Week #14 out of 15
The training schedule this week was as plain as it gets. No new workout. Only fairly short sessions. A week mostly focused on strength, but with a balanced training load.
What's going on? Have the guys at Freeletics turned soft? May be it's just a pause before all Hell breaks loose in week 15. Anyway, my main concern this week was not the end of the program, but rather to try to get rid of the pain in my left leg that appeared last week.
Monday: HADES (18:57*)
Not a great performance today.
I was cautious to avoid any unnecessary stress to my leg, so I performed my workout relying mostly on my right foot. I could stand and walk normally, but to help the tendinitis disappear I absorbed the shocks (landing the burpee jumps) and leaned my weight (pushup position) only on my right side.
This peculiar stand certainly hindered me a bit. But honestly it's only half an excuse. My cardio wasn't at its best either. It was just a not-so-great day.
Tuesday: HYPERION (22:57 -personal best)
Hyperion was completed without star just like the first & last time. This means that I did the Strict Pullups & One-hand Pushups using the regular form. For Hand-stand pushups I used the alternate (easier) version. For Pistols, I'm not using a chair as recommended for the alternate form, but I'm not going low enough yet to qualify them as "regular". I expect to train for a few more months before I get a star on this workout.
My overall completion time improved by less than 2 minutes. Not a stellar gain, but I'll take whatever PB I can get!
Wednesday: POSEIDON (04:47* -personal best) +SITUP MAX (142* -personal best)
Both workouts today improved versus the PB scored last week. Poseidon improved by 9 seconds, but this time should keep on going down as pullups become more and more natural. For situps, 11 additional repetitions is a pretty big gain week over week. My abs have been spared so far this week, so they were at 100% capacity. I kept going as fast as possible but my pace slowed during the last minute.
Thursday: Skiing (alpine)
No boxing this week, but it was replaced by another good physical drill. Excluding the lunch break, I have been skiing in total for about 4h30 to 5h00.
It was my first session of the year, and it was made much easier by all the physical training that I went through. I like to complain about Squats & Split Lunges, but I reaped the benefits today. My tights never hurt for a single second, during skiing or the day after.
Friday: HADES (17:02* -personal best)
The week started with a mediocre Hades performance, on a not-so-great day and with a painful leg. It ended on another Hades, but this time the pain was almost gone and I improved my PB by 35 seconds. I felt like I was flying during the first half of the exercise: round 1 was completed in less than 5 minutes and round 2 in less than 6.
Improving my pullups will be the key to keep pushing the time down. Performance for the rest of the workout is more regular.
Here we are: Week #14 is now over. Next week will be the last stretch before I complete my program. I don't know if it will feel like a sprint or a marathon, but I can already tell you that Week #15 is going to be Hell Week again!
Showing posts with label 2x40m. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2x40m. Show all posts
Monday, February 24, 2014
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Cardio-Strength Program: week #13
Week #13 out of 15
Welcome to "Max Week".
I usually find that doing several MAX in a row tends to be easier than 1 long workout, but I have to confess that it's a bit unsettling to look at your weekly schedule to see 14 workouts. For a split second, I was wondering what happened.
Upon closer examination, it turned out that the training load was comparable to a regular week. Only session 3 looked challenging on paper: 6 MAX in total, with the added difficulty that instead of 6 different workouts it's made of 3 workouts each to be repeated twice.
Monday: HS PUSHUP MAX (67 -personal best) +PUSHUP MAX (48*) +JUMP MAX (220* -personal best)
The week started with HS Pushup MAX. And I am now able to confirm that I *really* suck at handstand pushups.
I expected to do the MAX in the easy form, but just to see if I had made any progress I decided to first try the normal version. This MAX only lasts 100 seconds, yet after 60s I still had not managed to get into the handstand position against the wall...
But I still wanted to know if I was able to do a HS pushup. So after the first failed attempt, I tried again but this time I had recruited my wife to help me get into the right position. It took a while, but eventually I ended-up in the right position. In the little time that was left I managed to complete ~1.5 repetition. I still have a bit of training before I can pretend competing in the Olympic Games' gymnastics competition... Of course, I didn't record this "performance" (I had to use external help), this was just a test.
I like to understand what are the barriers preventing me from completing certain exercises. HS pushups have been puzzling me for a while. Back in junior school, I wasn't too bad at hand stands. Of course it's a long time ago, but I had expected that after a few trials it would come back. For the past few weeks I had assumed that the main reason for failure was because I wasn't throwing my legs at full strength by fear of damaging the wall (remember I trained inside my house). However, during the last test my wife was there to catch my legs. She could have prevented any damage to the wall. Yet, that didn't solve the problem.
So my guess is that it's linked to some kind of unconscious barrier. To succeed in this exercise, I have to train my brain that it's ok to be upside down. From time to time I'll try to do specific HS training aside from the regular Freeletics exercises. No clock. No pushups. Just me in front of a concrete wall getting used to get these feet up. I'll let you guys know if that works.
After the 2 failed attempts, I still had all my training remaining to be done. So I reverted back to easy HS puhups, to complete the first workout. No star of course, but at least a PB. Followed by a Pushup MAX. Star, no PB.
My last workout was Jump MAX. I only completed it once in the past. It was in the middle of a Hell Day so not surprisingly I didn't deliver a peak performance (approx. 180 reps). This time I wanted to score more than 200 reps.
I did 50 reps before taking a short break to catch my breath. Then 40 reps. Then rounds of 20, reaching a total of 220 reps. A pretty good performance and a new PB. Breathing will be the key to get more reps.
