tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75623741806490498242024-03-13T02:35:44.536-07:00The Freeletics Experiment"Mens sana in corpore sano" (A sound mind in a healthy body)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07959780581684124098noreply@blogger.comBlogger62125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562374180649049824.post-64238554957493980792015-06-30T09:05:00.002-07:002015-06-30T09:05:27.430-07:00Leg levers: suggested exercise variations to drive improvements<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As people go through the early phases Freeletics training, the same remarks (and complaints) are often heard:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Why are burpees so hard?</span></i></li>
<li><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These High jumps completely leave me out of breath.</span></i></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>I can't do a single pull-up!</i></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Where does the Freeletics inventor lives? Me, my friends and our baseball bats are going to pay him a visit. </i>(There's no need to play innocent. I know you've been thinking something along these lines at some point!)</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And the list goes on.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Unless you were already in top physical form upon starting your training, the vast majority of the time these comments will echo your own experience with the program. When someone mentions his/her most disliked workouts the same names tend to show-up (yes, <i>Kentauros</i>, I'm thinking about you). I can relate to pretty much every difficulties that people typically say that they have encountered. With one exception: leg levers.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I mean, I don't claim that I won't feel any sore muscles after 250 reps. But I don't mind them at all. I actually prefer leg levers to regulars abs.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Early in my training, I noticed in forums that a lot of people hated them. At first I didn't pay attention to it. Leg levers are part of the standard boxing training drill, so I just thought that having done them for years I simply had a head start versus people discovering this exercise just now. As time went by (and when the Feed was added to the app), I noticed that even some long time freeathletes grumbled about leg levers. Including some of the guys that I consider in much better shape than me. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That really started me thinking about why I didn't feel the same way.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One possibility is that my body might be better suited for this exercise. May be. But I doubt that a natural ability (which remains to be proven!) would make much difference versus a well-trained person.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Another explanation could be that I have been doing more leg levers than the typical freeatheletes, and so, became better at it. I don't think that this argument holds either. First some people out there train much more than I do (longer & more frequent sessions). Second, push-ups are also part of the standard boxing training and I don't have stellar results in this exercise. So volume doesn't explain it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The only explanation must be that I have been doing things slightly </span><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">differently</b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, and that it helped prepare my body to do the freeletics straight leg levers more efficiently.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the past I have tried a few times to explain to other athletes, how we perform leg levers during our boxing training. It took a lot of words to describe, but thankfully after searching a while I found a video on Youtube that's fairly similar.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Look at the video from 02:00 to 02:45</b>, to see how it works. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The first thing, is that we work in tandem with a partner. Notice how the person working out stops his legs before the heels hit the ground (actually, I find that he stops his legs a bit too early, ideally heels should be only a few centimeters above the ground). The partner has an active role: he pushes the legs downward, hence adding velocity to the movement and making it harder to prevent the heels from touching the ground (compared to training alone).</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Then you can jump directly to 03:43. </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">See how he is doing side leg levers. That is also something that we systematically do.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you don't have a training buddy, you may want to find something to hold-on to (a bench, a heavy chair, etc.) Given the unstable position when the legs are sideways, it's much better to have a solid hand-grip to perform this leg levers variation (it also helps keeping your back straight).</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Note that when we do our leg levers routine, we don't do 30 seconds rounds like in the video. Our routine is 20 straight leg levers, 10 on one side, 10 on the other side and 20 straight leg levers again. All done at fairly high pace (less than 2 seconds per rep).</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/O3cEc644qfw/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/O3cEc644qfw?t=2m?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On top of doing Leg Levers differently, we also do a lot of Rowing Crunch (see the video below). You don't need a bench, just do it directly on the ground.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Keep in mind that the instructor is doing it slowly to explain the movement. When you practice it, it should be done at a much faster pace (same thing: less than 2 seconds per rep). And ideally your hands should not touch the ground (it takes a few attempts to find the right body position to keep your balance but the abs get a better workout this way).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/V_VVX5DfdIQ/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/V_VVX5DfdIQ?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For Rowing Crunches, you can also alternate regular ones (as on the video) with side movement (knees on one side, while heels come touching your butt on the opposite side). You can use the same routine as for leg levers: 20 straights, 10 one side, 10 the other side and finish with 20 straights.</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For variety and t</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">o spice things-up you can also:</span></div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">change side each rep (1 right, 1 left, 1 right, etc.) - this is tougher than it sounds!</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">in between each round (e.g. after the 20 straights) keep your legs straight in front of you (hands not touching the ground) and hold the position for 30 seconds. Then you do the next round. This is a good core exercise.</span></li>
</ul>
</div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am not suggesting that you replace straight leg levers in the regular workouts by some of these variations. Instead I see these exercises as side training that could be useful for those of you having issues with leg levers.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Focus on these for a few weeks and let me know in the comment section if they helped you improve your performance with straight leg levers.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07959780581684124098noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562374180649049824.post-28880138595762593142015-04-06T11:18:00.001-07:002015-04-30T03:15:25.354-07:00Hell Days & Hell Weeks Schedule<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />During the cumulated 30 weeks of program that I trained using My Coach, I was assigned twice Hell Days & twice Hell Days:</span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://freeletics-experiment.blogspot.com/2014/01/freeletics-program-week-7.html" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Week #7</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> - Hell Days</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://freeletics-experiment.blogspot.com/2014/03/freeletics-cardio-strength-program-week.html" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Week #15</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> - Hell Week</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://freeletics-experiment.blogspot.com/2014/11/second-program-week-7-hell-days.html" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Week #22</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> - Hell Days</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://freeletics-experiment.blogspot.com/2015/02/second-program-week-13-hell-week.html" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Week #28</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> - Hell Week</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Based on these 4 iterations, I couldn't see any standard </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">periodicity. I started to wonder </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">if the coach randomly assigned Hell Days/Weeks, or if there was a hidden logic behind this schedule. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So I contacted the Freeletics support and asked them the question directly.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It turns out that there is a fixed schedule, so everyone will get to enjoy their weeks of pain & misery at the same points throughout the program. However there is no fixed periodicity. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The first Hell day week is always week 7 and the Hell week is always on week 9, and afterward </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">happen every 5-9 weeks.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The support representative actually listed in her email all the week numbers when these special weeks are assigned. I found that reading a list of numbers made it hard to visualize the frequency, so </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have summarized this information in a chart:</span><br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2tyZEo2HYWVTb28_ab4wsGsJAg4feIEDG4QgU0zbUsD9bLqDLwedQy_81PuHTO2JanemmM0hw7Tmj7UWXMyooHjqbDuUQw3AurYLbrgDGhSixoVwb9Uv0FcJWsV5PaAjkAKRIazJV3FAh/s1600/Hell+Days+&+Weeks+Schedule2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2tyZEo2HYWVTb28_ab4wsGsJAg4feIEDG4QgU0zbUsD9bLqDLwedQy_81PuHTO2JanemmM0hw7Tmj7UWXMyooHjqbDuUQw3AurYLbrgDGhSixoVwb9Uv0FcJWsV5PaAjkAKRIazJV3FAh/s1600/Hell+Days+&+Weeks+Schedule2.jpg" height="316" width="640" /></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While her comment about special weeks coming-up every 5-9 weeks is generally correct, if you look closely there are a few times when the distance between 2 special weeks is 10 or 12 weeks. It also appears that there are not always </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hell Days in-between 2 Hell Weeks.</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Please keep in mind that I'm sharing the information exactly as it was given to me. It's possible that the support representative forgot to list a couple </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hell Days. But may be not.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'll only know for sure by subscribing to the coach for another 100 weeks in a row. It's going to take two years.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So if you have a subscription running and wonder when the next special week is coming I'd say you can trust the chart above to give you the exact weeks. Just keep an eye open when you see a long stretch of normal training weeks. For example, I wouldn't be surprised if there were Hell Days hidden somewhere in-between week #41 & 52 or #92 & 105.</span><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you're like me and like to plan things in advance, this schedule isn't perfect but hopefully that will give you a bit more clarity as to what's ahead of you. Enjoy your training!</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07959780581684124098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562374180649049824.post-31460212620509711482015-03-23T10:28:00.003-07:002015-03-23T10:28:46.574-07:00Review of the new Coach - after completing the program (2014-2015 version of the Coach)<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As <a href="http://freeletics-experiment.blogspot.com/2015/03/second-program-week-15-last-week.html">promised</a></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, here is a post summarizing my impressions on these past 15 weeks. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Since I have already been through the program once, there was not much surprise about the Freeletics method itself, or the workouts. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Instead I realized that pretty much all my take-aways from this second program were related to the new version of the app that was released in late 2014. As a result my post turns out to be a nice counterpart</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> to my previous </span><a href="http://freeletics-experiment.blogspot.com/2014/09/review-of-upgraded-program-released-aug.html" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Overview of the updated program</a>.<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The original post was written right after the </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Freeletics app </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"re-launched" and mostly focused on explaining the</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> new features</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> and the main differences versus the old version. The discussion below will mostly about how useful these features turned out in real life.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I already wrote that starting a program all over again turned out to be a really good experience. So don't be surprised if I'll be mostly saying positive things. But that doesn't mean that I found everything equally good. So before this post turns into a love fest, let's get out of my chest the things that could still be improved.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The things that I liked the least:</b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Too many short & partial workouts in the first 2 weeks. </b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I know the Coach algorithm is supposed to adapt difficulty based on actual performance in workouts. And with the upgrade, most of the old workout PBs were not recognized by new app (e.g. "original" Venus PB didn't convert into a "Standard" Venus PB). Which is probably why in the first weeks difficulty was the same whether you were an "experienced" Freeathletes or not. Don't get me wrong, a gentle start is </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">good for beginners as it means less chance to be scared off and quit. But for people looking for more challenge I would have preferred a steeper start. I will sound pompous and arrogant, but being asked to complete 1 round of Endurance Metis </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">after 44 weeks of Freeletics: seriously what's the point? Difficulty improved later on, but I didn't like the underwhelming start of this journey.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The 15K run assignment without a real preparation.</b> This <a href="http://freeletics-experiment.blogspot.com/2014/10/second-program-week-3.html">run</a> was a milestone for me. An eye opener that really changed my perspective on me & running. Since then I have started running much more frequently. I completed another 15K during my free training, and will most likely do a half-marathon or two before year-end. </span><b><span style="color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But</span></b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, I am still convinced that assigning 15K to someone who had never recorded anything greater than 2K in the app is inappropriate. It could even lead to injuries. The coach should have started by assigning at least a couple 5K and a 10K, before moving-on to greater distances (unless the athletes already recorded long distance during its free training, but that wasn't my case anyway). I hope this will get fixed.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The in-app Running feature.</b> I realize this is only a beta version. But since running has became such an integral part of the program, it's not too much to ask to have a decent running feature. T</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">he big GPS inaccuracies (mentioned in my <a href="http://freeletics-experiment.blogspot.com/2014/09/review-of-upgraded-program-released-aug.html">overview</a>) seemed to have been fixed after a few weeks. But the overall user experience (available stats, split times, elevation, music, etc.) remains largely inferior to dedicated running apps available for free. To this day for any running beyond 2K I still use Mapmyrun, and only manually log the final results in my Freeletics app.</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The little things that were nice improvements:</b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Statistics on the week's total training time.</b> The weekly totals don't include points/time from extra workouts on top of the program, but at least it's nice to get a quick summary of active training time assigned by the Coach.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The freedom to manually choose which training day/assignment is being completed.</b> This one is kinda hard to explain to newcomers, but in the old days the coach always automatically matched the workout you just performed with the first workout of that kind in your training plan. That led to weird records when one swapped training days or added a few extra workouts. Anyway, no need to spend hours on this one, this issue has been fixed and it's a good thing.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Possibility to change training focus at the end of every week.</b> Technically this had already been possible <a href="http://freeletics-experiment.blogspot.com/2014/05/faq-tips-tricks-cost-of-freeletics-what.html">before</a>, but one had to play with some obscure setup parameters. Now it's much easier for people who want to change training focus to do so. But let's face it, how often is this feature used? Switching focus every week, for example from Strength to Cardio, is useless (you might as well leave focus on Cardio-Strength). </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is a nice to have, not a game changer.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Restrictions.</b> I like the idea a lot, but I have never had to use it (fingers crossed that I never will). I remember that once one of my contacts said his training plan didn't really offer relief for the muscle group he restricted. With no first hand experience I can't confirm whether this feature is sucks, or is the best thing since sliced bread. Anyway it's a step in the right direction so I put it in the improvements list.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Running autocomplete.</b> This feature is particularly useful for short distance runs. When sprinting over 100m, one needs to stay focused and not to worry about watching the phone to know when to stop. I hope this feature will someday be extended to workouts with 400m runs (Hera, etc.)</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>What I really, really, really, liked:</b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>In-app training plan.</b> (remember I started in the Stone age, when the program was only on the website!). This is really handy to always have the schedule at your fingertip. But be aware that it requires an internet connection, which can be a problem if you're abroad or in the middle of nowhere with no network coverage.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Flexible number of training days.</b> This is a huge improvement. It's good for people with irregular schedules, who can then increase/decrease their training load based on real life commitments. But even for me who stuck </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">to my 4 training days routine it was great not to have to </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">worry anymore about getting a 5th session (during the first program it was always a pain to make it fit into my schedule). <b>Just keep in mind that Hell Days & Hell Weeks, will always be respectively 3 and 7 days long, regardless of the number of training days that you chose.</b></span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The introduction of Running, Endurance/Standard/Strength and Volume.</b> At first this could look like a gimmick but it really added depth to the training. Playing with all these variables can transform a classic workout into something new (try triple strength Metis and you'll see what I mean!) With this additional variety, there is less chances that I'll become bored with the training method. Last but not least, with the extended choice in stand-alone exercises, from time to time you can choose to ignore the gods/goddesses and assemble you own customized session based on your needs.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The Coach became more progressive.</b> Yes, just above I have been complaining that the program started too slowly. That was annoying but I have to recognize that in most cases gradual difficulty ramp-up worked pretty well. This was largely possible thanks to the new volume feature. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For example starting with only 6 rounds of Gaia Strength before moving to 8 rounds and finally the entire 10 rounds is a good way to learn how to tame a challenging workout. It also allows the Coach give challenging workouts even for Freeletics veterans. Hades is probably the workout that I performed the most frequently, yet the day I completed a Double Hades really felt like an achievement. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The ability to provide difficulty feedback also helps to make the whole thing more progressive (just be aware that saying training is "Far too easy" has <a href="http://freeletics-experiment.blogspot.com/2014/10/second-program-week-3.html">consequences</a>).</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">500/1000 reps.</b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> When I first saw that one could choose to do 1'000 reps of whatever exercise, I thought this was aimed at a handful of sport-mutants and never considered it as an option for mere mortals. After finishing my second program, and based on a number of people in my network who attempted 500/1000 reps, my views have changed. Even top athletes don't do 1'000 reps as a standard workout, but more as a punctual challenge. Like for a marathon, the clock matters a bit but the foremost goal is to pass the finish line. For those of you looking to sets ambitious goals or prove their worth to themselves, large reps make a good challenge. </span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;"><b>Final thoughts</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For this second iteration, the Coach ramped-up the intensity (as illustrated by the number of Kronos iterations I was assigned or by the <a href="http://freeletics-experiment.blogspot.com/2015/02/second-program-week-13-hell-week.html">Hell Week</a>). I pushed my limits even further and I liked it. A lot. One of my take-aways was that during the months when I trained alone I had probably been a bit too soft with myself. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So when I return to free training I will pay attention to not to make this same mistake. Partly due to scheduling constraints I had been doing only 3 sessions per week (+1 boxing evening). This time, I have decided to keep the 4 days routine used during the program, one of which will be a running session over lunch (hence freeing and evening and ensuring I still work on my stamina). But I will have to be careful not to only assign myself short/easy workouts.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If there was added difficulty for repeat athletes, in the contrary beginners may have it easier.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A number of readers of this blog have started training in the past few months and joined my in-app network. Looking at their schedule in the first weeks, I have noticed that many of them began their journey with partial workouts.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In my view, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">lowering the difficulty at the very beginning (before gradually increasing it) i</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">s a deliberate effort to make Freeletics more accessible to a wider audience. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A number of real-life friends around me had tried the method before and just gave-up, scared-off by </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Aphrodite</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. The guys at Freeletics must also have noticed this and tried to come-up with a solution to retain these people.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There the ones who find that the method is not what they need, or who don't have the discipline/will to stick to the program. But a</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ctually it's not a bad thing, if it helps more unfit people gain self-confidence and gradually start </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">enjoying sport.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The only downside I could see is if someone abuses the feedback mechanisms to keep intensity low (3 days per week only, feedback always "too hard"), then this person will likely be disappointed when their is no noticeable physical improvements after a few months.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Aside from the new features, the </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">new program is clearly a paradigm change. Freeletics is recasting itself from a 15 weeks transformational method to a "digital personal trainer".