Tag Archives: strong

Base Pace Challenge (or Exceeding My Expectations)

Posted on August 5, 2019 | 1 comment

I am someone who likes to know what types of workouts I am going to do before I go to Orangetheory. I am lucky that I have ways of finding things out before I drive over there (knowing what class I have never makes me not want to go to class, I usually am more excited knowing what I’m in for). And sometimes I find out when there is going to be a benchmark class or something else like that. But somehow, I must have missed some of the warnings for the challenges of this past week, but it ended up working out really well for me.

Monday’s class was all about working with a new base pace, and I decided to take that challenge. I’ve been playing around with not necessarily using the exact same resistance levels on the bike all the time, so I figured I could play around with what my base level might be. I also know that I need to keep challenging myself when I’m having good weeks because it’s too easy to not do that because I feel like I’m just spending that time recovering from feeling so gross the week before.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks. The first block had decreasing push paces and all the base paces at 1 minute. And the second block had increasing base paces and all the push paces at 1 minute. The push paces for the first block started at 2 1/2 minutes and went down to 1 minute and the base paces in the second block started at 1 minute and went up to 2 minutes. Because the difference between my base and push was only 1 resistance level on the bike this time, it didn’t feel like a huge difference. Maybe I should have increased my push level too, but I didn’t want to go too hard and make the new base level too difficult for me. The new base level was challenging, but I also think it was because it was a 2 group class so I was on the bike for a while.

The floor was also 2 blocks. The first block had chest presses, squats, front raises using the mini-bands, and scissor abs with the mini-bands on our wrists. We also had rowing after each round of exercises. My feet were still going a bit numb with rowing, so I struggled a bit with that. I really think the numbness has to be a combination of foot position and my heart rate being elevated because it doesn’t happen any other time. So I have been working on stopping and trying to calm my heart rate down when it gets really bad and it seems to make it a little better. The rowing was 400-meters, 200-meters, and 100-meters for that first block. The second block started with an 800-meter row which took me much longer than I would have liked it to take. Then we had mini-band plank side reaches, mini-band strap low rows, and tricep work on the straps without the mini-bands. At least the non-rowing floor work went well for me.

Wednesday’s workout was a power day and we were moving around the room so quickly! All the blocks were under 5 minutes and we had 3 blocks at each section of the room.

Every block for cardio was the same. We had a 30-second push pace, 30-second base pace, 30-second all out, recovery, 30-second push pace, and 30-second all out. I was using my new base pace for this and my normal push and all out. For the recover,y I was using my old base pace since that’s what I’m used to using for my recovery. The new base pace was used so little during these blocks so it didn’t feel like that much of a change for me. That was probably a good thing and an easy transition for me so I’m glad that I had this class as my first one after the new base pace class.

On the rower, we had very similar blocks for all the blocks. The first block started with a 300-meter row and 12 frogger squats. Then it was a 200-meter row and 12 frogger squats. I made it to starting the 100-meter row before the block ended in the first block. The second block had the same rowing but the frogger squats were down to 10 reps. And in the third block, the frogger squats were 8 reps. But every block, I was always working on the 100-meter row when the block was done so I never did the very last round of frogger squats. Fortunately, the foot numbness problem was better in this class than it had been. I had changed my dosage that day to add a pill in the morning, so that might have helped somehow. I will never try to understand side effects, but it was interesting to see how it worked that day when I had been very nervous to see what would happen.

The floor had different blocks for each block. The first block had step-ups and squat jumps. I had to modify these to be lunges and regular squats. If the block was longer, I would have done modified step-ups with using the straps, but it takes me time to get onto the bench and to get my balance and I didn’t want to use up too much time during the block. The second block had hollow hold chest presses and pop jacks. I modified the pop jacks to use the bench instead of the ground, but that isn’t a big modification. And the last block had reverse mountain climbers and sit-ups. I changed the reverse mountain climbers to be regular ones because I don’t have the same range of motion and wanted to do the full exercise, but again it was a small modification.

Friday’s class was an endurance class, and I continued to challenge myself with my new base pace level. This was a really hard challenge in this class for me. Not only was it just a tough class, but I was exhausted from not sleeping well (or sleeping enough) and my hips were hurting a lot from that lack of sleep. But I wanted to try to push through the best that I could and see what I could do.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks. The first block had 3 rounds of 1-minute push paces to 90-second base paces and it ended with a 30-second push to 1 minute all out pace. And the second block had 2 rounds of 1-minute push paces to 1-minute base paces and ended with a 30-second push to 1 minute all out pace. I did the new base pace level for all my base paces and the normal push and all out levels. For my recovery between the blocks, I did go a bit lower than I normally go, but I needed that recovery time. And I did take a few more breaks than I would have liked to have taken, but again, I needed them. Even though the cardio time wasn’t longer than a normal 3 group class, it felt longer than a 2 group class for some reason. I think it really was just because I was so tired.

On the rower, we had 1 long block. We started with an 800-meter row. Then we had 20 squats with a medicine ball. Then it was a 400-meter row and 15 squats and 15 overhead presses with the medicine ball. Then a 200-meter row followed by 10 squats, 10 overhead presses, and 10 tricep extensions with the medicine ball. I was just sitting down to start the 100-meter row when the block was done. I had a little bit of the numbness issue in my feet during the rowing, but just like on Wednesday it was better than it had been the week before. And I’m learning how to deal with it a bit more. I’m still hoping that it will go away, but at least it’s getting better and I’m doing better with my rowing.

And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had chest presses with weights, push-ups, and tricep extensions on the straps. And the second block had lateral raises with weights, full thrusters with weights, and plank work. I had to change the full thrusters to be shoulder presses because my hips were not able to squat down anymore. It’s not the biggest modification, but it still annoyed me for some reason because it felt like a big one. Maybe because I felt like I was going to make it through a workout without modifications and then one just snuck in there. But I still did something and worked hard so it counts and I should be proud of myself.

Saturday’s class was a mix of endurance, strength, and power and it was yet another opportunity for me to work with my new base pace resistance level. I had a few things I had to modify to make the workout work for me, but since so much of the week was focused on the new base pace I wanted to continue to work on that.

The cardio was split into 2 blocks. The first block was 4 rounds of 45-second all outs with recovery in-between. Because things were going back and forth so quickly between the all outs and recovery, I decided not to change my resistance level on the bike and I used my new base pace level for everything. I just worked on pedaling faster for the all out time. And the second block was 4 rounds of 1-minute push paces with base paces in-between. This time, I did switch up my resistance level and used my normal push level (I still haven’t played around with increasing that just yet).

The rower was one long block. We started with a 100-meter row and went up 50 meters until we got to 250 meters. Between each row, it was supposed to be lunges with tricep extensions using a medicine ball but I modified them to be squats with tricep extensions. Then we worked our way back down from 250 meters to 100 meters and the exercise between each row was squat front raises with the medicine ball. As the trend was over the week, the numbness issue continued to get better. I still had a few moments when my feet were numb, but it was so much better than it had been and I was so grateful for that.

And the floor was also one long block. We had reverse lunges, side toe touches, side plank pendulums, hip bridges with weights, and sit-ups. I had modifications to the first two exercises, which I expected to need. But I went heavier than normal with my hip bridges so I figured that balanced things out for me.

Going into this past week, I had no idea I’d be increasing my base pace level and I hadn’t really been thinking about doing it. But I jumped into that challenge on Monday and really went for it all week. I will hopefully be able to continue to keep it up from now on, although I am open to playing around with the resistance levels on the bike depending on the type of workout like I’ve been doing. But knowing that I can just increase my resistance level as I did with no preparation and really go for it makes me feel so strong and powerful.

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Benchmarks and Hard Work (or Having A Week Of Feeling Awesome)

Posted on July 15, 2019 | Comments Off on Benchmarks and Hard Work (or Having A Week Of Feeling Awesome)

I love it when I have a good workout week, and this past week of workouts was one of those. When I have a good week, it’s like I am so strong and powerful and even the struggles I have don’t matter. I honestly wish every week was like this, but I guess it helps me appreciate them more when I have tough weeks too.