Tuesday: HADES (20:32*)
I had sore calves from the Monday jumps and my motivation wasn't at its top. I haven't re-read all my previous posts, but I have the feeling that on Tuesdays I'm often less in the mood for training. I'll keep an eye open to see if that's really a pattern.
Anyway, as often when the mind isn't inspired, the performance isn't great: Hades over 20mn.
Wednesday: SPLIT LUNGE MAX (166* -personal best) +SITUP MAX (129* -personal best) +JACKNIFE MAX (37*) +SPLIT LUNGE MAX (149*) +SITUP MAX (131* -personal best) +JACKNIFE MAX (31*)
The training started well with 2 PB in a row, the first real difficulty appeared with the Jacknives (much harder than usual due to the previous situps).
What can be worse than a Split Max? Two Split Max of course!
Repeating these workouts twice was my main concern today, but surprisingly it wasn't as bad as I expected. No PB on the second Lunge MAX, but I wasn't very far from the first attempt. I even managed to get a second PB in Situp MAX! I didn't have to wait long to pay the price for this effort. My abs were burning during the last Jacknives.
Overall I was pleased by the results, but this was a fairly demanding day due to the heavy load spread over very few muscles.
Thursday: Boxing training
Training as usual. Just want to confirm that sore butt is definitely a consequence from Lunges...
Friday: nothing
I intended to do the session 4 on Friday, however I woke-up with a pain just above left ankle, on the outer side of the leg. Probably the tendon, rather than muscles.
Curiously this is not a spot where I'm used to have tendinitis. Usually after too much running or rope jumping I get tendinitis on the inner side of the leg (also just above the ankle). Because of this new location, I assume that it must be caused by an exercise that I'm not used to do. My guess is that the Jumps on Monday did the bulk of the damage, but that I didn't feel it yet. The Thursday training probably finished the job (the boxing stance and movements rely heavily on the ball of the foot, just like when landing those jumps), leading to the inflammation of the tendon.
The pain didn't fade during the day, so I decided no to train to give a full day of rest to my leg.
Saturday:
I could still feel a pain. It didn't seem bad enough to lead to a more serious injury, so I decided that I could finish my training. To support the foot and avoid torning my foot, I wore an ankle brace.
I didn't notice any discomfort during the first workout. It went very well, I finished well under 26:00 improving again my Dione PB and finally beating that time from Mads that I had used as a training goal for weeks. This really felt like a big achievement (I now have to find myself a new target to keep going!).
I followed-up by completing the fifth & last session of the week. I didn't even try to do normal HS pushups this time, and went straight to the easy version. No PB. For pushups, that was painful but I did manage to improve my personal best, finishing with 53 repetitions.
Last but not least Jumps MAX. The exercise went relatively well, breathing was a bit better than Monday so I think that under normal conditions I could have gone a bit above 220. But at the very end of the workout, I felt that the repeated landings were worsening my leg condition. So I stopped before the end of the timer.
That's all for the week. From a training stands point it was very good, with an unusual training routine, many PBs, and a milestone achieved in Dione. The only downer is this stupid tendinitis. I hope that it will not jeopardize week #14 training. The good news as I look at the week #14 training is that it's mostly strength focused, so I won't have to complete jumps or run 1 km.
Welcome to "Max Week".
I usually find that doing several MAX in a row tends to be easier than 1 long workout, but I have to confess that it's a bit unsettling to look at your weekly schedule to see 14 workouts. For a split second, I was wondering what happened.
Upon closer examination, it turned out that the training load was comparable to a regular week. Only session 3 looked challenging on paper: 6 MAX in total, with the added difficulty that instead of 6 different workouts it's made of 3 workouts each to be repeated twice.
Monday: HS PUSHUP MAX (67 -personal best) +PUSHUP MAX (48*) +JUMP MAX (220* -personal best)
The week started with HS Pushup MAX. And I am now able to confirm that I *really* suck at handstand pushups.
I expected to do the MAX in the easy form, but just to see if I had made any progress I decided to first try the normal version. This MAX only lasts 100 seconds, yet after 60s I still had not managed to get into the handstand position against the wall...
But I still wanted to know if I was able to do a HS pushup. So after the first failed attempt, I tried again but this time I had recruited my wife to help me get into the right position. It took a while, but eventually I ended-up in the right position. In the little time that was left I managed to complete ~1.5 repetition. I still have a bit of training before I can pretend competing in the Olympic Games' gymnastics competition... Of course, I didn't record this "performance" (I had to use external help), this was just a test.
I like to understand what are the barriers preventing me from completing certain exercises. HS pushups have been puzzling me for a while. Back in junior school, I wasn't too bad at hand stands. Of course it's a long time ago, but I had expected that after a few trials it would come back. For the past few weeks I had assumed that the main reason for failure was because I wasn't throwing my legs at full strength by fear of damaging the wall (remember I trained inside my house). However, during the last test my wife was there to catch my legs. She could have prevented any damage to the wall. Yet, that didn't solve the problem.
So my guess is that it's linked to some kind of unconscious barrier. To succeed in this exercise, I have to train my brain that it's ok to be upside down. From time to time I'll try to do specific HS training aside from the regular Freeletics exercises. No clock. No pushups. Just me in front of a concrete wall getting used to get these feet up. I'll let you guys know if that works.