</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This new orientation first appeared when they launched "My Coach", but honestly when I went through my first program the make-over </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">wasn't complete. The program was still 15 weeks long, one had to choose 1 training focus (strength, etc.), the program's content was very simil</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ar to the old PDF. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now Freeletics is trying to lock users in a long term relationship. The 15 weeks concept is becoming outdated, as illustrated by the new pricing schemes which offer sign-up for as long as 1 year. Which is also why Hell Days & Hell Weeks are not assigned in weeks 7 and 15 anymore. When everyone signed-up for 15 weeks it made sense to do them in the middle and at the end of the program. Now that the program length varies, they are assigned based on a different frequency.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This change is perfectly understandable on a number of levels. First of all, physical transformation goes 2 ways. One can lose weight and gain muscles by training hard, but will need to stay active to remain fit. Hence a coach going beyond 15 weeks makes sense. But there is also clearly a financial incentive: these people are running a business. It's better for them to have long-term subscribers rather than </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">one-time customers. This doesn't shock me, but I can't help but wonder to which extend free training will remain possible in the future. The </span><a href="http://freeletics-experiment.blogspot.com/2014/05/faq-tips-tricks-cost-of-freeletics-what.html" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pro App</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> (i.e. 5 EUR one-time purchase to unlock all trainings but with no Coach) is no longer offered for sale. Existing Pro App customers (like myself), can still enjoy access to the entire workouts catalog even with no active subscription. But apparently, for newcomers as soon as the subscription</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> ends the access to workouts catalog becomes restricted. I find this a bit harsh. I'm sure there are many people out there who, like me, prefer to only subscribe once in a while and the remaining time want to freely set-up their schedule. Hopefully, some kind of option similar to the Pro App will again become possible in the future.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07959780581684124098noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562374180649049824.post-89277696804050571992015-03-18T05:55:00.003-07:002015-03-18T05:55:47.196-07:00Second Program: Week #15 (Last week)<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Week 61: Second Program - week 15 out of 15</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Week settings:</span></b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Area of focus:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cardio-Strength</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Number of training days:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Limitations:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">none</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Last week feedback:</b> "Hard, but ok"</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Training:</span></b><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Monday:</b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> 100 OH Pushups (12:34* -First time) +Metis standard x3 (17:59* -PB)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Tuesday</b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>:</b> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hades standard </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(17:55*) +[Bonus: 50 Leg Levers (01:31* -PB)] </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">+[Bonus: 50 situps (01:25* -PB)]</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Wednesday:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Metis standard x3 (19:13*) </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">+[Bonus: 100 situps (03:16* -First time)] </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">+[Bonus: 25 pullups (02:03* -Strict)] </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">+[Bonus: 25 pushups (00:36*)]</span></li>
<li><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thursday:</b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> boxing training</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Friday:</b> [Bonus: 100 jumping jacks (01:10*) +</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">[Bonus: 50 climbers (00:31* -First time) </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">+[Bonus: 25 pushups (00:36*)] +</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kentauros strength 5/6 </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(25:05 -First time; <i>no star see comments below</i>)</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b><b><span style="color: blue;">Statistics:</span></b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4'110 points</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">92 minutes</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ever since <a href="http://freeletics-experiment.blogspot.com/2015/02/second-program-week-13-hell-week.html">Hell Week</a> caught me by surprise in week 13, I have been wondering if I would receive a second Hell Week for my last week of Coach subscription. In the end, I was assigned a perfectly regular trainign schedule (<u>note</u>: since then I finally got an explanation on the way Hell Weeks are assigned, which I'll share in a separate post).</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Regular readers know that while I couldn't care less about how many points I have scored since starting Freeletics, I did find a </span><a href="http://freeletics-experiment.blogspot.com/2014/03/calories-counting-burning.html" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">rough correlation</a> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">between the number of points assigned to workouts and the number of calories burnt. Hence I tend to view total points per week as a proxy to roughly quantify the amount of efforts that a given week required</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When reviewing my weekly statistics, I immediately noticed a decent number of points (>4'000) combined with a fairly short active training time (~22.5 minutes per session). It confirmed my gut feeling that the week had been fairly intense (packed with short workouts but that often left me breathless).</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Day 1 - Starting the week with One-hand pushups. This is a novelty. While I had unlocked this workout in the advanced skills sections from the beginning, the coach had never assigned to me stand alone OH pushups (and I believe only once as part of a Zeus early in the program). So it had been a while since I last performed this exercise. It's a good one. I should try to do it more often to improve my performance on regular pushups.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The real challenge of the day was the triple Metis (standard version thankfully!). It wiped me out, but not before I improved my PB by 01:36. Burpees were tough (probably due to prior OH PU), but that was offset by a good pace on jumps & climbers (thanks Iris!)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Day 2 - Good old Hades. I'm still ~01:45 above my elusive 8 months old PB, but I felt good and recorded my best performance of these past 2-3 months (~2 minutes below my usual time).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Training time under 20 minutes felt like cheating. So I threw in a couple of extra abs exercises, as this muscle group had not really been challenged today.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Day 3 - I could copy/paste my comments from day 1 & 2:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Triple standard Metis turned me into a puddle of sweat. I was so brain dead toward the end, that I completed 13 burpees in the last round instead of 10...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anyway, I still </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">felt bad about training less than 20 minutes so I added a few extra workouts (abs and shoulders, as Metis is pretty light on upper body).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Day 4 - I started with extra exercises to warm-up. It's something that I rarely do, as I don't want to get carried away and end-up burning myself before actually starting the bigger workouts. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I don't know if that's because of this warm-up or it was just a bad day but the 5/6 Kentauros strength was difficult to go through. My brain was so eager to put an end to my misery that I ended-up miscounting and stopped the workout after 4 rounds instead of 5. I only realized my mistake several minutes after saving the results. To make-up for the lost round, I performed the last round as a stand-alone, in roughly 7 minutes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I did complete it the entire workout in its most difficult form, but I </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">didn't </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">to want record a distorted performance (taking a break and stopping the timer, even involuntarily, is major deviation from the normal workout). </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hence I count this iteration as a no star </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(no-star workouts are always ranked as inferior to star workouts, no matter of total completion time, so it won't affect my PB stats).</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That was my last workout of this second 15 weeks journey, and </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I finished the program with mixed feelings.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On one hand I was a bit disappointed by the last week. I much prefer when the program ends with a Hell Week (it's like in video games: you need an epic fight against </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the end of level boss to feel like you've accomplished something). Finishing on a regular week felt was anticlimactic. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On top of this, I managed to make this stupid blunder when recording my very last workout, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">finishing on a negative note. I wasn't in a very good mood.</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However, a couple days later, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">stepping back and considering the full 15 weeks, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I found that going through the program again was a very positive experience. My fear was that starting all over again would give a "been there, done that" vibe to the entire affair. But that didn't happen. There were enough novelties</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> to keep me interested and challenged. More importantly I kept learning, and some of the toughest workouts I went through helped me reevaluate how I should train on my own once the subscription ends.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My first intention was to conclude by talking a bit further about what I liked/disliked in the new program. But as I started putting down my thoughts, I realized that this </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">was </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">a topic in itself and and deserved a proper review. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So I'll keep this post short and stop here for today.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17.9997997283936px;"><br /></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07959780581684124098noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562374180649049824.post-86370851474134698172015-02-26T08:21:00.002-08:002015-02-26T08:21:58.048-08:00Second Program: Week #14<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Week 60: Second Program - week 14 out of 15</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Week settings:</span></b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Area of focus:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cardio-Strength</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Number of training days:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Limitations:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">none</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Last week feedback:</b> "Hard, but ok"</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Training:</span></b><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Monday:</b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> rest day</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Tuesday</b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>:</b> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hades standard x2 </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(43:26* -First Time)</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Wednesday:</b> Venus</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(15:54* -PB)</span></li>
<li><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thursday:</b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> boxing training</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Friday:</b> 400m sprint </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(01:29) +<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">400m sprint </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(01:26) +5K run (25:31 -PB) +Iris</span> standard </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(30:34* -PB)</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b><b><span style="color: blue;">Statistics:</span></b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2'759 points</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">118 minutes</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As explained in the <a href="http://freeletics-experiment.blogspot.ch/2015/02/second-program-week-13-hell-week.html">last post</a>, after 7 straight days of training, I took a full day of rest and asked the Coach to generate 3 training days only.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But the coach doesn't like when we try to take the easy road.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So despite a day less, it packed about as much sweat as usual (often ~3'000 points per week)</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On day 1, I tried my first double Hades. The last burpees were difficult, but I was pleased with my pullups. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My first thoughts after competition</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> were to thank Kronos. All these iterations over the last few weeks paid-off.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The first half took me 20 minutes, the second approximately 23.5 minutes. As often with multiple workouts, it's hard to keep the same pace all along. In this case, I found that the drop in pace was reasonable (at least roughly what I expected)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My rule of thumb for estimating the length of a new double workout is to take the average completion time of the single version and add 25% on the second repetition. For example, on an average day I would complete Hades in 19 to 20 minutes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So following my rule, I expected</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> to complete Hades x2 somewhere in-between:</span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">19:00 </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">+ (19:00 </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">+25% extra time</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">) = 19 </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">+ (22:45) = <b>42:45</b></span></li>
</ul>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and</span></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">20:00 </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">+ (20:00 </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">+25% extra time</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">) = 20 </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">+ (25:00) = <b>45:00</b></span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'd add that this rule works best with regular workouts. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For the most difficult ones (Kentauros, Kronos, etc.), I use a penalty closer to </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">50% on the latter repetitions.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For short ones (or workouts that includes rest periods), I assume no to 10% penalty only.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On day 2, I only had 1 Venus. After so many busy days, it felt great to have a training day with only a short session! </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There was no side effect from day 1 efforts. I had a good feeling on pushups and improved my PB by over a minute.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For the last day, the coach made me run in all kind of ways. It started with two 400m sprints. I was tempted to run just below my fastest pace to save some energy for the following workouts. But in the end I performed on-par with previous attempts (second run was a tie with my PB).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then I was assigned 5K. Like for the sprints</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, I ran without thinking about what was coming next and even managed to improve my PB by 1 tiny second.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then came Iris, with it's 2 x 1 km mixed with exercises. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was a bit more apprehensive about this one. Last attempt during Hell Week had left me breathless, and I now had to do it after having already run 5.8 km.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But it wasn't such a bad experience. Last week I think that I tried to do too many climbers in a row, too fast. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Which forced me to take breathing breaks. This time, partly due to tired legs, I performed the climbers more slowly but with no/little breaks. To my surprise (and pleasure), this approach produced a PB. Again, only by 1 second, but a PB is a PB...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And it's the best way to finish a training week!</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07959780581684124098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562374180649049824.post-66731277562741565672015-02-18T01:53:00.003-08:002015-02-18T01:53:27.435-08:00Second Program: Week #13 (Hell Week)<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Week 59: Second Program - week 13 out of 15</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Week settings:</span></b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Area of focus:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cardio-Strength</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Number of training days:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Limitations:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">none</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Last week feedback:</b> "Hard, but ok"</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Training:</span></b><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Monday:</b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Kronos standard (45:00*) +2/3 Metis strength </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(06:54* -First time)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Tuesday</b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>:</b> 25 pushups (00:35*) +50 squats (00:57* -First time) +25 Jackknives (01:00* -First time) +Gaia</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> strength </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(47:01*)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Wednesday:</b> Artemis standard (25:50*) +</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hades standard </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(22:11*)</span></li>
<li><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thursday:</b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> 25 burpess (01:20* -First time) +25 pullups (01:22* -PB) +50 pushups (01:51* -PB) +25 High Jumps (00:25* -First time) +<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hera strength </span>(23:16*) +boxing training</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Friday:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kronos standard (42:26*) +Ares standard </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(07:43* -First time new version)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Saturday:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">50 pushups (01:47* -PB) +50 pushups (02:07*) </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">+50 squats (00:59*) </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">+50 squats (00:55* -PB) +</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Iris standard </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(30:35* -First time new version)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Sunday:</b> Aphrodite</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> standard (21:28*) +Hades standard </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(21:55*)</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b><b><span style="color: blue;">Statistics:</span></b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">7'125 points</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">307 minutes</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Week 13 started in shock & awe when this popped-up on the screen of my phone:</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAzy5v3iQ-Py_0xc5CoZNvJrTXi52XV0ogyZEK9fQmJapwSaAof2UTsPJcsPWxU1woL0fmgPmN_YcYbqwgPqVKNECvyRgbJg_qaD7cEWWRF6r6jY12RECDvHXqak-uOtji6LddO9XqQntT/s1600/Hell+week+title.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAzy5v3iQ-Py_0xc5CoZNvJrTXi52XV0ogyZEK9fQmJapwSaAof2UTsPJcsPWxU1woL0fmgPmN_YcYbqwgPqVKNECvyRgbJg_qaD7cEWWRF6r6jY12RECDvHXqak-uOtji6LddO9XqQntT/s1600/Hell+week+title.jpg" height="236" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hell Week...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Didn't see this one coming...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Technically I didn't expect either Hell Days the previous time (<a href="http://freeletics-experiment.blogspot.com/2014/11/second-program-week-7-hell-days.html">week 7</a>), but that was bad maths on my part. This time I had really no reason think I would get a Hell Week, as it is traditionally assigned for the last week of the program (as "good bye party"). Not sure if it's a bug or if the new Coach can assign Hell Weeks whenever it wants.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Day 1</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kronos is already pretty tough on its own, but by combining it with Metis strength the Coach was telling me that I should expect no mercy this week!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A session of over 50mn that </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">sets tone for the rest of week...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On the positive side, my K</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ronos time improved by 28 seconds versus last attempt <a href="http://freeletics-experiment.blogspot.com/2015/01/second-program-week-11.html">2 weeks ago</a>.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Day 2</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I get assigned a Kronos, Gaia often follows in tow. It happened again.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No need to comment the short exercises, these were just the appetizers before the real thing: Gaia strength.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Up to now I only got either the standard version or a fraction of the strength version. This was my first encounter with the full 10 rounds of Gaia strength. I had a bit of apprehension on how the last 2 rounds would go...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I took me 47:01* to complete the full thing. Compared to the 28-30 minutes range it takes me for the standard version, this shows </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">that </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Froggers & High Jumps are not just cosmetic changes: t</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">he difficulty ramp-up is real.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was another tough session, but I felt good and was pleased with my performance. My last Gaia strength that was a partial one, with "only" 8 rounds out of the normal 10, completed in ~41 minutes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Today my split time after round 8 was at ~38 minutes. A 3 minutes improvement is pretty good. During training, I felt that I had a good pace on froggers. Also I forced myself to complete all the high jumps by sets of 10 in a row, to have a regular effort all along and avoid burning my stamina in the earlier rounds. This tactic paid-off.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Day 3</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Artemis+Hades made-up another big session (over 45mn in active training time). Probably due to Monday's Kronos I found the pullups harder than usual, strangely pushups felt much smoother than usual and I completed them rapidly.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By the time I started to work on Hades burpees became harder as well. Especially in the second half, when my pace dropped.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Day 4</b>: the scariest day this week.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The only time I could complete the pullups was in the morning. So I woke-up earlier than usual (I need a good 20-30mn of awake time before starting working out) and did the 4 short exercises indoor.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For Hera strength, I waited lunch time to go outdoor and run. Completing 200 high jumps after after the 300 I already did on Day 2 finished to kill my lower legs. As usual after so many repetitions, I could already feel my tendinitis creeping back. Good thing these were the last jumps of the week.