Monday’s workout was a strength based class and it was a 2 group class for me. I know that they have talked about turning that class into 2 groups instead of 3, but it still surprises me when it’s not a 3 group class. All my other classes are 3 groups and I love having equal time with all 3 sections of the room. With 2 group classes, you don’t always get to row and I miss it.

For cardio, we had 3 blocks that were similar. We had intervals with our base pace at either no incline or incline. The intervals were between 30 seconds and 2 minutes and the incline work wasn’t too high. I made the resistance level on the bike at the same level I use for all outs for the incline work since that is a tough level for me. I also knew how many incline intervals we had and I didn’t want to burn out. This had the potential to become a bit of a struggle at the end of each block because we ended with a hill and then an all out. So I decided to change things up a bit and do my all outs with my base resistance level but trying to pedal as quickly as I could. It was a good challenge to do and paid off in my other workouts this past week, plus it allowed me to not worry too much about the high resistance levels.

For the floor, we also had 3 blocks. Each block started with a quick rowing exercise. We had 15 strokes on the rower to see how far we could get. The key to doing the stroke tests is to row as slowly as possible while trying to maintain power when pushing back. It’s not easy, but I’ve gotten much better at doing this and can get pretty far in 15 strokes. Then after the rowing, we had 2 exercises in each block. One exercise was a drop set and the other was core work. The drop set exercises were tricep extensions, bicep curls, and deadlifts. And the core work was toe reaches, leg raises, and plank jacks. Even though it was a 2 group class so I had more time on the floor than I’m used to, the blocks really helped to break things up a bit and make the time go by faster.

Wednesday’s workout was a benchmark class. It was the 1-mile benchmark and I was really looking forward to doing it. Even though I have most of my cardio benchmarks from the treadmill, I’m starting to get a few on the bike so I’m able to compare my last benchmark to the current one. I think it’s so much better when I don’t have to guess on my progress and have proof of how much better I’m doing.

I started on cardio so I could do my benchmark first. I had checked my last benchmark time for the bike so I knew what time I was hoping to beat. I didn’t have a specific time in mind, I just wanted to beat my old time. I set the resistance level to be at the level between my normal base and push paces because I figured it would make it a bit challenging but not so hard that I had to slow down. I also had a goal to not stop to catch my breath or drink water during the benchmark and I knew that wasn’t going to be easy. When we started, I quickly found a pace that was fast but comfortable enough that I felt like I could maintain it for the entire time. I figured I would be done in under 9 minutes so I just kept watching the time and making sure I was hitting the distances I knew I needed to be at each time. And I was not just hitting those goals but I was doing better! When I was done, I took 31 seconds off of my benchmark time! That’s a huge improvement and I’m so happy that I was able to do it! After the benchmark, the rest of the cardio time was doing quick distances with walking recovery in between so I was able to take some time and recover.

On the rower, we started with a 600-meter row and then had arm raises with the mini-band. We repeated that pattern but went down 100 meters with each row. And the floor had lunges, single-arm rows, shoulder presses, and crunches. The rower and floor were kept a bit easier than normal because a lot of the class had to do one or both of those sections before the benchmark and doing the benchmark was the focus. But since I did the benchmark first, I did try to push myself a little bit more on both sections to make it a bit harder.

Friday’s workout was a mix of strength and endurance with more incline work for cardio. It was also supposed to be a day to have a new base pace, but I’m still getting used to the base resistance level I use on the bike so I didn’t increase mine. But I did try to work hard at pedaling faster when we were at a base pace so I think that balances it out.

We had 2 blocks for cardio. The first block had intervals of base pace with no inclines and base pace with inclines. I used my normal all out resistance level to be my inclines and my normal base resistance level for the time without the inclines. It was hard pedaling for the incline work because my legs were tired for some reason, but I just tried to focus on moving even if I was slow. The second block had a 3-minute hill that was supposed to be at a lower incline, so I used my normal push pace resistance level for that section. Both blocks ended with a 30 second all out and I used my normal all out level (which was also my hill level) for those. It was a long block with lots of work, but I guess that’s what makes it an endurance day.

On the rower, we also had 2 blocks. The first block was 4 rounds of 150-meter rows with squat front presses using the medicine ball. And the second block was 2 rounds of 300-meter rows with squat overhead presses with the medicine ball. I did much better during the first block than I did for the second. I don’t know what happened, but I was struggling during the long rows and had to take a ton of breaks. But at least I did make it through the 2 rounds of 300 meters before the rowing time was done.

And on the floor, we had 1 long block. We had 3 main exercises plus plank pull-throughs. The first round we had 1 round of 10 reps of the exercises and then the planks. The second round was 2 rounds of 8 reps and then planks. And the last round was 3 rounds of 6 reps and then planks. The 3 main exercises were chest presses, single-arm low rows with weights, and bicep curls. I did make it to the 3rd round, but because time was almost done I just did all 18 reps for the chest presses and bicep curls instead of splitting them up and was working on the planks when class ended.

Saturday’s workout was an endurance class, and it really felt like an endurance day for sure. The blocks were long, the work was hard, and it didn’t feel like we had much rest. But it also allowed me to end my week feeling so strong.

For cardio, we had 1 long block. We started with a 4-minute progressive push and I was increasing my resistance levels every minute. I started 1 level above my normal base level and ended at my normal all out level. After that, we had a long base recovery (but no walking recovery) and then we had rounds of 30-second push paces with 1-minute base paces. I was using my normal levels for those, but they felt so much harder because we had done so much work before those rounds. When we ended with our 30 second all out, I went back to my all out level and was able to pedal much faster than I normally can for an all out.

On the rower, we had 2 blocks with similar formats. The first block started with a 250-meter row and then we had squats with alternating side leg lifts. Each round we went down 50 meters on the rower and 2 reps on the squats with leg lifts. The second block started with a 350-meter row and went down 50 meters each round. And between the rowing we were supposed to do squats to reverse lunges, but I did just regular squats instead.

And on the floor, we also had 2 blocks. The first block started with doing double crunches. Then we had single leg sit to stand with the benches. But what was interesting was that we did multiple rounds of reps for that exercise. We did 8 reps each side, then 6 reps each side, 4 reps each side, and then 2 reps each side. After doing all the reps, then we had another round of double crunches. And the second block had the same interesting plan with how to do the reps. We had 8/6/4/2 reps with lunges, then with hip bridges, and finally with shoulder presses. And after doing all 4 rounds of reps with one exercise we had more double crunches. It wasn’t easy doing so many reps at a time, but when I got to move on to the next exercise I felt so accomplished.

I love how well this past week of workouts went for me and I’m glad I had a full week of good things. I hope that most of this week will go well for me, but I also know that it will probably start getting tough mid-way throught the week. But I know that even if I struggle for the next 2 weeks, I’ll hopefully have another good week in a month where I can prove to myself that I’m making progress even when I feel like all I do is struggle.

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The Power Of My Voice (or Even More Closure)

Posted on April 24, 2019 | Comments Off on The Power Of My Voice (or Even More Closure)

A month ago, I wrote about how almost every month I learn something new about myself through my adventures in dating. And of course, I’ve learned another thing recently. And it is actually something I learned through the same guy I was writing about before. He is someone I was seeing on and off for a while but he is now engaged. He has continued to message me saying how he was confused and wanted to talk. While I felt like I had the closure I needed, I also couldn’t deny him the same. I know I don’t owe anything to anyone, but I can’t help it.

When we saw each other, he panicked and freaked out. He said he wanted to leave and while I didn’t want to hold him hostage I also didn’t want to lose this chance. I don’t plan on seeing him again because I have moved on and don’t care what he does with his life. He is the one who is still confused. It’s unfortunate since he is the one getting married soon, but I can’t control what he wants to do with his life. If he feels like he needs or wants to get married but is still confused about it, that’s on him. And I wanted to finally have the talk in person that we have been avoiding for a while.

