Posted onFebruary 5, 2024|Comments Off on I Got My Good Workout Week (or Beating My Expectations)
When I wrote my last workout recap post, I said I hoped that this past week would be a good week for me. I can always hope for a good week but that doesn’t necessarily mean it will happen. But I had a few different things potentially working in my favor so I was really optimistic.
I recently did some new medical testing and discovered I have an iron issue, so this past week I was finally going to start doing something about that. I know that probably won’t affect my workouts too much, but I wasn’t sure how adding iron pills might make me feel. I’m always worried about side effects from medications, even just vitamins, but I was hoping that since I don’t take my medications until after my workout I wouldn’t have many side effects in the morning.
Monday through Wednesday, I had pretty good workouts. I had some of my usual issues like being lightheaded (which probably isn’t due to my iron issue but my low blood sugar), but that wasn’t affecting my workout too much. I also had a little bit of weakness after having a bad week, but that just pushed me to work a little harder in the weight room. I might not have been using heavier weights, but I was doing my best to make every rep count. And I really felt that in my muscles after each workout.
But I really want to talk about my workout on Thursday. We had a benchmark that morning, the 500-meter row. I’m very competitive with myself for all the benchmarks. And we were warned that the 500-meter row is always a bit of an odd one since it’s not a sprint and it’s not a long row that you have time to make up speed if you slow down. I know in the past, I have burned out very quickly on this benchmark because I go too hard at first and then can’t make up for it when I’m exhausted. I didn’t want that to happen, so I put my focus on just being steady and not stressing about beating my past time. I never have gotten this benchmark below 2 minutes, and as much as I wanted to do that I knew that it wouldn’t be the right thing to focus on.
When it was time to do the benchmark, I made my focus on the 500-meter split time on the monitor. I know that I usually get slower as the row goes on, so I wanted the split time to be below 2 minutes for at least the first half of the row so that when I slowed down, I would still be close to 2 minutes by the end. I took a deep breath before I started and got a couple of really hard pulls in first to start the row.
I was shocked at how low my split time was at the start of the row. I was close to 1:45, which I knew was not going to be sustainable. But it was a great way to start the row knowing that I would slow down. But I was able to maintain that pace for a lot longer than I thought. My split time wasn’t getting above 2 minutes once I was halfway through the row. But I was starting to get really tired. I struggled to catch my breath, but I also didn’t want to stop because I knew I had less than a minute to go.
I did end up burning myself out for the last 40 or so meters. My split time jumped a lot higher and I was really struggling to row. But I kept moving, even though I was going really slow. And once I was done, all the hard work I did for most of the row paid off because I PRed by a huge margin!
I was not only below 2 minutes but I beat my last PR by 7 seconds! I would have been thrilled to get a PR by a fraction of a second, but 7 seconds is unbelievable to me! If I hadn’t burned out, I probably would have been closer to 1:50, but I’m not upset at all. If I hadn’t gotten below 2 minutes, I might have been upset by the end of my row. And I’m glad that didn’t happen so I could have this awesome win to end my week!
I seriously needed this PR. I didn’t realize how much I needed it until it happened. But it was the reassurance I needed after my bad week that I wasn’t weak or having major setbacks. One week might not be as strong or as good as the other, but I’m still making improvements over time. And this row proved it to me so much!
Posted onJuly 31, 2023|Comments Off on Not What I Planned For (or Another Unexpected Workout Week)
This past week of workouts was not what I planned for or expected. It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it did make things different than what I thought I was in for this past week. I was expecting to be dealing with a lot of pain and nausea, and I was so grateful that I didn’t have that. I did have a little bit to deal with, but it was so minor compared to what I was prepared for. But that also meant the moments that I did have to deal with it, I was thrown off a bit because I was getting comfortable with being ok.
I also had an unexpected start to my workout week because I didn’t have a Monday workout. I’m pretty good about going to work out Monday through Thursday. And I woke up on Monday and was ready to go. But due to something at the studio, they had to cancel the class I go to. I know that it wasn’t anyone’s fault and they weren’t happy about having to message us. And I thought about trying to go to a different class time, but there wasn’t another class that would work for me. It’s ok because it’s not the end of the world if I don’t get 4 workouts in for the week. So I used my morning to get some other work stuff done instead of working out.
But I was back to my normal schedule on Tuesday. I know I’ve said this before, but I’m so used to my routine and my workouts are something I have craved when I missed them, so I was glad that only my Monday workout was affected by what happened at the studio.
For cardio, we had one long block. We had rounds of a 30-second push pace with increasing base paces. We started with a 30-second base pace and it went up to a 3-minute base pace before we ended the block with a 30-second all-out. Because the push paces were short and the base paces were long, we were encouraged to push ourselves a bit more in our push paces. And as long as we could get back to our base pace without having to walk, we were doing the right thing. I did try to pedal faster since I wasn’t going to use a higher resistance level than my normal one and I think that helped to make the cardio block a good challenge.
On the rower, we had 2 blocks that were similar. Both blocks started with a 250-meter row and we decreased the rows by 50 meters each round. In the first block, we had lunges between each row. And in the second block, we had frogger squats between each row. Both blocks were equally challenging since it’s hard to get off of the rower quickly and both exercises weren’t the easiest on my hips. But I’m glad the rows were short.
And on the floor, we had one long block. We had 5 exercises and we started with 4 reps for each exercise. Each time, we increased the reps by 2. We had low rows on the straps, neutral grip thrusters, bicep curls, lateral lunges, and hollow hold single-arm chest presses. I did try to go heavy with the weights for the weighted exercises, but as the reps increased I did have to use some lighter ones.
Wednesday’s workout was a signature workout. This was Inferno, which I’ve done a few times in the past. It’s a rowing-focused challenge, so the other sections of the room were a little easier so we could put as much effort as possible into our rowing.
For cardio, we had 2 blocks. The first block had 1-minute push paces and increasing base paces. The base paces started at 30 seconds and went up to 1 minute with a 45-second all-out at the end. The second block was similar but the push paces were 30 seconds long and the base paces went up to 75 seconds and a 1-minute all-out at the end. I didn’t push myself too hard because I was getting ready to row, but I also tried to not go too easy on myself either.
The Inferno challenge is all about increasing rows with an exercise between each row. We started with a 100-meter row and 20 lateral hops. I do side-to-side steps instead of lateral hops, but they are essentially the same thing. The row increases by 100 meters each time and the challenge is to get as many meters as you can in 14 minutes. It starts off not too bad, but as the rows get longer and you get tired, it’s harder. I know that from past attempts and I was trying to pace myself a bit more in the beginning with the hopes that I wouldn’t get too tired by the end. I didn’t check my past attempts before this workout because I didn’t want to stress myself to try to get a PR. And I didn’t know if I got a PR or close to my past attempts until after class, so I was very happy to see that I did PR!
It was 16 meters further than my previous PR, but that’s still a good improvement for me! And I felt a lot better about this attempt than I did for past ones, so I consider that a bigger victory than my PR.
On the floor, we had 2 blocks. Both blocks were more focused on upper body work since rowing is a lot of lower body work. The first block had alligators on the straps, chest flys, and shoulder presses. And the second block had high rows to bicep curls on the straps, reverse flys, and plank pull-throughs. I did end up modifying the high rows to bicep curls to be separate exercises because I was struggling to switch my arm positions that frequently. But that isn’t that bad of a modification for me. And I was trying to push myself on the floor more than it was designed since I was already done with my rowing, but I was also tired from the rowing so I couldn’t do as much as I would have liked.