After the 2 failed attempts, I still had all my training remaining to be done. So I reverted back to easy HS puhups, to complete the first workout. No star of course, but at least a PB. Followed by a Pushup MAX. Star, no PB.
My last workout was Jump MAX. I only completed it once in the past. It was in the middle of a Hell Day so not surprisingly I didn't deliver a peak performance (approx. 180 reps). This time I wanted to score more than 200 reps.
I did 50 reps before taking a short break to catch my breath. Then 40 reps. Then rounds of 20, reaching a total of 220 reps. A pretty good performance and a new PB. Breathing will be the key to get more reps.
Tuesday: HADES (20:32*)
I had sore calves from the Monday jumps and my motivation wasn't at its top. I haven't re-read all my previous posts, but I have the feeling that on Tuesdays I'm often less in the mood for training. I'll keep an eye open to see if that's really a pattern.
Anyway, as often when the mind isn't inspired, the performance isn't great: Hades over 20mn.
Wednesday: SPLIT LUNGE MAX (166* -personal best) +SITUP MAX (129* -personal best) +JACKNIFE MAX (37*) +SPLIT LUNGE MAX (149*) +SITUP MAX (131* -personal best) +JACKNIFE MAX (31*)
The training started well with 2 PB in a row, the first real difficulty appeared with the Jacknives (much harder than usual due to the previous situps).
What can be worse than a Split Max? Two Split Max of course!
Repeating these workouts twice was my main concern today, but surprisingly it wasn't as bad as I expected. No PB on the second Lunge MAX, but I wasn't very far from the first attempt. I even managed to get a second PB in Situp MAX! I didn't have to wait long to pay the price for this effort. My abs were burning during the last Jacknives.
Overall I was pleased by the results, but this was a fairly demanding day due to the heavy load spread over very few muscles.
Thursday: Boxing training
Training as usual. Just want to confirm that sore butt is definitely a consequence from Lunges...
Friday: nothing
I intended to do the session 4 on Friday, however I woke-up with a pain just above left ankle, on the outer side of the leg. Probably the tendon, rather than muscles.
Curiously this is not a spot where I'm used to have tendinitis. Usually after too much running or rope jumping I get tendinitis on the inner side of the leg (also just above the ankle). Because of this new location, I assume that it must be caused by an exercise that I'm not used to do. My guess is that the Jumps on Monday did the bulk of the damage, but that I didn't feel it yet. The Thursday training probably finished the job (the boxing stance and movements rely heavily on the ball of the foot, just like when landing those jumps), leading to the inflammation of the tendon.
The pain didn't fade during the day, so I decided no to train to give a full day of rest to my leg.
Saturday:
- Session 4: DIONE (25:43* -personal best)
- Session 5: HS PUSHUP MAX (58) +PUSHUP MAX (53* - personal best) +JUMP MAX (217*)
I could still feel a pain. It didn't seem bad enough to lead to a more serious injury, so I decided that I could finish my training. To support the foot and avoid torning my foot, I wore an ankle brace.
I didn't notice any discomfort during the first workout. It went very well, I finished well under 26:00 improving again my Dione PB and finally beating that time from Mads that I had used as a training goal for weeks. This really felt like a big achievement (I now have to find myself a new target to keep going!).
I followed-up by completing the fifth & last session of the week. I didn't even try to do normal HS pushups this time, and went straight to the easy version. No PB. For pushups, that was painful but I did manage to improve my personal best, finishing with 53 repetitions.
Last but not least Jumps MAX. The exercise went relatively well, breathing was a bit better than Monday so I think that under normal conditions I could have gone a bit above 220. But at the very end of the workout, I felt that the repeated landings were worsening my leg condition. So I stopped before the end of the timer.
That's all for the week. From a training stands point it was very good, with an unusual training routine, many PBs, and a milestone achieved in Dione. The only downer is this stupid tendinitis. I hope that it will not jeopardize week #14 training. The good news as I look at the week #14 training is that it's mostly strength focused, so I won't have to complete jumps or run 1 km.
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Cardio-Strength Program: week #12
Week #12 out of 15
My challenge for the week was to get 1 personal best "using a smarter breathing technique".
To be honest I was helped by a perfect schedule. Last week was all about Dione with a touch of Hades. I had one day of rest on Sunday, and guess what: week #12 started with Dione & Hades. I couldn't have received better assignments. My mind & body were 100% ready for these workouts, so the PB came very naturally. It fueled my motivation for the rest of the week.
Monday: DIONE (26:14* -personal best)
I'm not going to repeat all that I said last week, but doing over and over again the same workout leads to continuous improvements. My last Dione personal best was only on Saturday and, yet the next Monday the completion time decreased by nearly 50s.
Ever since starting my training, I have been following a fellow athlete named Mads Gregersen. You may have heard of him as he is quite active on Youtube posting Freeletics videos. Mads started training many months before me, so looking at his results gave me an idea of what could be realistic short/medium term objectives for each workouts. But of course, as I improved so did he, so he always remained ahead. A few months back he had a newborn baby and stopped training due to sleep deprivation. It was an interesting experience because instead of aiming at a moving target I now could see the gap narrowing.
Monday, I had a good pace while performing Dione, and toward the end it became clear that I would get a new PB. But I did not slow down. Based on intermediary time, I realized that I had a shot at beating Mads' PB (set 8 months ago). I gave everything that I had left on these last 25 burpees. In the end it wasn't enough: it took me 10 seconds more to complete.