He didn’t do much talking, but I did. Most of the things I said to him were things I have said to him over text. It was mainly about how he hurt me and how I have had to move on. I mentioned how I couldn’t forget what he did and how he was a coward in failing to be honest to me. I wasn’t trying to be mean or harsh, just truthful in what I felt and thought. I know it wasn’t nice and he didn’t like hearing what I had to say, but if he wasn’t going to talk about what he wanted to talk about I was going to talk about what I wanted to say.

He eventually left without saying much more than that he was sorry and that he couldn’t talk. He left very shook up by what I was saying and it surprised me to see that. I wasn’t saying things he didn’t know already. But I realized that every time he heard that from me in the past it was over text. Since he previously knew me as sweet and gentle (how I normally am in real life), maybe he was reading those messages from me with that same vibe. But hearing me say it and how strong I was being probably made him realize I wasn’t kidding before. Hearing the words come out of me most likely hit him in a different way than he had experienced before.

So much of our communication these days is over text. Not just with dating, but with work and personal stuff too. Even with my day job, I get more customers using our online chat system than phone calls. Texts are so much easier to do sometimes and they allow people to multi-task. But it also can lead to confusion since there is a lack of tone over text. While I feel like missing the tone usually leads to a text sounding worse than it really is, in this case with this guy it seems like it made it seem better. My feelings and thoughts were probably not taken seriously because my tone was missing. At least now I know that he knows exactly what I meant and if he is still confused that is completely on him. I cannot force him to be clear in what he wants, all I can do is make sure that I make myself clear. And that’s what I did.

Since meeting up with that guy, I have been more aware of when I send a text instead of calling or saying something in person. I know that not everyone likes to talk on the phone, but I can at least make an effort if I feel like something would be better over the phone. And some people will answer or will text if they can’t talk asking if they can call back later. I’m being extra cautious about what I text to someone and am going that extra step to call when I’m not totally sure if my tone would come across. It might be a silly thing, but realizing how little someone understood what I meant over text has made me so aware of making sure that it doesn’t happen again. It’s not about things as seriously as they were with this guy, but I’m still glad when I feel like someone knows what I’m saying and what I feel about it.

Obviously I will still do a ton of texting since that is much easier than calling and a lot of things can be said over text with no issues. But realizing the power of my voice with this one guy made me realize that I don’t appreciate that power enough and I should use it more often.

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Dri-Tri Prep Workouts (or The Beginning Of My Workout Week)

Posted on September 24, 2018 | Comments Off on Dri-Tri Prep Workouts (or The Beginning Of My Workout Week)

This past week of workouts consisted of 3 regular workouts and the Dri-Tri. My experience of the Dri-Tri is going to be in a different post (I feel like it always deserves its own post), so this is just about my first 3 workouts of the week.

Monday’s workout was a weird one for me. I got to the workout feeling really good and doing my warm-up on the treadmill since I wasn’t feeling nauseous anymore. I was fine during the warm-up but as soon as I added incline to do the first push pace, the nausea returned. I was really disappointed in this because this workout was a power day and it was going to be a great day to work on running (which I wanted to do to prepare for the Dri-Tri), but I couldn’t keep going on the treadmill feeling like that and switched to the bike.

With the exception of the first push pace in the first block, all of the blocks on the cardio side were about doing all out paces and walking recoveries. Each block had the same pattern with the all out pace being the same amount of time and the walking recovery increasing by 15 seconds each time. Each block had 4 all out paces and 3 recoveries and the all out paces were 1 minute, 45 seconds, and 30 seconds. Since I was feeling frustrated on the bike, I decided to push myself more than normal. I did my normal all out resistance for the 1 minute block. For the 45 second block I did 2 levels higher which I rarely use. And for the 30 second block I went another 2 levels higher which I usually only use if there is supposed to be a high incline on the treadmill for hill work. It wasn’t easy, but it made me feel better about being on the bike.

On the floor, we ended each block with an all out on the rower to go along with the last all out that the people on the treadmill were doing. But before that row, we had regular exercises to do. The first block was clean to press with weights and goblet squats. I went really heavy with my weight for the goblet squats and my legs were really feeling that the next day (probably the work with high resistance on the bike also made my legs sore). The second block was squats to high rows with weights and running man. And the last block was plank leg raises and double crunches. And with all the rowing all outs, I tried to get my rowing to be the best form possible while going quickly and with a lot of strength coming from my legs. Our rowers were set to MPH instead of wattage and I was able to get the MPH higher each time I was on the rower.

Wednesday’s workout was an endurance based run/row and I was a bit nervous about it. My legs were still feeling a bit sore from Monday’s workout (clearly I overdid it a lot) and I didn’t know how I would feel on the treadmill. But somehow, it really felt like we weren’t on the treadmill much at all.

We had 3 blocks of the run/row and it was kind of like we created our own plan. In the first block, we had a 2 1/2 minute row for distance. We had to remember what the distance was and after that we had a recovery row for about a minute. Then we were in the next block. For the second block, we had to row the same distance we got in our 2 1/2 minute row, but the goal was to complete it faster. I managed to take a few seconds off of my row which made me happy. When the row was done, we went to the treadmill and went until the block ended (which was about 4 1/2 minutes for me). I was power walking slightly slower than I normally do because my legs were sore. But it also felt good to be on the treadmill to try to stretch them out a bit. When that block ended, we had to remember the distance on the treadmill. And for the last block, we had to do the distance we got on the treadmill again and then go to the rower to do the distance we did in the first block. And if there was any time left after that, we had to hold a static squat. I finished with about 15 seconds left so I got to do a little bit of squat work before switching to the floor.

The floor also had 3 blocks and in all 3 blocks we had blast-off push-ups. These are push-ups that start with you leaning back like you are getting ready to spring and them push forward to be in a plank to do a push-up. They were not easy to do and they were actually making me feel a bit queasy. It was a different feeling than my hormonal nausea which was interesting to experience in a workout. So I had to be careful with where I was focusing my eyes during these push-ups. In the first block we also had skier swings with weights. The second block we also had uppercuts with weights and triceps with weights. And in the last block we also had weighted squat swings and bicycle crunches. I wasn’t going too heavy on my weights, especially on the squat work because I was sore. But I think because I was sore it felt like I was working harder than I really was, but that’s ok. I also was feeling a bit less sore after the workout than I was when I started.

Friday was my last workout before the Dri-Tri. I was debating if I should go a bit easier on myself so I didn’t get too sore or feel tired the next day, but when I saw it was a power workout I decided not to do that. I was still being a bit cautious and not going too hard, but I also wanted to test myself. I haven’t had a lot of time on the treadmill lately and I haven’t been able to do a lot of running. But with the Dri-Tri I really wanted to try to do some running intervals. So this workout was my last chance to test them out.

It was a 3 group workout so I was on the treadmill for about 15 minutes. We had 3 blocks and they all had a push pace, a base pace, a push pace, and an all out pace. Some of the push paces were a bit longer and over a minute and normally I would try to run those. But since I hadn’t been doing much running at all I decided to limit my running to 30 seconds at a time with the exception of the all out paces which were 45 seconds. While I would love my running intervals to be better and to know at the Dri-Tri I could do better than my last 5K, I’m not there yet. I was already thinking my run intervals for the next day would probably only be able to be 30 or 45 seconds, so limiting my running during the workout was a good prep day for what it would feel like. It wasn’t easy, but I felt a bit more optimistic that it would be possible to do intervals for the Dri-Tri as long as the rowing and floor work don’t burn me out.

Next I was on the rower where we had sprint row intervals. In between the rowing in the first and last block we had squats and in between the rowing in the second block we had lunges. The rowing was all short so a lot of people were pushing themselves to see how fast they could go. I decided to use that time to work on making sure my form is good and that I can stay steady with a pace. I still went a bit faster than I would have liked to, but all my rowing times were under the goal time which is always good. And on the floor we also had 3 blocks. We had lunges, push-ups, single arm chest presses, single arm reverse flys, hopovers, and bicep curls. I wasn’t using the heaviest weights for the weighted work because I didn’t want to be too sore on Saturday. But I still worked hard.