On Thursday, I was having the most trouble with pain and nausea, but it was still minor compared to what I was thinking I would have during this past week. But it did make me a bit anxious because I was worried it would kick in during the workout and be pretty bad. But I was glad that it didn’t happen that way and I was able to focus more on my workout than any pain that might have happened.
For cardio, we had a newer type of challenge. We had 3 blocks that were the same, but I’m glad they were the same so I would work on this challenge. We started each block with a base pace. Then we increased the incline. After that, we increased the speed without bringing the incline down. We alternated increasing incline and speed without going back to where we started in the block. So in the end, we had a higher incline and speed than normal and that counted as our all-out. I did work on increasing my pedaling for the speed work since I didn’t want to just use increases in the resistance levels. I struggled a bit in the first block to figure out a good plan, but I was able to do a lot better in the second and third blocks.
On the rower, we also had 3 blocks. For the first block, we started off the rower with medicine ball exercises. We had squats with front presses, tricep extensions, and low rows. After doing 2 rounds of the exercises, we got on the rower and rowed until the block was done. For the second block, we looked at how far we rowed in the first block and rowed that distance first. Once we got to that distance, we got off the rower and did 2 rounds of the medicine ball exercises again. And the challenge was to get back on to the rower to get further in rowing distance than you did in the first block. And for the last block, we got to choose if we wanted to start with the exercises or the rowing. I picked to start with the exercises so I could challenge myself more with getting the furthest distance on the rower and I was able to do that.
And on the floor, we had one longer block and one shorter block. For the longer block, we started with lunges and split squats with rotations. The split squats with rotations are really tough on my hips, but I just tried to do whatever I could. my split squats looked more like I was just standing, but it was better than doing nothing. Then we had single-arm clean to presses and sumo goblet squats. I didn’t go too heavy with the weights for those exercises but that ok with me. I did try to go slower with the sumo goblet squats than I normally do because I know that made it extra challenging. And the short block was a core blast with two exercises. We were supposed to do bicycle crunches and crab toe reaches. We didn’t have a set number of reps, it was just as many as possible before we had to switch to the other exercise. I can’t do crab toe reaches, so I did side-to-side crunch reaches since that has some of the same movements. The short block was about 4 minutes long, and my core was dead by the time the workout was done!
Overall, this past week felt so successful for me. I might not have gotten 4 workouts in, but I did so much better with each workout than I expected and I felt like I really challenged myself where I could and I saw a lot of great results from that. I only hope this week is just as great for me!
Posted onJanuary 9, 2023|Comments Off on An Unexpected Workout Week (or Starting Off The New Year With Workouts)
I knew this past week of workouts would be a bit different because of my schedule, but it ended up being even more unique than that. I still got in my workouts, but it was also a bit of an adventure.
On Sunday, I went to a late morning workout since I wasn’t sure how tired I’d be after New Year’s Eve. I probably could have done an earlier class, but I’m glad I didn’t have to rush around that morning.
For cardio, we had 2 blocks. In the first block, we started at a base and increased the speed/resistance level every 30 seconds, ending at an all-out. And then we had a 3-minute distance challenge. For the second block, we started with the distance challenge and then did the progressive one after
On the rower, we started with a 250-meter row. Then we rested as much as needed and did another 250-meter row, with the goal to beat the time from the first time. Then we had chest presses with a medicine ball. We repeated that pattern, but the row was decreased by 50 meters every time we did it.
And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had lunges, reverse flys, and leg raises. And the second block had squats, rows on the straps, and plank dips. It wasn’t as intense of a workout as a lot of the past ones, but I was glad to have something easy for once since I knew I’d be working hard in a lot of other workouts.
Monday’s workout was a tornado class, so we switched between sections about every 4 minutes. And this workout was definitely a new one for me.
I started on cardio where we had a 1-minute push pace, a 1-minute base pace, and then we had rounds of a short distance challenge with recoveries between each one. Then we switched to the rower. We had just started with a 2-minute row when I noticed that someone two rowers away was on the ground. I thought at first that they fell off the rower, which is something I’ve done before, but everyone in the class realized it was something more serious. They had fainted on the rower and we were lucky that there was an ER nurse in the class who was able to help them out. But because it seemed like they had hit their head, the paramedics were called.
Everyone else in the class went into the lobby to wait and see what would happen, and because the paramedics were called, the class was canceled. Almost everyone left because the workout ended, but I decided to put myself on the waitlist for the next class to try to take that one. And while I was waiting for the next class, the person who fainted came out to the lobby. They were ok, and I’m glad nothing more serious happened. I think they might have just been embarrassed at that point, but I know everyone who was in that class was just happy to know they were ok.
When the next class started, technically there wasn’t enough room for the 2 of us on the waitlist, but since we both came from the last class we agreed to share a station so we could at least do some of the workout. So I didn’t do more rowing because I used the bike for both cardio and rowing. But I was just grateful I got to finish my workout. And we shared the floor space which was ok since the exercises didn’t take up that much room. We had the same exercises every time we were on the floor which were lunges, plank pops, squats, bicep curls, and uppercuts. Since I had done some of the first workout as well, I figured it was like I had done 1.25 workouts that day.
Tuesday was a bit harder since I was back to my early workout and it was my 4th day in a row (although not my 4th workout for the week). But fortunately, I wasn’t feeling super nauseous, which I was worried about. I still had some nausea, but it was much more manageable.
We had 2 cardio blocks that had the same pattern. We had a 2-minute push pace, 1-minute base pace, 1-minute push pace at an incline, 1-minute base pace, and 90-second push pace at an incline. The inclines/resistance levels were higher for the first block than the second block, but they weren’t too high for either block.
On the rower, we also had 2 blocks with the same pattern. We started with a 2-minute push row before having a series of 1-minute intervals. In each interval, we had to do 10 reps of an exercise, and then whatever time was left over was spent rowing. In the first block, we had front and back steps and in the second block, we had butt kicks. Getting on and off the rower so frequently was tough for me and I usually only had about 10 seconds left to row each time, so I didn’t get a ton of rowing in outside of the first part of each block.
And on the floor, we had one long block. It was a bit complicated. We had 3 different anchor exercises and 3 normal exercises. We started with doing the first anchor before each of the normal exercises. The next round had the second anchor before each of the normal exercises. And so on. The anchor exercises were shoulder presses, reverse grip low rows, and chest presses. And the regular exercises were walkouts to plank shoulder taps, back extensions, and bicycle crunches. I only got through some of the exercises with the third anchor exercise, but it was still a lot of work.
Thursday’s workout was my last workout of the week, and it was a benchmark class. This time, we had the 200-meter benchmark. I knew I had made a lot of improvements with my rowing recently, but my PR was from before the pandemic when I know I was really strong. So I went into this workout just wanting to do really well on the benchmark but with no expectations.
I started with cardio and for the first two blocks, we had a 4-minute distance challenge. And in the third block, we had rounds of a push pace and base pace with an all-out at the end. But because the benchmark would be after cardio, we were told to go a little easier than normal.
On the rower, the first block was to get us warmed up. So we had rounds of a 200-meter row at a push pace with squats to calf raises after. But those 200-meter rows weren’t supposed to be too crazy because the second block was the benchmark. We had the full 4 minutes to do the benchmark, and it usually is between 30-60 seconds. So I took a few extra breaths before starting just to get calm and ready. I tried to use all the new techniques I’ve been picking up recently and also had to make sure I wouldn’t gas out halfway through. I didn’t look at the time on the screen, only at how many meters I had left. And when I was done, I was shocked.