Now Mads has started training again, but he's focused on strength so with a bit of luck he won't be doing Dione anytime soon, so I may have another chance to see what it feels like to break his record. ;-)
Tuesday: HADES (17:37* -personal best)
As mentioned in the introduction, I had a great momentum from last week. The workout was very smooth with a PB at the end.
Wednesday: POSEIDON (05:16*) + POSEIDON (04:56* -personal best)
For session 3, I had to complete two Poseidon. It's a very short training but intense for the muscles, I wasn't sure if I would do the workouts back to back or not.
I thought that my best chance at a PB was on the first attempt. So I was decided to give it all at the beginning, even if that meant bad performance on the second attempt. But actually something really stupid happened to me. You'd imagine that counting up to 15 shouldn't be too difficult for a 35 year old. Yet, on the second round of pullups, somehow I lost track of the number of repetitions. I lost a few seconds trying to figure it out, and then decided to start over (the round of pullups, not the entire workout).
Given the circumstances, 05:16 wasn't bad compared to my previous PB of 05:13, but I was pissed at myself. So instead of going straight after the second one, decided to take a break and first took the kids to bed. I didn't look at the exact time, but that must have been roughly a 40mn recovery time. Which is longer than what I usually do.
During the second attempt I'm proud to report that I managed to count all the way to 15 without any issue! Yeah, Kudos to me! This time I scored a PB. Given that muscles were still a bit strained from the first attempt, I suppose that I this isn't my best and next time I should be able to gain "easily" a few seconds.
Thursday: Boxing training
I was completely exhausted mid-training, which is rare enough to be worth mentioning. Not sure if it's due to bad diet, lack of sleep or a repercussion from the training load. We'll see how it goes in the next few weeks.
Friday: HERA (21:28* -personal best)
It had been pouring rain all morning, luckily it was only mildly raining when I started training. As I use the app, bad weather is actually a factor that I have to take into account when doing Hera outdoor. Some workouts if you know them by heart, you can launch the timer and perform the entire routine with your phone inside a pocket. Then you just pull it out at the end to stop the timer. But because Hera has some many 60s rest periods, you need to always have the phone at hand. And phones and water don't mix too well...
Anyway, I learned a new lesson today. I don't mind Hera as a workout. Given the good performance this week, I was pretty confident that I'd be scoring a good time. But during my exercise my pace didn't seem stellar. I pushed as much as I could, but I was convinced that I was behind schedule.
I was surprised to see that I got a PB. For some reason I had thought that my best was under 21 minutes, but actually my old PB was 21:30. A 2 seconds improvement, that was short!
When debriefing my training, I realized that improving my Hera completion time would now be very challenging. I now perform the 40 jumps without a single pause and at a relatively fast pace. I'm probably close to my peak performance on jumps. And that 60s breaks, well they will always be 60s long...
This means that main area left for improvement in on the 400m run. I'm far from top-performance on running, but one of the reason that I started Freeletics in the first place was that run training wasn't really convenient for me. So I expect slow progress, and from now on PBs in Hera will probably be a matter of seconds, rather than minutes.
My challenge for the week was to get 1 personal best "using a smarter breathing technique".
I don't know if I breathed smarter, but with 4 PB in 4 sessions, I guess that I can say "mission accomplished!"
Monday: DIONE (26:14* -personal best)
I'm not going to repeat all that I said last week, but doing over and over again the same workout leads to continuous improvements. My last Dione personal best was only on Saturday and, yet the next Monday the completion time decreased by nearly 50s.
Ever since starting my training, I have been following a fellow athlete named Mads Gregersen. You may have heard of him as he is quite active on Youtube posting Freeletics videos. Mads started training many months before me, so looking at his results gave me an idea of what could be realistic short/medium term objectives for each workouts. But of course, as I improved so did he, so he always remained ahead. A few months back he had a newborn baby and stopped training due to sleep deprivation. It was an interesting experience because instead of aiming at a moving target I now could see the gap narrowing.
Monday, I had a good pace while performing Dione, and toward the end it became clear that I would get a new PB. But I did not slow down. Based on intermediary time, I realized that I had a shot at beating Mads' PB (set 8 months ago). I gave everything that I had left on these last 25 burpees. In the end it wasn't enough: it took me 10 seconds more to complete.
Now Mads has started training again, but he's focused on strength so with a bit of luck he won't be doing Dione anytime soon, so I may have another chance to see what it feels like to break his record. ;-)
Note that beating his time is only a game, it's an excuse to push myself to get better results. And given the time I stayed laying down on the ground catching my breath, it worked well!
So, for those of you out there with time over 40mn, thinking that my results are good. Remember that 15 weeks ago my completion time was around 37mn and I was looking at Mads wondering how he was doing it. So keep training and the results will come!
Tuesday: HADES (17:37* -personal best)
As mentioned in the introduction, I had a great momentum from last week. The workout was very smooth with a PB at the end.
Wednesday: POSEIDON (05:16*) + POSEIDON (04:56* -personal best)
For session 3, I had to complete two Poseidon. It's a very short training but intense for the muscles, I wasn't sure if I would do the workouts back to back or not.
I thought that my best chance at a PB was on the first attempt. So I was decided to give it all at the beginning, even if that meant bad performance on the second attempt. But actually something really stupid happened to me. You'd imagine that counting up to 15 shouldn't be too difficult for a 35 year old. Yet, on the second round of pullups, somehow I lost track of the number of repetitions. I lost a few seconds trying to figure it out, and then decided to start over (the round of pullups, not the entire workout).