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To make my day complete, in the evening I had an hour & half of boxing training. No need to say that I wasn't in peak condition. Stiff legs & sore arms/shoulders. I had feared that having several workouts spread throughout the day would drain all my energy, b</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ut at least cardio & stamina were correct.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I need some sleep!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Day 5</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Long day at work, it was only 9pm before I could start training. Hungry & tired with sore muscles, I wasn't thrilled at all at the perspective of going through roughly an hour of gruesome strength training. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But a Freeathlete got to do what a Freeathetles gotta do, so I started my workout. No effort planning, no tactic, I just took it one rep at a time.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It turned out to be a great session!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After the initial 100 pushups, my body responded very well. The big chunk of abs+squats+leg levers felt very natural and much smoother than usual. Pullups were slightly better than last few attempts. Overall this Kronos took me 42:26*, still far for my old ~38mn PB but much better than Monday's iteration (02:36 gain).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I still have to take breaks during pullups to let my arms/shoulders/back recover. The 100 reps take me ~10 minutes. Breaking my PB will require improving the number of consecutive pullups I can bear to </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">do 100 under 6 minutes (for the records, my performance for 25 stand-alone pullups range between 01:00 and 01:30 so the under 6 minutes target is achievable... Some day...)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And just to make my day better, I finished my session by beating my Ares PB (unbroken for 11 months!) by 1 second. Scoring a new</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> PB on a workout made-up mostly of pullups and situps <b><u>after</u></b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kronos, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">was completely unexpected. I didn't even try. Yet it happened.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I probably mentioned this already in the past, but I love days like these. Motivation is super low and out of nowhere you pullout a great performance. It's just an amazing feeling. And if you score a PB in these conditions, this PB "tastes" even better than on a regular day.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Day 6</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At this stage in my Hell Week, my confidence level was fairly high. The training plan was almost complete and a</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ll the "biggies" were behind me (i.e. the Kronos/Gaia/Artemis days).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To complete my assignment I opted for a session before breakfast. I completed the 4 short exercises indoor, before going to a park for Iris.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This workout was tougher than I expected. It started getting pretty cold outside and training at dawn on humid ground is never fun. But I think the main difficulty was that I had not fully recovered from the previous night's session. I felt sluggish, and the climbers </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">killed me (I had to take many breaks to recover my breath).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The app indicated a PB but only because it was the first time that I completed Iris since the new program was launched, my overall performance was ~02:30 above my old PB.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Day 7</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Another tough day. As I said, I thought the hardest part of the week was behind me. Technically, it's correct, the most challenging workouts were at the beginning. But in the last 2 days I started to feel the effect of aggregated tiredness from a week worth of training.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I started with good old Aphrodite. For my reunion with this tough lady, I really tried to give my best. I finished ~2:30 above PB.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Last but not least, Hades. Sames thing than for Aphrodite, I was in damage control mode: PB was never in sight but I was giving my max to avoid letting the timer run too far. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These last burpees of the week were a nightmare! </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Results was ~4mn above best performance in the month and ~6mn above 10 months old PB.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Final thoughts on this Hell Week</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This was my third Hell Week since starting this Freeletics journey (last 2 iterations were at the <a href="http://freeletics-experiment.blogspot.com/2013/11/freeletics-pre-program-week-5-hell-week.html">end of the free trial</a> and the <a href="http://freeletics-experiment.blogspot.com/2014/03/freeletics-cardio-strength-program-week.html">end of the first program</a>). </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have now started to get a good grasp on how to schedule this daily training load around my normal days. But all along the week, I couldn't help but think that the intensity and the overall training load was heavier than what I had done in the past. Now that I'm sitting to write this post, I'm comparing my training records to see if this feeling was justified.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Looking at the overall load, my first 2 Hell Week took roughly 200 minutes of </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">active training time </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">to complete. This last week represented over 300 minutes of training. That's a big increase.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But if we drill further than just overall length, there are other lessons to be found.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My first Hell Week was 200 minutes long because I was out of shape. These were the days of ~28 minutes Aphrodite and ~33 minutes Dione. So basically, just doing 1 single workout per day mathematically meant circa 200 minutes of training per week.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The second Hell Week started to become more intensive. My Aphrodite & Dione times had improved to </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">respectively</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> ~</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">22 minutes & ~</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">26 minutes. If </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the week also lasted 200 minutes despite </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">my performance on these basic workouts </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">having improved by nearly 20%, it's simply because the coach had given me more workouts (3 days out of 7, I had to complete a regular workout, with a second workout on top).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This third Hell Week, was made of multiple workouts <b>every day</b>. And not a comibination of short workouts, instead it was packed with long ones such as Kronos, Artemis and Gaia (strength!), with a short/medium workout on top.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bigger workouts provide less opportunities to rest. 1</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Kronos or 10 </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Poseidon may both take you 40mn of active training time to complete. B</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ut in the latter case, you can take a few minutes rest between each Poseidon or even spread them over the day. With the big ones you tend to keep breaks at their minimum to avoid training your completion time.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To put it differently, this time Hell Week didn't simply feel like I had to train every day. It felt like going through </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hell Days for 7 days in a row.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you are new to Freeletics and read this, before you run away screaming, please keep in mind that difficulty is progressive. I doubt that the Coach would have assigned me such a long training schedule if it took me an hour and a half to complete 1 Kronos.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm not complaining about the difficulty. This was a great challenge. A tiring week, but good for motivation and </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">self-confidence. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It showed me that I could withstand</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> much more than what I thought (on my own I would never have tried combining Kronos with </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">anything</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> else!).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The only downside that I see from such a long week, is well that it takes time, a lot of time... Fitting 5 hours of training in your schedule might be really tough (especially for people travelling or with little flexibility). I was lucky that this popped-up in a normal week, and not one filled with personal/professional commitments.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At the end of the week, there was still 1 question on my mind: <b>why did I get a Hell Week in Week #13? Does it mean that I will get another one in Week #15? </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">#confused.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In order to provide enough time to recover after my extended week and in case the last week of the program is another journey through Hell, I decided that week #14 will only be made of 3 training days.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07959780581684124098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562374180649049824.post-47080931768405575352015-02-13T15:00:00.002-08:002015-02-13T15:05:52.527-08:00Second Program: Week #12<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Week 58: Second Program - week 12 out of 15</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Week settings:</span></b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Area of focus:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cardio-Strength</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Number of training days:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Limitations:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">none</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Last week feedback:</b> "Hard, but ok"</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Training:</span></b><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Monday:</b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Metis standard x3 (19:35* -PB)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Tuesday</b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Artemis standard </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(24:56*)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Wednesday:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Apollon standard</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(22:09*)</span></li>
<li><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thursday:</b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> boxing training</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Friday:</b> 100M sprint</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> (00:19 -First Time) +</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">200M sprint</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> (00:41 -First Time) </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">+</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">200M sprint</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> (00:37 -PB) </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">+</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5K </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(27:03) +Venus standard (21:14*)</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b><b><span style="color: blue;">Statistics:</span></b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3'771 points</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">116 minutes</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The stats of week #12 summarize well its content: lots of points but much less training time (compared previous month workouts). Most workouts were fairly short (i.e. no Kronos this week, so less time wasted staring at the pullup bar while my arms recover!), but packed a lot of intensity.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Day 1 set the tone with Metis standard x3. It was the third time that I completed this workout, so no real surprise there. I was glad to improve my PB by nearly 1:30 minute. It left me laying on the ground looking for my lost lungs, but it's a normal side-effect. And I can't complain when the coach is merciful enough to grant short sessions...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Day 2, I completed Artemis instead of Apollon (I was featherbrained enough to forget my gym bag, so my running session had to be postponed by a day).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I have to confess that I totally underestimated this workout. I mean, I know Artemis is tough on the arms, but I had been doing so many Kronos lately that doing 50 pullups instead of a 100 seemed (on paper) easier. Boy, was I wrong. Artemis' burpees and doing the pullups <u>before</u> the pushups are 2 factors </span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">to be reckoned with</span>.<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> As a result tmy arms were toasted and the 100 pushups were much slower than during a Kronos. No PB for me, that will teach me humility...</span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Day 3: burpees felt good but again no PB </span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">today </span>(0:45 above my record). Running will need to be improved.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">On Day 4 there was a novelty for me: sprints. I had done the 2x40m runs within workouts, but never tried stand alone short runs.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Last time I did a 100 m was in high school, I don't remember what my time was back then. It was probably really bad anyway. Nowadays, it took me nearly 20s (it helped me put in perspective Usain Bolt's insane 9:58 world record).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I used the auto-complete function, which I found extremely useful for such short distance (sprinting and watching your phone don't mix well).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> The 100m was followed by 2 sprints of 200m. It's a new kind of effort, with its own learning curve. On a shorter distance there is no/little holding back, but it still requires f</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">inding the proper breathing pace to maintain a constant pace. My second attempt was 4s better, mostly because I focused on breathing (a lot).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">These discontinuous efforts were followed by a </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5k. Unsurprisingly during the first kilometers it felt like my legs needed to adjust to the new pace. But I felt good. The only really annoying point was technical issues with the app (on iphone). I like running with music but couldn't do it in-app, so I launched the music in separate app but it conflicted with the sound from the Freeletics app. So I had no audio feedback </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(shuting down the music app didn't solve the problem)</span>. Furthermore my screen kept shutting down (screen saving mode), the only way to see my progress was to regularly fiddle with the phone to enter my code and look at the distance covered. Lesson of the day: for any run of more than 2K, I'll keep using a different app (for the moment <i>Mapmyrun</i> suits me the best) and log manually the results in the Freeletics app.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This long session ended with Venus. It's mostly a strength workout, so I didn't think my performance would suffer much from short runs. Wrong. My stamina had been more depleted from running than I had estimated. I was quickly out of juice on pushups, with an overall time 4 minutes above PB (this is a huge difference versus a ~17mn baseline).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />To summarize nothing crazy this week, mostly short workouts and with a focus on legs.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once again running was used as a complement to the usual gods/goddesses. The Coach is making full use of this new feature, I'm now expecting a run to be assigned almost every week.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07959780581684124098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562374180649049824.post-38150273993757986342015-01-30T02:02:00.002-08:002015-02-13T15:05:52.520-08:00Second Program: Week #11<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Week 57: Second Program - week 11 out of 15</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Week settings:</span></b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Area of focus:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cardio-Strength</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Number of training days:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Limitations:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">none</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Last week feedback:</b> "Hard, but ok"</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Training:</span></b><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Monday:</b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> 1.5K Run (07:25 -First Time) +</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5K Run (26:19) </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">+Hades standard </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(18:18*)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><b>Tuesday</b></b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kentauros standard </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(29:02*)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><b>Wednesday</b>:</b> Gaia standard </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(28:10* -PB)</span></li>
<li><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thursday:</b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> boxing training</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Friday:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kronos standard (45:28*)</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b><b><span style="color: blue;">Statistics:</span></b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3'022 points</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">154 minutes</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No external constraints this week. I'm back to my regular routine (training Mo-Fri, with a full rest over the week-end).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The week started with some running. Since the 15K early in the program, I'm always worried that I'll be assigned some long distance. But in the past weeks, instead the coach had a tendency to assign combinations of multiple runs of various length. That's what happened this week as well. I completed the 1.5K and 5K </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">back to back. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The overall distance (6.5K) is reasonable, but it feels a bit strange to stop running only to restart again minutes later. Upon restart it takes a short while for the leg muscles shake the numbness away.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But clearly, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I find it less difficult to do 2 medium distance in a row, than completing several sprints (400m and lower) before a longer run. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Running similar distances allow to complete both at the same pace, which is more comfortable.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As usual, the runs where completed outside during my lunch break, and I waited the evening to do Hades at home with my pull-up bar..Still below PB, but nearly 2 minutes below my last few attempts. It feels good to see the timer going down again!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kentauros was a pain but at least the weather was ok. Which makes a real difference in the winter. It's hard to express with words how miserable one feels when completing this workout soaking wet in the freezing wind. Anyway, I have noticed that lately I appreciated this workout less than in the past. Not that I </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"loved" Kentauros before, but I never disliked it as much as most people do. I guess our relationship with the workouts is a cyclical thing.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Third day was dedicated to Gaia. I started well, but my pace dropped in the second half </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(esp. on jumps)</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the last round I thought that my chances at a PB were fading away, so I literally sprinted. This session left me completely out of breath. Ironically after recovering, I realized that had messed-up my maths. My pace was better than I thought, I could have scored a PB even with a normal finish. As a result, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I improved my record by a full minute. The new PB is a real one, I gave everything that I had left to get it. It might take a while to beat it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So far the week has been mostly focused on legs, with many jumps. My lower legs tendinitis being never far away, and it's no surprise that I could feel it crawling back again. Thankfully, getting Kronos on the last day gave my legs a much welcomed rest (squats are tough on tights, but at least there no impact from hitting the ground). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Slowly but surely, I'm continuing to improve my performance: 45.28* versus </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">46:26* last week.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's been a long week with several challenging workouts, but I have recorded a nice PB and noticed improvements in pull-up focused workouts. Definitely a positive week in my book.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07959780581684124098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562374180649049824.post-80755413735684139312015-01-12T16:36:00.004-08:002015-01-12T16:36:51.713-08:00Body Stats: after 56 weeks<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As the most visible physical evolution took place during my first 20 weeks, I'm now posting my measurements and pictures less frequently. However since it's really been a while since </span><a href="http://freeletics-experiment.blogspot.com/2014/07/body-stats-after-33-weeks.html" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">last body stats post</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> (week #33)</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, let's have a look at where I stood in week #56:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Height:</span></b> 178 cm (5.84ft) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Weight:</span></b> 75.6 kg (166.7 lbs) -<i> week 33 measure: 75.0 kg (</i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">165.3 lbs</span>)</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><b><span style="color: blue;">Waist size:</span></b> 83.5 cm (32.9 in) -<i> </i><i>week 33 measure:</i><i> 83 cm (</i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">32.7</span> in)</i></span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Both my