After those 3 workouts, I was cautiously optimistic about my Dri-Tri. I knew that I had done the best I could to be ready for it, but I also knew that there was so much more that I would have liked to do. I would have liked to have more long rowing challenges to test my endurance. I would have liked to be better with my running so I could feel confident that I could do run/walk intervals on the treadmill. And I would have liked to have just felt better about things going into it. There was still a bit of uncertainty on how well I would do, but I had to just keep telling myself that even if I am significantly slower than I ever have been, I will still be able to finish it.

And tomorrow I’ll share about how it went and whether or not I was able to reach any of the goals I had in my head.

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Default ThumbnailFeeling Better About My Progress (or Coming Back From The Dri-Tri) Default ThumbnailSome Dri-Tri Prep Workouts (or Trading One Ailment For Another) Default ThumbnailLots Of Running (or Dri-Tri Prep Week) Default ThumbnailMixing Up The Routine (or Almost PRs And Dri-Tri Prep) Default ThumbnailGetting Ready For The Dri-Tri (or Working My Way Through The Workouts) Default ThumbnailBack To Regular Workouts (or Making Improvements On My Dri-Tri)

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Some New Workout Milestones (or I’m Doing Better Than I Thought)

Posted on July 2, 2018 | 2 comments

My workouts have been pretty brutal for me lately. I hated that it was so bad and that I wasn’t able to do a lot of what I wanted or felt like I could. And I was thinking that this past week of workouts was finally going to be the time that things turned around for me. They didn’t totally turn around for me and I was still dealing with some issues (which hopefully won’t be the case much longer), but I did have some awesome workout milestones to make up for the challenges I had.

Monday was an endurance, strength, and power workout. And again this class which is usually 3 groups was a 2 group workout. It ended up feeling similar to 3 groups and that ended up being a good thing for me. While my nausea was finally ending, I was dealing with some horrendous cramps. I literally could feel my uterus contracting and that pain was some of the worst pain I’ve experienced. I took a painkiller before my workout, but I knew that it wasn’t going to be the best workout for me.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks and one was on the treadmill (bike for me) and the other was on the rower. Both blocks had a similar format. We started with a 30 second all out and then we had an exercise. Then we did that again before moving on to 2 rounds of 45 second all outs with exercises between. And I made it to the first 1 minute all out each time before the block ended. On the bike, the exercise was a squat to a low row using weights and on the rower it was lunges. On both block I had to take significant breaks to let the pain go away and I was just grateful that I didn’t hurt myself by falling off the bike or the rower.

On the floor we also had 2 blocks. The first block was frogger squats, sit-ups, leg lifts, and squat reach arounds on the straps. The second block was chest flys, bicep curls, plank reaches, and high rows on the straps. Just like with cardio, I had to take a lot of breaks on the floor. I needed to breathe through the cramps (I figured since they are a similar type of pain that you have when you give birth that breathing through them was a good idea) and they really didn’t seem to be getting better or worse through the workout. So I figured I would just do what I could and not worry too much about it.

Wednesday’s workout was another signature workout. This one is called Orange X and the goal is to do certain weightlifting exercises using the highest weight you can. I was looking forward to doing this workout for a few reasons. One is I knew that I had been doing better with weights so I was excited to see what I could do. Another reason was this was my 100th workout of 2018 which actually puts me a little bit ahead of my goal for the year!

The workout had a switch format and I stuck with the bike since I was still feeling a little off. The first block was 2.5 minutes which was a push pace, base pace, and all out pace and then we switched and did the same thing on the rower. Then the next block was a longer one that had a run/row in it. On the treadmill it was .2 miles (the bike is 4 times that) and then a 200 meter row. And each round the treadmills were supposed to increase the incline by 1%. So each round I increased the gears by 1. The final cardio block was more of a standard format with push pace to base pace with an all out at the end.

On the floor, the first block was split in half with half of us starting with the Orange X workout and the other half doing some body weight work. This was to allow people to test as many different weights as they could. I was on the side that started with body weight work and we had sit-ups, lunges, and mountain climbers. Halfway through the block we switched and it was my turn to try the heavy weights. We had a single arm low row, a goblet squat, and a chest press. With low rows, I’m usually using 15lb weights (sometimes 20lb), with goblet squats it’s usually 25lb, and with chest press I’m usually around 20lb or 25lb. But of course I had to push myself. So I started with the low row and used 35lb and while it was tough and probably didn’t look pretty I did it! I would have loved to try the same weight for the chest press, but I knew that laying on my back I was in a riskier position if the weights were too heavy so I tried 30lb. That ended up being the perfect tough weight for me. And because of my coach I tried using a 45lb weight for the first time for my squats! I actually might have been able to go a bit heavier, but my grip wasn’t strong enough.

I was so surprised by what I was able to do and I’m so glad that I tried to do weights that seemed impossible to me! I will still have to ease into using these weights for regular workouts since we usually have more reps to do, but it was a nice confidence boost to realize how strong I am! We had one more floor block in the end where we got to do the Orange X work again and I stuck with my new heavier weights then too.

Friday’s workout was the first one where I seriously thought I’d finally be back on the treadmill. But I need my first treadmill workout back to be one where we have a bit more recovery time or we switch between blocks. And Friday’s workout was an endurance workout with a 23 minute block on the treadmill so I was back on the bike.

We had longer push paces with base paces after. Each round for 3 rounds the push pace got shorter and the base pace got longer and we repeated that for a total of 6 rounds. I was only taking breaks when I needed water which ended up being about every other base pace. But I was also pedaling faster than normal so I think I was sweating more and feeling thirsty more often. I never felt like I was taking a break to catch my breath which was a nice feeling. I know that if this workout was one with shorter blocks I probably could have been fine on the treadmill. But I knew that I’d be back on the treadmill back soon enough.

On the floor, it was one longer block that was bookended by rowing. At the beginning and end of the block was had a 2 minute row for distance. I did beat my first row by about 20 meters when I did the second row, so I was pretty excited about that. And on the floor, we had a lot of mini-band work. We had half of it as lower body work and half of it as upper body work. For lower body work we had bench tap squats using weights, squat front walks, and knee tucks. For all of those the bands were around my calf. And the upper body work were plank side reaches and front raises. Both of those had the bands around my wrist. I was definitely feeling it in my shoulders and quads by the time I was back on the rower to end the workout, but it wasn’t too bad. I was worried I might have overdone it during Wednesday’s workout and I was pleasantly surprised I wasn’t super sore during Friday’s workout.

On Saturday, I was thinking I’d be using the treadmill but I still didn’t. There were 2 reasons why I stuck with the bike. First, this was going to be my last workout of the month and I figured it would be kind of interesting to have a full month of just the bike in my calendar. But the bigger reason was that I was a bit scared. It’s been a very long time since I was on the treadmill and it’s worrying me how I will do. I need to get over this fear and I’m setting a goal to use the treadmill at least once this week, but it wasn’t the case last week.

The workout had a mix of everything. We had a block on cardio that was a normal endurance block with longer push paces with base paces after. We had a block that was run/floor work with 45 second all out paces with frogger squats. And we had a block that was a run/row with 45 second all out paces with 200 meter rows. And the 45 second all out paces were at inclines (or higher resistances for me on the bike). It was a bit tough jumping on and off the bike, but not too bad and I was able to get moving again pretty quickly after the frogger squats and rowing.

On the floor I wanted to try a bit with heavier weights. We had lunges which I used 25lb weights for and upright rows which I used 20lb weights for (both of those are 1 set heavier than I would usually grab). Then we had a 500 meter row and then it was single arm low row and bicep curls with weights. I really wanted to use 15lb weights for my biceps because I knew my arms were getting tired, but they were all being used by other people so I had to use 20lb weights instead. It was good to be forced to use the heavier weights. Then we had a 250 meter row and then more weight work with pullovers and toe reaches. For the toe reaches I had to go low on the weight, but I moved up to a weight heavier with the 30lb weight for my pullovers!

While I didn’t get all the improvements and victories in my workouts that I wanted to have, I still had a lot to be proud of. I did heavier weights than I ever knew I could use and used the heavier weights as a guide for other workouts. And I hit the 100 workout milestone for the year! Those are both things to be very happy with and I just hope the positive momentum keeps going into this week!