I took about .4 seconds off of my last PR. I really didn’t think I would PR, but I guess this is proof of all my hard work! For the last block, we had the chance to redo the benchmark if we wanted to, but if we didn’t want to (and I didn’t), we had squats to calf raises and lunges before rowing until the end of the block.
And on the floor, we also had 3 blocks. In the first block, we had high to low rows on the straps and hip hinge swings. In the second block, we had pike to planks and superman planks. I did the pike to planks modified to be like blastoff push-ups. And in the last block, we had single-leg deadlifts, plank pull-throughs, and lateral lunges. I tried to go hard on the floor since I was already done with the benchmark, but I also was a bit tired from pushing myself so much.
For the first week of the year, I had a lot happening in my workouts. I don’t know if this is a sign of things to come, but I have also learned that I can never expect what will happen over the year in my workouts and I guess this really represented that well.
Posted onDecember 19, 2022|Comments Off on I’m So Glad I Pushed Hard This Past Week (or Having A Good Day In A Bad Week)
I knew this past week of workouts was going to be a struggle for me with pain and nausea. But as I had written last week, I just had a lot of different issues that made my week extra difficult. I was getting really frustrated with how I was feeling and what that meant for my workouts. But as always, I pushed through and I was able to end this past week on a really good note.
Monday’s workout was the last workout for the 12 Days Of Fitness, and it was the day that I earned my swag. I was feeling pretty bad that day, but I was hoping that I could do some good work because I knew there was a good chance this would be my best day of the week. But it was a tough day as each section of the room felt like one long block.
For cardio, everything was 90-second intervals. Every 90 seconds, we were supposed to increase either the speed or incline/resistance level. I really tried my best to pedal faster when we were supposed to increase our speed, but that’s something that is hard for me normally and extra hard for me when I was having a bad hip day. But I did my best with it.
On the rower, we did have challenge distance goals but I didn’t focus on those since I knew I’d be struggling on the rower. We also had 90-second intervals just like we did for cardio. But this time we started every 90 seconds off of the rower and did either overhead or front presses with a medicine ball for 15 reps. And then whatever time was left we had for rowing. I usually had about 30 seconds on the rower each time after I was done with the exercise and getting strapped back in, so I didn’t get a lot of rowing done toward the distance.
And on the floor, again everything was in 90-second intervals. We alternated between two groups of exercises. The first group was lateral lunges, single-arm high rows with weights, and then jumping jacks. And the second group was regular lunges, single-arm shoulder presses with weights, and butt kicks. It felt like there was no time to catch your breath and it was a really tough workout. But I wouldn’t expect anything different for the last day of a challenge.
Tuesday was a particularly rough day for me. When things are this bad, sometimes I just have to do my own thing a bit for the workout because that’s all I can manage. And that’s how some of Tuesday went.
For cardio, we focused on a lot of incline work, but I was just doing my regular base, push, and all-out resistance levels and trying to follow along with the intervals with everyone else. I know I wasn’t doing exactly what the workout was supposed to be, but it was better than doing nothing. And I knew that the combination of all the issues I was going through made things a lot harder than I’m used to overcoming.
On the rower, both blocks were focused on 150-meter rows. We rowed that distance and then had an exercise and went back and forth for the entire block. In the first block, we had squats as our exercise and I did do those between each row. In the second block, we were supposed to do front and back steps between each row, but I was more focused on just breathing through my nausea so I just did my rows without the exercise. I didn’t always do the full row without a break, so it was more like I did short bursts of rowing with rest when necessary for that entire block.
I feel like I did a bit better on the floor for this workout, but that’s probably only because the rest was so bad. In the first block, we had deadlifts, upright rows, good mornings, and single-arm shoulder presses. And in the second block, we had front raises, lateral lunges, and regular lunges. I felt so defeated after this workout because of what I couldn’t do, and I know that didn’t help how I was feeling overall and probably made my physical pain worse with mental stress. As much as I tried to remind myself that at least I tried, it’s hard to believe that at times.
Wednesday was still bad, but I felt like I had a bit less nausea that day and my hip pain was significantly better so that helped to make my mood better too. So I knew I could do a bit more and pushed myself to do just that.
For cardio, the first two blocks had the same pattern. We had a push pace, a 90-second base, an all-out, a 1-minute recovery, a push pace, and an all-out. In the first block, the pushes and all-outs were 45 seconds long. And in the second block, the pushes and all-outs were 30 seconds long. And for the last block, we had rounds of 30-second all-outs and 30-second recoveries. This went so much better than earlier in the week went. I think the short intervals and all the recovery time helped me so much.
On the rower, we started with a 3-minute row followed by squats. Then we had 2 rounds of a 90-second row with lunges between each row. The goal for each 90-second row was to do at least half of what we did in the 3-minute row. And the rowing work ended with 3 rounds of a 1-minute row with squats to calf raises between each row. I only made it to one of the 1-minute rows, but I’m glad that I did pretty well with each row and was able to beat the goal distance each time.
On the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block was a bit tough for me because it was supposed to be regular lunges and then jump lunges, but I can’t do jump lunges. So I just combined the number of reps and did regular lunges for both. And we were supposed to do bridge rows on the straps, but I had to do just regular low rows on the straps. In the second block, we had bicycle presses, push-ups, and hip bridges. I didn’t go quite as heavy as I would have liked for the hip bridges, but that’s something that I know I need to work back up to because I’ve lost a bit of my strength.
Thursday was a day I was nervous about. It was the 2000-meter row benchmark, which is one of the hardest benchmarks for me. Not only is it one of the hardest ones for me, but I was also dealing with the pain and nausea so I knew that would be an additional challenge. I knew I would just try and see what would happen.
Because we had a small class, we all started on the rower to do the benchmark first. I knew that I wouldn’t get a PR since my PR was from when I was a lot better at rowing. So I set other goals for myself. I wanted to see if I could get a faster time than my last benchmark, which was very slow. And I wanted to try to take as few breaks in the row as possible. In the past, I’ve tried to only take a break after every 500 meters, which was a good goal, and I decided to try to do it again this time.
We are always told to start the benchmark with about 10 hard pulls on the rower before settling into a pace and intensity that we could ideally continue at for the entire time. I did that and then watched the 500-meter split time to see if I could keep that consistent. I was able to keep it within about 10 seconds for the entire row and I knew that split time would get me to my goal. And by some miracle, I didn’t really have to take any breaks. I did have to stop a few times to tighten my foot straps, but that is different from a break. And at the end for the last 200 meters, I just went as hard as I could knowing I was almost done. I knew it wasn’t a PR, but it was a huge improvement over last time and closer to my PR than I’ve been in a while!
I was shocked that I was under 11 minutes and that I didn’t really take breaks. Neither of those were things I thought would be possible. Maybe I found the perfect pace to row so I didn’t need breaks like I normally do. Or maybe I was just being stubborn and that pushed me through the row. Whatever it was, I was so proud of myself. But I know I overdid it quite a bit on the rower and that affected the rest of my workout.
On the floor, I was exhausted from the row and was a little lightheaded, so I had to go slowly and rest a lot more than I thought I would. The floor had hip hinge swings, woodchoppers, chest presses with straps, plank taps, and superheroes on the floor. I was going a bit lighter with the weights because of how I was feeling, but I still think even with the breaks I had to take and the lighter weights, it was worth it because I knew how well I did on the row.
And we ended with cardio where we did things at our own pace. We had distance challenges and then 1 minute to recover after each distance. For the distance, it was .25-miles for the treadmills which was 1 mile for me. And just like on the floor, I had to take more breaks than I would have liked because I was still recovering from the row. But again like on the floor, I was ok with that because I was still proud of my row time.