Given the circumstances, 05:16 wasn't bad compared to my previous PB of 05:13, but I was pissed at myself. So instead of going straight after the second one, decided to take a break and first took the kids to bed. I didn't look at the exact time, but that must have been roughly a 40mn recovery time. Which is longer than what I usually do.
During the second attempt I'm proud to report that I managed to count all the way to 15 without any issue! Yeah, Kudos to me! This time I scored a PB. Given that muscles were still a bit strained from the first attempt, I suppose that I this isn't my best and next time I should be able to gain "easily" a few seconds.
Thursday: Boxing training
I was completely exhausted mid-training, which is rare enough to be worth mentioning. Not sure if it's due to bad diet, lack of sleep or a repercussion from the training load. We'll see how it goes in the next few weeks.
Friday: HERA (21:28* -personal best)
It had been pouring rain all morning, luckily it was only mildly raining when I started training. As I use the app, bad weather is actually a factor that I have to take into account when doing Hera outdoor. Some workouts if you know them by heart, you can launch the timer and perform the entire routine with your phone inside a pocket. Then you just pull it out at the end to stop the timer. But because Hera has some many 60s rest periods, you need to always have the phone at hand. And phones and water don't mix too well...
Anyway, I learned a new lesson today. I don't mind Hera as a workout. Given the good performance this week, I was pretty confident that I'd be scoring a good time. But during my exercise my pace didn't seem stellar. I pushed as much as I could, but I was convinced that I was behind schedule.
I was surprised to see that I got a PB. For some reason I had thought that my best was under 21 minutes, but actually my old PB was 21:30. A 2 seconds improvement, that was short!
When debriefing my training, I realized that improving my Hera completion time would now be very challenging. I now perform the 40 jumps without a single pause and at a relatively fast pace. I'm probably close to my peak performance on jumps. And that 60s breaks, well they will always be 60s long...
This means that main area left for improvement in on the 400m run. I'm far from top-performance on running, but one of the reason that I started Freeletics in the first place was that run training wasn't really convenient for me. So I expect slow progress, and from now on PBs in Hera will probably be a matter of seconds, rather than minutes.
Saturday, February 1, 2014
Cardio-Strength Program: week #11
Week #11 out of 15
Good news for you guys. I don't have much to comment this week, so hopefully you'll be spared from my long monologues!
The training program that I was assigned is very standard. No new workout. No particularly difficult assignment. No complaining about the weather.
Just a lot of Dione, it felt a bit like starting the program all over again.
Monday: DIONE (28:21* -personal best)
In week #9, I was assigned my first Dione in a long time. So I had expected to send my 2 months old personal best out of the ballpark. In the end, it "only" improved by about 2 minutes (at 29:16*).
I didn't want any regrets this time. To get good completion time in cardio (regardless if you are aiming at 15mn or 45mn), it's all about pace. Starting too fast jeopardizes the end of the workout. In my case, I have noticed that if I don't pay attention, I tend to slow down during the abs workouts. I slip into a comfortable rhythm instead of my best pace.
In the end I improved my completion time by nearly a minute.
Tuesday: HADES (18:01* -personal best)
For some reason, I was convinced that week #11 started with 3 Dione in a row.
But that evening I wasn't really in the mood for a 30mn workout, so just in case I double checked my schedule. Believe it or not, but I was glad to see that I had to do Hades instead.
Let's pause for a second, and think about it.
Only a few weeks back, I couldn't do 3 normal pullups in a row. But today, my brain categorizes a workout with 45 pullups & 45 pushups as "good news".
I'm not pretending to be a pullups guru. I still have huge room from improvement. But I think that it's a good anecdote to share with for those of you which have just begun training. Yes, these damn pullups may feel impossible. But the more you try, the easier it gets.
Anyway, another PB. I expected an improvement, as last week training was heavily focused on arms. But a 1:28 gain was bigger than I had imagined.
Wednesday: DIONE (29:04*)
Today it was a bit more difficult than usual to get into my training. It felt like I started much slower than usual in round 1. The pace increased afterward. In the end I don't have to be ashamed of the result (it's still below last week's PB), but no new record today.
Thursday: Boxing training
Friday: Boxing training
Two boxing training this week. The second one was relatively short (~45mn).
Saturday: DIONE (27:03* -personal best) + Bonus: PULLUPS MAX (33* repetitions -personal best)
Sunday: Bonus: PUSHUPS MAX (51* repetitions -personal best)
Again a new PB in Dione. Again, improved by over a minute.
A few weeks back, I was wondering if my plateauing performance in the basic Cardio workouts (Dione & Aphrodite) was not linked to the increased diversity of my training. Or to put it differently, as I started doing a lot of other things (Hera, Kentauros, Hades, Zeus, etc.), I was getting less specialized in Dione & Aphrodite.
My first intuition, seems to be confirmed by my good results with Dione lately. I have been doing the same workout over and over again, and almost each time I have decreased my PB by a minute. The take-away is that if one day you absolutely want to achieve a certain milestone (e.g. Aphrodite under 15mn), but don't seem to get there. The best strategy is to repeat that same exercise over and over again, until you become super efficient at it.
Anyway, on Saturday I had some extra energy left to burn so I decided to do a quick Pullups Max. I had been doing many workouts that includes pullups, but without measuring my progress with a Max.
Shortly after I completed the workout, one of the blog readers (Dimitri) who follows me on the app, commented on the performance. Basically he was joking that 33 reps would look more feasible if it were pushups instead of pullups.
