift positions at night) and hurts a little in the morning when I get up. So since I was dealing with that, I didn’t go as crazy during my workouts because I didn’t want to hurt myself more.

Monday was a partner workout which was awesome because my friend Dena came try her very first Orangetheory class! So she and I partnered up together for the workout. During the partner time, the person on cardio controlled the switching. The cardio person did a 200 meter row and a run on the treadmill at inclines. The run was supposed to be .2 miles, but I know I can’t run that long nor did I really want to run on hills. So I decided to walk at inclines so I was only doing .1 miles each time. On the floor, while we waited for our partner to be done with their cardio work, we did arms, chests, lunges, and abs. We kept going the floor work until our partner came over and switched us out.

I have to say that Dena and I made pretty good partners for this. We were pretty equal on time for cardio, so neither of us was stuck on the floor waiting for too long. I was working on using some heavy weights on the floor, so I was mainly using the 20 pound ones for my work. At the end of the partner time, we had a small block that was like a normal block. While it was still hills on the treadmill, I did run during the 1 minute all out at the end so I got a little bit of running done.

Wednesday was an endurance, strength, and power day that didn’t switch between the blocks so I was on the treadmill for 30 minutes straight. It was an interesting day because all of the blocks were pretty short. Again on the treadmill, I walked for most of the time. I did run for the all outs again which were a minute each time. Running for a minute is getting a bit easier for me, but my heart rate is really high during it and I have a bit of trouble catching my breath after. I know that this will be worked out the more I run, but it’s a big adjustment to get used to.

During the floor, we had some lunges and arm work, but the big thing to me was the timed row blocks. We had 2 blocks where we had timed rows. One was for 3 minutes and one was for 2 minutes. I really wanted to do well, but I was also so tired after the cardio time so I knew that I wasn’t going to be hitting my best distances during those times. So I just wanted to get the minimum of what we are supposed to do, which is basically 100 meters every 30 seconds. For the 3 minute row, I got 606 meters which met my goal. But for the 2 minute row, I was just too tired to keep my momentum going and I only got 355 meters in. I know I could have probably gotten to 400 meters if I really tried, but my legs just weren’t having it (and a majority of rowing is leg power).

Friday was another strength day, but fortunately we were switching between blocks. Again, I walked almost the entire time on the treadmill. Since it was a strength day there were plenty of hills to work with and I really tried to keep my inclines where they needed to be. I did run during the all outs (either 30 seconds or 1 minute long), but while runners were supposed to run at a high incline, I kept it at either 2% or 4% (4% is the flat road for walkers). I’m really not ready to try to run at an incline where I’m still struggling to run at all.

The floor ended up being a really great day for me. We did have a 400 meter row, but rowing wasn’t a big part of the day. I was using 20 pound weights for my arm and chest work (including bicep curls) and during the burpees we had to do I was always adding in pushups. We also had an entire block just using the TRX straps. Most of the strap work was core work, so I was feeling pretty awesome t the end of class.

My knee did hurt throughout the week, but again it was almost only at night. I woke up almost every single night with pains in my knee while I was moving. In the morning, I would be very stiff but after an hour or so the pain would end. I never felt pain during the workout (that’s a good sign) but it wasn’t getting better or worse through the week. I really have no clue what I did and I doubt doing to the doctor would give me any guidance. There’s always a chance that my hip issues are causing the knee pain, but again, I can’t really do much to fix that. Over this past weekend, I pretty much did nothing to try to rest my knee and that seemed to help.

I’m hoping that this week, things will be a bit better for me. I would like to try to push myself a bit more in my running because Peak Performance Week is coming up soon. I know I’ll be doing the 1 mile challenge day, but I don’t think I can do the other treadmill challenge days because of my schedule. So I’m trying to focus on what I can do to prepare for that day and making sure that I have the best workouts possible leading up to it.

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Default ThumbnailMore Progress And Steps Back (or Trying My Hardest) Default ThumbnailA 4 Workout Week (or Only A Few More Weeks Of 2015 Workouts) Default ThumbnailA Full Workout Week (or Sticking With My Plan) Default ThumbnailBusy Workout Week (or Maybe Overdoing It A Bit) Default ThumbnailUnexpected Injuries (or I’m Still Doing My 5K Tonight) Default ThumbnailStill Taking This A Bit Easy (or Not Going To Push Too Hard)

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Building Up My Running Skills (or Getting A New PR)

Posted on June 6, 2016 | 1 comment

This past week at Orangetheory continued my re-introduction to running. I actually was feeling very scared before this week of workouts because I thought maybe the week before was a fluke and I wouldn’t be able to run again. I thought maybe that was a one week thing and I would be back to struggling during some of my power walking. And I was thinking that maybe the workouts wouldn’t be ones that I could figure out how to run during.

Fortunately, that wasn’t the case for me. I did have to play around a bit with how I added running into my cardio, but it wasn’t too difficult for me. With this past Monday being a holiday, the workout was a 3G class because so many people were signed up. So we only really had about 17 minutes for each block (and one block for the treadmill, one block for the rower, and one block for the floor). The plan for cardio was to do 1.5 miles as fast as possible. I knew there was no way I could do 1.5 miles in the time we had, so I told my coach I was going to try for a mile and he was ok with that. Since I’m still new to running, I didn’t want to go too crazy. But I really wanted to try to do a run/walk mile.

Since I had done a couple of 30 second runs, that seemed like a good plan to me. So I was going with 30 seconds of running followed by a minute of walking. The first few rounds went pretty easily for me. I was feeling really great and I thought that maybe I should try to do a bit more running than 30 seconds. But after I got about half a mile done, I was feeling very tired. I realized after the fact that I did my entire mile at 4% incline (runners only have to be at 1% while power walkers need to be at 4%), so I could have brought my incline down a bit. But once I got halfway done, I knew I was on pace for a great mile PR so I kept going. I kept up the 30 seconds of running/1 minute of walking pretty much the entire time. When I was close to the end, I wanted to try to finish up with about a minute of running so I did about 90 seconds of walking leading up to the last bit I had and I ran for a minute before I completed my mile.