I wasn’t expecting to end last week with a workout highlight between how I was feeling and knowing how little I was looking forward to the benchmark. But I’m so happy that I surprised myself so much with how my last workout of the week went. It was nice to end a bad week with a good workout so I could go into my weekend feeling strong. And hopefully, the pain and nausea continue to get better through the beginning of this week so I can have a better workout week and end my year of workouts on some more positive notes!
Posted onAugust 2, 2021|Comments Off on Workout Challenges (or Seeing Improvements)
This past week of workouts had a lot of good things in it. I was challenged a lot in different ways, but I feel like I did a pretty great job with those challenges! I still notice where I haven’t gotten back to where I was before, but I feel like this week I made a lot of progress getting closer and making that difference a lot smaller. And I am working on celebrating any improvements I see and not just thinking about how much more I have to do in order to be where I used to be.
Monday’s workout was a benchmark day: the 2000-meter row. The coaches always say this is the hardest benchmark and I agree with them. It’s a beast to do, and even though it’s not the benchmark that takes the longest to complete, it can feel that way. I already had 1 attempt at the 2000-meter row since the shutdown, and I knew I had improved since then. So my only goal was to do better than my last one.
Because I did my warmup on the cardio side, I actually did a floor block first. That first floor block had deadlifts, alligators on the straps, palms to elbow planks, and superman planks. I didn’t go too crazy since I was saving my energy for the row.
For the 2000-meter row, I didn’t have too much of a plan. I know I would have liked to take limited breaks and try to time them out to be at specific intervals. But that’s not how things usually go for me. I tried to go as far as I could go before my first little break, but I ended up taking it around the 500-meter mark which is sooner than I would have liked. And just like last time, my breaks became more frequent as the row went on. But in the end, I did finish 50 seconds faster than my other post-shutdown benchmark, so that’s a decent improvement!
After the row benchmark, we only had 1 shorter block on cardio and 1 shorter block on the floor left. For cardio, it was all 1-minute intervals. I was using the resistance levels like I was coached on the week before to make it a bit harder. And on the floor, the last block had lateral lunges, tricep extensions, and side plank pendulums. I’m glad the rest of the workout wasn’t too crazy because the row really took it out of me.
Wednesday’s workout was a power day. Even though I used to only use the resistance levels on the bike to replicate inclines for strength days, I was determined to use them for a power day too.
We had 4 blocks on each side of the room. 2 of the blocks on cardio were 2 rounds of a push pace to a base pace and ending with an all-out and 2 blocks were intervals with an all-out in the middle and again at the end. But all of the intervals in all blocks were 1 minute or less. And while it was much harder using the resistance levels on the bike, that’s the point and clearly what I have needed to be doing for a while.
And on the floor, each of the 4 blocks started with a 200-meter row. I didn’t go too crazy with the rows, but I did try to get a bit faster each time. And in each block after the row, we had 2 exercises. We had ground to press with dumbbells and power pull-ups on the straps, shoulder tap planks and sit-ups, sumo squats to upright rows with weights and power push-ups, and plank bear hops and sprinter sit-ups. It was a lot of moving around on the floor and switching things quickly. But it also helped to make me not feel as tired as quickly.
Friday’s workout was a partner day. We haven’t had a partner workout since before the shutdown, but this one didn’t require switching within the same station so it was a little less contact than other partner days before.
The idea was that one partner was on their treadmill at base pace while the other did a .1 mile run and then a row. And the row started at 100-meters and went up 50-meters each round. But there was an odd number of people and I volunteered to be without a partner. I don’t hate partner workouts, but sometimes it’s nicer to work on my own. So I did the same distance on the bike and rower and then did another round on the bike to be my base pace when the partner should have been doing the other half. It was basically a run/row for me and that was nice since we don’t have those too often either.
And on the floor, we had 3 blocks. The first block was short and we only had walk-outs to push-ups and low rows on the straps. The second block had running men, shoulder presses with weights, hip hinge low rows with weights, and hip bridges. And the last block had plank jacks, bicep curls, tricep kickbacks with weights, and plank abductions. Only a few of the exercises were things I had to modify for my hips, and knowing I didn’t have to modify too much always makes me happy.
I was feeling a bit sore on Saturday, but I think there were a few different things causing me pain. I had worked harder in my workouts, but I had also been having a few bad hip days in a row. So I think that plus not sleeping as well just made things hurt a bit more than I was expecting. But that didn’t stop me since I do try to push myself when I’m having a good week. And with this workout being a strength day, I knew there would be a lot of chances to do that.
For cardio, we had 3 blocks. Each block had some push paces and some base paces at inclines besides the regular base paces and all-outs. The duration of each interval got shorter each block, but the inclines were going up. And the resistance levels were getting really high for me on the bike. I was using resistance levels for my push paces and then again for the base paces and inclines, so I didn’t have a lot of time at my regular base pace. Just like I’ve said before, I knew I needed to do this because I have needed to make improvements in my cardio. But knowing you need to do it doesn’t make it any easier.
On the floor, we had 3 blocks and they each had a different focus. The first block was all weight work. We had a suitcase deadlift, hip hinge low rows, and sumo squats. I did go a bit heavier with my weights than I normally do. In that first block we also had a 250-meter row, which was our only row in the entire class. The second block was focused on the straps. We had alternating lunges, jump lunges, chest presses, and tricep extensions. I did the lunges using the straps, but as static lunges since I struggle so much with balance for alternating lunges. And the last block was focused on core with bear steps, superman planks, and bicycle crunches. I did struggle a bit with the bear steps with my hips, so I did as many of those as I could and then switched to running men.
I’m really proud of what I did this past week. I had a lot of obvious improvements and even more little improvements I might not have realized happened until looking back. Every time I can row faster, lift heavier, or pedal faster; I’m improving. And even though I told myself I’d be patient with seeing things come back, I know I haven’t been doing that. I’ve been hard on myself and I know I think about how much more I have to do and not how far I’ve come. But this past week was a good reminder for me to change up my focus and celebrate the little things that I can.
Posted onJune 7, 2021|Comments Off on Really Progressing In My Rowing (or Having Real And Concrete Progress)
This past week of workouts ended up being a week that I really needed. While I have been working toward getting back to where I’ve been in all aspects of my workout, I know that my rowing has been the hardest thing for me. It’s the one thing that I had no option to do while working out at home. I did lifting weights and I did cardio, but rowing can’t be replicated without a rowing machine as much as you try. So it’s been hard to get back to my rowing. But this past week really gave me the chance to do a lot of great rowing work.
Monday’s workout was at my usual time since I had to work holiday hours on Monday. But I do appreciate having a routine so keeping my workout the same is something I probably would have done no matter what. The workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power and a lot of it allowed us to choose what we wanted to do.
For cardio, we had 3 different options. I’ll give the distances for the treadmill since that’s the easiest to break down. The first option was to do a 1.5-mile run. The second option was to do 2 rounds of a .75-mile run with a minute of recovery between the rounds. And the third option was 5 rounds of a .3-mile run with 30 seconds of recovery between each round. I was finally starting to almost feel like myself again, so I decided to try to challenge myself and do the long distance at once. I ended up not being able to do that, and I didn’t exactly follow any of the plans because I did a little bit of longer distance mixed with some shorter ones. But I always tried to keep my breaks about 30 seconds long (enough time for me to drink some water).
On the rower, we also had 3 options. The first was a 2000-meter row with 50 squat jacks and 50 pulsing half squats after. The second was 2 rounds of a 1000-meter row with 25 of each type of squat after each round. And the last option was 5 rounds of a 400-meter row with 10 of each type of squat after each round. I went with the 400-meter rows since I knew that I couldn’t handle the higher number of squats at one time. But I was able to do every row without taking a break, so I was very happy with that.
