This past week of workouts were dedicated to preparing for and recovering from Thanksgiving (recap of my holiday to come soon!).
Monday was a usual workout for me at Orangetheory. I was at my usual class, and while it was tough, it’s wasn’t too horrible. The Monday Challenge was how many burpees you can do in a minute. I am not a fan of burpees at all. But I really wanted to make it to the double digits for the challenge. Some how, even though I was exhausted from the workout, I was able to do 11. Not good enough to be on the leaderboard, but definitely good enough for me.
I didn’t have a workout on Wednesday because I left for my Thanksgiving adventure on Tuesday after work. But I did have a Thanksgiving morning workout.
My dad and I had previously talked about doing a 5K on Thanksgiving morning, but that seemed to be too early in the morning and not as fun to do. But when I found out that not only is my Orangetheory membership good for any location in the country but there was a Orangetheory less than a mile from the house we were renting in San Diego, we knew what our Thanksgiving morning would be.
My Aunt Cindy wanted to check out the workout as well. And somehow my dad and I convinced my brother that he had to come with us too (peer/family pressure at its best).
So on Thanksgiving morning, the 4 of us drove to the La Jolla Orangetheory (we would have walked, but the rental house was on the top of a giant hill and we didn’t want to have to walk up it after the workout).
The setup inside was a little different, but still somewhat familiar to me. My dad knew what he was in for since he has been to a class before. My aunt and brother seemed a little overwhelmed with it all.
Once the class before ours was done, we headed inside to claim our treadmills. My aunt and brother got a quick lesson on the different pieces of workout equipment and then we were ready to start.
This workout was a 3G one, which means that there were 3 groups of people working out instead of the usual 2. And we rotated around the room a lot. There were 9 rotations total, each rotation lasting about 6 minutes. I was able to follow along with it all pretty easily, but my aunt and brother were a little lost (our coach was tough to hear and it was a bit confusing which group he was instructing). But I was happy to help them know what was next in the workout.
My dad kicked butt (as expected) and so did my aunt. My brother did a great job, even though he did confess to me on the rowing machines that he threw up a little. But after the workout, the proof of everyone’s hard work was on the screens.
My brother had a perfect pyramid for his workout, which is what the goal is for everyone. My chart wasn’t so good, but I realized once the workout had started that I had forgotten to share an important piece of information with the La Jolla location. I have a low heart rate and my heart rate monitor had to be recalibrated to show that. I forgot to share that with the La Jolla location so my heart rate monitor was set for the higher heart rate. So according to their screen, I never made it into the orange zone, but knowing what I usually have, I know I did.
And of course, we had to get a post-workout photo as a group with our coach.
It felt great to burn some calories before indulging in all the yummy Thanksgiving foods. My dad and brother have agreed with me that this will be our new Thanksgiving tradition. I think my aunt will join us too, and maybe we can convince a few more family members to come next year.
My last workout of the week was back in LA on Saturday. It was a run/row workout (which are my favorites since I don’t love the treadmill) and my butt was totally kicked in class. My coach on Saturday was Brendon, who owns the LA location, and he really is great at pushing you to new limits. I was dripping with sweat when I was done, but it was worth it. This workout was the first one where I had a perfect pyramid on the graph, and Brendon even called me out for having a perfect workout!
So far in the challenge for new shoes, I’ve done most of the tasks. I still need to bring 3 guests in before the 17th (anyone down for a free workout?) and I’ve done 6 out of the 15 workouts needed. I’ll be doing 4 more this week so I’ll be close to the free shoes after this week!