1 Mile

My previous PR was almost exactly a year ago (before the calf tear) and it was 16:30. My dream was to get below a 16 minute mile (so I can do a Disneyland 5K). And while this was the first time I had added running into the mix, I had no idea that I would take an entire minute off of my mile time! I don’t think I could maintain this pace for a 5K yet, but this is such a positive sign to me!

After doing my mile, I still had 2/3 of my workout left. I did struggle a bit with the rest but I tried my best. We had a mile on the rower (1600 meters) and then our floor work was all sets of 100. We did squats, pushups, running men, swimmers, high rows on the straps, hop overs, and triceps dips. I didn’t make it to 100 of each thing, but I got close. But I didn’t really care too much since I killed it on my mile!

Wednesday was an endurance day, so I had to think about how to try to run on the treadmill. A lot of the push paces were between 90 seconds and 3 minutes, and there’s no way I can run that long yet. So I ran for the first 30 seconds of each push pace and then went down to a power walk (and raised my incline) for the rest of it. That seemed to work pretty well for me and I was able to really work on my running form. Because of my hip issues, I have issues walking in a straight line. So on the treadmill, I have to hold on while I walk because I can walk off the belt and if that happened I’m sure I’d fall off. I was holding on while I was running too, but on Wednesday I decided to test myself and I found that I actually can run in a straight line! I’m not sure why I can do that with running if I can’t with walking, but it might have to do with there being less time that my foot is down (and less chance for my hip to slip). While I was running for 30 seconds for my push paces, I did run for the entire minute that we had all-outs.

The floor that day was all arms, abs, and squats. I’m glad the leg work was a bit limited because my legs were feeling a bit weak after all that running. I know that I have to build up my running endurance and while I’ve done lots of walking cardio work, running is a new skill for me to work on. My body isn’t hurting as much as my lungs do when I’m running. But once I’m off the treadmill, I think the adrenaline I’ve got while I’m running goes away and I feel a bit weak. But soon the novelty of running will wear off a bit and I think the floor work will become a bit easier after cardio again.

Friday was a power day, so it was pretty ideal for me for running. We did have some longer push paces (3 minutes and 2 minutes) so I did the same thing I did on Wednesday where I ran for the first 30 seconds and then walked for the rest. That’s a good plan for me so far and I’m pretty happy with it. But after those long push paces, we had a lot of all-outs that were either a minute long or 45 seconds long. So I was trying to do my best to run for the entire time for those all-outs. I didn’t always succeed, but thinking that I ran for 1 minute straight 4 times is crazy considering that it was only about a week ago that I started running. I want to test my limits, but I know I have to take it easy too.

The floor on Friday was a bit tough. The first half was rowing (300 and 200 meters) and a lot of weight work focusing a lot on arms and abs. The second half had the same rowing and a lot of strap and ab roller work. I didn’t get as far in the blocks as I would have wanted to, but my body just wasn’t moving any faster!

Overall, I’m really happy how my running progress has been going. Obviously I wish it was super easy and I could run without having to worry about catching my breath, but that’s not realistic. I’ve got some goals in mind with the running that I think are very feasible such as being able to run for 90 seconds straight by the end of the month. Setting the small goals and milestones is going to be really important for me as I work on running more. I won’t have progress with running like I do with weight work or rowing, but the progress will happen eventually. But for now, I’m just proud of where I am so far and the fact that I’m doing any running at all!

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Default ThumbnailWanting To Run (or Focusing On Running And Rowing) Default ThumbnailBuilding My Endurance (or Lots Of Running) Default ThumbnailBuilding Up Endurance (or Shocking Myself) Default ThumbnailTesting Myself (or Running More) Default ThumbnailFiguring Things Out (or Finding A Balance With Running) Default ThumbnailLots Of Running and Rowing (or Proof Of My Progress)

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Major Progress (or I Can Run!)

Posted on May 30, 2016 | 4 comments

This past week might not have been my best week of workouts, but it was the best one in my mind. I had so much progress that week that I can’t believe it, and I’m terrified that somehow this week won’t be as good. But I’m going to try my absolute best to make sure that I keep making these giant steps forward!

Monday was a pretty typically workout. We had a mile by mile challenge which meant we did a mile on the treadmill and a mile on the rower (split into 4 parts). Since I’m a power walker, my treadmill segments were all .125 miles (instead of .25 miles) so I knew they would all be pretty fast. I was able to do all my treadmill segments at 3.7 miles an hour and at 6% incline, which is usually the speed I use for my all-outs. All of my rows were pretty fast too and I was able to keep them at about a minute or under. The floor work was a lot of lower body work, but I was able to use some good-sized weights like 20 pounds for squats and my upper body work with the pullovers was using the 25 pound weight (only one weight in my hands for that one). I was pretty happy with that workout especially with my treadmill times, but I had no idea how amazing the rest of the week was going to be.

Wednesday was a power day where we didn’t switch between blocks. During the 3 treadmill blocks, 2 of them were the same format. We had 5 minutes of work where it was 30 seconds of all-out and then 30 seconds of walking recovery repeated 5 times. The first time we had that 5 minute block, I worked on increasing my speed each time. I started at 3.6 miles an hour and worked my way up to 3.9 miles an hour by the 4th all-out. But on the 5th all-out of the block, I decided to run.

I’ve done basically no running in the last decade or more. I’ve been warned by hip surgeons that high impact stuff isn’t the best for me, but I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t care anymore. I know that I will need double hip replacements in my life. My original surgeon was so sure that by this point in my life I would have needed at least one of them done. But I haven’t and from my last set of x-rays, I’m actually looking better than I did a year ago. If I’m going to have to have the replacements done no matter what, I might as well use my hips now before they get replaced. They are going to be replaced if I push myself or if I just sit on my butt. So I’ve decided to push myself.