weight and waist size have slightly increased. But such small increments are within natural fluctuations from one day to the next. My conclusion is the same as last time: my body has now stabilized in the 75kg-76kg range.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzkZYVVpxEu4duukJa_BFc3BIm8A5zJrdq_eF5Yid19nZY9o-Mw75RBE9t7bNbSvoesTwqjKqezZbyUwLvkROF5JblIy2o7NXjAxW0ci_gmPWBGCjlV0eNIKijJNndzoHlLxIlEr5Eb9Tz/s1600/wk56-front_fili.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzkZYVVpxEu4duukJa_BFc3BIm8A5zJrdq_eF5Yid19nZY9o-Mw75RBE9t7bNbSvoesTwqjKqezZbyUwLvkROF5JblIy2o7NXjAxW0ci_gmPWBGCjlV0eNIKijJNndzoHlLxIlEr5Eb9Tz/s1600/wk56-front_fili.jpg" height="640" width="332" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM8N2KnjxaCRox7XnptRkcahy57XdbZzvbppoYM3ML3DqmQXkSFwhsFEztVIuEiR_uDa0rPuyBjsQ_WZThp5WnxlZttfgbp-x7UKpYPX2tLWPlQozd1-wNG30NZJZ0TLJhsiv4CaLH1Y2t/s1600/wk56-back_fili.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM8N2KnjxaCRox7XnptRkcahy57XdbZzvbppoYM3ML3DqmQXkSFwhsFEztVIuEiR_uDa0rPuyBjsQ_WZThp5WnxlZttfgbp-x7UKpYPX2tLWPlQozd1-wNG30NZJZ0TLJhsiv4CaLH1Y2t/s1600/wk56-back_fili.jpg" height="640" width="402" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivMtYhq72VblzbO7fHSxfnvw85FYyoaOYCGDhMyFKOgIWi3mi2nrWdSvILhnAt0bwxwkBv5pfxCJzzxFowKZLhClUoVZGcEv4BXk_tXWgj613vYmmLwitptL4f4uSQpjOXB4ilGWkgZMBo/s1600/wk56-side_fili.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivMtYhq72VblzbO7fHSxfnvw85FYyoaOYCGDhMyFKOgIWi3mi2nrWdSvILhnAt0bwxwkBv5pfxCJzzxFowKZLhClUoVZGcEv4BXk_tXWgj613vYmmLwitptL4f4uSQpjOXB4ilGWkgZMBo/s1600/wk56-side_fili.jpg" height="640" width="290" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This time I didn't have to adjust contrast to bypass a lighting problem, so the tone of the photos is more natural. It gives them a warmer and healthier aspect. But if you put aside this aesthetic considerations and focus on the body, the </span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">pictures are not radically different versus last time. U<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">nsurprisingly so, </span></span>given the little variations measured in weight and waist size.</span> May be I have kept adding a bit more muscle (thighs and back). But honestly there too, I'd say I have been pretty stable.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">One thing worth mentioning is that in-between week 33 & 56 I lost about a month worth of proper training to vacations & injuries (</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">boxing training, not stress injuries). I didn't notice any significant weight gains during this period but it took me a while for my workout performances to get back to pre-Summer level (especially for pure strength exercises such as pull-ups). That could have slowed a bit progress. But in all fairness, the most probable explanation is simply that I have now balanced my caloric intake and physical activity level. For significant short/medium-term changes I would need to alter either my diet or training routine (</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">frequency or the </span>strength vs cardio mix).</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07959780581684124098noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562374180649049824.post-11500586739752692232015-01-05T07:49:00.001-08:002015-01-05T07:49:17.114-08:00Second Program: Week #10<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Week 56: Second Program - week 10 out of 15</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Week settings:</span></b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Area of focus:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cardio-Strength</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Number of training days:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Limitations:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">none</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Last week feedback:</b> "Hard, but ok"</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Training:</span></b><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Tuesday:</b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Hades standard (19:53*)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><b>Wednesday</b>:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">400m </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(1:30 -First time) +</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">400m </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(1:26 -PB) +5K (25:32 -First time) +Gaia standard (30:03*)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Thursday:</b> boxing training</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Friday:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hera strength (21:51* -PB)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Saturday:</b> Kronos standard (46:26*)</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b><b><span style="color: blue;">Statistics:</span></b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2'753 points</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">146 minutes</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For readers arriving directly on this post, let me start this post by s</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ummarizing </span><a href="http://freeletics-experiment.blogspot.com/2014/12/second-program-week-9.html" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">week #9</a>:<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Basically, I was sick most of the previous week and ran late on my training schedule (2 out of 4 sessions couldn't be done within normal time frame). </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To catch-up this delay, I completed both sessions on the following Monday and started my week #10 on Tuesday.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To put it differently, instead of my usual 4 training days I chose to complete 6 days worth of training over 5 days. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So I approached </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Week 10 just like a Hell Week: </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">as an endurance test. D</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">on't get crazy about getting Personal Bests, the focus is to complete every single workout and ensure that I get enough sleep to avoid injuries.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As it was impossible for me to complete the running assignments on Day 1, I swapped days 1&2 and tackled</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Hades standard instead. I had some sore muscles from the previous day, and didn't score a stellar time. But </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">it really felt good to be training again.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The coach had been very "generous" on </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Day 2. The combined running distance of 5.8 km was fine. The 2 sprints before the 5K increased a bit </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">difficulty, as but it remained of moderate difficulty. The real challenge was to complete Gaia at the end. Thankfully it was only the standard version, but </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">it gave me a good sweat. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was more dripping from Gaia, than from running 5.8 km under the rain...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thursday I was glad to return to my weekly boxing session after missing the previous one. At that point of the week, my body started to grow tired. I could feel a bit more sluggish than usual, but nothing alarming.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On day 3, Hera strength </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">started </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">on a good pace, but it dropped round after round as I had to break my high jumps rounds into smaller consecutive sets. Nonetheless</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I managed to complete the last round of high jumps all in one go (motivation surges when one sees the light at the end of the tunnel!). This led to an unexpected personal best (8s better than 2 weeks ago). I find that these PB </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">always feel more rewarding when happening toward the end of a long day/week.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For my last day of the week, I was assigned, surprise, surprise, Kronos.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My first intention was to complete it in the evening on the same day as Hera, in order to give my body a full rest over the week-end.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the end, I preferred to spread the effort over an additional day. Once again my time was still far from my PB, but improving versus last time (02:12 better than last week).</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If on Monday I was glad to be back to training, on Saturday I was equally glad when it ended! The week was demanding, particularly on legs. But at least I'm back on schedule, so mission accomplished!</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07959780581684124098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562374180649049824.post-7624237757154710462014-12-18T06:17:00.000-08:002014-12-18T06:17:44.682-08:00Second Program: Week #9<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Week 55: Second Program - week 9 out of 15</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Week settings:</span></b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Area of focus:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cardio-Strength</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Number of training days:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Limitations:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">none</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Last week feedback:</b> "Hard, but ok"</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Training:</span></b><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Monday:</b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Ares standard x2</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> (16:46* -First time)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Tuesday:</b> Kronos standard (48:39*)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Wednesday-Sunday:</b> sick days</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Monday:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Atlas standard (22:12*) +</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kentauros strength 4/6 </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(26:37* -First time)</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b><b><span style="color: blue;">Statistics:</span></b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3'209 points</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">114 minutes</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Week 9 was mostly made-up of strength-focused workouts.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It started fairly lightly with a Ares x2. While x2 or x3 workouts usually represents a steep increase in difficulty compared to the single version, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">it's not the case for Ares. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So far my best Ares standard time is 07:46*. Multiply it by 2, it gives you the theoretical time of 15:26*. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My first attempt at the double version, was done in 16:46*. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My actual time was </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">01:20 above the theoretical one. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Which means that my pace wasn't completely off the mark during the second iteration. The first explanation is it's a short workout with short sets, so there is less of a stamina issue (Hades x2 is another story). But it's not the only factor (Metis is short workout, yet everyone will agree that the x2 or x3 versions are much harder). What makes a world of a difference is the </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">60s breaks every round. It provides enough time for the body to recover, making the double work load less relevant.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tuesday, I started getting a bit of a sore throat but decided to train anyway. Again I had to perform Kronos. Again I was far for pre-Summer PB, but at least my time had improved by ~20s versus my last 2 attempts (</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">49:07* & </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">49:08*).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I don't know if the effort from training made things worse, but my sore throat quickly evolved in a throat infection. The following 4 days I was completely unable to train. This completely ruined my training schedule. I was really eager to re-start training as fast as possible to catch-up with my program (especially since now the coach subscription only last 15 weeks, with no buffer for missed days). Sunday I started feeling better, but preferred to rest in-order to fully recover before restarting training. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To offset the impact of these 5 lost days, I decided to complete my 2 remaining training days on the following Monday. And depending on my physical shape afterward to skip the rest period in-between weeks 9 & 10.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Completing Altas standard & Kentauros strength 4/6 </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">back to back under a pouring rain was a rough session. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I just told myself that </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">this was as if </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I had organized my own little Hell Day. It's a once-in-a-while spike in effort. Just get over it, and you won't think about it once the regular routine comes back.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At the end of the day I was tired, but felt well enough to start directly week 10 on the following day.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07959780581684124098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562374180649049824.post-27062381632672261612014-12-02T12:46:00.001-08:002014-12-02T12:46:42.326-08:00Second Program: Week #8<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Week 54: Second Program - week 8 out of 15</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Week settings:</span></b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Area of focus:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cardio-Strength</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Number of training days:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Limitations:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">none</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Last week feedback:</b> "Hard, but ok"</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Training:</span></b><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Monday:</b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> High Jumps 100</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> (04:22* -First time) +Kronos standard (49:07*)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Tuesday:</b> Iris strength (41:10* -First time)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Wednesday:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kronos standard (49:08*)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Thursday:</b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> boxing training</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Friday: </b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hera strength (21:59* -First time)</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b><b><span style="color: blue;">Statistics:</span></b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3'003 points</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">165 minutes</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Good thing that I didn't need an easy week, to recover from Hell Days last week. With 2 Kronos and 2 full strength version workouts, the coach was very generous with me...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was a bit worried that the 100 High jumps would wake-up my tendinitis but since they were followed by a "no-jump" workout, I had no real issue. However, Kronos was a slap in the face. My completion time was more than <b>10 minutes</b> over my PB... </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">During the workout it seemed that I would never see the end of these 300 squats, but the real time wasters were pushups and pullups (</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I spent around 15mn on pullups alone).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I knew that I wasn't back at my peak on these exercises, but I had not expected such a time.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The difficulty of the strength version of </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Iris took me by surprise. I completed </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Iris (standard) </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">many times in the past</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. T</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">he only change in the strength version is that climbers are replaced by froggers. And it turns out that, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">on Metis strength, I actually prefer to do froggers instead of climbers (I guess frogs are a French thing!)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I expected a nice little workout, under 30 minutes. B</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">oy, was I wrong...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In Metis strength, we trade 45 climbers for 45 froggers. In Iris strength, it's 500 froggers. That makes a world of a difference.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They left me completely breathless. It took me 41 painful minutes to complete the workout (nearly 50% more time than the regular version!). Next time I'll know what to expect.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The main challenge with second Kronos this week, was that my abs were still on fire from the first attempt. The muscles didn't feel particularly painful over the past couple days, but it became noticeable as soon as I started the first set of abs. It resulted in a fairly slow pace, on abs and leg levers. However, I managed to go a (tiny) bit faster on pullups, so the overall time was only a second away from Monday's result. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Last but not least, Hera strength completed my week. Interestingly, this was the opposite of Iris strength. I expected the training to be much more difficult and longer due to the high jumps, but it's not the case. High jumps require a bigger effort and bring more intensity to the training, but the extra effort is mitigated </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">thanks to the 60 seconds breaks. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As a result, for my first attempt at the strength version, my time was only 01:30 above my PB in the standard version.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My total training time this week was longer by nearly 40mn compared to the previous week and its <i>Hell Days</i>. Yet the app indicates that I scored less points (3'003 vs 3'184). As you know by now, I'm mostly indifferent points</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> but I understand that they somehow abstractly quantify the efforts of workouts. Which means that it took more time to roughly generate the same output of energy.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Given the amount of time wasted on Kronos starring at a the pullup bar, I'd say that's a pretty good summary of my week. So the point system is probably not that far off the mark afterall.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07959780581684124098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562374180649049824.post-58364184927724962532014-11-28T06:10:00.003-08:002014-11-30T09:50:01.268-08:00Second Program: Week #7 (Hell Days)<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Week 53: Second Program - week 7 out of 15 (Hell Days)</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Week settings:</span></b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Area of focus:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cardio-Strength</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Number of training days:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Limitations:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">none</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Last week feedback:</b> "Hard, but ok"</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Training:</span></b><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Monday:</b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Artemis standard (24:20*) +Metis standard x3 (23:43*)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Tuesday:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">rest day</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Wednesday:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Artemis standard (25:17*) </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">+Apollon standard (21:24* -PB)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Thursday:</b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> boxing training</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Friday: </b>Poseidon standard x2 (13:35*) </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">+</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Atlas (standard 21:24* -PB) +[bonus 2K run]</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b><b><span style="color: blue;">Statistics:</span></b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4'878 points</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">128 minutes</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For some reason, in <a href="http://freeletics-experiment.blogspot.com/2014/10/second-program-week-5.html">Week #5</a> I was </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">convinced that I would get <i>Hell Days</i>. I thought that the Freeletics guys must have changed the way the program worked. It's only now that I'm sitting to write this post, that I realized that it's actually normal. <i>Hells Days</i> were already in <a href="http://freeletics-experiment.blogspot.com/2014/01/freeletics-program-week-7.html">Week #7 during my first program</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, if timing of Hell Days remains unchanged, is there anything else new?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, the first time I was following the program via the website (it wasn't included in the app back then). So the first novelty for me was to see that the usual blue color-code of the app, turned to red. This warns you that your week ain't going to </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">be a walk in the park (most likely you'll be taking a "lunge-walk" in the park instead).</span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8IB4oo7Ipy9K8Qtt67kkgnTb6gn7gY0zipkh6FMi4oVvzZgki-C1KvizmHu02qTDtK-3H8VsKJnPD7pNlgci24Mh2aNOyvJgCVRYvOlUFEl6xqjZ7QWQXwBFSvPCfDLVTZkAmDceKRL6q/s1600/week16.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8IB4oo7Ipy9K8Qtt67kkgnTb6gn7gY0zipkh6FMi4oVvzZgki-C1KvizmHu02qTDtK-3H8VsKJnPD7pNlgci24Mh2aNOyvJgCVRYvOlUFEl6xqjZ7QWQXwBFSvPCfDLVTZkAmDceKRL6q/s1600/week16.PNG" height="320" width="223" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigxZr_EVyVnJM9q-2u5y98FUBDhQjiTnI19y2NHdVL21fqEki31koxcVCRn6OYjVnsPyFTa-gRsaYA-x3puzk3AiquivSGbT6oSbU_VXQpR1k1b9vCgj7LHB5-4lUDk6qH0zDT2Y5P_COO/s1600/week22.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigxZr_EVyVnJM9q-2u5y98FUBDhQjiTnI19y2NHdVL21fqEki31koxcVCRn6OYjVnsPyFTa-gRsaYA-x3puzk3AiquivSGbT6oSbU_VXQpR1k1b9vCgj7LHB5-4lUDk6qH0zDT2Y5P_COO/s1600/week22.PNG" height="320" width="222" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The second thing that I noticed is that on a <i>Hell Days</i> week, the number of training days that you chose is irrelevant. If you have a closer look at the "Week settings" at the begining of this post, you'll notice that I asked to get 4 training days. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But the coach only assigned my 3 days (which is the usual number of </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hell Days</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">).</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Looking at the training content itself, t</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">he only real change was that each </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hell Day</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> was "only" made-up of 2 workouts. In the past it used to be 3 workouts per day (although 1 of the 3 was usually</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> a very short workout).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On the first day, I was fired-up and slightly improved </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Artemis versus my <a href="http://freeletics-experiment.blogspot.com/2014/11/second-program-week-6.html">previous week</a> attempt (</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">24:20* instead of 24:42*). This is a moderate gain, but it's always feels good to be going in the right direction.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I performed the </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Metis x3 only a few minutes after Artemis, so </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was less juiced up! It felt difficult, but the good thing about these cardio workouts is that even if the pace is slower most of the time you can carry-on (as opposed to pullups, where you just have to just stand there starring at the pullup bar until your arms recover). I didn't score a PB, but that I didn't really expect to.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The second day, I had to split my training. Artemis was done in the morning before breakfast (I had to be home to do the pullups), while Apollon (which requires to be outdoor) was done later in the day. My personal preference is to do workouts back to back, but I have to do with </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">logistical constraints</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Apollon PB was unexpected. I had assumed that my shoulders would be a bit sore from the early Artemis session, but the burpees were very fluid. It's good to finish a <i>Hell Day</i> on a positive note.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For the last day, I also had to split my day in the same way. Poseidon x2 before breakfast and Atlas at lunch. Once again, I scored a PB. It seems that my running has been improving lately. I had some juice left, so I decided to run back 2 kilometers to my starting point.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Overall it was a good week. The training load was heavier than a regular week, but it remained reasonable. If I could still run after completing the entire week, it means that my muscles were not completely burnt out.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So don't be afraid of Hell Days, they won't kill you (but they will try...)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07959780581684124098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562374180649049824.post-56678862371023455162014-11-28T03:13:00.003-08:002014-11-28T03:13:39.893-08:00Second Program: Week #6<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Week 52: Second Program - week 6 out of 15</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Week settings:</span></b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Area of focus:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cardio-Strength</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Number of training days:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Limitations:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">none</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Last week feedback:</b> "Hard, but ok"</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Training:</span></b><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Monday:</b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Gaia strength 8/10 (41:01* -First time)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Tuesday:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Venus standard (17:26*)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Wednesday:</b> Artemis standard (24:42*)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Thursday:</b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> boxing training</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Friday:</b>[bonus: 100 jumping jacks (01:09*)] +Ares standard x2 (17:06* -First time) </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">+</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">[bonus: 25 pushups standards (00:35*) +25 pushups diamonds (00:50*) +25 pushups wide (00:46*)]</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b><b><span style="color: blue;">Statistics:</span></b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3'184 points</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">100 minutes</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Last couple weeks felt a bit soft, but I still decided to keep</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> intensity at the same level as before. That was a wise move, as my regular training plan proved to be more challenging this time.