On the floor, we had increasing reps of squats, bridge rows on the straps, step-ups (which I did as lunges), push-ups, plank jacks, and sit-ups. We started at 5 reps for each exercise and went up by 5 reps each round. I did have to modify the push-ups and plank jacks to be using the bench, but that’s pretty normal for me to have to do.
Wednesday’s workout was an endurance day, and it was a pretty tough endurance workout. But I took advantage of that to challenge myself a bit and I had some great wins during the workout.
For cardio, we had rounds of push paces with base paces. We had 2 rounds with 3-minute push paces to start with a 90-second base after the first one and a 1-minute base after the second. Then we had 2 rounds of 2-minute push paces with a 1-minute base after the first and a 30-second all-out after the second. For the push paces, I did increase my resistance on the bike a bit to try to get used to that level. I’m hoping I will be increasing my base pace level soon and using it for a push pace is a way to get there. The push paces were hard since they were so long, but I was very happy with how I did with my speed and how far I had gotten by the end of the block.
On the rower, we had rows plus exercises. And the rows were all about cutting the distance in half. We started with an 800-meter row, then a 400-meter row, and a 200-meter row. Between each of those rows, we had forward and back hops. Then we had a 400-meter row, 200-meter row, and 100-meter row with squats between each row. Since being back after the shutdown, having endurance on the rower has been one of my biggest challenges. But I managed to row the 800-meter row without taking a break! I was actually able to row all the rows I did without a break (I only got to the second 400-meter one). That’s something I’ve been hoping I’d be able to do and I was so happy to see that I could do it. I still have a way to go with getting my rowing endurance back, but this was a big step forward.
And on the floor, we had 1 block with 2 mini-blocks in it. The first mini-block had bench tap squats, goblet squats, and scissor crunches. And the second mini-block had sumo squats, squats to upward rotations, and sit-ups. I was pretty exhausted after the rowing block, so I was slow on the floor. We had 3 rounds of the first mini-block before moving on to the second, and I only got 1 round of the second mini-block before the workout was done.
Friday’s workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power and I had another great rowing day. I was already feeling great about myself after Wednesday’s workout, but I think having another chance to prove myself was what I needed to know that it wasn’t just a fluke.
For cardio, we had 2 similar blocks. We started with some push paces and base bases with no incline and then we had rounds of all-outs with increasing inclines/resistance levels. The all-outs were always 30-seconds long, but when we were at some of the top levels it was very hard to keep going. I felt like I was pedaling through jello, but I kept going. And it was good they were only 30-seconds each because I don’t know how much longer I could have kept going.
On the rower, we started with an 800-meter row. And just like on Wednesday, my goal was to do the entire thing without stopping. I worked on breaking down how much further I had to go to keep myself motivated, and it worked because I was able to do the entire thing again with no breaks. After the row, we had jumping jacks (which I modified so I wasn’t jumping) and then 2 rounds of a 400-meter row with squats between the rows. The 400-meter rows were also without breaks for me, but it was hard to do that when I was so tired after the 800-meter row.
And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had hip hinge swings, squats to hammer curls, reverse grip low rows, and plank jacks. We started at 20 reps each and the reps went down by 5 each round. And the second block had deadlifts to upright rows, squats to high rows on the straps, and plank jacks to pop jacks. For the plank jacks and pop jacks in both blocks, I did my usual modification by using the bench.
And if all that awesome rowing wasn’t enough, I had an even harder challenge in the Saturday workout. The workout was an endurance day and the idea was that you kept moving the entire block in each section of the room.
Cardio and rowing were on the same timer for the entire time. Both started with a 3-minute push followed by a 90-second base. Then it was a 2 1/2-minute push with a 75-second base. Next was a 2-minute push and 1-minute base. The last push section was a 90-second push with a 45-second base. And then we ended with a 30-second all-out.
For cardio, I did pretty great with this challenge. I had my resistance level up 1 higher than I have been using a lot so that was a good way to push myself. And I am pretty good and not taking breaks on the bike except when I need to drink some water. I can’t do a 14-minute block without drinking a little water and I’m not coordinated or talented enough to drink water without stopping.
And on the rower, I knew I would need to take a break eventually. Even though we can row very slow for a base row, I can’t row for 14 minutes straight. But I wanted to at least make it to 800-meters on the rower (even though I didn’t know if that would happen during a push or base row). Once I made it to 800-meters, I decided to keep going and push myself to get to 1000-meters. And I did make it and then took a little break to get my feet out of the rower to stretch (my hips can be a bit sore on the rower) and to drink some water. I took a few other short breaks after that first one, but I’m just proud I made it to 1000-meters without stopping!
And on the floor, we had 2 groups of exercises and the challenge was to do each group of exercises without stopping. The first group had weighted squats, bicep curls, front squats, uppercuts, deadlifts, and hip hinge low rows. And the second group of exercises had static crunches with scissor kicks, heel touches, and bicycle crunches. For the weighted exercises, I had to go a bit lower on the weight so I didn’t have to switch weights in the middle of things. And for the core work, I did modify them a bit. But I was able to do each section without stopping and only took my breaks between the sections.
I had no idea this past week was going to be a week full of great rowing accomplishments for me, but I needed it. I have been down on myself for a while about how my rowing endurance hasn’t been close to what I was used to. And while I’m still not back to my old self, this past week was a real sign that I’m getting closer to being back there and that hopefully, it won’t be long before I’m getting some new PRs!
Posted onNovember 5, 2018|Comments Off on Hell Week To Orange Voyage (or One Challenge To Another)
This past week of workouts was split into 2 different Orangetheory challenges. The first 2 workouts were the last 2 workouts for Hell Week. And the last 2 workouts were the first workouts of a new challenge that is lasting all month: The Orange Voyage. It is similar to the idea of Marathon Month where we are tracking the distance we get in all workouts for November. This time, we track all meters rowed and there are different locations we can try to reach.
Monday’s workout was all about inclines and abs. And it was fitting that the name of this Hell Week workout was The House Of The Incline Devil. There was a bit of a mix-up with me getting into class, but fortunately it all worked out in the end for me. I did have to use the bike because there were no more treadmills, but that was perfect because I had already decided that I wanted to do the bike for the workout. I can do so much more with resistance levels than I can do with inclines and I want to take advantage of that!
On the cardio side, we had all incline/resistance work. The first block was 6 minutes of increasing inclines/resistance every minute. I started at my normal push resistance on the bike and went up 1 level every minute. Since I have done some higher resistance levels lately, this wasn’t too bad but it did feel tough. The next both was all power walking work for the treadmills because it was super high inclines. And for the bike, I used all resistance levels higher than I normally would do. Even when I do the high resistance levels, I rarely go above 13. But this time I was going up to 18 and my legs were barely moving while I was working. It was so hard to keep going but I really tried to not take a break during that block since it was only about 3 minutes long. Then those blocks repeated themselves and I tried to match what I had done the first time. But I was glad to get off the bike when it was the halfway mark in class.
On the floor, we had 2 long ab workout blocks and 1 rowing block. For the rowing block, we had a 6 minute row for distance. I didn’t actually look at my distance when I was done, but I’m pretty sure it was under the goal we were supposed to hit. My legs were so tired from the bike earlier in the workout and I had to take breaks during the row. For the ab blocks, they both had the same exercises. We had static crunch scissors, leg raises, Spiderman planks, swimmers, heel touch crunches, regular crunches, and sprinter sit ups. In the first block the sprinter sit ups were at the end of the workout and we had 90 seconds of those (everything else was 60 reps). Then when we did the ab block again we started with the 90 seconds of the sprinter sit ups and then the other exercises were in the reverse order of what we did the first time.