So for that last 30 second all-out, I ran at 4.5 miles an hour. It felt so good to do that and my hips didn’t really hurt at all (the bottom of my feet did a bit, but that’s totally different). I was feeling so amazing after those 30 seconds that I decided to push myself even more on the next 5 minute block like that. For all 5 all-outs, I ran at 4.5 miles an hour! I had a tough time with my walking recovery and I sometimes had to jump the rails of the treadmill to catch my breath, but I did it! I was on such a high from actually running that the rest of the workout kind of was a blur for me. We had some sprint rows for 150 and 200 meters and some squats and lunges. The lunges were a bit tough for me because my legs were feeling a bit wobbly, but I was still not in any extra pain in my hips because of the running! This was seriously such a huge step for me because I had believed for so long that I would feel the pain I had felt before surgery when I tried to run. I never thought that it wouldn’t hurt me any more than walking does!

Friday I was still on a high from running, and I had another great opportunity to test it out! We did a 12 minute challenge on the treadmill for distance. Our coach, Bruce, was going to call out when to be at a push pace versus at a base pace during those 12 minutes, but we could also follow our own plan. Most of the time, I follow the coach. But I was on a mission and I knew I had to do my own thing. For the first 11 minutes of the challenge, I followed the same pattern: I ran at 4.5 miles an hour for 30 seconds and then I walked at 3.5 miles an hour for a minute to recover. I was feeling pretty awesome through most of those first 11 minutes. I occasionally had to jump on the rails to catch my breath, but it wasn’t because of any pain issues. I just have to work up my cardiovascular strength. After those first 11 minutes, I had a minute of walking to do if I followed my original plan. But instead, I walked for 30 seconds and then finished up with 30 seconds of running! This was the most running I’ve done in over a decade and it felt so freeing! I was exhausted after those 12 minutes, but I had gone farther in those 12 minutes than I had in a 13 minute challenge earlier this year!

12 Minutes Treadmill

For the rest of the treadmill time on Friday, I just did walking. Running is so new to me so I have to take it easy and I didn’t want to overdo things. On the floor, we had a bit of rowing (between 200-400 meters) and a lot of arms and chest work. For my arms I was using 20 pounds and for my chest I was using 25 pounds. My heart rate was staying pretty high during the weights, but I know that it was because of the running. I’m hoping my body can adjust soon enough to get back to a lower heart rate, but this is so new and my body needs time to get used to it.

On Saturday I tried to take things a bit easier. We had 2 blocks on cardio and then switched to the floor, and for my cardio I was on the bike. That’s my standard 4th workout of the week plan and I know my legs and hips needed a bit of a break from the running and walking. My heart rate stayed a little lower than I would have liked, but it was also a recovery day for me so that is to be expected.

Once we switched to the floor, the first block was a lot of upper body work. We did chest flies, squats with bicep curls, and triceps presses. I was working mainly with 20 or 15 pound weights (I tried to do as many bicep curls as I could at 20 pounds, but I had to finish my reps with 15 pounds each time). The second block was a lot of core work including work on the straps. We had single arm rows and rollouts on the straps and then finished our block with some crunches.

After we all completed those 4 blocks, we got back together for a partner challenge. Because of the number of people in class, I ended up being without a partner, but for this challenge it actually worked out ok. Basically, we were split between the treadmill and the rower and we went for 90 seconds. Then the teams with partners switched spots and the goal was to see how many meters between the 2 partners you could get on the rower. I wasn’t able to see how many meters I got because the rower reset for me while I wasn’t on it, but that’s ok. For the first treadmill round, I went back to the bike until I realized how short the treadmill blocks would be. So for the second and third round I was on the treadmill. For the second round, it was a 60 second push and a 30 second all-out. I did my push at 3.5 miles an hour and 6% incline and for the all-out I ran at 4.5 miles an hour. And the final round was 30 seconds of a push and 30 seconds of an all-out and I decided to see if I could run for an entire minute. So I was at 4.5 miles an hour (2% incline since runners didn’t have to have incline) for an entire minute! I can’t remember the last time I ran for an entire minute (easily over a decade ago) and it was amazing!

Over the weekend, I didn’t have any extra pain in my hips from the running. My quads were a bit sore, but that could have been from other work too. I’m not sure how I’ll keep up the plan to try to do a bit of running during each workout. This past week just worked out really nicely for me to bring a bit of running back and I want to see how much I can do. I have no plans to try to run my next 5K (which is about 5 months away), but if I can run/walk it that would be incredible! I could easily get a new PR if I did that. Hopefully I can find a great way to add bits of running into my treadmill workouts from now on and this momentum will just keep moving forward!

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Default ThumbnailGetting Closer To The Leaderboard (or I’m Almost In The Top 5) Default ThumbnailMore Progress And Steps Back (or Trying My Hardest) Default ThumbnailMaking Progress (or Preparing For My Thanksgiving Workout) Default ThumbnailProof Of My Progress (or I Am Doing Better) Default ThumbnailFeeling More Progress (or Olympic Workouts) Default ThumbnailSome Progress and Some Setbacks (or Trying To Set New Workout Goals)

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Pushing Myself (or So Many Hills!)

Posted on May 23, 2016 | Comments Off on Pushing Myself (or So Many Hills!)

This past week of workouts seemed to all be strength days (or at least partially strength days). I know that Orangetheory mixes things up, but I really did hit the strength days only! Strength days are days where you are supposed to be heavier on the weights on the floor and during cardio you do inclines. Since power walkers always do inclines for push paces and all-outs, strength days are days I try to push my inclines higher (like you are supposed to) and I always seem to struggle with that. So I’m guessing somehow I needed this week of strength workouts to test myself to my limits!

Monday was not just a strength day, but we didn’t switch between blocks so I was on the treadmill for 30 minutes straight. I managed to do my hills at between 6-10% even though I know I was supposed to do some at 12 and 15%. I used to be able to do those inclines without any issues, and it does make me sad that I’m still not back to where I used to be (and there’s a chance I might never be able to do those higher inclines again). When we don’t switch between blocks, my body is pretty exhausted by the end of the cardio. So by the end of things, I was doing my base, push, and all-out paces at the same incline and just bumping up the speed .1 mph for each of them. I was supposed to up my inclines, but I just wasn’t able to do it.