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Another Weird Workout Week (or Dealing With A Different Type Of Nausea)

Posted on May 7, 2018 | Comments Off on Another Weird Workout Week (or Dealing With A Different Type Of Nausea)

I wrote recently about having to go to the doctor and get on antibiotics for an infection. Doing that kind of messed with my workouts this past week. I thought I was going to have a week with nausea only at the beginning of the week, and it ended up being a week that was full of feeling off.

Monday’s workout was the last day of my mileage challenge and I knew based on how I was feeling that I would need to be on the bike for the workout. I was a little bit disappointed I wasn’t ending the challenge on the treadmill, but I already knew I passed the half marathon mark on the treadmills so I was excited to see what distance I could get for the month for the bike. It was a strength based workout, which means inclines on the treadmill, so I wasn’t too sad to miss inclines since they aren’t my favorite.

It was a 3 group workout so we were at each station for about 15 minutes. On the treadmill/bike, we had 2 blocks. Each block had a 2 minute hill and a 1 minute hill. I tried to add extra resistance to the bike for the hills, but I ended up mainly sticking with the resistance levels I use for my push or all out paces. I know I wasn’t working that hard (my lack of sweat was a sign of that) but I was doing what I could do considering how I was feeling. I tried to limit my breaks and managed to do better with that than expected, but I also know that I would have liked to have even fewer breaks.

I was on the rower next where we had one long block. It was decreasing rows starting at 500 meters and between each round of rowing we had shoulder work using the mini-bands. I wasn’t too worried about my rowing times so I just focused on my form. And the shoulder work wasn’t easy but it was a nice break from the rowing. I was able to get down to the 100 meter row before time was called and was pretty happy that I didn’t have to take any mid-row breaks. And I finished on the floor where we had 1 long block with rows with weights, strap tricep work, chest fly using weight, bicep curls with weights, sumo squats with weights, and sit-ups. I was a bit worried about how I would feel with everything, but it was awesome to not need any modifications and was able to use the heavier weights for almost all the weighted work.

I was hopeful going into Wednesday’s workout because on Tuesday I wasn’t feeling nauseous anymore, but then the antibiotics I took was starting to make me feel off. But even with that, I was determined to get back onto the treadmill for the workout. When I found out it was a strength day with inclines on the treadmill, I was a bit nervous about that. But I decided that I just needed to see what I could do. Fortunately we did switch between the blocks so I wasn’t on the treadmill for more than about 7 minute at a time.

On the treadmill, we had a 2 minute hill in each block. For the runners, the first minute was running at incline and the second minute was power walking at a very high incline. I tried to do a similar thing with walking at my normal speed for the first minute and then going to the very high incline but slowing down my speed for the second minute. I definitely had to take more breaks than I would have liked because of how I was feeling on the antibiotics. I also was feeling really out of breath which might have been due to not being on the treadmill for a while or the antibiotics. I’m not totally sure which one it was but it didn’t really matter to me. I just knew that when I was feeling really off that I needed to take a break and get some water.

When we were on the floor, every block started with a 300 meter row. I really wasn’t paying too much attention to my row times but I do know that I got slower with each block. After the row, we had 2 exercises each block. We had goblet squats, hammer curls, front squats, reverse flys, single leg squats using the straps, and sit-ups. I usually don’t do single leg squats but decided since the first round was doing 6 on each side I could try them. It took me forever to do them, but I managed to get it done! I know my form wasn’t the best, but just being able to do single leg squats when I was so sure I couldn’t do them really helped to make me feel better when I was looking for victories in the workout.

After feeling off on Wednesday, I was hopeful that things might be better on Friday. Things really weren’t, but the workout was something that ended up being easier on my body. It was a run/row workout but we switched every 4.5 minutes so I was never doing treadmill work for very long.

The idea of the run/row was that it was a 400 meter row and a .25 mile run (.13 mile walk for me). Some blocks would start with the row and some blocks would start with the run. The idea was to get back to whatever thing you started on before time was called for the block. So if you started with the row, the goal was to do the row, do the run, and get back to the rower. For all of the blocks, I never made it back to what I started on. I wasn’t that surprised that I couldn’t do that since my rowing was pretty slow. I was doing ok on the treadmill considering how I was feeling but that was because I was usually only on it for a few minutes at a time.

And on the floor we had something interesting. We had 5 moves for each block and they were always the same. We had lateral lunges with weights, ground to press with weights, pull-ups on the straps, shoulder presses, and crunches. Everything was timed so we did 45 seconds of each exercise except the crunches which was 30 seconds. Even though they were the same 5 things each block, they were done in a different order each time. We always ended with crunches, but the other 4 moves switched around from block to block. Since things switched up each block, it never felt repetitive. But I was feeling a bit sore in a good way after the workout was done.

And on Saturday, I finally was starting to feel almost totally better. I still was dealing with a bit of nausea, but it was so little compared to how the previous few weeks were that I wasn’t going to let it get me down too much. And I was able to prove it to myself in the workout.

The treadmill portion had 3 blocks but the first 2 were the same. It was supposed to be a 5.5 minute run for distance with intervals alternating push pace and base pace. But since as a walker that just means adjusting the incline, I decided to go for the entire 5.5 minutes at my push incline of 6%. I can’t remember the last time I was at that incline for that long, but I’m so glad that I push myself to do it. I did have to take a few breaks to let the nausea pass and drink some water, but it was much better than I expected to do. And for the last block, it was 5 all out pace intervals with 3 of them being a minute, 1 being 45 seconds, and the last one being 30 seconds. I was pretty happy with how I did in the treadmill blocks, especially since it was for about 25 minutes when you add it all up.

On the floor, we had 1 long block with rowing and 7 different exercises. It was a bit of a complicated format to try to explain on here, but basically we had 3 mini-blocks within the big block. Each mini block started with a 250 meter row and plank jacks. Then we had 5 rounds of 5 reps of 2 different exercises. The exercises included dumbbell swings, burpees, chest presses with weights, low rows with weights, shoulder presses with weights, and pop jacks. With having to do 5 rounds of 5 reps, I knew we had 25 reps in the mini block. I didn’t want to have to switch every 5 reps so I split it into 2 rounds doing 15 in one round and 10 in another. I know I probably should have split it up into the rounds of 5, but I just didn’t want to have to keep switching because I didn’t want to have to think. But even with my modification I know I still had an amazing workout!

Considering what I had to deal with this past week of workouts, I’m pretty happy with how things turned out. I’m hoping this week will go better because I finally finished my antibiotics yesterday and I shouldn’t be dealing with hormonal nausea for another week or so. And I’m even more motivated to keep pushing myself because I am trying to keep doing my mileage challenge and seeing how many miles I can get done in May!

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Default ThumbnailDri-Tri Prep Workouts (or The Beginning Of My Workout Week) Default ThumbnailA Bad Workout Week For A Different Reason (or I Guess I Was Too Optimistic) Default ThumbnailSome Nausea And Benchmarks (or A High And Low Workout Week) Default ThumbnailA Good Workout Week (or Only Dealing With Old Issues) Default ThumbnailFirst Week of Workouts After The Challenge (or Weird Workout Times) Default ThumbnailA Very Weird Workout Week (or Food Poisoning And Holiday Workouts)

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A Badass Workout Week (or Better Than Expected)

Posted on April 23, 2018 | Comments Off on A Badass Workout Week (or Better Than Expected)

This past week of workouts had the potential to not be as great as I would like. Because I know when I typically will be nauseous, I was worried that 2 of my workouts would be affected by that since going by a typical schedule I should have started to feel nauseous mid-week. But my body decided to go easy on me (maybe my body was also celebrating my Medical Miracle Anniversary too!) and I had a much better workout week that I was expecting!

Monday’s workout was a 3 group switch workout. It’s funny how normally I love these types of workouts but when I’m trying to get a lot of treadmill mileage for my challenge they are my least favorites. But I was just happy to have a workout that I was excited about even if it meant I wouldn’t be spending a lot of time on the treadmill. Essentially, we had 3 rounds around the room and each block was 4 minutes each, but we also had 1 round that was a little bit different.