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Week #6 begun with a running start. When you get </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Gaia strength on day #1, no matter what comes afterward you can't call it an easy week!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In my case, I wasn't the full workout but only </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">8 rounds out of 10. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My last encounter with Gaia strength on </span><a href="http://freeletics-experiment.blogspot.com/2014/10/second-program-week-4.html" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Week #4</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> (only 6/10), had left me breathless.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I didn't want to be burnt out before starting rounds 7 & 8, so th</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">is time I decided to take a slower start and focus on breathing. Also, while I prefer to remain barefoot when training indoor, I wore running shoes to help cushion the landing on high jumps (and limit the risk of my tendinitis returning).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Despite the slow start t</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">his workout was tough. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My completion time was 41:01* for 8 rounds, to the 6 rounds in </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">24:08*, (1 minute more per round; it's a 25% increase).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I can't hide behind the slower start to explain such an important drop in pace. The main reason is that this is a difficult workout. A single round is intensive, but can be done in a burst. However the repetition of rounds grinds down stamina exponentially. While I didn't think much of Gaia in the past, it has become one of my top bogeymen.<br /><br />The rest of the week was mostly </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">strength focused. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Artemis has been improving (25:16* last attempt), </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">but remains tough. For short sets of pushups/pullups (i.e. 15-25), I have almost gotten back to my pre-summer level, but longer sets remain challenging. It will take time and effort before I can do all 50 pullups without being forced to take breaks.</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />The last point I wanted to highlight, was that during my b</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">oxing training I start to feel the impact of doing the</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Freeletics program in parallel. When I was setting-up my own schedule, the day before my weekly boxing practice was usually a rest day, or at least a light session. Now that I'm following the program, I have less flexibility and there are times when I show-up at practice with sore muscles.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's not something unbearable, but I want to bring it up as I know that many people use (or plan to use) Freeletics in complement to another sport. Finding the right balance between both is a fine art, and I'm already starting to think on how I should be organizing workouts during the week once I'm done with my current 15 weeks program.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07959780581684124098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562374180649049824.post-40063771056399785522014-10-27T10:21:00.003-07:002014-10-27T10:24:19.027-07:00Second Program: Week #5<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Week 51: Second Program - week 5 out of 15</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Week settings:</span></b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Area of focus:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cardio-Strength</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Number of training days:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Limitations:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">none</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Last week feedback:</b> "Hard, but ok"</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Training:</span></b><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Monday:</b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">[bonus: 2K run (09:12)] +Hera</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> standard 3/5 (12:08*) +</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">[bonus: 2K run (11:04)]</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Tuesday:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Venus standard (18:36*)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Wednesday:</b> Gaia standard (29:54* -PB)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Thursday:</b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> boxing training</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Friday:</b> Lunge standard 100 (03:36* -First time)</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> +Kentauros standard 1/6 (03:49* -First time) +</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">[bonus: 25 pushups standards (00:35*) +25 pushups diamonds (00:47*) +25 pushups wide (00:50*) +25 pullups standards (01:23*)]</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b><b><span style="color: blue;">Statistics:</span></b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1'914 points</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">68 minutes</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No <i>Hells Days</i>. No <i>Hell Week</i>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Week #5 turned out to be perfectly normal. Even more quiet than usual: </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">with a total training time of 68 minutes</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, this </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">is the shortest training schedule since re-starting the program.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(Reminder: training time only includes the workouts assigned to me by the Coach. T</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">he "bonus" workouts that I decide to add to spice-up things a bit are not counted by the app).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have a bit of trouble to understand the progressivity of the workouts assigned to me each week. You'd imagine that each week intensity increase a bit, or that the program would alternate tough weeks with recovery ones. But week #4 wasn't particularly difficult, so I don't really see the point of an easy week #5. We'll see what the future holds, but so far I'm moderately impressed by the training generator algorithm.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I stated a few times that I'm not a huge fan of partial workout. Unless they are a complement to another workout (e.g. 1/3 Metis to warmup before something else) or a step toward a harder goal (e.g. 6/10 Strength Gaia, as a first step before </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">8/10 or 10/10 in the following weeks). But just getting 3/5 of standard <i>Hera</i>, (that was already assigned to me in </span><a href="http://freeletics-experiment.blogspot.com/2014/09/second-program-week-2.html" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Week #2</a>)<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, feels cheap </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(and it hurts me ego!)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hence on day #1 I added a bit of running before & after the workout to feel like I had a real training session. And completed day #4 with a few pushups & pullups.</span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The toughest thing this week was Gaia on day #3. The standard version is definitely less crazy than the strength one, but even without the high jumps it's still an intense workout. I had never performed Gaia during my first program (only tried it afterward). This time, it seems I get it every other week, and </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have learnt to respect it!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />That's it. Short overall </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">training training, n</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">o new workout: t</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">here was not much to comment about this time. Next post should follow shortly.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07959780581684124098noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562374180649049824.post-41557085915545379942014-10-23T07:32:00.002-07:002014-10-23T07:38:48.642-07:00Second Program: Week #4<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Week 50: Second Program - week 4 out of 15</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Week settings:</span></b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Area of focus:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cardio-Strength</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Number of training days:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Limitations:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">none</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Last week feedback:</b> "Hard, but ok"</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Training:</span></b><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Monday:</b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Dione standard (29:07*) </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">+</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">[bonus: 10 straights pullups (00:31*) & 10 Toes to bar (00:51*)]</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Tuesday:</b> Gaia strength 6/10 (24:08* -First time)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Wednesday:</b> Venus standard (17:09* -PB)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Thursday:</b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> boxing training</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Friday:</b> Poseidon standard (04:51*)</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> +Metis strength 1/3 (01:11* -First time)</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b><b><span style="color: blue;">Statistics:</span></b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2'556 points</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">76 minutes</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I setup week #4 so that the difficulty remains similar to the previous week. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As the saying goes: "<i>once bitten, twice shy</i>". </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After the </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">15K run assigned to me last week, I wasn't going to select "Far too easy" any time soon...</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The week turned out to be fairly mild.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
<br />
It started with Dione. My poor performance (~29 mn vs a ~26mn PB), clearly showed that I'm not back in full-shape yet. It gave me a good sweat, but it remains one of the basic workouts. It not outstandingly difficult.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I added a few extra pullups as I feel that it one of the area where my performance decreased the most. Followed by a few Toes to bar (I wanted to test if I could do this move and unlock it in the "advanced skills" menu). This new exercise is actually not that bad. What surprised me is that I expected this exercise to mostly target abs, but it turned out that it's mostly demanding for the shoulders (and you don't want to lose your grip while head-down!)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The only notable session was on day #2. At first I had just seen that I had to perform Gaia 6/10, assuming it was the standard version. I didn't thought much about it (why worry about a partial standard workout?) </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As I was ready to perform the workout, I noticed that in my program was the </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">strength</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> version.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My main memories of the 2 G</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">aia that I had performed a few months back, was that I was soaking wet upon completion. Well, strength Gaia take perspiration to a whole new level...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As usual with the new Freeletics program, the difference between standard and strength workouts is that the <i>climbers</i> are replaced by <i>froggers</i> and <i>jumps</i> by <i>high jumps</i>. Gais is no exception. The only novelty is that Gaia's unique <i>standups</i> are replaced by <i>standup-jumps</i>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">standup-jumps</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> being new, I wondered how they would go. Well, honestly if you already master the </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">standup </i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">technique you shouldn't worry about these. The extra jump require a bit of additional energy from your tired legs but nothing unbearable.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What you should worry about are the </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">30 reps of </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>high jumps</i>. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The full workouts has 10 rounds. That's 300 high jumps.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This time, I didn't complain that I was assigned a partial workout...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Usually I always try to perform workouts at max intensity and each time I get a good sweat. But overall, my cardio recovery is relatively fast (muscle soreness is another story). But this is one of the few workouts, which leaves me laying on the ground for a while to recover my breath.I'd say this is harder stuff than Kentauros.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anyway, days 3 & 4 were not very hard. I actually was asking myself if the week was intentionally less difficult to recover from week #3 and may be as a rest before week #5. Traditionally week #5 is made of Hell Days.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We'll see...</span><br />
<div>
</div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07959780581684124098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562374180649049824.post-72181957053763576772014-10-01T15:49:00.000-07:002015-01-05T07:41:46.650-08:00Second Program: Week #3<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Week 49: Second Program - week 3 out of 15</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Week settings:</span></b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Area of focus:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cardio-Strength</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Number of training days:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Limitations:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">none</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Last week feedback:</b> "Far too easy"</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Training:</span></b><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Monday:</b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Metis standard x3 (21:33* -PB) +Apollon standard (27:30*)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Tuesday:</b> Artemis standard (25:16*)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Wednesday:</b> Poseidon standard (04:26*) +Metis endurance 1/3 (00:41*)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Thursday:</b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> boxing training</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Friday:</b> 15K run (01:31:30 -PB)</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b><b><span style="color: blue;">Statistics:</span></b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4'210 points</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">170 minutes</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Last week I was disappointed with </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">he partial workouts that were assigned to me. It felt cheap.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I wanted a real training plan, something more challenging. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And I wanted it now.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">S</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">o when setting-up the parameters for week 3,</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I indicated that week 2 had been "Far too easy". </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A distant voice in my head. told me that it was a bad idea.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But hey, I'm no Joan of Arc. I don't believe in inner voices. I'm a "tough guy". Tough guys believe in sweat, testosterone and Chuck Norris.</span><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once you have tried the various workouts available, it doesn't take long to assess the difficulty of a </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">t</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">raining plan. A minute a</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">fter clicking on the "Next week" button, my </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">testosterone levels dropped, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and instead of Chuck Norris I could hear Al Pacino </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">in the Devil's Advocate </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">saying: </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Vanity, definitely my favorite sin."</span><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">[After proof-reading this post, I'm starting to think that </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">auditory hallucinations may be </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">a side-effect of Freeletics!]</span></i><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/3M68wcB6L0s?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div>
<br /></div>
</div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;">Reviewing the training plan:</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For the first time in a <b><u>very</u></b> long time, I wondered if I would be able to complete my week's training program. I'm not speaking metaphorically, I really wasn't sure if I could do it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The beginning of the week was </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">clearly more challenging</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, but nothing insane. Actually that's exactly the kind of extra intensity that </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I had been looking for in the first place. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On Day 1, Metis standard x3 would certainly give me a good sweat, making the subsequent Apollon harder than usual. Tough session, but less than a</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Hell Day. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Artemis on day 2 and its pullups would certainly give my arms a run for their money. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But I have completed Artemis 5 times in the past. Been there, done that. No concern.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What <i>really</i> worried me was the 15K run on Day 4.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm sure that for the runners out there this seems like a piece of cake. Well not for me. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I run a bit as part of my cardio training, but I don't <i>train to run</i>. The last and only time that I ran a long distance was a half-marathon (21K), 10 years ago. And that was done without proper training beforehand. A painful experience/mistake that I didn't forget. Over the past few years, I ran 5.5K at once, at most. Since training with Freeletics, my running activity was pretty much limited to Iris, Hera & Apollon (~</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2K per session).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My cardio has benefited for that </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">past year of intense training.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So I was pretty confident that I could bear a 1h30-2h00 effort without getting any muscle cramps. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My top concern was purely mechanical. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Repetitive tendinitis forced me to </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">stop rope jumping. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Would my joints, tendons & ligaments hold-up to this sudden increase in distance?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;">Actual performance:</span></b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The week passed by as planned.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Day 1: Metis standard x3 lived-up to my expectations (definitely one of the toughest cardio workout out there). I was glad that in this new version</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> jumps replaced the high jumps! Legs were heavy during Apollon, but overall a good session.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Day 2: My pullups are still not back to my pre-vacations level, so I wasted some time on </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Artemis.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Day 3: </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The short session (2 workouts: only 5 minutes!) provided a welcomed recovery day.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thursday, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I went to my usual Thursday boxing training but was careful not to ask too much out my legs. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The perspective of the 15K haunted me all week, the last thing that I wanted was to have sore muscles <i>before</i> the run.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Day 4: </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Finally, 15K-Friday came. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Given the short-notice I couldn't do a proper body </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">preparation for this run, but at least I tried to stack the odds in my favor by:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">getting a decent night of sleep (undersleep is a bad habit of mine).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">organizing a longer lunch break to have enough time to complete the workout.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">avoiding to run on an empty stomach (well-sized breakfast +cereal bar 1 hr before the run).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">putting some band-aids to prevent blisters.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">bringing a bottle of water along with me.</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>I completed the 15K run in 1:31:30</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(I had targeted 1h30). </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm glad to report that I also </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">fulfilled</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> my 2 secondary objectives: no break, no walking.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On the positive-side, it turned out that my cardio was even better than expected. I was barely out of breath at the end of the run, and didn't get any cramp. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On the "not-so-positive"side, a</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">s I had feared all my issues were mechanical.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Despite my precautions, I felt a blister appearing after a 5-6 kilometers. In the evening I couldn't believe the size of this thing (I'll spare you the graphic pictures). Luckily during the run, it was mildly</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> annoying and didn't slow me down. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The real challenge came from the joints. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Around 5K I started to feel a slight stiffness in </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">my left knee. Past 7K, a similar sensation appeared in the right hip. First it was just a tingle, but </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">it grew more painful and my articulations were losing amplitude (esp. the knee).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Progressively my pace decreased. A few times I tried to re-focus </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and accelerate, but the stiffness crept back. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The last 2 kilometers were really tough.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My overall pace was 06:05 per kilometer. When analyzing the split times, it's clear that while my pace progressively dropped, the run can be divided into 2 chapters.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">first 7K, was "running as usual". Split times per kilometer </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">all </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">remained within a reasonable</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> range. In this section, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">average pace was </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">05:30/km, versus </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">05:00/km-05:10/km per kilometer when I run </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2K-3K. Not too far off.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">last 8K, the pace was sluggish. Stats don't lie: best split time at 06:14, worse split time </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">at 7:09 in the last kilometer. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">06:35 on average.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn-yfq_WVbG13i8LODOnv-fKkIm8Kga8t-cCwKEVLwFd-pv5pGLiMUXq71owWJ7NiGAtJy8r5i4T0_xoFQstty813jWVTPW8jYSREF9pbjwM9rpdNKnuEiJYYJcda00hKBHZ87GW8GwbIJ/s1600/15K_201409.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn-yfq_WVbG13i8LODOnv-fKkIm8Kga8t-cCwKEVLwFd-pv5pGLiMUXq71owWJ7NiGAtJy8r5i4T0_xoFQstty813jWVTPW8jYSREF9pbjwM9rpdNKnuEiJYYJcda00hKBHZ87GW8GwbIJ/s1600/15K_201409.PNG" height="400" width="393" /></a></div>