On the floor, it was very legs focused. We had lots of lunges and squats which are getting better for me. My lunges are still difficult with balance issues, but my form is significantly better. And my squats are much easier and I’m getting closer and closer to being able to use heavier weights while doing them. The only problem I’m having is that my arms aren’t strong enough to hold those weights. I’m struggling a bit with my grasp with the 25 pound weights and that’s with using workout gloves. I’m not sure how to strengthen my arms, wrists, and hands to be ready to hold heavier weights so I’m open to any suggestions.

On Wednesday, it was an endurance, strength, and power day that also happened to be a run/row day. But it still felt like strength only because during the run/row we were doing all inclines. All the rows were 250 meters and I managed to get faster each time I did the row (which is not normal for me). My best row was 250 meters in 57.4 seconds, which isn’t that bad at all! I’m pretty happy I got that row done in under a minute at the end of the cardio block! For the treadmill, we had progressively increasing inclines but decreasing distances. I did .4 miles at 6% incline and 3.5 mph, .2 miles at 8% incline and 3.6 mph, and .1 miles at 10% incline and 3.7 mph. The fact that I’m doing 10% inclines is good because for a long time the highest I could go was 8%. I’m really trying to focus on that improvement versus the improvement I would still need to make to be back to where I was almost a year ago.

On the floor on Wednesday, it was a lot of arm work. I was doing my chest flys at 20 pounds (chest flys are harder than chest presses which I can do at 25 pounds). For my squats I was holding a 25 pound weight and was able to use that same weight for my triceps work too. We also had some planks and pop jacks, and both of those I was able to do on my toes (versus my knees).

Friday was another all strength day. There were 6 blocks total (3 on cardio and 3 on floor) but we did do a switch in the middle. We did 2 short cardio blocks first, then switched to do 2 short floor blocks. Then we went back to do the long cardio block (11 minutes long) and the finished with the long floor block. I was so happy for the switch because it did give my hips and legs some time to rest before the long block. For one of the short cardio blocks, we worked our way down the hill. I started at 10% incline and every 30 seconds we went down 1%. I did that entire thing at 3.5 mph and it didn’t feel too fast for me at any of the inclines. On the long 11 minute block, we worked our way up the hill and my inclines ranged from 6-10% incline. For the last all-out I really wanted to see if I could go higher than 10%, but I was too tired to try it in the end and I’m sure it’s for the best since I don’t want to try a high incline when I’m tired (and my walking form is sloppy).

For the floor on Friday we did all abs for one of the short blocks and while I could do most of the ab work, there was one thing that was about moving our legs that my hips just weren’t going to do. So I did some basic crunches during that time. For the other blocks, they seemed to focus on arms again. We did a couple of rows on the straps and then did chest presses and bicep curls (I did both at 20 pounds instead of 25 because I was dealing with some weird pain on my chest from sleeping weirdly).

Even though this was a 3 workout week, I think I pushed myself pretty hard during all 3 workouts. I pushed myself for some heavier weights when possible, pushed myself for faster rows, and pushed myself for higher inclines. I know that soon I’ll be at whatever the next level is for me in my workouts, but with all the hard work I’ve been putting in it’s tough not to be a little impatient and want to see that improvement now.

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Default ThumbnailWorking On Pushing Things (or Hoping I Am Stronger) Default ThumbnailTaking Things A Bit Easier (or No More Injuries) Default ThumbnailHoliday Workouts (or Hills, Hills, and More Hills) Default ThumbnailKeep Pushing (or Why Was I So Scared Before?) Default ThumbnailPeak Performance Week (or Pushing Myself To The Max) Default ThumbnailTime To Push Myself Again (or Running Some Hills)

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A Shorter Workout Week (or Trying To Go All Out)

Posted on May 16, 2016 | Comments Off on A Shorter Workout Week (or Trying To Go All Out)

This week I did 3 workouts. Since I’ve had a couple of 4 workout weeks back to back (and the Dri-Tri), I was happy to go a bit easier this week. My body was definitely feeling the 4 workout weeks, but even though I was in a bit more pain than usual this past week I didn’t take it too easy.

Monday’s workout was a power day that didn’t switch sides between blocks. I would have really liked to have switched between blocks because doing the 30 minutes straight on the treadmill isn’t the easiest thing for me, but I did the best that I could. We had short push to all out segments (that’s basically what cardio is like on power days). I really wanted to do well on the push to all out segments because these shorter ones are the times that I can try to bump up the speed, but my body wasn’t having it. In fact, I had to do some of the segments slower than normal (basically not increasing the speed for the all outs like I normally do).

While the cardio segment was a bit weaker than normal, I did some great work on the floor. For my pullovers, I was able to use 25 pounds and actually felt like I might have been able to do it with the 30 pound weight. But since the 30 pound weights aren’t kept over by the weight benches, I didn’t think to grab it to try it. But if I’m feeling this strong this week, I’m going to see about grabbing some of the bigger weights. My chest work was done with 20 pounds and my row work was done with 20 pounds until my arms got too tired and I downgraded to 15 pounds. And we did have some sprint rows of 200 meters, but that wasn’t a big deal to me since we had done 2000 meters at the Dri-Tri.

Wednesday was a fun day. It was an endurance run/row day. I didn’t get that far down the chart for the run/row, so I pretty much was doing .25 miles on the treadmill (at 6%) followed by 500 meter rows and then .2 miles on the treadmill followed by 400 meter rows. I think I did the first treadmill distance twice and the first row distance once (and the opposite for the second round). The rows were a bit longer than I usually like, but again I was trying to compare the distance to what I was doing at the Dri-Tri so I wasn’t feeling too bad. On the floor, we had some really long blocks. One of the toughest things we had to do was during one block between every move we had to do walk out push ups. You start standing up, then you walk your hands out until you are in a plank, then do a pushup, and finally walk your hands back to get back to the start. Those are not easy and my shoulders get really tired, but I didn’t give up and even did my push ups on my toes instead of my knees. We ended our floor block doing 3 minutes of abs using a medicine ball (I was using a 10 pound one).