For the treadmill, the first and last round was a 4 minute distance challenge. I knew I couldn’t run this even though I really wanted to, so the first time I did it I just did my normal speed with my push pace incline. But when I got back to the treadmill for the last time, I really wanted to do a little bit better so I increased my speed by .1 for the first 3 minutes and then bumped it up again for the last minute. Power walking that fast was a bit tough and I don’t think I could do it for a longer block, but it did make me think that maybe I could work on testing my walking speeds a bit more. And on the rower, the first and last round were 4 minute distance rows. I got over 800 meters both times and did better when I did it the second time which is always something that makes me happy.

But for the second round around the room, the treadmill and row was almost more of like a run/row format. The block was split into 2 and we had 90 seconds on each side. I did it twice since we had one run/row when I started on the treadmill and another run/row when I started on the rower. This was when I really started to test my speed on the treadmill for power walking. I kept my incline at my base pace incline but worked on increasing the speed. I got it up to .3 faster than I normally walk but that was almost too fast for me. I managed to keep it up for the 90 seconds I had to do it, but I’m pretty sure that I couldn’t do much longer than that.

And on the floor, each of the 3 blocks started with lunges and then we had 2 different exercises to finish out the 4 minutes. The first block was full thrusters with weights and high rows with the straps. The second block was squat low rows with weights and bicep curls on the straps. And the last block was pull ups with the straps and seated torso rotations. I was using lighter weights than I have in the past because I was getting really tired on the floor. I worked really hard on the treadmill and rower and I know my floor work suffered a bit because of that. I also was using the floor time as almost a bit of a rest time since we were going so much with very little rest time between rotations. I know the idea is to keep working because when you work through you build up endurance. But I’ve also learned from all my coaches that it’s so important to listen to your body and my body was saying I needed to take things a bit easy on the floor.

Wednesday’s workout was a strength day which meant inclines on the treadmill. I was a bit worried about the workout because I really didn’t sleep the night before. I tried to sleep, but even though I was in bed for 7 hours I only got about 90 minutes of sleep. That’s not the best way to sleep before a morning workout but I was determined to see what I could do. We had 3 blocks on the treadmill and they all followed the same pattern: 90 second push pace at an incline, 45 second base pace at no incline, repeat, and then end with 90 second push pace at incline followed by 30 second all out pace.

The first block I did the inclines at 8%, the second block I did at 7%, and the last block I did at 6%. Those inclines were a bit lower than power walkers were supposed to do, but they were pretty good for me. And with the final push to all out pace, I just kept my incline the same so I basically ended each block with a 2 minute push pace. The first block at 8% was really tough for me because that is usually the incline I use for all out paces and those aren’t more than a minute. So to do it for 90 seconds and 2 minutes was not easy. I did have to take some breaks during the inclines, but I did much better than I expected. I kept my normal speed for all 3 blocks and got a decent amount of distance on the treadmill by the time we switched to the floor.

The floor also had 3 blocks. Each of the blocks had a 300 meter row if you got done with the floor work, but I never made it to the rower. The first block used the mini-bands for 2 exercises. I’m used to using the bands on my legs, but this time we used them on our arms. We had walkouts with the bands which made the walkouts so tough! My shoulders and arms were really feeling it but it was good because walk outs are typically pretty easy for me. We also had lunges with arm rotations with the bands on our arms. Again, that made me feel it in my shoulders so much. The second block was bench burpees and lateral lunges. And the last block was lunges and crunches. For the weighted work I used my normal weights, but I also added a dumbbell to my crunches which isn’t something I always do. It definitely made them harder to do, but I think I needed to push myself a bit when I know that crunches can be pretty easy for me.

Friday’s workout was on my Medical Miracle anniversary, so I was excited to work out. Marking 1 year since not needing surgery was a big deal and I was happy to celebrate it by sweating hard! This workout was endurance, strength, and power based and I started on the treadmill.

We had 5 blocks and they all were themed to one type of workout. When we had power blocks, they were short and either short push to all out paces or just an all out pace. For the endurance block, we had a longer push pace, a base pace, a shorter push pace, a base pace, and an all out pace. And with the strength block, we had incline work with the inclines going up every minute. For most of the blocks, I did my usual inclines and speed. For the strength block, I wasn’t able to get the inclines up as high as I should have but I still tried to increase my incline each minute. I was having some minor nausea issues that morning so I did need to take some breaks to let that pass, but it wasn’t that bad compared to what I usually experience.

The floor was also 5 blocks and it was very focused on core work and lunges. We had a block with ab dolly knee tucks and ab dolly roll outs. A block with clean to presses with weights, lunges with shoulder presses, and then rowing for distance until time was called on the block. Another block with ab dolly knee tucks and ab dolly roll outs. A block with lunges to shoulder presses, bicycle curls, and rowing for distance until time was called. And we ended with a block of ab dolly knee tucks. I usually love ab dolly work, but it was a bit tough with the nausea. I just worked on taking breaks and getting upright when I needed to and was able to get through it pretty easily.

Saturday’s workout was a signature workout for Orangetheory. This was the Orange Inferno and it was a workout I had done before so I wasn’t too stressed about it. My main fear was that I was going to be super nauseous during the workout, but before going in I was still feeling pretty decent so I was optimistic that I’d do ok in the workout.

The Inferno was during the cardio which was a run/row. We had rounds of .25 mile runs (.13 miles for me since I was walking) and 200 meter rows. The goal was to do 5-8 rounds in 23 minutes. Run/row days are some of my favorites, but I also knew that I’d have to work extra hard because a run/row meant I wouldn’t get as much time on the treadmill. I think I might have to keep doing mileage challenges because they really are motivating me on the treadmill! After my warmup, I had a goal in my head that I wanted to at least complete the 6th round on the treadmill. Because of the distance in my warmup, that would get me to 1 mile for the class which is a good goal to have.

The first time I was on the treadmill, I did my usual speed and at 6% incline which is what we were supposed to be at. But after that, I realized that I would have to kick things up a bit to get all the rounds I wanted to get in. The next 2 rounds I increased it by .1mph and it didn’t feel too bad. At the end I had to get to the max I can do as a walk in order to make sure I finished and that was pretty tough. I probably could increase my walking speed a bit, but I totally went too hard at the end. And with all the 200 meter rows, I had to look at those as almost my recovery time since I didn’t want to waste time doing nothing. But even considering those as recovery I always got them done in under a minute. Once we were done with the 23 minutes, I hit my goal and actually went a little bit further. I didn’t switch over to the rower at the end, but I did .15 miles in that last round which brought me to be just above a mile for the entire block.

Once I was on the floor, I was exhausted. My legs were so tired, but fortunately the floor work focused on upper body and arms. The first block had push ups, chest flys with weights, tricep work with weights, and crunches. The second block was plank low rows with weights, low rows on the straps, hammer curls, and sit ups. And the last block was a core blast with leg raises and sit ups. I didn’t go too heavy with the weights I was using because I was feeling tired and I knew my form was a bit sloppier than I would have liked. Heavy weights would have just made my form worse. But even with the lighter weights I still felt it and was ready to take a nap when class was done!

I’m so happy with how this past week of workouts went for me. I really was expecting it to be so much worse than what it ended up like. I am still worried about when my nausea may hit me, but I’m trying to stay optimistic that maybe this month I won’t have to deal with it or I’ll only have it for a week instead of 2 weeks. I’ve only got about 5 more workouts in my mileage challenge and I’ve already hit the first goal I had in mind. But I’m only halfway to the next goal I had and I don’t think that I’ll be able to make it to that one. But I’m definitely debating doing these mileage challenges on my own each month so I’m just looking at this as my starting point. I know that I can do better in the future!

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Another Peak Performance Week (or Some PRs and Some Not-So-PRs)

Posted on July 24, 2017 | 1 comment

Another Peak Performance Week is done and to be honest it didn’t quite go the way I thought it would. It seems like most of the time during that week I will PR or come really close to getting a PR on all the challenges. But this week didn’t have that in the cards for me and it’s not easy to accept that. I know so many of my posts about my workouts lately have been how I need to go easier on myself, and this week was another example of that.