That comment actually reminded me that when I started, on bad days I would usually be in the mid-thirties for Pushups Max. My PB was at 42. Certainly I should be able to do more now. To avoid thinking about it too much, Sunday I did a quick test: 51 reps.
The first 30 reps were actually not difficult. Execution was quick without pausing. It's around 35 reps that my muscles started to be strained, and I slowed down notably.
Out of the 100 seconds that the exercise lasted, I estimate that it took me 50s for the first 35 reps and 50s for the last 16 reps.
So clearly the bottle neck for me to reduce time further is not execution speed but how many reps in a row I can endure. More muscle building is required...
Good news for you guys. I don't have much to comment this week, so hopefully you'll be spared from my long monologues!
The training program that I was assigned is very standard. No new workout. No particularly difficult assignment. No complaining about the weather.
Just a lot of Dione, it felt a bit like starting the program all over again.
Monday: DIONE (28:21* -personal best)
In week #9, I was assigned my first Dione in a long time. So I had expected to send my 2 months old personal best out of the ballpark. In the end, it "only" improved by about 2 minutes (at 29:16*).
I didn't want any regrets this time. To get good completion time in cardio (regardless if you are aiming at 15mn or 45mn), it's all about pace. Starting too fast jeopardizes the end of the workout. In my case, I have noticed that if I don't pay attention, I tend to slow down during the abs workouts. I slip into a comfortable rhythm instead of my best pace.
In the end I improved my completion time by nearly a minute.
Tuesday: HADES (18:01* -personal best)
For some reason, I was convinced that week #11 started with 3 Dione in a row.
But that evening I wasn't really in the mood for a 30mn workout, so just in case I double checked my schedule. Believe it or not, but I was glad to see that I had to do Hades instead.
Let's pause for a second, and think about it.
Only a few weeks back, I couldn't do 3 normal pullups in a row. But today, my brain categorizes a workout with 45 pullups & 45 pushups as "good news".
I'm not pretending to be a pullups guru. I still have huge room from improvement. But I think that it's a good anecdote to share with for those of you which have just begun training. Yes, these damn pullups may feel impossible. But the more you try, the easier it gets.
Anyway, another PB. I expected an improvement, as last week training was heavily focused on arms. But a 1:28 gain was bigger than I had imagined.
Wednesday: DIONE (29:04*)
Today it was a bit more difficult than usual to get into my training. It felt like I started much slower than usual in round 1. The pace increased afterward. In the end I don't have to be ashamed of the result (it's still below last week's PB), but no new record today.
Thursday: Boxing training
Friday: Boxing training
Two boxing training this week. The second one was relatively short (~45mn).
Saturday: DIONE (27:03* -personal best) + Bonus: PULLUPS MAX (33* repetitions -personal best)
Sunday: Bonus: PUSHUPS MAX (51* repetitions -personal best)
Again a new PB in Dione. Again, improved by over a minute.
A few weeks back, I was wondering if my plateauing performance in the basic Cardio workouts (Dione & Aphrodite) was not linked to the increased diversity of my training. Or to put it differently, as I started doing a lot of other things (Hera, Kentauros, Hades, Zeus, etc.), I was getting less specialized in Dione & Aphrodite.
My first intuition, seems to be confirmed by my good results with Dione lately. I have been doing the same workout over and over again, and almost each time I have decreased my PB by a minute. The take-away is that if one day you absolutely want to achieve a certain milestone (e.g. Aphrodite under 15mn), but don't seem to get there. The best strategy is to repeat that same exercise over and over again, until you become super efficient at it.
Anyway, on Saturday I had some extra energy left to burn so I decided to do a quick Pullups Max. I had been doing many workouts that includes pullups, but without measuring my progress with a Max.
Shortly after I completed the workout, one of the blog readers (Dimitri) who follows me on the app, commented on the performance. Basically he was joking that 33 reps would look more feasible if it were pushups instead of pullups.
That comment actually reminded me that when I started, on bad days I would usually be in the mid-thirties for Pushups Max. My PB was at 42. Certainly I should be able to do more now. To avoid thinking about it too much, Sunday I did a quick test: 51 reps.
The first 30 reps were actually not difficult. Execution was quick without pausing. It's around 35 reps that my muscles started to be strained, and I slowed down notably.
Out of the 100 seconds that the exercise lasted, I estimate that it took me 50s for the first 35 reps and 50s for the last 16 reps.
So clearly the bottle neck for me to reduce time further is not execution speed but how many reps in a row I can endure. More muscle building is required...
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Cardio-Strength Program: week #9
Week #9 out of 15
Last time I suggested that my next post would be an update on the evolution of my body stats. Then I realized that I was already in the middle of week #9. To be consistent with my previous measures, I decided to delay the measures until the week-end. A few days might not make a big difference, but I prefer taking snapshots at clearly identifiable milestones (like "after week #9") than fuzzy ones (like "after 8 and a half weeks").
So first I'm giving an update on my week #9 training, and then the body stats post will follow shortly (measures are already taken, I just need to sit and write them down).
Tuesday: ARES (08:06*) + LUNGE MAX (134*) + POSEIDON (05:55*) + SQUAT MAX (173*)
My training week started Tuesday (impossible to schedule earlier). No easy ramp-up for me this week: my first session was made of 4 workouts, including a new one.
First came Ares, a workout that I consider as relatively easy. As you can see I didn't get a new personal best. This shows that even when a workout is not particularly challenging, you need to be at your max intensity to get these damned PBs. Taking it easy is not an option!