After class on Wednesday, I took a quick photo with my friends Dani (who took class with me) and Polly (who was taking the next class).

Triple Buddy Challenge

The three of us are doing the triple buddy challenge that Orangetheory is doing right now (it actually ends on Wednesday this week). We aren’t going to win the challenge, but I still wanted to get a team picture. My two partners have pushed me to do more workouts than I was planning on doing and I worked extra hard because of them. Even though we aren’t going to win, I’m so proud of all of us and I hope there is another challenge coming up that we can be a team for again!

Friday’s workout was a Friday the 13th theme. It started out with a trick. Normally if you are warming up on the treadmill, you start with cardio. But after the warm up, all the treadmills were brought over to the floor and the rowers got on the treadmills. There were 8 blocks total (4 on the floor and 4 on cardio), but we switched after doing 2 blocks on each thing (so we did 2 on floor, 2 on cardio, 2 on floor, and finished with 2 on cardio). I really don’t like starting on the floor, but I tried my best and was just happy that we were switching so I wasn’t going to end my workout with 30 minutes straight on the treadmill.

On the floor, we did a lot of plank work (I’m starting to get back to being on my toes and not having my calf hurt too much), arms, and using the TRX straps to do rows. But we had an entire block dedicated to work on the Bosu. We did Bosu burpees and Bosu pushups (one hand on the floor and the other on the Bosu) back and forth for about 5 minutes. That block was crazy and I was so tired after we completed it! On the treadmill, 2 of the blocks were a run/row that included 13 in it. So we had 1:30 minute row, 1:30 all out on the treadmill at 13%, and 130 meter rows. The run/row was pretty short so my hips weren’t hurting too much. The rest of the treadmill was a lot of push to all outs with a bit of walking recovery. Despite the fact that I started on the floor, since the treadmill time was pretty limited my hips didn’t start to hurt until the last 5 minutes on the treadmill. I’m pretty grateful for that because I know that it can be a lot worse than that and my power walking can suffer when I hurt.

I could have added a 4th workout this past week, but I’m glad that I’m taking the time to recover and get ready for the week. I’m not sure if this week I’ll do 4 workouts or not, but I’ve got a really busy week and I know that the stronger I am the better I can get through my week!

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Default ThumbnailAn Easier Workout Week (or Ignoring My Head And Listening To My Body) Default ThumbnailA Short Workout Week (or I Would Have Ended On A High Note) Default ThumbnailRowing And Partners (or Enjoying A 4 Workout Week) Default ThumbnailJust A Normal Workout Week (or Being Ok With Being Ok) Default ThumbnailAnother Short Workout Week (or Still Can’t Believe My Milestone) Default ThumbnailA Shorter Workout Week (or Doing Some 5K Prep)

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My First Dri-Tri (or Beating My Expectations)

Posted on May 10, 2016 | 6 comments

As I mentioned yesterday, I did the Dri-Tri at Orangetheory this past Saturday. I have wanted to do the Dri-Tri a couple of times before, but they have always been on days that I couldn’t do it for one reason or another. I don’t do a ton of fitness events (mainly just my 5Ks), so to have something to train for and challenge myself with sounded awesome to me.

All the coaches at Orangetheory have been upfront about what exactly the Dri-Tri is. It’s a 2,000 meter row, 300 body weight exercises, and a 5K. For power walkers, you only have to do a half 5K but everything else is the same. And I’ve done all of those elements before. Technically I don’t know if I’ve ever done 300 body weight exercises in a row, but I figured that since it should take me a similar amount of time to finish as it takes to do a class it wouldn’t be that much worse than a class. I’ve done a 2,000 meter row and I’ve done a 5K (and I only had to do half of one), so I wasn’t too worried. But of course, the nerves just got worse every day leading up to the Dri-Tri.

The day of the event, I had to work in the morning (my heat wasn’t until 1:45pm) and I had found the perfect shirt to wear earlier that week.

Strong

There’s actually a workout shirt sold by Old Navy that has my word of the year on it! So of course I had to get it and I figured the Dri-Tri was the perfect opportunity to wear it!

When I got to Orangetheory that afternoon, they had our names on the treadmills and floor stations so there was no confusion on where we needed to go (and I was glad that I got one of my favorite treadmills). There were 12 of us in the heat (they have to keep it small so we all have our own stations) and we started with a group stretch and instructions on how the event would go. We had all the floor work demoed for us and there was only 1 thing that I couldn’t do because of my hip. I got my alternative given to me before we started so I felt pretty ready to go when we were going to start as a group.

Our first event was the 2,000 meter row. I’ve done that distance a couple of times in the past and I know that I can do it in under 10 minutes. But 10 minutes on the row is a long time and I knew it was going to be tough to get through it. I didn’t pay attention to the clock or the distance countdown and just looked at the treadmill in front of me and tried to get into a different head space. People were done with their rows starting at about 6 minutes in and I just kept trying to focus on not stopping. I’m happy to say that I only had to stop one time (the straps for my feet were getting loose so I had to stop and tighten them). And even though I was the last person off of the rower by about a minute and it took me over 10 minutes to get it done, I did it and was happy to say good riddance to the rower for the day.

I knew the floor work wasn’t going to be easy, but I really wasn’t prepared for how tough it was going to be for me. The floor work consisted of pushups (I did mine on my knees), burpees, step ups (I did lunges instead), hop overs, plank jacks, and squats. Each thing was a lot of reps (I think the smallest number was 20) and after we did the cycle one time we had to go back to the beginning and do it again to make it 300 body weight exercises. The pushups were fine and the squats were tough but not unbearable. But the burpees were pretty bad. My hips were starting to lock up and I was feeling a bit dizzy from going from standing to on the ground a lot. But I took breaks when I needed them and once I made it through the first round I knew I was half way through the floor.