Monday’s challenge was the 500 meter row. It was a 3G class and I started on the treadmill. But because I knew the rowing would be after my first treadmill block I took the treadmill pretty easy. Once I got to the rower, I knew that my PR going in to that workout was 1:53.7. My goal in my head was to get it under 1:50 flat. I went pretty hard and fast as soon as I started and fortunately I didn’t seem to gas out until the very end of the row. I tried to not look at the timer on the rower and just focus on the countdown for the meters. And when I got to the last 100 meters I went as hard as I could since I knew it would be done soon. When I got my 500 meters done, I took a look at the timer and was pretty surprised with myself.

I had a feeling I had gotten under 1:50, but I had no idea I had done it that quickly! That’s about 7.5 seconds faster than my old PR which was only done earlier this month! I was not expecting to have such a huge improvement in such a short time frame.

After the rower challenge was done, we were into a more normal 3G workout that had a strength focus. I pretty much overdid it with the rower and was still dealing with a bit of nausea so I walked everything on the treadmill. On the rower, besides having the challenge we had 200 meter sprints with 20 seconds of rest in-between and also a 3 minute row for distance (I didn’t do so great with that since it was at the end of class). And on the floor, we mainly did upper body work but there was a bit of ab work and some squats thrown in there too.

Wednesday’s challenge was the floor rep challenge. I have done this before but I hadn’t looked at what my previous rep counts were before this class. This class had 4 blocks on the treadmill and 4 blocks on the floor and I started on the treadmill. The first treadmill block I was able to do my normal running for the push paces and walking for my base paces. Next on the floor was some lunges, abs, and a 200 meter row. Then I headed back to the treadmill.

I knew that right after this treadmill block I’d be doing the floor challenge so I walked the 4 minutes I was on the treadmill. I didn’t want to get too tired before the floor work and I think most people were taking it easy for that same reason. Then I went to the floor where it was 4 minutes of continuous work. The challenge is that you count how many reps in those 4 minutes you do. It’s 1 minute of squats, 1 minute of push ups, 1 minute of pull ups on the straps, and 1 minute of sit ups.

Since I didn’t know what my old count was, I didn’t worry too much this time on what I wanted to get done. I did 95 reps total in those 4 minutes and felt pretty happy with myself. Then back to the treadmill where I did another 4 minutes of walking before going back to the floor to do the floor challenge again. This time, the exercises were reversed (so sit ups, pull ups, push ups, and squats). During the squats I knew I’d be close to 95 again so at the very end I did 2 really speedy squats and got my count up to 96. All I ever want to do is at least 1 better than what I did before and that’s exactly what I did. But after class I realized that I had done well over 100 reps the last time I had this challenge and I was a bit disappointed that I wasn’t able to do better.

And Friday was the last day of Peak Performance Week and it was the mile challenge day. This is always what I look forward to and fear that I will struggle with. I don’t know how I got it in my head that the mile challenge is such a big deal, but that’s what I think of it. Since I knew I wanted to get it done first, I made sure that I started on the treadmill. I had been trying to plan out how fast I need to go for how long to get a PR. I already knew that I wasn’t going to try to run the entire thing but instead do intervals with really fast sprints.

As soon as we got started, I did my first sprint. I did 1 minute at 6mph followed by 1 minute at 5.5mph. I then walked for a minute to recover at 3.8mph (this is the same pattern I had when I PRed). This worked really well for 2 rounds and then things started to fall apart. I was already having a bad hip day and had only gotten about 3 hours of sleep the night before so my body wasn’t feeling so great. And after my second round I knew that I was overdoing it. I had to jump the rails to take a quick break. Since I didn’t stop my treadmill, this is totally cheating and I’m not happy about it.

For my third round, I reduced the run time and increased my walking because I knew the last round was coming up for me to finish my mile. And I knew that I’d be pretty close to what my old PR time was so I wanted to make sure I went as fast as I possibly could go. I don’t remember the exact speeds I went, but I think I was between 6-6.8mph for the last 90 seconds or so. And once I got my mile done, I stopped my treadmill.

This is exactly what my PR was from before. But since I jumped the rails to catch my breath, it doesn’t really count. But to know that I was able to tie myself isn’t too shabby. I haven’t been doing as much running lately as I had before the last Peak Performance Week and I was dealing with some physical issues this time. So I think to have expected to PR was almost unreasonable even though that’s exactly what I had hoped for.

After the mile challenge, we moved to the floor where we had some arm work and rowing. I was still working on catching my breath and wasn’t feeling so great so I was going pretty slow. But at that point, I didn’t really care what I was doing as long as I kept going in class. After the other group finished their mile challenge, my group was back on the treadmill. I knew I’d be walking because I was in pain and I was actually walking slower than I have in a long time. But I got it done and that’s what counts. We ended class with a block on the floor that included burpees, running man, back extensions, and ab work. I was exhausted after that class but I was glad I survived the 3 days of Peak Performance Week that I set out to do.

Saturday’s workout was back to a normal workout (Peak Performance Week is just Monday-Friday). It was 3G like it normally is on Saturdays for me and it was a mix of strength and power. Since I was still hurting a bit from Friday’s workout, I knew going into the workout that I’d be walking. But I was a bit disappointed when I saw the workout because it would have been a great one to work on my running.

We had 3 blocks at each station and we switched after the first 2 back to back. Every block was 4 minutes long and it was pretty much a 4 minute run for distance on the treadmill. The first block was increasing inclines, the second block was decreasing inclines, and the last block was at a flat incline. I would have loved to work on running for 4 minutes at a time, but my body wasn’t in any shape to run. I knew if I even tried that I would probably end up hurting myself. But I couldn’t just walk and not try for anything extra so I did increase my walking speed each time I was at the treadmill. I felt like this made up for having to walk extra slow the day before after the mile challenge.

On the floor, it was more leg and plank work than anything else and I decided to work on trying to be better with what weights I used. We started with lunges that had shoulder/arm work (front and lateral raises). Normally for lunges I use 15 or 20 pound weights and for those arm moves I use 12 pounds weights. But I decided to split the difference and use 15 pounds weights. It was tough to do the shoulder/arm moves, but since it was only 6 reps I was able to keep it up. It was nice to have something feel like it’s improving since I haven’t really felt that way on the treadmill. We also had decline mountain climbers, Spiderman planks, lateral lunges, and squats.

And on the rower we started with seeing how far we could go in a certain number of pulls on the rower. It started with 25 pulls and went down by 5 each round. Normally I can average 10 meters on each pull, but with the pain in my hips I wasn’t able to get as much power behind my rows as I normally can. I decided to not pay too much attention to the distance since I knew I wouldn’t be happy with what I saw. Another block was 200 meter sprints with froggers in-between each set. Again, I lacked the power I normally have so I didn’t look too much at my time for the row. And the last block was 150 meter sprints with squats in-between the sets. We were supposed to try to squat so low that we touched the rails of the rower, but I couldn’t get that low down. But I’m pretty certain my squats were lower than they probably ever have been.

This was not how I thought Peak Performance Week would go for me, but it wasn’t all bad news. I was able to work on being more patient with myself which is slowly happening for me. I did get some PRs and I learned how to push myself better. And that’s all I can ask for a Peak Performance Week. Now I just want to focus on seeing what gains and improvements I can have before the next challenge week!

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A Powerful Workout Week (or Feeling Amazing Again)

Posted on November 14, 2016 | Comments Off on A Powerful Workout Week (or Feeling Amazing Again)

After such a successful 5K race, I had a feeling this week of workouts would be great. And I was right! This past week, I felt stronger, more powerful, and more like an athlete than I have in a long time. I scheduled myself for a 4 workout week and I’m glad I did that. I need to get back into the groove of a 4th workout and this was a great week to do it since I was still feeling amazing from the race.

Monday’s workout was a power run/row day. I was feeling a bit odd on Monday because before my workout was when I had my appointment with the surgeon and found out I had a tumor. But I didn’t let that odd feeling stop me. If anything, I kept thinking that if I could do my 5K as quickly as I could with this tumor inside of me, then anything is possible! For the run part of the run/row, I stuck with my run 1 minute/walk 1 minute for the longer segments which were .3 miles. Anything that was .15 miles or under was run in full (usually I could do those in 2 minutes or under). The rows were all sprints of either 300 or 150 meters, so I was moving back and forth between the rower and treadmill quite a bit.