Then came Split Lunge Max. If anyone wants to create the "Lunge Max Haters Club", I will sign-up immediately. This exercise is basically a static version of the Lunge Walk. The strange thing is that I actually don't mind the Lunge Walk. I even wrote that, to me, it felt easier than Squats.
After thinking about it, I think that I understand why Split Lunge is harder than Lunge Walk. When you walk, while your left leg moves forward, your weight is 100% on the right leg. Once the left foot connects with the ground, your body weight progressively shifts from the right leg to the left one. It's the same thing when you do a Lunge Walk: progressive weight shift.
To do a Split Lunge, during a split second both feet are off the ground (see video below). Which means that their is no progressive shift, one leg has to absorb 100% of the body weight at once when you re-connect with the ground. Hence the effort is bigger.
Then I completed a Poseidon workout. No PB either. Generally I expect to have a slightly sub-par performance if I have already completed a few workouts beforehand. In this specific case I was disappointed. The last time that I did Poseidon was on week #2. 7 weeks later it took me 5 additional seconds to complete. This clearly wasn't my best day ever.
I wrapped-up the day with a Squat Max. No need to say I didn't get a PB. On a regular day this exercise is already a weak spot for me, but doing it after the Split Lunge Max was even more difficult. The positive point is that to stay focused I had set as a personal objective to do at least 170 repetitions. Mission accomplished.
This last workout was my 100th Freeletics workout since starting the program! I took a lot of sweat to get there!
Wednesday: DIONE (29:16* -personal best)
Before moving to my daily training, let me share a personal anecdote. As you know I practice boxing, which is a sport that makes the entire body work. Over the year I have gotten sore muscles pretty much all over the place (even jaws muscles!). Sometimes it hurt in places where I didn't thought that I had muscles. But I never had a sore butt like the one I got on Wednesday!
Ladies & Gentlemen, I may hate this workout, but I tell you: if you are looking to get an ass of steel before the Summer, Split Lunge is the exercise that you should be doing!
Only Dione was on the menu today. I'm very familiar with this workout by now, and my last PB was a 9 weeks old. So I expected a massive improvement, around 5 minutes or more.
In the end, if I did get a new PB, the time "only" improved by 02:11. Was my expectation unrealistic? Was my performance sub-optimal?
I don't know. Next time that I have to complete Dione, if my results improve dramatically (or not), I'll get the answer.
Thursday: Boxing training
Friday: KENTAUROS (30:59*)
When starting this program I have decided to spread the training load over the work-week, and use the week-end to get 2 consecutive rest days. Over the past few weeks scheduling constraints have extended my training to include Saturday as well.
To get back to my original setup, if possible I wanted to do my last 2 sessions on Friday. I can't do pull-ups where I train near work, so I decided that I'd train Kentauros during my lunch break and do the last session in the evening.
Kentauros is a workout that is physically demanding, but fairly balanced. To put it in other words: I respect this training, but that I don't really fear it. My confidence & motivation levels were good when I started training.
The workout began with the Lunge Walk, which was completed normally. But when came the time to do the first High Jumps, at first I couldn't do them. My legs didn't provide enough force to lift me off the ground high enough. The strange thing was my legs did not feel sore at all. I had no pain. Simply the muscles did not respond as expected. Eventually, I got the 10 jumps completed. This shook my confidence at bit but I kept going.
Then came the Burpee Frogs . Doing the burpee part was ok, but I couldn't jump forward as far as I usually did. The ironic thing when training over a fixed distance, is that because my difficulties to jump, I was forced to complete more repetitions. The icing on the cake was that the ground was soaking wet, so my gloves & tracksuit were quickly dripping with water.
Afterward doing the high jumps felt normal again, but the burpee frogs remained very difficult. As you can imagine I didn't get a personal best. I actually scored a "personal worst": 49 seconds more than when I first attempted Kentauros in week #7.
While analyzing what happened, I came to the conclusion that my tights had not recovered from the Split Lunge and the Squats on Tuesday. The leg muscles were still strained from the effort, but I had not realized it because they did not feel sore.
Those of you who follow me on the app saw that, I was a bit gloomy after the training and hoped to have better performance in the evening. Ultimately, it didn't train further. It was a bad day and I came home late, so I took a rest in the evening.
Saturday: ARES (08:07*) + LUNGE MAX (143* -personal best) + POSEIDON (05:13* -personal best) + SQUAT MAX (171*)
A new day and a new start. I wanted to score as many personal best as possible to wash off the bad Friday. Session 4 was exactly the same as Session 1.
I felt great while doing Ares. I thought that I was flying.
If anything was flying around it must have been my mind, not my body. Because my completion time was not stellar. 1 second more than on Tuesday, that's an average performance.
Next came Lunge Max. I didn't want this exercise to because a phobia, so despite tired legs I gave it all to improve the number of repetitions. It worked, I got a PB.
For Poseidon I knew that I must be possible to improve. I stayed focused and managed to get a PB, improving by over 30 seconds.
For the Squat Max, just like in Session 1, I knew that the PB was out of reach but I didn't want to let my myself slack-off. So, again I set myself the objective to do over 170 reps. I barely made-it with 171 reps, but I was satisfied.
I was pleased with my last session. It's not my best day ever, I got 2 PB and it cheered me up after the Kentauros failure. It's always nice to finish the week on a positive note!
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Cardio-Strength Program: week #8
Week #8 out of 15
This week I'm back on a more normal routine. No Hell Days, and I have returned to the boxing gym after the year-end break. Aside for 1 new workout, my training is based on familiar exercises.
