Just after getting over a week of bad nausea and pain, I was ready for this past week of workouts to be much more like my usual self and I was happy to be able to push myself again. I hate when I have to go easy on myself and I’m always grateful when I can go really hard in my workouts again. This has always been true, but I think it’s even more true since going back to my workouts after the shutdown. But just like anything I am planning on, things didn’t go the way I planned this past week.
Monday’s workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power. I was feeling normal again so I was ready to push myself in class and see what I could do for each section. I’ve been playing around more with what I can do on the bike, and it’s been tough to push myself enough without overdoing it. But I’m starting to get better.
For cardio, we had 3 blocks. All of the blocks had progressive hills for 3 minutes. The first block was increasing, the second block was decreasing, and the last block was our choice to increase or decrease (I went with decreasing). I didn’t know we had these hills when starting the workout, so I started the class with a slightly higher resistance level for my base to see if I could do it. And I might have been ok without the hills, but when we were increasing the resistance levels, they started to get too high and I had to go back to my normal base level. But the hills were good and I’m glad I did try pushing myself more.
On the floor, we also had 3 blocks and every block started with a 200-meter row. After the row, we had 3 exercises on the floor. The first block had chest presses with the straps, chest presses with weights, and push-ups. The second block had low rows with the straps, low rows with weights, and seated low rows with weights. And the last block had 3 types of sit-ups that I had to modify a lot to be ok for my hips. The idea with each block was to burn out a specific muscle group, and I really felt that! I was sore in the best way at the end of each block.
Wednesday’s workout should have been another day I was feeling amazing, but I had my appointment with my dermatologist on Tuesday afternoon and didn’t think about how sore my foot would be after having something frozen on it. I was struggling to put my heel on the ground and I knew I would have to modify a lot in this workout. I did give my coach a heads up since I didn’t want him to worry if he saw me limping. And I’m glad I told him because there were a lot of things I had to work through.
For cardio, we had 2 blocks. The first block had intervals of push paces, base paces, and incline work. And the second block had short intervals of base paces at inclines followed by an all-out. I thought I’d be ok on the bike since my heel wouldn’t be pressing down on the pedal, but the way my foot moves and stretches while pedaling got very painful. I had to take random breaks to take my foot out of the pedal to stretch a bit and let the pain subside. But I’m so used to so many types of pain, so this was just one more type I had to work through.
On the floor, the first block had single-arm low rows, lunges, in and outs, hollow hold chest presses, and burpees. I had to modify things to work with not putting my heel down, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been (like if we had a ton of squats). And the second block was timed with the treadmills and we had rounds of single-arm shoulder presses and 30-seconds of rowing. The rowing was very difficult since you have to press your heel into the footplate to be efficient at rowing. I couldn’t do that so my rowing was a bit weak.
My foot was feeling a bit better for Friday’s workout, but I was still sore and having to modify things. But I was glad I was doing better and that I could do a bit more.
The workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power and each of the cardio blocks represented one of them. The first block was endurance-based and it was rounds of 1-minute intervals of base paces and push paces with an all-out at the end. The second block was strength-based and it was 1-minute intervals with flat base paces and base paces with incline/high resistance levels. And the last block was power-based and we had 1-minute intervals of all-outs and recoveries. I wasn’t able to pedal perfectly, but it was much better than what I could do on Wednesday and my heel wasn’t hurting quite as bad.
And on the floor, every block started with a row. This was still a struggle for me, so I didn’t worry too much about how long it took me to do each row. The first block had a 600-meter row, the second block had a 300-meter row, and the last block had a 150-meter row. After the rowing, the first block was all mini-band work with forward walks, suitcase squats, and torso rotations. The second block had goblet squats, sumo squats with front raises, and bird dogs. And the last block had bench sit-ups to squats, lunges, and mountain climbers. It was a lot of squats and other things that I had to keep my heels on the ground, so that was tough. But I took the breaks I needed to when the pain got bad and just picked back up when I could. The one thing that did help was knowing the pain was not because I was harming myself. When I have hip pain, it can be because my bones are hitting, which is not good at all. But this pain was just soreness, so pushing through it wasn’t the worst decision.
Saturday’s workout was my only 3 group class of the week (I do wish I had 2 of each type, but I’m glad I have a little variety) and it was an endurance day. I was still dealing with a little pain, but I knew it was significantly better and I needed that since I was going to have a lot of rowing in class.
For cardio, we started with a 2 1/2-minute push pace followed by a 1-minute base pace. Then we had a 75-second push pace with a 1-minute base pace. We repeated that again and then ended with one more 2 1/2-minute push but we were supposed to try to end with as close to an all-out as we could. I got really tired during this since we had no real recovery time. But I also wanted to make my best effort so I could know I pushed myself a lot. I still took a few breaks (to drink water and to let my foot rest), but I know this was the best I had on the bike in a while.
For rowing, we timed things a bit with cardio. When cardio had their 2 1/2-minute push, we had a 2 1/2 minute row. When they had their base, we had a rest. And when they were doing their 75-second push pace, we had lateral hops, front and back hops, and squat jumps. I had to modify the hops and squat because I couldn’t land on my heel too hard. So I did lighten the hops a bit and I did squats with calf raises and didn’t go too deep in my squats.
And on the floor, the blocks matched cardio and rowing. In the longer segments, we weren’t timed but just had regular blocks. The first longer block had shoulder presses and hip hinge low rows. The second longer block had bicep curls and push-ups. And the last longer block had a bear hold until fatigue and then a squat hold until fatigue. For the shorter blocks, we had timed core work with hip raises, bicycles, and toe touches. I did modify those since my hips don’t like hip raises, but I did try to keep moving the entire time and my muscles were burning by the end of each block!
While it was annoying to have 2 weeks with pain back to back, but just like the week before, I’m glad this week had 1 really bad day and then it was getting better each day. I think my foot is finally better now, but I know I might still have some extra soreness for a few more days. But I am hoping that I can keep pushing myself more this week and finally have a week with minimal pain!
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