Wednesday was the final day of Hell Week and my 5th Hell Week workout overall! So I earned my Hell Week survivor shirt which is something I strive to do each year. And since it was Halloween, I also wanted to dress up a bit for class. Some of my friends and I were trying to think of a fun group costume for us to do that would be easy enough to work out in, and I had a moment of inspiration during the workout the Friday prior. Since there were 4 of us and there are 4 types of workouts at Orangetheory (endurance, strength, power, and ESP) we could go as the 4 workouts! I had lots of leftover photo paper and lamination sheets from my Halloween costume, so I made us all little signs to wear on our shirts. Not everyone got it right away, but once they did they loved it!
This workout was called The Nightmare From Hell Weeks Past and it took elements from the past few Hell Weeks and put them into one workout. Most of the workouts this one was inspired by were workouts I had done before so that was pretty cool. We had 3 blocks on each side plus a mini tornado workout at the halfway point and at the end of class.
On the treadmill, the first block was 5 minutes of decreasing inclines. I started at 10% and we went down 1% each minute. Even though this was an incline workout, I decided to stick with the treadmill since not everything was inclined based and I wanted to see what I could do when compared to my bike workouts. I wasn’t able to get my inclines as high as we were supposed to do, but I was close. The second block was rounds of 30 seconds at inclines with 30 seconds to recovery in between. I started at 12% and went down 1% each round. We also had a 1 minute all out at the end, but I walked it. And the last block on the treadmill was rounds of increasing all outs (starting at 30 seconds and ending at 75 seconds) with 30 seconds to recover in between. I walked all of these.
The tornado that we had was the same in the middle of class as well as at the end of class. On the treadmill it was a 1 minute all out, on the rower it was a 1 minute row, and on the floor it was 1 minute of sumo squats using weights. For the treadmill, I walked the all out in the middle of class but ran the one that ended class since I had been on the floor prior to that minute.
On the floor, the first block was a 5 minute row for distance. I struggled a bit because my ESP sign on my shirt was bunching up weird (I probably should have just taken it off for the workout but I wanted to keep it on) so my rowing wasn’t as far as it should have been. The next block was doing continuous exercises without stopping between different elements. We had upright rows to front squats to shoulder presses to lunges; and all of these were done holding weights. The idea was to not drop the weights until you finish an entire round. I had to go much lighter than I normally go for rows, squats, or lunges because I needed it to be at a lower weight for the shoulder presses. But because there was no break between what we did it really felt heavier. And the last block on the floor was all burpee work. We had burpees to bicep curls, burpees with plank jacks, and full burpees. I tried my best for the first round because I didn’t have the bench out like I normally do for my hands. It was much harder to do them going to the ground so I had to go slow and use modifications. After that round I decided to just do some elements from the burpees as their own exercises so I could get through them. So I did bicep curls, plank jacks, and push ups until the block was over and we did the last tornado of the workout. It was a really tough day, but the perfect way to end Hell Week!
Friday’s workout was another strength based day and I was on the bike again. I’m really feeling more like the bike is a choice versus something I have to do when I’m not feeling great, so that’s a very positive change for me. We had 3 blocks on cardio where the first block was a progressive push that for treadmills was increasing speed, the second was a progressive push with inclines, and the last was us picking which we wanted to do. What I did was increase my resistance by 2 levels each minute for the first and third block and increased my resistance by 1 level each minute for the middle block. That ended up being a pretty good plan for me and I was using some really hard resistance levels.
On the rower, we did progressive pushes for the first and third block. It’s not easy to increase the wattage on the rower every minute and I had to be very aware of everything I’m doing while rowing to keep the wattage where it is supposed to be. For the middle block, we had rounds of 30 second all out rows with squats between each row. We didn’t reset the rower the entire time we were on there so I was able to get quite a few meters for the Orange Voyage challenge.
And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first one was longer and we had single arm low rows, bench pullovers, plank work, and high rows on the straps. And in the second block we had plank single arm rows and Y-raises on the straps. I tried to go heavy with the weights, but I know that I’ve used heavier ones for those exercises in the past. I just was feeling tired and let that stop me from trying to use the ones I know I can do.
Saturday’s workout was an endurance day and it was also a switch day. So that allowed me to really work on some awesome running and I’m so glad I had that chance! Since it was a switch day, I could really push myself on the treadmill because I knew I’d have the floor in the middle to let me recover.
We had 2 10.5 minute blocks on the treadmill. The first block was 2 rounds of a 3 minute push pace with a 90 second base pace between and ending with a 90 second run for distance. For that block I took the 3 minute push pace and did it as 1 minute run/walk intervals (so 1 minute of running, 1 minute of walking, 1 minute of running). I walked the base paces and ran the final 90 seconds. The second block was 4 rounds of 90 second push paces with 45 second base paces between with a 90 second run for distance at the end. I ran all the push paces and walked all the base paces. It was a lot of running, but it wasn’t quite as bad as I expected it to be.
On the floor, we had 2 blocks that were pretty much the same. The first block started with an 800 meter row and then we had regular lunges, lateral lunges, bench tap squats, and bench sit up to stands. The second block started with the exercises and ended with the rowing. I was using medium heavy weights for the weighted work and I got both of my 800 meter rows done in under my goal time.
Because this month will be the Orange Voyage challenge, I know that there will be a lot of running through November. But with all Orangetheory challenges, I love to see what I can do and push myself. I successfully completed Hell Week, now it’s time to conquer the Orange Voyage!
Posted onSeptember 17, 2018|Comments Off on A Week Full Of Rowing (or Figuring Out What I Can Do When Nauseous)
This past week of workouts were pretty tough for me. I was dealing with a lot of nausea the entire week (even with expecting it to happen, it still took a toll on me). I modified things as much as I could, but some of the workouts just weren’t designed for someone nauseous to be doing them. But I pushed through as much as I could. And I will say that one thing that helped me a lot was that we had a lot of rowing. Rowing isn’t the easiest thing for me when I am nauseous, but getting to work on it this past week has made it so hopefully in the future it will be a bit better.
Monday’s class was a mix of strength and endurance and unfortunately I was having a pretty bad nausea day. I think this nausea was a mix of the usual hormonal factors but also stress and other emotional things happening in my life. I hated that I felt so gross that morning, but as always when I’m nauseous I was just ready to do what I could do and be happy with that.
The cardio portion of the workout was a run/row format (so bike/row for me). Every round we did more on the bike and rower starting with a .4 trip on the bike and a 100 meter row (for people on the treadmill, it was a .1 mile run). Then each round I added .4 on the bike but every .4 I added resistance. And every time on the rower I added 100 meters. Considering how I was feeling, I was actually impressed with what I did. I only had to take a break once during a bike ride, the rest of my breaks were as I was switching from the bike to the rower. And I was able to increase the resistance every time I was supposed to. Both my pedaling and rowing were slower than normal, but I still got it done.
On the floor, we had 3 blocks. The first block had single arm low rows, squats to single arm high rows, and leg lifts to crunches. For the single arm low rows and single arm high rows, I was able to use my heavier weights. I seem to use heavier weights on my nausea days to make up for any issues I had with cardio. I tried to do the leg lifts to crunches but after halfway through the reps I had to split the moves into 2 parts instead of doing them together. But I did them. The second block was goblet lunges, lunges using the bench for one leg, and side plank pendulum. And while I normally can’t do the lunges using the bench for one leg, since I was going extra slow I was able to get my balance and do them. And the last block was a core blast with alternating toe reaches, crunches, sit-ups, and leg lifts.