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Note</u>: 1st K contains a steep flight of stairs hence I always lose a few seconds there. 2nd K is partially downhill </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">hence I usually go faster there. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">15th K is partially uphill. The rest of the run was performed on flat grounds.</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the following days, t</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">o my surprise I barely had any sore muscles. However, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">it took a few days for my knee to recover. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From what I can tell, the pain didn't came from the articulation itself (i.e. bones friction), but from a ligament.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was limping on Friday afternoon, and things progressively came back to normal over</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> the week-end. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The next Monday pain was gone, but I felt it would have come back rapidly if I had run again. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thankfully I didn't have any </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">running planned the entire week.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm not sure if </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">this was a warning of a knee problem </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">that could become more serious in the future (I'm not getting any younger!) or if it was simply caused because my body is not used to such distances. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Based on limited evidence, I'll settle for a symptom of "over-running".</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As I look back at week 3, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm proud that I was able to meet this challenge. I pushed my limits and accomplished something that I would never have tried on my own. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But I won't lie, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I don't think that I could have endured a much longer distance without walking. I will need much serious preparation before attempting longer distances.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The running is a nice addition to the Freeletics routine. But I can't help to wonder how the coach can go from assigning 3/5th of Hera (i.e. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1.2K aggregated) and then a full 15K the next week. H</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">onestly, this feels a overkill and actually bit risky.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are so many great workouts to choose, I hope that next time that I request more difficulty, I'll be assigned more difficult workouts, not simply asked to </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">to run a marathon...</span><br />
<div>
</div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07959780581684124098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562374180649049824.post-84880641835505200882014-09-27T11:39:00.000-07:002014-09-27T11:39:02.807-07:00Second Program: Week #2<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Week 48: Second Program - week 2 out of 15</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Week settings:</span></b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Area of focus:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cardio-Strength</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Number of training days:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Limitations:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">none</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Last week feedback:</b> "Hard, but OK"</span></li>
</ul>
<i><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Note</u>: there are 3 status available to give weekly feedback to the Coach "Hard, but OK", "Far too hard" or "Far too easy".</span></i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Training:</span></b><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Monday:</b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> [bonus: 2k run in 09:58] +Hera standard 3/5 (12:02* -PB) +</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">[bonus: 2k run in 10:47]</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Tuesday:</b> Hades standard (19:04*)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Wednesday:</b> Zeus standard 3/4 (20:06 -PB)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Thursday:</b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> boxing training</span></li>
<li><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Friday:</b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Hades standard </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(18:56*)</span></li>
</ul>
<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;">Statistics:</span></b><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1366 points</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">90 minutes</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I had been relatively sparred in week 1, while a</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> number of freeathletes in my network using the Coach had been assigned a few tough workouts. Despite the starless Zeus, I had completed all my workouts with decent times. So, when I clicked on the "Next week"button, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I expected the coach to progressively ramp-up difficulty. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then I had a WTF moment.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">O</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ut of the 4 training days, 2 were made of partial workouts. That </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">may</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> have made sense, if it was intended to compensate for the remaining 2 days. But these other 2 days, were far from being tough enough to justify rest days.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On the Monday, I couldn't imagine only do a 3/5 standard Hera. So I ended-up running 2 km before & after training, to feel like I had really done something. That worked. The runs provided good complementary exercise and it turned out that the Hera session was very intensive. Due to its shortness, I didn't worry about pacing my efforts so I ran the 400m faster than I usually do.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Not much to say about the rest of the week. Training felt definitely too light, and the statistics confirmed it. Overall training time had decreased by 22 minutes (90 vs 112 in week 1) and points dropped from 4'150 to 1'366! (</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm not a big fan of points but they do give a rough sense of training intensity).</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At the end of week 2, I was pretty upset about partial workouts. The idea is not bad, but I see them as complements to regular workouts, not replacements. I really hope that training will step-up a notch SOON...</span><br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07959780581684124098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562374180649049824.post-80534048533183359772014-09-25T03:03:00.002-07:002014-09-25T05:29:07.991-07:00Second Program: Week #1<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Foreword</u>: for newcomers, let me clarify how I'm counting the weeks in my posts. T</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">he typical program that </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Freeletics sells lasts 15 weeks. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However I have already completed a program once, and I have trained on my own for many weeks. Hence below is week #47 since I first started training, but as I have just re-signed up for 15 weeks, it's the first week of this new program. Hence the 1/15.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Week 47: Second Program - week 1 out of 15</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Week settings:</span></b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Area of focus:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cardio-Strength</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Number of training days:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Limitations:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">none</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Last week feedback:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">n/a - it's the first week remember? ;-)</span></li>
</ul>
<i><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As mentioned when I <a href="http://freeletics-experiment.blogspot.com/2014/09/review-of-upgraded-program-released-aug.html">reviewed the new program</a>, now users have the possibility to input several variables before the training plan for the week is automatically generated. Above are the parameters that I have used for week 1.</span></i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Training:</span></b><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Monday:</b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Metis Endurance 1/3 (00:41* -PB) + Zeus Standard (28:13 -PB)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Tuesday:</b> Kentauros (25:54* -PB)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Wednesday:</b> Apollon Standard (22:11* -PB)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Thursday:</b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> boxing training</span></li>
<li><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Friday:</b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Apollon </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(22:11*) + Poseidon standard X2 (13:02*)</span></li>
</ul>
<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b>
<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;">Statistics:</span></b><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4'150 points</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">112 minutes</span></li>
</ul>
<i><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The statistics above are generated by the app at the end of the week (convenient, I like it!), I noticed that it only counts the points for the points for assigned workouts. To test the GPS feature, I walked a short distance. Nothing big, but it still credited me a few points. However these</span></i><i><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> "extra-points" and "extra-training time" are not captured in the total of the week.</span></i><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A few weeks before starting over with the program, I was wondering what my training plan would look like. Would it be similar to the first one (i.e. beginner ramp-up), or would the algorithm take into account my improved performance over these months of training and force me to hit the ground running.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It turned out that </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the implementation of the new program (endurance/standard/strength) and the modifications of several workout routines severed the link between old and new program. If many of the old PB have been reset, the Coach simply can't take into account past performance. The only unknown was how/if would the Coach would integrate my results on preliminary test to setup difficulty.</span><br />
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Note</u>: this also means that in the first few weeks I'll be scoring tons of PB. Not only most first completion of a standard workouts, but all the alternate versions (strength/endurance and partial/multiple), </span><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">will be considered first attempts (hence PBs).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I saw that my week's training would start with 1 round of Endurance Metis. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was a bit upset. True, it wasn't the <b>only</b> workout on Day 1. But I took the program to challenge myself, and it started by asking me to do 20% of the easy version of a less than 5 minutes wor</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">kout. 41 seconds: not even enough to warm-up. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This was followed by Zeus, a workout completed without star, since I still can't do handstand pushups. Which as a side note, I have not unlocked as an "advanced skill". I wonder what this advanced skills function is all about. Either the Coach is programmed to avoid giving workouts using these skills (in which case it failed miserably), or on contrary to </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">help you unlock these skills (but if you ask people do things they can't do, what's the point of asking them in the first place?)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Aside from this underwhelming first impression, the rest of the week was fine. Kentauros remains a respected/dreaded workout for many freeathletes, so you can't complain about having it too easy when it's assigned to you. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The real novelty was that I tried for the first time one of these multiple workouts. Well I can tell you that it </span><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">significantly</b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> increases difficulty.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My Poseidon personal best is at 04:20*, on a bad day it's around 05:00*. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Even when doing 2 separate Poseidon in a row</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> in </span><a href="http://freeletics-experiment.blogspot.com/2014/02/freeletics-program-week-12.html" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">week 12/15</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> of my first program, the aggregated time was 1</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">0:12*. Yet it took me 13:02* to complete the Poseidon X2.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Taking no break makes a huge difference for the muscles. The second iteration becomes much harder. And it's also more challenging mentally. My brain was fully aware that I was doubling-up on difficulty, and telling me to pace myself. Not a bad advice, but I really had to stay focused to keep the pace as intense as I could.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Overall the first week was fine. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With 1 Kentauros & 2 Apollon, it was definitely</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> a legs-focused week, but nothing insane. Far from being my most challenging week but it was well-balanced for someone coming back from a break.</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Week #2 will follow shortly.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07959780581684124098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562374180649049824.post-82910155917849394732014-09-17T09:04:00.003-07:002015-03-18T06:41:59.275-07:00Overview of the upgraded program (released Aug 26, 2014)<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the last post I mentioned that I had signed-up again for a 15 weeks program.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Upon completing my first program, I knew I wanted to continue to train using Freeletics </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">but not always with the program. My idea was that I might subscribe to the program once per year, just to make t</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">o force me out my comfort zone and challenge my training habits for a few months. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was a loose idea, but during the summer I realized that the first week of September would be perfect to sign-up:</span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The 15 weeks would be over just before Christmas (it's a bit of a headache for me to follow a tight schedule during the holidys season)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Most of my training would take place during late-summer and fall, so no worries about where to run when it snows.</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was already 90% convinced I would start, the only drawback for me was that whenever I get assigned 5 sessions per week it starts to conflict with my regular boxing training. And that's when Freeletics released on August 26th an upgraded program with several new features (including the possibility to choose the number of sessions in the week).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The timing couldn't have been better! </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This will also give me the opportunity to test the new program and see how it works.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On Sunday evening, I bought the program to be ready to start the following Monday. The first surprise was that upon sign-up I was requested to take a physical test!</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I had not planned at all to be jumping around for ~12 minutes, but did it anyway as I wanted to complete the sign-up process. As you can see from the screenshot below, I had to take 3 MAX tests. For newcomers, it means doing the maximum number of repetitions of a specific exercise in a given time. Pullup MAX lasts 1:40, Burpees MAX and Lunge MAX 5:00 each.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirc2y5XybwztXmy6QpnnvaPqAVHlqu9tcU3IFgye6roADgcqmgrTtfmh9vrapBVPM4-1VBgHZlIeqCNxXXO50K1W6CsnhTInL7B7UGTQzMpvimV4BWF5NZEKd_Ky-MTUjgTG85rcg9ZoKs/s1600/fitness+test.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirc2y5XybwztXmy6QpnnvaPqAVHlqu9tcU3IFgye6roADgcqmgrTtfmh9vrapBVPM4-1VBgHZlIeqCNxXXO50K1W6CsnhTInL7B7UGTQzMpvimV4BWF5NZEKd_Ky-MTUjgTG85rcg9ZoKs/s1600/fitness+test.PNG" height="400" width="278" /></a></div>
<i><u style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></u></i>
<i><u style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></u></i>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Optionally, on top-of the Fitness Test you can connect on the website to indicate why "advanced skills" (understand "difficult exercises") you are able to perform (respecting exactly the correct movement).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Supposedly the more of them you master the most likely that the Coach will assign them to you. Note that even if you don't master one of these skills, you may still be asked to try to do it (for example I can't do Strict HS Pushups, but it didn't prevent the Coach to assign me <i>Zeus</i>, a workout that includes HS Pushups).</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikazFJ_BYJSfiZ5AWcoZRrdmHWMheXH3UCXbocFGYzo8jUDKyGgVHgFFbLOvvgOQZTbT27IGGgnkg-rtu3Y-Kme2aGJLtk7enmLwX9H1bhGcT_yTCcmL-X4KeGLjqsmgMAGKNXRo35uevo/s1600/advanced+skills.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikazFJ_BYJSfiZ5AWcoZRrdmHWMheXH3UCXbocFGYzo8jUDKyGgVHgFFbLOvvgOQZTbT27IGGgnkg-rtu3Y-Kme2aGJLtk7enmLwX9H1bhGcT_yTCcmL-X4KeGLjqsmgMAGKNXRo35uevo/s1600/advanced+skills.JPG" height="400" width="288" /></a></div>
<i><u style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></u></i>
<i><u style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Note</u><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">: except the "advanced skills" picture above, all the screenshots below have been taken via the smartphone app. Layout can be slightly different if you connect via the website.</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once the test has been completed, you can choose your area of focus. As before, there are 3 options: </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Strength and Cardio, Strength only and Cardio only. And, the key feature for me, the number of training days that you want to have (minium 2, maximum 5).</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This choice is <u>NOT</u> definitive. It only applies to the current week. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At the end of each week, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">you can decide to change your focus or the number of training days.</span></b></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSOOiw4rdKSqB56_P6px8lYlc1x3rSGXuXJk5Ksybv0Qnr4bcOIeQ-xMvivf2BOJqmbL67zR3vidxo80Vn_Nw4PseBLtcQN8pXiQAc-l1jwkuft9P6ncAfUbFw2Ngz-BjjTLVceRB9gtYi/s1600/startcoach.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSOOiw4rdKSqB56_P6px8lYlc1x3rSGXuXJk5Ksybv0Qnr4bcOIeQ-xMvivf2BOJqmbL67zR3vidxo80Vn_Nw4PseBLtcQN8pXiQAc-l1jwkuft9P6ncAfUbFw2Ngz-BjjTLVceRB9gtYi/s1600/startcoach.PNG" height="400" width="278" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once you click on "Start your Coach", your training for the week is generated and there is no way to change its content. <u>For me</u> the first novelty was that I could see my Training plan directly on my smartphone (that feature was already implemented a few months ago, but since I took my first program almost a year ago, I had never seen the interface up to now).</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR_NQLtYQ5ZNDcJ6w_9w5n6NtLtijloQnUCm96k01TyGhcCXO1hJL0fnAHLP_ZpYgRk5GH-937u_wvpOfYSw6J8YbeJ525CFewgPO7ue0-Yzsjo8amGCKm5JziYb4SRWavBt-SvqqzPj-t/s1600/week16.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR_NQLtYQ5ZNDcJ6w_9w5n6NtLtijloQnUCm96k01TyGhcCXO1hJL0fnAHLP_ZpYgRk5GH-937u_wvpOfYSw6J8YbeJ525CFewgPO7ue0-Yzsjo8amGCKm5JziYb4SRWavBt-SvqqzPj-t/s1600/week16.PNG" height="400" width="278" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On the screenshot there are a few things we can notice:</span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have been training for ~11 months but it says "Week 16" at the the top. The reason is that this week counter only takes into account the weeks when one actually followed the premium program.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The guys at Freeletics have replaced the old term of "Session 1" by "<span style="color: blue;">Training Day 1</span>". This is smart, because the old expression confused a lot of people. Beginners didn't knew if they were supposed to do all the sessions in the same day. Now it's much clearer what should be done when.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Below "METIS" it says: "<span style="color: blue;">Endurance 1/3</span>". </span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
This last bullet point actually includes two of the most fundamental novelty from the upgraded coach.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First of all, the coach can now assign <span style="color: blue;">partial</span> or <span style="color: blue;">multiple</span> workouts. If we take <i>Metis</i> as and example, you may know that this work out is composed of 3 rounds:</span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Round 1: 10 burpees, 10 climbers, 10 jumps</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Round 2: 25 burpees, 25 climbers, 25 jumps</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Round 3: 10 burpees, 10 climbers, 10 jumps</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When the coach assigns me "<span style="color: blue;">Metis 1/3</span>", it means that I only have to complete 1 round out of 3. So as soon as I have finished my </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">10 burpees, 10 climbers and 10 jumps, the workout is over and I can stop the timer.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On contrary, if I am given "</span><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Metis x 2</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">", it means that I will have to do the workout 2 times in a row (i.e. 6 rounds in total: 10/25/10/10/25/10).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Of course fractions and multiplications are taken into account when </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">tracking Personal Bests. So your PB in "Metis x2" will be tracked separately from the the PB in the regular <i>Metis</i>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">Note that this feature of partial/multiple workouts is only available via the paying program</span></b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. This means that the Training Plan algorithm can assign you a partial <i>Metis</i>, butr</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The s</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">econd major change is that Freeletics updated its workouts & exercises portfolio:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><b>Workouts</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is the same number of workouts as before (no new god or goddess), but now each workout can be done in 3 different degrees of difficulty. Whichever difficulty you choose, you still have to perform the same number of rounds, only the difficulty of the movements vary:</span><br />
<br />
<ul><ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Standard</b> (in most cases workout is identical to original routine)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Endurance</b> (easier movements)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Strength</b> (harder movements)</span></li>