The second round on the floor felt like it took so much longer than the first, but I also knew where I was going to hurt and I took a few more water breaks (and catching my breath breaks) than I did the first time. By the time I had finished it and moved on to the treadmill, I was one of the last people on the floor and I felt like I had already done more than a normal class. But I knew I still had 1.55 miles to go on the treadmill and the sooner I started it the sooner I would finish!

The treadmill sucked. There’s no other way to say it. It was pretty awful. My hips were in so much pain and I knew that there was a good chance this would happen. After doing floor work, my hips don’t always seem to be right so walking can hurt. But since I had to do things in the order of the Dri-Tri, I had to do the treadmill last. I originally thought I’d try to start the treadmill at 3.5 miles an hour, but after less than a minute I realized that was not a good plan. I pretty much did the entire 1.55 miles at 3.4 miles an hour and 6% incline. I had to take breaks every .1 miles or so to press on my hips (that helps to relive the pain), drink some water, and catch my breath.

After being on the treadmill for a few minutes, the first Dri-Tri finisher finished their 5K. People started to finish pretty close together and I was maybe only halfway through my 1.55 miles. By the time I was getting close to the end of my treadmill time, there were only 3 of us left (I was the only power walker in the entire group). I finished by 1.55 miles in a little more than 27 minutes and as soon as I was done I was ready to sit on the treadmill to rest. I knew I couldn’t do that so I stood up and worked on catching my breath and drinking more water. Eventually I sat down on a rower I watched everyone else finish.

My time for the event ended up being 52:40, which is much better than the hour I was expecting it to take me. I really had no clue how long I had been working when I was done (there was a clock on the heart rate screen but I forgot to look when I finished). I knew that it was under an hour, but I had no idea I could have done it in under 53 minutes. That’s pretty amazing and I think it’s a good time for my first every Dri-Tri.

Finisher

We all waited for the last people to finish their 5Ks on the treadmill and it was really great to cheer everyone on. At every stage we were being cheered on and when we were on the treadmills everyone was cheering for each person (it’s not easy to cheer on the rowers or floor). And as the last person was finishing their run, we were all clapping and cheering for them and they had such a huge smile on their face as they finished. It was such a wonderfully supportive room and I feel so lucky that I got to be a part of that experience.

Dri-Tri

They try to do the Dri-Tris at Orangetheory 2 or 3 times a year, so hopefully this is just the first of many for me. As long as I don’t have a conflict that I can’t get out of, I know I’ll be at the next one. It’s a struggle and challenge to do, but I like having things to work toward and now I just want to beat my time of 52:40 so I can say I have a PR!

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Default ThumbnailMore Progress And Steps Back (or Trying My Hardest) Default ThumbnailA Shorter Workout Week (or Trying To Go All Out) Default ThumbnailA Full Workout Week (or Sticking With My Plan) Default ThumbnailMore Running! (or Gaining Endurance) Default ThumbnailDri-Tri Time (or Beating My Own Records) Default ThumbnailTruly My Peak Performance (or Exceeding My Expectations)

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Baby Steps Of Improvements (or Getting Ready For The Dri-Tri)

Posted on May 9, 2016 | 1 comment

First, I will share that I did do the dri-tri at Orangetheory this past weekend. That is going to be tomorrow’s post (I think that event deserves its own post), but my workout week this past week was all about getting ready to do it. I decided on Monday morning that I was going to go for it, so I focused my workouts on how each thing was going to get me ready for it.

Monday’s workout was a switch day that had endurance, strength, and power. I signed up for the dri-tri just before taking Monday’s class, so I went into class feeling a bit nervous about if I did the right thing signing up for it. So I was not only grateful that we had a switch day, all of the blocks were on the shorter side. The treadmill portion of class went ok for me. The improvements in my speed that I had made recently were short lasting so I was back to my usual speeds on the treadmill. It’s frustrating when I was doing really well for a while to be back at my old speeds, but I just have to focus on what improvements I can make. On Monday we also had 600 meter rows, which aren’t sprints but I was grateful for them because I knew I’d have a long row during the dri-tri. The floor work was a lot of arms, shoulders, squats, and abs.

But at the very end of class, we had a little bit of time left so we all partnered up for a quick challenge. One person was holding a squat with their hands out while the other partner did high knees to hit their hands. I was able to keep a pretty low squat so my partner didn’t have to do too high of knees, but when it was my turn I knew I couldn’t do the running style of high knees. So I just pretty much marched in place and tried to get my knees up as much as possible.

Wednesday was a strength day, so that means hills on the treadmill. Hills are not my favorite thing to do, but I’m really trying to be better at them. This time, I’m pretty happy with how I did. My incline was between 4-10% for the entire time (10% isn’t that easy for me), and even though I was supposed to be at a higher incline at times I think I did a pretty good job. I was also able to do some speed increases on the hills which made me happy. After the treadmill work was done, we had a lot of heavy weight stuff to do on the floor. For my arm work and my lunges, I was holding 20 pound weights. For some arm things, I’m getting close to being able to use 25 pound weights, but I’m not quite there yet. But to do lunges with heavy weights makes me happy because for a long time I wasn’t able to use the weights while doing lunges. It’s still tough for me because of balance issues, but I’m starting to build my core up enough so that it is helping me build better balance. We also had a 500 meter row that day. 500 meters isn’t a long distance, but I was still feeling a bit tired at the end of it. And in my head, I just kept thinking that 500 meters is only 1/4 of what I have to do during the dri-tri, so that got to me a bit. But I just tried to focus on getting the row done and figured that since the row is at the beginning of the dri-tri I would feel different then.

Friday was another switch day with endurance, strength, and power. Again, the blocks were relatively short (I think the longest one was 8 minutes) so things were a bit easier for me. I actually ended up doing really great on the hills (still not going higher than 10% incline but the speeds were better). Since it was a switch day, I never spent that long on the treadmill and I started to worry about the dri-tri again (where I would need to do a half 5K on the treadmill), but I just looked at how far I got each block and tried to think about how that is a chunk of what I would do the next day. After the treadmill blocks were all done, I realized that maybe I should have done the bike instead since I was going to do treadmill the next day, but by then it was too late.