Wednesday’s workout was a strength based day with a benchmark row. But unfortunately, my nausea got much worse and I was feeling pretty miserable. Because I’m so competitive with myself, I hate when a benchmark event happens when I know I can’t do my best. But I figured I would do what I could and see what happens.
For cardio, I was on the bike. Fortunately even though I was feeling awful I was able to do some decent work using the resistance on the bike. We had a couple of different 30 second hills (or high resistance for the bike) and I was able to go higher than my normal push or all out resistance on the bike. I rarely go higher than level 10, but this time I was doing a lot of those 30 second hills at level 12. So at least I got to feel a bit accomplished.
The benchmark row was a 500 meter row. I know that my record for it is very fast and I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to get close to it. I really wanted to be able to do my row in under 2 minutes, but I also knew that was going to be pushing it. I tried to ignore the 500 meter split time on the monitor because it was driving me crazy. Instead I focused on trying to keep my speed steady. I have the Dri-Tri coming up soon and I know working on being at a consistent pace is something that will help me. My rowing was pretty steady for the first 400 meters and then I went crazy for the last 100 meters. I know I overdid it at the end, but I really just wanted to feel like I tried my hardest. I did the row in 2:07 which isn’t my worst and close to my goal for the day. But I really would have loved to have been under 2 minutes.
For the rest of the floor work, we had a lot of work with weights. We had deadlifts, front raises, lunges with weights, and pull overs. I was able to use my heavier weights for all of those. We also had sit-ups and half get ups for ab work. For the half get ups I did one round with my normal weights but at the end I had to go with a set lighter for the second round. But considering ab work is tough on bad nausea days, I was happy I could use any weights for those.
Friday was a 3 group workout so I knew it would be another class with a lot of rowing. But I was hoping it would be all short rows. But that wasn’t what the class had.
For the cardio, I was on the bike and I did manage to use my resistance levels like I normally would. It was a strength based workout so the treadmills had inclines and I had extra resistance to work with. I did have to take some breaks on the bike to let the nausea pass, but it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting it to be considering how I felt that morning when I woke up.
On the rower, we had all long rows. The first row was 1,000 meters. Since the Dri-Tri is only a week away I should have been excited for a good practice row. But it was just tough to try to keep going the entire time. Somehow I managed to not need to take any breaks during the row, but it was a pretty slow row too. After the row, we were supposed to have jumping jacks but I knew I couldn’t do those with my nausea so I did side lunges and some squats instead. Then it was a 500 meter row, more jumping jacks (or lunges and squats for me), and pulsing squats. I didn’t make it further down the row block because my rowing was slow.
On the floor, we had one long block. We had Y raises on the straps, lunges with weights, ab work, reverse flys, single arm snatches, and skaters. Fortunately, all the floor work was stuff that was ok for me to do with how I felt. The skaters were a bit tough because they can be a lot of up and down movement, but I modified them to be much smoother. I know I didn’t work as hard as I could have when I feel fine, but I was proud of myself for figuring out how to do things as work arounds.
Saturday’s workout was an interesting one, but it ended up being a pretty great class. I was still nauseous so I was still on the bike, but that actually worked to my benefit. It was a partner workout that had 2 blocks of partner work and 1 regular block in the middle.
For the partner work, I was partnered with a girl who was also using a bike for cardio but it turned out that it wouldn’t have mattered. I did feel a bit bad for having a partner who was going to be depending on me to make sure we switch quickly enough, but I found out that this was her first class back from a surgery so it worked out well that we were both not at our best.
The 2 partner blocks were the same, but for the first block I did bike and floor work (my partner did floor and rower) and for the second I did floor and rower (and my partner did bike and floor). The person using the cardio was the pacer and they were all pretty quick. I don’t think either of us was on the cardio for more than 2 1/2 minutes. For both the bike and the rower each time we were back the distance we had to go went down a bit. The rower started at 500 meters and went down 100 meters every time. And the bike started with 1.2 trips and went down .2 each time. I surprised myself with how well I did on both the bike and rower and I think my partner and I were very equally matched.
For the partner blocks the floor work was the same both times. We had burpees, half squat swings, overhead tricep extensions, sit-ups, and neutral full thrusters with weights. I tried using my normal weights for these and it was a bit of a struggle for the swings and triceps so I went down on the weight for those. And for the burpees I didn’t have the bench down so I couldn’t jump back and forth. The burpees were hard because they were making me feel more nauseous, but I was glad that the floor work wasn’t the pacer so I could take my time.
In the middle of the 2 partner blocks, we had a regular cardio and a regular floor block. For the cardio it was 3 rounds of push to all out paces with the push pace getting shorter each time. And on the floor we had squats, reverse mountain climbers, and plank arm reaches. It was a pretty short block for both that cardio and floor block so I didn’t feel too bad on them. I was glad to have them in the middle of the partner work to break things up, but it was better to be able to end the workout with the partner work because that seemed to end things on a higher note.
Hopefully my nausea will only affect the beginning of this workout week. Not only do I want it to end because I hate feeling nauseous, but I have the Dri-Tri on Saturday! I really want to do well on it and hopefully PR in at least one section of the challenge. But I also know that my endurance and strength isn’t quite what it was before so I have to work extra hard this week to get ready for it!
Posted onMarch 20, 2018|Comments Off on My First Dri-Tri Relay (or Trying To Not Be Disappointed In Myself)
I’ve done a couple of Dri–Tris at Orangetheory in the past. And as I mentioned in yesterday’s post, my 4th workout last week was another Dri-Tri. But this time, the Dri-Tri was going to be a relay event and it would be my first time doing that.
With the Dri-Tri relay, you have a team of 3 and each person does one section (rower, floor, or treadmill). I immediately knew I wanted to do the rower. First, it would give me a great opportunity to try to PR on my 2,000 meter row. Also, I knew how tough the floor work was for me each time and I didn’t think I was ready to do a 5K (or 1/2 5K as a power walker). So the rower was what made sense to me. I tried to get a team together, but many of my Orangetheory friends weren’t able to do the Dri-Tri. Fortunately, the studio would help find a team for me so I signed up to do the row and figured I’d find out the day of the Dri-Tri who my team would be (I wouldn’t be at the studio doing the Dri-Tri until the day of since I went to the new Culver City location).
The day of, a bunch of people who signed up ended up dropping out so there was a bit of work done by the staff to put together new teams. Also some people decided to do the Dri-Tri solo instead of being on a team. I thought about if I should do the full event, but I hadn’t really prepared properly for it so I didn’t push myself. But they figured out a team for me and since the rowing was first I got ready to start.
I knew that I didn’t want to overdo it with the row in the beginning. I’ve made the mistake in the past of starting too big and then not being able to sustain that. So I tried to start slower than I thought I should because it was at a speed that I knew I could maintain for a while. I had the PR time in my head and as I was getting further into the row I kept doing the math to see if I would beat my PR time. It seemed like I was on pace to do that once I got to the halfway point and I just tried to stay focused on staying steady and not focused on the time or distance as much.
I have to say that my teammates were so amazing while I was rowing. They were cheering me on and super supportive. I wasn’t expecting that and I never had that experience when I did the Dri-Tri solo so it was a nice surprise for me. It helped me get any negative thoughts out of my head when I was starting to struggle and they were able to tighten the foot straps for me (they sometimes get loose when I row) so I didn’t have to stop and do it myself.