</ul>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While the names of the variants ("Endurance", "Strength") may suggest that </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the different versions of a given workout have been created to</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> focusing on different training objectives (cardio vs muscles), I believe that these are just politically correct way to describe difficulty level. After all, who wants to say "I am doing the <i>easy</i> Aphrodite, and you?"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">W</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">hen putting side by side the different versions of any workout (see below with <i>Metis</i>), </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">it's clear that difficulty goes crescendo (High knees vs. Jumps vs. High Jumps).</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0ROuVs4OGIUZyLHsKcOCFi_oCfVqv1EPn8nwRK5BCeTB51IJWVJxdaGDbfZjdvgBVnaek-ZYPQaog1ojhKh88QSKGqSukreK9RCcrI1bML5Nm8voaQbL1ZDKAxclpOc_1HSt9S6GRIUCR/s1600/Metis_versions.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0ROuVs4OGIUZyLHsKcOCFi_oCfVqv1EPn8nwRK5BCeTB51IJWVJxdaGDbfZjdvgBVnaek-ZYPQaog1ojhKh88QSKGqSukreK9RCcrI1bML5Nm8voaQbL1ZDKAxclpOc_1HSt9S6GRIUCR/s1600/Metis_versions.jpg" height="313" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Speaking of <i>Metis</i>, while I mentioned that Standard is almost always identical to the origianl workouts, there are some exceptions and <i>Metis</i> is one of them. As you can see</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, the High Jumps from the "old" <i>Metis</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(see screenshot below</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">), have now been replaced by regular jumps. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm pointing this out because this is something to keep in mind when comparing your results with someone else or with your old results </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(i.e. comparing "old" </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Metis</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> to </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Standard Metis</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, is not really comparing apples to apples).</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoi5JqKnmAdxL3PA-TlybHS1NjEqOZMDpcDXH0c7WXqd2UHmVwgiGuXCswAL67FgGLfLYCw2advq11z1r-flU0xzuKbdb45c5WwlRRRu7sFt1ytocZxllBjoepFCs3OUzNWVQF5pFIMHE9/s1600/Metis_old.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoi5JqKnmAdxL3PA-TlybHS1NjEqOZMDpcDXH0c7WXqd2UHmVwgiGuXCswAL67FgGLfLYCw2advq11z1r-flU0xzuKbdb45c5WwlRRRu7sFt1ytocZxllBjoepFCs3OUzNWVQF5pFIMHE9/s1600/Metis_old.PNG" height="400" width="277" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<b style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Exercises</b><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In complement to workouts (i.e. God names) you can still choose to perform repetitions of a single exercise. But here there are greater changes. First of all, the old "MAX" have disappeared. Instead of doing the maximum of repetitions in a given time, you now much do a given number of repetitions as fast as possible. And we now can choose the number of repetitions.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For example, while the old "Burpees MAX" had to be performed in 5:00, now you can select from various options (don't count on me to test a 1'000 burpees for you!)</span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwuyGNRGmDNlV6VD_zr7oxbPPFqnp_72tSm7j9akLRIquIeopjNYOGMTRG3o5yeuGGj-lYBmgKIlBHZi3fvjF6LyVjO5lNh7iDiU4nZ9vpc2z_Ry9oxUEciY6VEvzMBBqLNED1m09j_FE_/s1600/exercise+menu2.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwuyGNRGmDNlV6VD_zr7oxbPPFqnp_72tSm7j9akLRIquIeopjNYOGMTRG3o5yeuGGj-lYBmgKIlBHZi3fvjF6LyVjO5lNh7iDiU4nZ9vpc2z_Ry9oxUEciY6VEvzMBBqLNED1m09j_FE_/s1600/exercise+menu2.PNG" height="400" width="275" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Additionally the choice of exercise has been greatly improved. While in the past there were 10 MAX we could choose from, now there are 39 single exercises available (13 endurance, 14 standard and 12 strength).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This brings more diversity to the training. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Personally, I'm a fan of Jumping Jacks (great warm-up exercise), so I like the fact that I can now track my time when I perform them.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDVvtv4XYacJp5U-4_Xq3OLZsGxmbdTq4tyhizvEQCnol-tV1UnTj3OkZT4bbc1FVLmO5iE8zzCK657sIoeVmTGVI1u6w_G4Xgg5GE-OtQ5OnJKDuWVkZytEoXa7WDqepKbrvl9K_9_r1y/s1600/exercise+menu1.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDVvtv4XYacJp5U-4_Xq3OLZsGxmbdTq4tyhizvEQCnol-tV1UnTj3OkZT4bbc1FVLmO5iE8zzCK657sIoeVmTGVI1u6w_G4Xgg5GE-OtQ5OnJKDuWVkZytEoXa7WDqepKbrvl9K_9_r1y/s1600/exercise+menu1.PNG" height="400" width="276" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<b style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Runs</b><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Last but not least, Freeletics is now integrating running more deeply in its training routine. The original workouts did include some short/medium distance runs, but it didn't go further than 2 kilometers and only as part of an existing workout.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now you can record runs separately (several fixed distances available or as well as a free run mode), and for those of you planning to buy the program, the training algorithm can now also integrate </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">running to your training plan </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(e.g. Training day 4: 5K run).</span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQGxfe7zdtNcfRo6jF8GU-h_P8fDp_UUrx7n3X5lKHBal_vpLHSAorXezaKgR9rpP9Qj0IjyWMvjYRMaZhXTBYZrd3xLgEuCHm5BOobtps5VQCwPXpgTenpoiW0WkxJGkmrKnId3HoTJGy/s1600/running1.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQGxfe7zdtNcfRo6jF8GU-h_P8fDp_UUrx7n3X5lKHBal_vpLHSAorXezaKgR9rpP9Qj0IjyWMvjYRMaZhXTBYZrd3xLgEuCHm5BOobtps5VQCwPXpgTenpoiW0WkxJGkmrKnId3HoTJGy/s1600/running1.PNG" height="200" width="137" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr-R1BX2RATl-QdMT3UsZX93RJVUh48TeYtjj21zPuwJmYX_qkX4bABCnwBND6nVWrxVEgFxDKIuTFJDOmp5ZcrZuZDMggqF44L1CU_BKByxjwLeVbXXipHbDpKXDqT6feBiR7Q8ghalcE/s1600/running2.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr-R1BX2RATl-QdMT3UsZX93RJVUh48TeYtjj21zPuwJmYX_qkX4bABCnwBND6nVWrxVEgFxDKIuTFJDOmp5ZcrZuZDMggqF44L1CU_BKByxjwLeVbXXipHbDpKXDqT6feBiR7Q8ghalcE/s1600/running2.PNG" height="200" width="137" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6ZLei3ypIw5RQl6MqFxYeChPqR0KNeU2ldQnlhZk5KTwjDLog2peVaek4eW63jxzXYYh13B8rpEW7L02yOPnM1gpjfgVts0FtL61C9qIcGoeHtFVoryKqD1Ku1IHRCgLNZHSitcRoTnJF/s1600/running3.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6ZLei3ypIw5RQl6MqFxYeChPqR0KNeU2ldQnlhZk5KTwjDLog2peVaek4eW63jxzXYYh13B8rpEW7L02yOPnM1gpjfgVts0FtL61C9qIcGoeHtFVoryKqD1Ku1IHRCgLNZHSitcRoTnJF/s1600/running3.PNG" height="200" width="135" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The running feature is still in Beta mode. Like many fitness app out there, it can use your smartphone's GPS to calculate distances but as I write these lines, this feature is still bugged. When testing it on a familiar route, the GPS gave me some strange results (it calculated a 6K route instead of roughly 2K!!!)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So for the moment my advice is to keep using alternative apps (Nike Running, MapMyRun, etc.) to track your runs via GPS. Once your run is over you can log the result manually into the Freeltics app. It creates an additional step but until they fix the issue it's the only way to be sure that the distance & speeds are correct.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07959780581684124098noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562374180649049824.post-24683118741504452202014-09-12T08:26:00.004-07:002014-09-12T08:27:08.183-07:00Post-program (self-scheduled training): week #43-46<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Posting has been quiet on my side over the summer. But aside from a short vacation, I kept training. </span><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The piece of news is that since the beginning of September I have started following a 15 weeks program again!</b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Since Freeletics underwent some important changes, there is much to say about the new program. I will discuss these novelties in my next posts. In the meantime, here is the summary of the workouts I have been performing while training on my own.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Week 43:</span></b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Monday:</b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> boxing training</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Tuesday:</b> <i>Aphrodite</i> (18:57* -PB)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Wednesday:</b> <i>Hades</i> (17:55*) </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">+ <i>Pushup MAX</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(44*)</span></li>
<li><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Friday:</b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Poseidon</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(04:51*) + <i>Metis</i> (05:29*) + </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">boxing training</span></li>
</ul>
<i><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Friday used 2 short workouts as warm-up before sparring session. I was definitely, but Poseidon is a bit too intensive to be done before, probably best to do it afterward next time.</span></i><br />
<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Week 44:</span></b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Monday: </b><i>Hera</i> (20:11* -PB</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Tuesday:</b> <i>Venus</i> (19:00* -PB) </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">+</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Pullup MAX</i> <i><span style="font-style: normal;">(30*)</span></i></span></span></span></li>
<li><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Friday:</b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Venus</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(18:44* -PB)</span></li>
</ul>
<i style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Normal sessions. 3 PB within the same week<b>.</b> It had not happened in ages!</i><br />
<div>
<i style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></i></div>
<div>
<i style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></i></div>
<div>
<i style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></i></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Week 45:</span></b></span><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<i style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Vacations!</i></div>
<div>
<i style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Intentionally giving my body a full rest. No particular physical exercise (aside from a 40mn scuba dive)</i></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Week 46:</span></b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Wednesday: </b><i>Hades</i> (20:10*</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">) + Squat MAX (189*) + <i>Jumping Jacks x10</i> ('0:07* - First time)</span></li>
<li><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thursday:</b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <i>J</i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>umping Jacks x100</i> ('01:09* - First time) + <i>Situps </i><i>x100</i> ('03:27* - First time) + <i>Metis <b>strength</b></i> (07:17* -First time) + <i>Poseidon</i> (06:43*)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Friday:</b> <i>Dione</i> (28:00*) + <i>Pistols x25</i> (01:20 -First time)</span></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<i style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Returning to training. Goal was to prepare body a bit before increasing the training load in the coming weeks and to test some of the new features of the just released Freeltics app.</i></div>
</div>
<div>
<i style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></i></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This concludes the series of "</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">self-scheduled training" posts. In week 47, I'll cover my first week of the new "Coach" (disclosure as I write these words I have already finished week 1 of my second program and I'm well into week 2). </span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07959780581684124098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562374180649049824.post-17954179568181239232014-08-08T07:02:00.001-07:002014-08-08T07:02:14.533-07:00Post-program (self-scheduled training): week #34-42<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here is the usual update on my training schedule. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Don't be surprised if this time the training-load seems irregular from one week to the next.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">About a month ago, I hurt my wrist and my hip</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> while boxing. These were not serious injuries (i.e. no hospital), but the resulting back pains were incapacitating enough that I had to reduce my training significantly. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While I try to keep a minimum of physical activity when I'm sick (unless I have fever), I'm much more conservative when it comes to injuries. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It would be stupid to make the injury worse by returning to training before the </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">body had time to recover. </span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Week 34:</span></b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Monday: </b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Pushup MAX</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(60*) + <i>Situp MAX</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(151*) </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">+ <i>Lunge MAX</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(178*) </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">+ <i>Pushup MAX</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(55*) <complete id="goog_511698408">+</complete></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <i>Pullup MAX</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(25*) </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">+</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <i>Leg Lever MAX</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(183*) +</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Poseidon</i> <i><span style="font-style: normal;">(0<i>5</i>:<i>48</i>*)</span></i></span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Tuesday:</b> <i>Aphrodite</i> (19:01*)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Wednesday:</b> <i>Iris</i> (28:05* -PB) </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">+ <i>Pushup MAX</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(50*)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Thursday:</b> boxing training</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Friday:</b> <i>Dione</i> (24:38*)</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;"><i>Normal sessions.</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
<b><span style="color: blue;"> </span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Week 35:</span></b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Monday: </b><i>Uranos</i> (28:16*</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> -First time</span>) + <i>Ares</i> (07:46*)</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">+</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <i>Situp MAX</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(135*)</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Tuesday:</b> <i>Gaia</i> (34:20* -First time) </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">+</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Poseidon</i> <i><span style="font-style: normal;">(0<i>5</i>:<i>22</i>*)</span></i></span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Wednesday:</b> <i>Apollon</i> (27:46*)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Thursday:</b> boxing training</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Friday:</b> <i>Artemis</i> (21:34*)</span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Saturday:</b> <i>Burpee MAX</i> (81* -PB) + </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <i>Pullup MAX</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(31*)</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> + <i>Situp MAX</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(145*) <complete id="goog_511698420">+ </complete></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Pushup MAX</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(36*)</span></span></li>
</ul>
<i style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Normal sessions. Feeling great, tried 2 new workouts (see review below)<b>.</b></i><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Week 36:</span></b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Tuesday: </b><i>Venus</i> (19:50*</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></span>) + <i>Dione</i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(30:29*)</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Wednesday:</b> <i>Kentauros</i> (25:22* -PB)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Thursday:</b> boxing training</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Sunday:</b> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Pullup MAX</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(23*) </span></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Finally pushed myself to re-do Kentauros. </i></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Week 36 was when I hurt myself. Went to the chiropractor on Friday followed by 48 hours of full rest. Sunday was </i></span><i style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">not a training session. Just a quick exercise that I did to test if wrist pains were due to bruises or a mechanical issue.</i><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Week 37:</span></b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Thursday:</b> boxing training</span></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span style="color: blue;">Forced rest. No Freeletics the entire week.</span></i></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Week 38:</span></b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Monday: </b><i>Apollon</i> (25:55*</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></span>) + <i>Push</i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>up MAX</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(55*) </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">+ <i>Leg Lever</i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i> MAX</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(163*)</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Wednesda:y</b> <i>Iris</i> (29:26*) </span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">+ <i>Push</i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>up MAX</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(50*)</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-style: normal;"></span></i></span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Thursday:</b> boxing training</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Friday:</b> <i>3km run + Venus</i> (19:23*)</span></span></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Resumed regular training. Back pains returned at the end of the week. Might have been too eager to start training again...</i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span>
<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;">Week 39:</span></b><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tuesday:</span> </b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Pushup MAX</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(50*) + <i>Pullup MAX</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(33*) </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">+ </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Pushup MAX</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(50*) + <i>Pullup MAX</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(25*) </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">+ </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Pushup MAX</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(50*) + <i>Pullup MAX</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(25*) </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">+ </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Pushup MAX</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(50*) + </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Pushup MAX</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(44*)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Thursday:</b> boxing training</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Saturday:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Pushup MAX</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(50*) + <i>Situp MAX</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(150*) </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">+ </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Pushup MAX</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(50*) + <i>Squat MAX</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(219* -PB) </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">+ </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Pushup MAX</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(50*)</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span style="color: blue;">Switched to light training. Only a couple sessions. No burpees, squats, jumps, running, or anything that would cause stress to the hips. Hence mostly push-ups.</span></i></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Week 40:</span></b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Thursday:</b> boxing training</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Friday:</b> boxing training</span></span> </span></span></li>
</ul>
<i><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Again a visit to the chiropractor, f</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ollowed by 48 hours of full rest and n</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">o Freeletics the entire week.</span></span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></i>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Week 41:</span></b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Monday: </b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Pushup MAX</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(52*) + </span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <i>Leg Lever</i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i> MAX</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(183*) </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">+ <i>Pullup MAX</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(29*) </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">+ </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Pushup MAX</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(49*) </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">+ <i>Situp MAX</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(139*) </span>+ <i>Pullup MAX</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(27*)</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Tuesday</b>: </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Pushup MAX</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(53*) +<span id="goog_511698434"></span><span id="goog_511698435"></span><span id="goog_511698432"></span><span id="goog_511698433"></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <i>Jackknife</i></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i> </i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>MAX</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(45* -PB)</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> + </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Pushup MAX</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(49*) + </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Pushup MAX</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(50*) +<span id="goog_511698434"></span><span id="goog_511698435"></span><span id="goog_511698432"></span><span id="goog_511698433"></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <i>Situp</i></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i></i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i> MAX</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(127*)</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> + </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Pullup MAX</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(30*)</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Thursday:</b> boxing training</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Saturday:</b> <i>Hades</i> (17:14*) + <i>Poseidon</i> (05:13*)</span></span></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span style="color: blue;">Progressive return to training. Almost only push-ups/pull-ups/abs. Adding </span></i></span><i style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">short running distance on Saturday.</i><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Week 42:</span></b></span></span></span></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Monday:</span></b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <i>Dione</i> (26:51*)</span><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></b></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tuesday:</span> </b><i>Hades</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(18:07*) +</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Poseidon</i> (05:05*)</span></span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Wednesday:</b> <i>Ares</i> (08:01*) + <i>Metis</i> (05:09*) + <i> </i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Ares</i> (08:01*) </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">+ </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Pushup MAX</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(48*)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Thursday:</b> boxing training</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Progressively adding back burpees (max 25 reps in a row), climbers and jumps in my routine.