For the floor work that day, we had a bunch of short blocks. Each of the blocks only had 2 things in it so I was feeling tired a bit quicker than usual. But I think that was more a mental thing than a physical thing. For those short floor blocks, we had things like squats and lunges plus some upper body stuff. My legs were feeling a bit shaky after the run/row, but nothing too bad and I felt like I was doing my workout exactly how I wanted to do it.

Wednesday’s workout was an endurance day. We did have a couple of 3 minute push pace segments, and I stuck with my 1 minute run/1 minute walk plan. I do need to start figuring out what my plan with my run/walk training will be. I’m not sure if I want to increase the run time or decrease the walk time. I might have to play around with it a bit to figure out what will work best for me. Even though we had some long push paces, we also had some normal length all outs. And for some of those all outs, I was able to go 6 mph which is very fast for me but doable if I don’t do it too much.

We had a decent amount of row work to do that day as well. One block included a 600 meter row. I was able to get it done in under 3 minutes so I was pretty happy. We also had a 3 minute row challenge and that was a bit tougher because I pushed myself too much at the beginning and was feeling some burnout before we got 2 minutes in. Besides the row work, the floor was focused on arm work. We had a lot of work on the straps and then had some ab work in between which almost felt like a break from the strap work.

Friday was another power run/row day. This time, for the run segments I did 90 seconds of running and 1 minute of walking. It was tough to run for 90 seconds at a time since I’m so used to 1 minute, but it was good to push myself. It also makes the run segments go by faster when I run longer (or faster) so I use that as motivation. All the row segments were either 250 meter rows or a 1 minute sprint. Again, like on Monday, I did a lot of switching back and forth between the treadmill and the rower.

On the floor, we had some arm and squat work where we used weights and I was using the 20 pound ones. And we had a lot of plank work and I was able to hold my planks longer and with better form than I have in a really long time. The entire floor time, I felt more powerful than I had in a while and was really happy with how things were working for me that day. For some reason, the workout just came together really well and it flowed really nicely. It was a feeling I don’t know if I’ve ever had before and it was a really nice confidence boost.

My final workout of the week was on Saturday. I thought about going on the bike for that workout, but I decided to just keep going and doing the treadmill again. It ended up being a workout that had endurance, strength, and power and we were switching between the treadmill and the floor between each block. For the treadmill, for most of the time I stuck with running 1 minute and walking 1 minute. I was able to keep this up for the endurance block and for when we had longer segments on the power block. But for the power block, a lot of stuff was 30 seconds at a time so I just ran the full thing. For the strength block, I stuck with walking the entire time since it was hills. I did some higher inclines, but since it was at the end of the workout I wasn’t as powerful as I was earlier in the workout.

For the floor work, we had a nice mix of stuff. For the endurance floor work, we had some arm work where I could use 20 pound weights plus lunges where I was using 2 15 pound weights. During the power block, we did timed lunges, mountain climbers, and plank work. And during the strength block there was some lower and upper body strap work followed by leg lifts while in a plank (which aren’t easy for my hips but it’s getting better).

I’ve got a relatively normal workout week coming up this week, but the next week will be Thanksgiving week so things will be a bit mixed up for me. But I will be going to my Thanksgiving morning workout in La Jolla with my family and I’m so excited about it! Plus, this year for the Thanksgiving workout there will be 7 of us going! I’ve got to train really hard this week so I’m in the best shape possible for my workout with my family (my dad is already talking about how he will be kicking my butt in the workout)!

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Getting Back To Normal (or Finishing Hell Week and Race Prep)

Posted on November 7, 2016 | Comments Off on Getting Back To Normal (or Finishing Hell Week and Race Prep)

This past week of workouts was a 3 workout week, but I didn’t go easy on myself at all! My week started with the end of Hell Week and then my last 2 workouts were very focused on getting ready for my 5K. I was feeling pretty much completely normal, so I saw no need to try to take it easy and decided to go all out on the 3 workouts that I had.

Monday was the end of Hell Week and it was a Trick or Treat 3G workout. That meant that on each part of the workout (treadmill, floor, rower) we pulled a card from a plastic pumpkin and it told us what to do. There were some good cards (the treats) and some cards that were really tough instructions (the tricks).

I got to start on the treadmill and first pulled a Treat card. I had to do 30 second push paces, 30 second all out paces, and 30 second walking recovery for 3 rounds. I was running for both the push and all out paces, but I was keeping my speed the same since the walking time was less than I’m used to. I got through that card pretty quickly and then went over to pull my next treadmill card. It was another Treat card that said I had to do 1 minute push paces, 1 minute all outs, and 30 second walking recoveries. I did walk the push paces at 8% incline, but ran much faster for my all out pace than I did for the first card. I only made it 2 rounds before the time was done and I headed over to the floor.

My first card on the floor was a Trick card. I had to start with 31 burpees before moving on to the workout plan. Those 31 burpees were not easy at all and I had to take breaks after 4 or 5, but I did manage to get through it and was able to move on to the rest of the floor work. It was a good mix of upper and lower body work and I had to do pushups, ab work, and lunges. Just as I was finishing up all the work, it was time to switch over to the rower for the end of the workout.

On the rower, I pulled another Trick card. It was to for 3100 meters and we only had about 13 minutes left in class for the day. I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to get my full 3100 meters in, so I decided to just try for the best and see what I could do. I did have to take breaks every so often because I was so exhausted from all the other hard work that day, but I managed to get just about 2200 meters done before class was done.

And after completing my 5th Hell Week class, I was officially a Hell Week Survivor and earned my shirt!

hell-week

Wednesday we were back to normal workouts, but they weren’t easy! That day was a strength day so I ended up doing quite a bit of walking. We had a lot of higher hill work and most of my walking was done at 10-14% incline. We did have a few things at a flat incline so I was able to run for those, but a majority of my work was walking at an incline. We also had a mini run/row assignment that day. I ran .15 miles (which took me about 2 minutes) and then rowed 300 meters. I didn’t make it through that many rounds of the run/row, but it felt good to get that running practice in.

When we got to the floor, I was able to work a lot harder than normal and it felt really great! We did have some ab work which wasn’t so great for me (I’m still occasionally feeling weird pressure in my stomach when I do sit-ups or crunches) but the rest of the work was either at the level I was at before or better. I was able to do squats and lunges with better form (and less stability issues) and was doing my arm work at 15 pounds. And when we did pullovers, there were no 20 pound weights for me to use so I had to use the 25 pound ones. It was a struggle to use the heavier weights, but I was able to get through the sets and realized that my strength didn’t get worse with my time taking it easy.

My last workout of the week was on Thursday (I didn’t work out on Friday since I had the race on Saturday morning). It was a power day and that made me so happy. Power days are usually my best days to work on my running and I needed that confidence boost before race day. Most of the time, we had a lot of the same stuff on the treadmill. It was push pace to all outs and usually they were 45 second intervals. So that was 90 seconds of running and then we’d usually have a minute to walk to recover. This was a more intense interval than what I do when I work on my running on my own, so this was a great way to build some extra endurance for the race. And once we were done on the treadmill, I realized that I had reached a workout goal. For a while, I have wanted to get to 2 miles during the treadmill time in a workout. That would mean I was close to 15 minute miles during class. So it was great to see this screen when I was done.

2-miles-otf

On the floor, we had a bunch of upper body work. I was doing chest presses and we had lunges that had weighted twists (I really felt that in my shoulders). And to finish the workout, we had a short rowing block. It was a similar pattern to the treadmill where we had 45 seconds intense rowing and then 30 seconds to recover. And after that workout, I felt as ready as I could be for my race on Saturday.

This ended up being a great week of workouts for me. I gained a lot of confidence I lost after being sick and finally was feeling more like myself and able to do my best on my race. I’ll write about the race tomorrow, but if you follow me on social media, I think you know how it went!

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