Once I got to the last 200 meters, I realized that it was going to be much closer to my previous PR than I thought. There was a chance I wasn’t going to beat it and I wasn’t mentally prepared for it. Even though I had already been rowing for 8 minutes and was exhausted, I kicked my butt into gear and was rowing so hard that I probably was doing too much (I was starting to struggle to catch my breath but refused to slow down). And when I was done, I was pretty mad.
My previous PR was 8:45.2. I missed it by 2.4 seconds. That is pretty much like missing it because of 1 or 2 pulls on the rower that could have been a bit stronger. Honestly, I would have rather missed it by 20 seconds than missing it by 2 seconds. It was about 40 seconds faster than my last Dri-Tri attempt, but that wasn’t cheering me up. I had my heart set on beating my PR and I failed at it. I’m so competitive with myself and it was tough to know that I failed at something that I felt was so certain to happen.
But I couldn’t stay upset for long because I needed to go support my teammate on the floor. We were cheering her on and when she was on the second round of the floor work I was cheering that she was done with push ups/burpees/whatever the move was each time she was done. And then we went to support our teammate on the treadmill and we kept cheering whenever he hit a milestone. I don’t remember exactly what time our team was done with the entire event, but it was pretty much in the middle of the pack which was awesome considering I was the last person to finish the row.
After we were done, we were cheering on the rest of the people on the treadmill. The great thing about the Dri-Tri is that everyone seems to stay in the room and as each person is close to finishing their treadmill work they gather around to cheer. And it was the same this time and I loved getting to cheer for people. Some people hit PRs, some hit goals they thought would take months, and some completed their first Dri-Tri. Every person in the room accomplished something awesome (and yes, even though I was mad I had to be a bit proud that I rowed 2,000 meters without stopping and almost matched my PR).
And this year, they were giving out medals for the Dri-Tri! So of course we all needed a photo with the medals.
Even though it was good to do the Dri-Tri relay, I don’t know if I would do the relay again. While it was nice to not have to worry about doing anything after the row, I also felt a bit like something was missing. I think if I had worked harder leading up to it, I probably could have done the full one. But who knows how I will feel the next time we have one. Also, I might be doing the next Dri-Tri at the Culver City studio. I’ll just have to wait and see.
But for now, I’m just enjoying knowing I did another Dri-Tri and loving how my medal looks on my medal hanger.
This past week of workouts was one that I was taking a bit more seriously than other weeks. I knew I’d be doing the Dri-Tri on Saturday (that’s going to be a post for another day) and I also knew that I probably hadn’t been training as much for it as I had in the past. I wasn’t super worried about how I would do in the Dri-Tri, but I also didn’t want to feel horrible when I was done. So I spent this past week of workouts trying to do the best that I could every day in the hopes that the training would get me ready for Saturday.
Monday’s workout was the 3 group workout that focused on power. On the treadmill, we pretty much did 90 second intervals the entire time that were push to all out paces with variations on how long each push or all out was (but they all added up to 90 seconds combined). I was able to run all of the 90 second intervals which made me happy. I do want to get my running intervals up a bit and the last 5K I did was with 2 minute running intervals. I’d love to be at 3 minute running intervals for my next race (which I’m not totally sure when that will be), so 90 second intervals was good practice and something that shouldn’t be too tough for me.
On the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block was lunges, chest presses on the straps, and squats. I knew I’d have lunges and squats during the Dri-Tri and that we would have push ups so chest presses are close. And the second block was more lunges, squats using the Bosu, and plank work. And when I was on the rowers is was mainly sprint rowing work. The first block started at 400 meters and went down 100 meters each time with squats to bicep curls in-between. And the second block started at 100 meters and went up 50 meters each round with squats in-between. I wish I had a long row that day because I was nervous about the 2,000 meter row, but there wasn’t one that day.
Wednesday was a run/row day that focused on endurance, strength, and power. It was an interesting run/row because we had weight work between everything so it felt almost like a full workout just in the run/row. It started with a 500 meter row, then 10 front raises with weights, then a .1 mile run, and the round finished with 5 arm snatches on each side. Then the next round had the row go down 100 meters and the run go up .05 miles.
I told myself that I would try to run the run segments in full as long as I could. I figured that I probably would need to take a walking break when I got to the .25 mile run but I’d try to run the earlier segments in full. Fortunately (I guess) for me, I never made it to the .25 mile run so I did manage to run all the run segments that I had. And for the rowing, the 500 meter one was a bit tough because I went a bit too hard in the beginning. But the other rowing segments weren’t too bad and I was able to take it easy since I was tired from the running.
The floor had 3 blocks. The first block was squats with the Bosu, lateral lunges with medicine ball presses, kneeling wood choppers, and sit ups with rotations. This block was pretty hard for me and I was taking a bunch of breaks. The wood choppers were especially hard and I think it’s because we haven’t done them for a while and I’m out of practice. The second block had plank jack to pop jacks (which I had to end up doing as plank jacks only due to hip pain), crunches, and hip raises. And the last block was lunges using the straps and swimmers. I felt pretty strong during those last 2 floor blocks so that made up for feeling so off during the first one.
And Friday’s workout also ended up being a run/row day and it was focused on power. I knew I didn’t want to overdo things because of the Dri-Tri the next day. Fortunately this format actually worked well for taking it easier than normal. Our class was small so we ended up working in 1 group that all started on cardio instead of splitting up and having half of us start on cardio and half of us start on the floor.
The first block of the run/row started with rowing. We rowed 200 meters and then however long that took on the rower was the time that we ran on the treadmill. Each round we went up 50 meters on the rower and used that time for the treadmill. All of the times for me were under 2 minutes so I knew I could run it all. I kept my running at my usual push pace which is the pace I’ve been able to use for some of my distance running.
After that block we all moved to the floor where we had 2 blocks. The first block was a timed block with 30 seconds for each thing. We had bicep curls, squats, and skaters. We did the series of moves for 3 rounds and then moved on to the next floor block which was by the number of reps (not timed). That block had lunges, running man, and side plank rotations. And then it was back to the run/row.
The second block of the run/row was similar, but flipped. We started on the treadmill for a .1 mile run and then went to the rower and rowed for however long it took us to do the run. Each time on the treadmill went up by .05 miles and then we used that time for the rowing that round. I had a similar idea with the running as I had on Wednesday. I knew running .25 miles was probably going to be a run/walk but I could run the shorter ones in full. And again, I never made it to the .25 mile run so I was running them all in full. The rowing was all pretty much sprint rows since they weren’t too long so again I was a bit nervous about my lack of endurance row training. But the key was just trying to not go too hard in the beginning and to stay steady since that’s what I’d need to do with a 2,000 meter row.
The floor in the end was similar to the other floor blocks. We had one block that was timed and one block that was by reps. For the timed block, it was 3 rounds of 3 exercises for 30 seconds each. This time we had bicep curls on the straps, sumo squats, and skaters before moving on to the last block. The final block was squats, plank shoulder taps, and abs. That last block was a bit tough because I was tired and feeling a bit off that afternoon (I think I was dehydrated), but I made it through.
Even though I did a ton of running, I still know I haven’t been doing as much running as I should. Part of the reason has been that I’m not clear on when my next 5K will be so I don’t feel like I’m training for something. I usually have a 5K in November. This year it was supposed to be in October but nothing has been officially announced and there are no sign ups. And my race that I do in April seems to be changing and there might not be a 5K anymore. I’m still waiting on seeing what happens, but knowing that April might be my next race isn’t that much motivation. I need to find something other than a 5K to push me to work on my running so that when I have the Dry-Tris I will feel more prepared.
My First Dri-Tri (or Beating My Expectations)