</i></span><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Before running into these annoying issues, I had been quite pleased in week #35 to try <i>Uranos</i> for the first time. On paper I really liked this routine, but </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the location near work where I usually perform long-distance running workouts has nothing to do pull-ups. Finally, on day-off, I managed to go to a park where I could do </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">both running & pull-ups. It was a before-breakfast training, nice weather but early enough to be cool. I had the park for myself. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Perfect conditions.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To complete </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Uranos</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I had to go through the following routine:</span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2 km run</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">50 burpees</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">50 pullups</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">50 climbers</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">50 pushups</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">100 jumps</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 round only (thankfully!)</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At first sight this is an extremely balanced workout. A lot of different exercises, but moderate repetitions. Nothing crazy the like the 100 push-ups/pull-ups in <i>Khronos</i> or the 2x100 burpees in <i>Helios.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While I liked this workout, as often with Freeletics it proved more challenging than I expected. Starting with running is a great warm-up, but be careful not to finish too fast or you risk being out of breath before starting the burpees. The first real challenge is the set of 50 pull-ups. For beginners this will be a huge obstacle. After a few months of training, I was quite confident. This is less than <i>Khronos</i> and my MAX are usually ~25 reps in 1:40. But for some reason, I found the last 20 reps difficult to perform. Were my arms tired from the burpees? The lack of energy from an empty stomach? </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Was just simply </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">not my best day? I don't know, and I would need to re-do this workout to see if I get the same impression again.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Climbers & push-ups were fine. However the last 100 jumps also proved to be very demanding. This is not an exercise trhat I do very often, but by grouping them by sets of 10-20, it normally doesn't take too long to complete. But in <i>Uranos</i>, these need to be done after 2Km run + burpees + climbers. Needless to say that at this point your legs aren't "fresh" anymore and the heart is already racing! I really had to force myself to stay focused during these jumps and keep going. After the workout I was wiped-out!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I had to sit for a while to recover my breath before attempting<i> the next workout</i>. Interestingly, after when I performed </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ares</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, I had no issue at all to complete the pull-ups. So maybe the 50 burpees had an impact afterall.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was so fired-up from finally doing <i>Uranos</i>, that the follwing day I tackled another new workout: </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Gaia</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. Here is how "mother Earth" looks like:</span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">40 jumpings jacks</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">30 jumps</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">20 froggers</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">10 standups</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">10 rounds</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This baby is supposed to be a pure Cardio workout. If you purchase the Cardio-only program, I believe that you'll end-up doing this one very regularly.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I expected a good sweat but without much physical difficult. For me, the only question mark for me was how difficult the froggers would be (esp. toward round #10!).</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The workout went very well, but I was close to turn into a pool of sweat at the end!</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The shorter sets made the </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">jumps much easier than in <i>Uranos</i> (even with sore legs from the previous day). Froggers also felt very balanced (just enough to get a good workout). The real surprise came from the </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">stand-ups!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It turns out that if getting back to one's feet without the hand is not that hard from a muscular stands-point it does </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">requires a bit a technique. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It took me </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4 rounds to get the movement right (I even had to pause to re-watch the tutorial video to check that I was doing it right!)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The difficulty is to maintain a proper balance during the whole movement and avoid shifting too much body weight on one foot only. In the first rounds I lost much time trying to regain my balance <u>at each repetition</u>. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">O</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">nce I had caught the right movement, repeating </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the exercise</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> became more fluid and right way I could feel that my pace had improved.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That's all for the moment. I'm not sure when my next post will be. Probably not before the end of August or early September, unless something worth mentioning pops-up.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07959780581684124098noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562374180649049824.post-84839213439154032202014-07-01T06:29:00.002-07:002015-01-12T15:37:13.293-08:00Body Stats: after 33 weeks<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here is the traditional update on the evolution of my body stats since </span><a href="http://freeletics-experiment.blogspot.com/2014/04/body-stats-after-26-weeks.html" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">last time</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> (week #26)</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Height:</span></b> 178 cm (5.84ft) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Weight:</span></b> 75.0 kg (165.4 lbs) -<i> week 26 measure: 75.4 kg (166.2 lbs)</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><b><span style="color: blue;">Waist size:</span></b> 83 cm (32.7 in) -<i> </i><i>week 26 measure:</i><i> 84 cm (33.1 in)</i></span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />My weight is still decreasing, but just like the past few times, I don't see major weight or waist size variations anymore. This confirms that I'm now in a stabilization phase, with continuous but minor incremental gains. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><br />
<i><u>Disclaimer</u>: upon posting the pictures below I realized that they were too dark. Usually I don't Photoshop to correct my pics, but in this case I used it to increase the contrast. Don't be surprised if the white appear very bright.</i></span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjNVROnd7leN9CLKBr5YJrt3rDSTNJujX2bkYhuICiFggmuOReoCSzCSqx5iR29um_hm3SIpgvMzm2esO_7kKGL1wOxpaXhfta9TFIC1aLWOXvTz9eTf1RhYm6L20bawHm2512oCDjWbb1/s1600/wk33-front_fili.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjNVROnd7leN9CLKBr5YJrt3rDSTNJujX2bkYhuICiFggmuOReoCSzCSqx5iR29um_hm3SIpgvMzm2esO_7kKGL1wOxpaXhfta9TFIC1aLWOXvTz9eTf1RhYm6L20bawHm2512oCDjWbb1/s1600/wk33-front_fili.jpg" height="640" width="332" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK0zSU03uj1aqbjOvbg-K0P6WKp02FfvWK1f4Ccn1y4qN5hXlUd2iiJHQHS7GAyiCNKAHATLO_SpSnuW-7pxJJWAdiFrcYngl2HGNvc-eASx0a_hS6dh0xd2-QMobiktTIma3svjPe0ri3/s1600/wk33-back_fili.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK0zSU03uj1aqbjOvbg-K0P6WKp02FfvWK1f4Ccn1y4qN5hXlUd2iiJHQHS7GAyiCNKAHATLO_SpSnuW-7pxJJWAdiFrcYngl2HGNvc-eASx0a_hS6dh0xd2-QMobiktTIma3svjPe0ri3/s1600/wk33-back_fili.jpg" height="640" width="380" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFLH9VjsTbYrdkbhoHpcK_6xtZEjj0Ul4FuBAppqhAETjBxavzgYx-txJztoT6KS-huhlFDYclQJuPG_QMnG3KKAv5cAV2wZchTrs-6sFtqcEy3YvQqb_Pp0_c_M80jkjJXeeRDBH8mS1e/s1600/wk33-side_fili.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFLH9VjsTbYrdkbhoHpcK_6xtZEjj0Ul4FuBAppqhAETjBxavzgYx-txJztoT6KS-huhlFDYclQJuPG_QMnG3KKAv5cAV2wZchTrs-6sFtqcEy3YvQqb_Pp0_c_M80jkjJXeeRDBH8mS1e/s1600/wk33-side_fili.jpg" height="640" width="238" /></span></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Personally I don't see much difference with week #26. Which is not surprising, since half a kilo on the entire body is hardly perceptible. May be s</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">houlder muscles seem more developed than in the past </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(back picture)</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While I lost most of my belly fat since starting my training, on the side picture it is visible that there is still some slight leftover under the belly button. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm not really concerned about it, as I'm</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> already pleased with the current results. I feel in much better shape.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But I thought this was something worth pointing out, especially </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">those of you dreaming of a clearly cut-out six pack. While infomercials love to sell "miracle" solutions to get impressive abs in a few weeks with no effort, this is </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">good real life counter-example. I have relatively strong abs (at least stronger than a couch-potato's abs!), and despite having now a pretty flat belly, they are still not visibly carved out. <span style="color: #990000;">This illustrates that the abs </span></span><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">won't show until the layer of fat is *<b>really really </b></span><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">really</b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">* thin.</span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Don't get me wrong, if that's your objective it's doable. But </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">that will take a lot of time & sweat (Cardio), not miracles.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07959780581684124098noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562374180649049824.post-47132868192814902492014-06-18T06:10:00.000-07:002014-08-05T02:32:56.832-07:00Post-program (self-scheduled training): week #27-33<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here is an update on my training schedule.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Week 27:</span></b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Tuesday:</b> <i>Hades</i> (17:21*)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Wednesday:</b> <i>Atlas</i> (22:39* -PB)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Thursday:</b> boxing training</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Friday:</b> <i>Ares</i> (07:57*) + <i>Poseidon</i> <i><span style="font-style: normal;">(04:25* -PB) + </span>Metis <span style="font-style: normal;">(05:02* -PB) + </span>Squat Max</i> (196* -PB) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(46*) + <i>Situp MAX</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(124*)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Saturday:</b> <i>Custom-made workout (14:02)</i>. I tested for a reader the following routine: 3 rounds of: 10 Burpees + 30 Squats + 45sec Plank + 2x5 (L+R) Spiderman Push Ups + 30 Mountain Climbers + 60sec Superman (note: I did Sipderman & Climbers assuming both sides = 1 rep)</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="color: blue;">Week 28:</span></b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Tuesday:</b> <i>Kronos</i> (38:50* -PB <b>First attempt</b>)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Wednesday:</b> <i>Iris</i> (30:30* -PB)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Thursday:</b> boxing training</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Friday:</b> <i>Hades</i> (16:54*)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Sunday:</b> <i>Ares</i><i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (07:46*) + </span><i style="font-style: normal;">Lunge MAX</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span><i style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">(178* -PB) + </span><span style="font-style: normal;"><i>Ares</i></span><i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (07:53*) + <i>Lunge MAX</i> <i><span style="font-style: normal;">(191* -PB) + </span></i></span></i></i>Pushup MAX<span style="font-style: normal;"> </span><span style="font-style: normal;">(49*)</span></i></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Week 29:</span></b><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Monday:</b> <i>Artemis</i> (23:11* -PB)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Tuesday:</b> <i>Dione</i> (26:24*)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Wednesday:</b> <i>Metis</i> (04:36* -PB) + <i>Hyperion</i> (17:58 -PB)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Thursday:</b> boxing training</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Friday:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">boxing training + <i>Poseidon</i> (04:37*) + <i>Leg Lever MAX</i> (165*)</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Week 30:</span></b><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Thursday:</b> <i>Aphrodite</i> (18:59* -PB) + <i>Pullup MAX</i> (32*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (37*)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Friday:</b> <i>Venus</i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> (21:52*)</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Week 31:</span></b><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Monday:</b> <i>Hades</i> (16:37*) + <i>Poseidon</i> (05:11*)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Tuesday:</b> <i>Apollon</i> (22:23*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (35*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (20* -holding 3s in locked arms positions) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (12* -right arm only) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (14* -left arm only)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Wednesday:</b> <i>Zeus</i> (21:25 -PB)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Thursday:</b> boxing training</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Saturday:</b> <i>Dione</i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> (23:17*)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Sunday:</b> <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) <i><span style="color: blue;">Test to see how my body reacted to 100 PU broken into in 4 sets of 25 consecutive repetitions.</span></i></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="color: blue;">Week 32</b> (launch of the <a href="http://freeletics-experiment.blogspot.com/2014/06/breaking-push-up-max-ceiling.html">Pushup challenge</a>)<b style="color: blue;">:</b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Monday:</b></span></li>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Morning: </b><i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Evening:</b> <i>Ares </i>(07:56*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Ares </i>(07:52*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*)</span></li>
</ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Tuesday:</b></span></li>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Morning: </b><i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Evening:</b> <i>Aphrodite</i> (19:07*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*)</span></li>
</ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Wednesday:</b></span></li>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Morning: </b><i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Lunch:</b> <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Hera</i> (21:40*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*)</span></li>
</ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Thursday:</b></span></li>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Morning: </b><i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Evening:</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">boxing training (included at least 100 PU)</span></li>
</ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Friday:</b></span></li>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Morning: </b><i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Evening:</b> <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*)</span></li>
</ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Saturday:</b></span></li>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Morning: </b><i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Evening:</b> Artemis </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(21:46* -PB -includes 100 PU)</span></li>
</ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Sunday:</b></span></li>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Morning: </b><i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Evening:</b> <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*)</span></li>
</ul>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="color: blue;"><br /></b>
<b style="color: blue;">Week 33</b> (last week of the <a href="http://freeletics-experiment.blogspot.com/2014/06/breaking-push-up-max-ceiling.html">Pushup challenge)</a><b style="color: blue;">:</b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Monday:</b></span></li>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Morning: </b><i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Evening:</b> <i>Venus </i>(20:29* -includes 200 PU)</span></li>
</ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Tuesday:</b></span></li>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Morning: </b><i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Evening:</b> <i>Kronos </i>(38:06* -PB includes 100 PU)</span></li>
</ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Wednesday:</b></span></li>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Morning: </b><i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Lunch:</b> <i>Iris </i>(29:03* -PB) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (25*)</span></li>
</ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Friday:</b> running (3.32km in 16:58) + <i>Pushup MAX</i> (60*)</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have previously discussed the <a href="http://freeletics-experiment.blogspot.com/2014/06/breaking-push-up-max-ceiling.html">Pushup challenge</a>, so I won't cover it further in this post. However another highlight of these past weeks is that I tried a new workout: <i>Kronos</i>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you have never met this workout before, you will learn very quickly to respect it! It only has 1 round, but what a Hell of a round:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">100 Pushups</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">200 Situps</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">300 Squats</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">200 Leg Levers</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">100 Pullups</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you are new to Freeletics, unless you already have an excellent physical conditions pretty much each of these sets will be a challenge. You will need to break each of them into smaller bits (e.g. 10 sets of 10 pushups with short breaks in-between). So expect a very long completion time (over an hour).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In my case, "<i>My Coach</i>" never assigned this workout to me. For my first attempt, I was fortunate to already have 8 months of training (week#28) behind me. From the start, I knew that I would not be able to perform 100 consecutive pushups. Based on my past experience with <i>Artemis</i>, I did short sets (~20) to avoid killing my arms from the start but paying attention not to take too long breaks (~10-20 seconds). The effort was more manageable while avoiding losing too much time. The next 3 exercises were fine. Leg Levers have always been one of my strengths. 200 reps is nearly what I do in 5mn for the MAX, however it took me a bit more time. The effort is more difficult for abs after the 200 situps.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The real difficulty were the 100 pullups</b>. The high number of repetitions makes this set very hard to complete, especially since the previous pushups have already taken a toll on shoulders. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I spent nearly 10mn just on this exercise. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On my second attempt (week #33), my PB had already improved by ~45s mostly due to better execution on pushups (thanks to the pushups challenge), but I had little gains on pullups side. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Improving pure strength to reduce pushups & </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">pullups completion time will be the key to drop further my personal best.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While it requires some time for me to sit down and write these long posts with all my results, it proves to be very useful. Often, I just do one workout after another, without giving too much thoughts about it. Writing these posts forces me to analyze my schedule and see if I stick to my good resolutions.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So let's see how I performed versus what I had planned <a href="http://freeletics-experiment.blogspot.com/2014/04/post-program-free-training-week-21-26.html">last time</a>:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Training frequency:</b> Over 7 weeks I performed 30 sessions for a total training time of ~661 minutes. That's 4 sessions per week on average, each lasting approximately 22 minutes. The increased training load of the Pushup challenge has offset the lack of training during my short vacations in week #30. <u>Conclusion</u>: average number of session/week increased as <a href="http://freeletics-experiment.blogspot.ch/2014/04/body-stats-after-26-weeks.html">intended</a>.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Training content:</b> while my first month without "<i>My Coach</i>" was a bit disorganized, I am getting closer to finding the right training balance. It's now part of my weekly routine to perform 1 outdoor training over my lunch break. This kills several birds with one stone: I regularly practice running, it frees-up one of my evenings, and by doing it on Wednesday I'm in much better shape from my Thursday boxing training (my body gets 36 hours of rest + running workouts don't strain much arms or shoulders). Additionally, I'm more careful to include some Cardio in my schedule as I had leaned a bit too much on the Strength side. </span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Getting out of my comfort zone:</b> One of my fear was that I would follow the path of least resistance and end-up only doing the workouts that I liked. So far I have managed to be disciplined enough to include my routines workouts that I had not performed in months or the ones that I never tried. It's not perfect yet (for the moment I have managed to dodge doing Kentauros!), but workout diversity is definitely a criterion that I take into account when doing my schedule. Since training on my own, I have not organized any Hell Week, but I enjoyed the Pushup Challenge and I might use similar highly-focused training from time to time to push my limits.</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As usual, another post will follow shortly to give an update on my body stats.</span><br />
<ul>
</ul>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07959780581684124098noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562374180649049824.post-44673087043864134252014-06-11T09:04:00.000-07:002014-06-11T09:05:25.117-07:00Overestimating How Hard We Exercise<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm more used to write content instead of simply pasting links, but I just stumbled on an article published today in the blog section of the New York Times: "<i>Overestimating How Hard We Exercise</i>", by Gretchen Reynolds.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some of you could find it an interesting read (follow the </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/06/11/judging-badly-how-hard-we-exercise/">link to the article</a>).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This relates to some reflections I have been having about the </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Freeletics method.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Having a fixed </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">workout content and only completion time as a variable, is a great way to ensure high intensity.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Each time that I have a meeting with <i>Aphrodite</i> or one of the gods, I try to setup a new PB. I don't always succeed and sometimes it's mission impossible (bad day, sickness, doing several workouts in a row, etc.). But missing the PB is not that important. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What matters most is how far I am from <b><u>my</u></b> peak performance.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If I finish in 20:00 instead of 19:00, I still got a good sweat in the process. But if I finish near </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">30:00, no matter how good my explanation, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the clock doesn't lie: I am back to were I was 8 months ago. Hard to pretend that I was at maximum </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">intensity...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07959780581684124098noreply@blogger.com0