On the floor we had sprint rows (250 meters and under) that went pretty well for me. My biggest problem on rowing is that when I’m doing them my legs don’t always bend straight (they kind of butterfly out sometimes). And since I’m not bending straight, I’m not able to get as much power in my rows and I know I can. But for these sprint rows, I was bending much better than I think I ever have and the sprints went by really quickly. For the chest presses I was using 20 pounds weights and for my front raises (shoulder work) I was doing 15 pounds instead of 12 pounds. And we had a new move on the floor as well. It was a 4 point plank. Pretty much it was a plank with shoulder touches and then toe touches. I usually don’t do plank work on my toes because of my calf, but this time it ended up being easier to do the work on my toes than on my knees. They are pretty hard to do, but I managed my best and I don’t think I looked too awkward.

After my Friday workout, my nerves for the dri-tri were pretty high. I was thinking back what I had done this past week and tried to relate it to what I knew I would have to do on Saturday. But of course thinking like that stressed me out even more, so I tried to forget it all and just get a decent night sleep since I had to work in the morning before the dri-tri.

And that recap will be coming tomorrow!

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Busy Workout Week (or Maybe Overdoing It A Bit)

Posted on May 2, 2016 | Comments Off on Busy Workout Week (or Maybe Overdoing It A Bit)

I had a 4 workout week this past week. I totally needed a 4 workout week (it was actually the only 4 workout week I had for April), but I think that some of my activities on my off days (or before my workouts) made it seem a bit tougher than it usually feels. Of course, I also might have felt it more because it had been way too long since my last 4 workout week and I’ve learned that I need to make sure that I’m doing them more often so I don’t get out of the habit of it.

I think my Monday workout went pretty well. It was a day that had endurance, strength, and power and those can be really fun. It was a switch day, so I was never on the treadmill for that long at a single stretch. The endurance block was full of longer push paces, but those weren’t too bad for me. The one treadmill thing that got to me was the strength section. Strength on the treadmill means hills and sometimes the power walkers are expected to go much higher on the incline than I’m ok with right now (I’m wondering if my calf will ever feel back to normal again). I tried my best, but I’m really not ok going above 8% (or on really good days 10%) on the treadmill. So I had to keep my inclines lower than I would have liked, but I tried to bump up the speed when I could.

The floor work wasn’t too bad, but my body wasn’t loving the pop jacks or knee tucks. Knee tucks are much easier for me, but they can be a struggle when I’m tired or my hip is feeling ready to be done. But what I liked the best about this workout was that the end was the endurance block that was a partner challenge. So I felt extra motivated then because I had a partner counting on me and the treadmill part of the partner workout was a 1 minute push to all-out on the treadmill so it was pretty fast.

Wednesday was a tough day for me at first. I had gone to Disneyland after the workout on Monday, and I might have overdone it a bit with the walking after a workout. Tuesday I was really sore and Wednesday I was still feeling a bit off. I tried to do some stretching work to make my legs and hip feel better, but when I’m having an off day sometimes there is nothing I can do to make it better. So when I got to the workout, I was happy to see that it was a run/row day. All the treadmill blocks were pretty short (I think the longest I was on the treadmill at a time was under 4 minutes), and the rowing wasn’t too bad. The rows were between 100-200 meters each time, so that was basically under a minute of rowing. I tried to take a moment between the treadmill and the rower to catch my breath and make sure I wasn’t pushing my hip too much. I think I did ok with that because when I got to the floor block, it went really well for me!

I was doing my squats with 20 pound weights in each hand and managed to do all my arm work with the same weights! I’m getting close to being able to move to 25 pound weights for my chest presses (somehow that is where my upper body is strongest), but I’m still doing great with 20 pounds and the last few moves of each set can be a struggle. But knowing that I’m getting close to moving up to the next weight makes me feel pretty awesome. We also had lunge work to do that day, but I wasn’t able to do my lunges how we were supposed to (with our back leg on the weight bench). So I did my regular lunges instead and didn’t feel too bad about it because I was feeling so great about the weight work I had already done.

Friday was an interesting day. Before the workout, I had put a challenge out online that for every donor we get on the film Kickstarter, I would do a burpee before the class. I really was hoping we’d get a bunch of donors, but we only got 2. But then again, that meant I only had to do 2 burpees. I’m not the prettiest doing burpees because of the hip issues, but since I was filming this to share online I tried to look awesome doing them. Sadly, trying to look awesome also made both of my hips hurt so badly (even with only doing 2 burpees), so I was already feeling a bit sore before the workout even started.

Friday was a solid 30 minutes on the treadmill to start. We had a couple of 2 minute pushes, and those felt like 3 minutes or more to me. But I managed to get through it. When we had to do hills, I had to keep them pretty low (I basically stayed at 6%), but I did bump up my speed to balance it out. On the floor, I got to use the 20 pound weights again for my chest and arm work and we had some shorter rows. By the end of the workout, my hips were feeling a bit better than they did right after those 2 burpees (I’m so grateful the workout didn’t have any burpees in it!). But even though I was feeling a bit better, I knew that Saturday was going to have to be a bit of an easier day for me.

Saturday I was using the bike instead of the treadmill. The cardio blocks were back to back so I was on the bike for 30 minutes straight. It technically wasn’t a distance challenge day, but we were given a distance to try to get to in class. The runners on the treadmill were supposed to do a 5K (3.1 miles) or better in the 30 minutes, so I figured on the bike I should try to go 12 miles since for run/row days the bike has to do 4 times the distance of the treadmills. We had a lot of long pushes between the treadmill blocks. It seemed like a majority of them were between 2 or 3 minutes and I was feeling pretty tired by the end of the blocks. But once we were told to switch to the floor, my distance on the bike was 12.1 miles, so I was pretty happy about that.

The floor work was a lot of should work and we had some longer rows too. One block was an 800 meter row and the other was a 400 meter row. I managed to do both without having to take a break, but it wasn’t easy. And I was under the time that we were supposed to be under for the rower, so that was pretty awesome. At the end of each floor block, we had a 1 minute plank challenge. I still have to do planks on my knees (on my toes hurts my calf), but being on my knees also allows me to focus much better on my form. I could feel the planks in my core a lot, but I was able to keep going for the entire minute both times.

This week, I know I’ll be doing 3 regular workouts. There is also a dri-tri on Saturday that I’m debating about doing. I know I’ve felt left out in the past when I didn’t do the dri-tri, and I think that maybe I should just push myself to do it. But I also somehow don’t feel ready for it yet. I’m hoping that by tomorrow I will have a decision made on whether or not I will go for it. This dri-tri is the preliminary for the regional dri-tri, but since I know that I will not be a contender for representing my studio if I do it my focus will only be to finish and not to beat anyone else. I know that if I do it, the chances of me being the last person to finish is really high, but if I go for it I think finishing is the only goal that I’ll have in my head.

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Proof Of My Progress (or I Am Doing Better)

Posted on April 25, 2016 | Comments Off on Proof Of My Progress (or I Am Doing Better)

I had a really amazing week of workouts this past week. I wasn’t expecting it to be awesome, but it really was one of those weeks that I wish would happen every single week. I lucked out in the workouts that I went to and I think that also helped to make my week the best one that I can remember in recent past.

Part of the reason why this week was so great was that I had 2 days where it was similar to the run/row format (which I love and makes me so happy). Monday technically wasn’t a run/row. It was a run/floor day. So basically we had an assigned distance on the treadmill (I was doing a quarter-mile at 6% incline) and then I headed over to the floor to do my floor work. The floor stuff was mainly ab work, so it felt nice to get a bit of a rest on the floor after being on the treadmill. We repeated that format for the first half of class before we headed to the rowers.

The rower segment was longish rows (800 meters) followed by arm work and sprint rows. The longer rows were a bit tough for me and I was really tired when I was doing the sprint rows. I tried to focus on technique and form so I know my rows were a lot slower than they should have been. But since that was the second half of the workout, I expected that I’d be pretty tired and it wouldn’t be as easy as if I had done the rowing first.

Wednesday was a pretty traditional run/row day. The one thing that was special and that I loved was that the run/row plan was printed out and taped to each treadmill.

Run:Row Guide

Normally the plan is on a whiteboard on the side of the room and I end up wasting time trying to read it (or walking over to read it if it’s too blurry or there is a glare). So having the plan on my treadmill helped me save time and kept me on track.

The basic format for the run/row for power walkers was that we started with a .08 mile power walk and then did a 100 meter row. Each round, we increased the treadmill by .05 miles and the row by 100 meters. I was trying to keep my walks at 6% incline and 3.5 miles an hour for each one. I wasn’t feeling my usual pain that day and I’m not sure if it was because it was a run/row day (so less time on the treadmill than normal) or it was because I started taking a new supplement for my hips. But it was nice to not hurt and to have a good cardio day. The floor work was a lot of TRX strap work and that seemed to go pretty well for me as well.

Even though each day was awesome, the most amazing day for me was Friday. I knew before going to the workout that it would be a 22 1/2 minute run for distance thanks to friends who had posted workout pictures on Instagram or Facebook after they did the workout in the morning. We had done the same challenge last month, so I had a goal in my head to just do a little bit better than I did then.

Since my treadmill work on Wednesday had gone so well, I decided to see if I could bump things up a bit on Friday. I followed the coach’s instructions for when we should be doing a push pace and when we should be at base pace (we had the option of doing whatever we wanted to get the best distance, but I wanted to follow the plan), but I went faster for both my push and base paces than usual. My base pace was at 3.5 miles an hour and my push pace was 3.6 miles an hour. We had a couple of really long push paces (3 minutes, 2 1/2 minutes, and 2 minutes) and those were really difficult with the increased speed.

But somehow I was getting through it and halfway through the challenge I realized that I will definitely be passing the distance I did the last month. I wanted to see if I could do 1.35 miles and by the last minute I knew it would be close. So for the final 30 seconds of the challenge, I actually ran on the treadmill which I’ve never done before! I was still holding on to the handles, but I was still running! I easily did better than I did last time (which was 1.303 miles), but I was just off a bit from my new goal.

22.5 Minute Run

This challenge was exactly what I needed. I had been feeling a bit down since my last 5K. I really thought I had been making progress lately. And even though I said I didn’t think I would PR at my 5K, in my head I was thinking there would be no way I wouldn’t PR. So when my 5K was one of my slower races, I was really feeling upset. I couldn’t believe that I was so wrong in making progress in my speed and I was questioning if I was just taking it too easy at Orangetheory. So having this challenge and showing that in 1 month I had gone .046 farther than last time gave me such a confidence boost and gave me faith again in myself.

The rest of my Friday workout was a bit of a blur for me since I was on such a high from my awesome progress on the 22 1/2 minute challenge. We did a bunch of squats and had some sprint rows. But to me, all I could think about is how all my self-doubt was for nothing because there is no doubt that I’m making progress.

I’m now also debating about trying running again. I did a tiny distance of running at my last 5K (just the bit leading up to the finish line) and now I did the 30 seconds of running on the treadmill. I had done a bit of running before I had my hip surgery, but I have been too scared to try it again. The hip surgeon I met last week gave me so much good feedback about how my hips are looking pretty good and workout restrictions weren’t even discussed. I’m not going to try to do most of the things that were on the restrictions list (I know it’s way too risky to try ice skating or skiing right now), but I might test out running.

I’ve downloaded the Couch to 5K app for my phone and I’m hoping to find a friend who will want to do it with me. I’m not sure when I’ll try my first running day, but I think it will be in the near future. Until then, I might try running again on the treadmill at Orangetheory (maybe just during the all-out moments) just to see how I feel. I don’t want this boost in confidence to go away any time soon. It’s just so amazing!

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