The only challenge was that I have been assigned 5 sessions. To fit them all in my schedule, I decided to start the week with 2 sessions in a row.
Monday:
I wanted to start the week with a personal best. Hades had not improved over the past 2 weeks. Last week, I actually scored longer time than usual due to the Hell Days. So that's the workout that I wanted to improve today.
My pace was good, but I quickly felt that my arms were still a bit strained from my last training on Saturday. In the end my time improved by 6 seconds. It's not much, but it's a step in the right direction. And it's good to start the week on a positive note.
Then I tackled the second session. For a while now I have been wondering when I would break the 70 rep ceiling in Burpees Max. This time I finished in the mid-sixties. Again.
And finally, I did Metis. As I mentioned, my arm muscles were a bit tired and I felt good from my new PB. This was the perfect receipt for slacking-off on the last workout: I had a justification to take-it easy (sore arms) + a good reason not to feel bad about it (already scored a PB). But that didn't happen.
Before training I didn't even bother checking what my personal best was exactly. I just started training. But when I saw that round 1 was cleared in under a minute, I knew that I was on track with my best pace. Personal Best, whatever the exact figure, was reachable. I kept going as fast as possible. Despite my efforts, in round 2 my pace had slowed down. The PB was getting away. But human mind works in strange ways: I became furious that my efforts in round 2 did not materialize in better performance. The last round was just an insane rush. Breathing had become secondary. At this stage, I had no idea if the PB was still possible. I just wanted to give it all to have no regret.
When the counter stopped, I laid on the ground for a good while trying to catch-up my breath. I had improved my PB by 1 second! It's a ridiculously low improvement compared to the effort, but it felt great nonetheless.
Tuesday: ATLAS (24:39*)
Atlas is a new workout for me. It includes running and had to be performed outdoor.
Lately you have seen me complaining a lot about bad weather. So, to be fair, I need to report that today while training during my lunch break, I had perfect conditions.
Sunny but not too much. Mildly cold, but just enough to cool me down during the workout. Days like this, make me look forward to outdoor training in the spring.
Anyway, back to business. Here is what I had to complete today:
My first reaction was that it didn't look too good. But as you can see from my completion time, it didn't take me much longer than other workouts. Sure most exercises have 50 to 100 repetitions, but there is only 1 round.
The novelty for me were the froggers (like in the video below, but I had to bring my feet at the same level as my hands). It's demanding on the Cardio side, but nothing crazy. In term of difficulty, I put it on the same level as climbers.
Wednesday: BURPEES MAX (70* -personal best) +METIS (05:12* -personal best)
Same session as on Monday but this time I did have to complete another session beforehand. It clearly shows in the final results, with 2 personal best.
My favorite PB today, is Burpees Max. I had chased that PB for weeks now, and finally reached 70 repetitions. Ideally I want to go beyond but it's still out f reach.
I have done so many burpees since starting Freeletics, that honestly I don't really mind anymore. But when I have to complete many repetitions per round (50 or above), it remains a bit challenging. At this stage I don't know if it will improve as I keep training, or if I need to fix something in my execution (breathing, may be?)
If I get stuck at 70 for a while, I'll need to look at this more closely.
The Metis completion time is much better than on Monday, but this time no mad rush to finish, the effort was fairly balanced throughout the workout.
Thursday: Boxing training
First boxing training in 3 weeks, but without any major difficulty. Thanks to all the workouts these past weeks, my physical condition was good. I actually found that my execution of Jackknives had improved.
Saturday: APOLLON (23:32* -personal best)
I didn't get the chance to train outdoors on Friday and so I completed my last training over the week-end. This time I paid attention not to lose too much time during the 400 meters runs. All along the workout I was on track to score a PB. Unconsciously, I started to slow down in the third round (which is why it's sometimes preferable not to know exactly what is the reference time to to beat). I had to sprint over the last 80 meters to catch-up this delay. My PB improved by about 17 seconds. Next time if I stay focused during all 3 rounds I should be able to improve it further.
That's all for this week. I have now officially completed more than half of my program. Only 7 weeks left to go. Wow, time is flying. You can expect another post later this week, it's time to give an update on my body-stats.
This week I'm back on a more normal routine. No Hell Days, and I have returned to the boxing gym after the year-end break. Aside for 1 new workout, my training is based on familiar exercises.
The only challenge was that I have been assigned 5 sessions. To fit them all in my schedule, I decided to start the week with 2 sessions in a row.
Monday:
- Session 1: HADES (19:29* -personal best)
- Session 2: BURPEES MAX (64*) +METIS (05:30 -personal best*)
I wanted to start the week with a personal best. Hades had not improved over the past 2 weeks. Last week, I actually scored longer time than usual due to the Hell Days. So that's the workout that I wanted to improve today.
My pace was good, but I quickly felt that my arms were still a bit strained from my last training on Saturday. In the end my time improved by 6 seconds. It's not much, but it's a step in the right direction. And it's good to start the week on a positive note.
Then I tackled the second session. For a while now I have been wondering when I would break the 70 rep ceiling in Burpees Max. This time I finished in the mid-sixties. Again.
And finally, I did Metis. As I mentioned, my arm muscles were a bit tired and I felt good from my new PB. This was the perfect receipt for slacking-off on the last workout: I had a justification to take-it easy (sore arms) + a good reason not to feel bad about it (already scored a PB). But that didn't happen.
Before training I didn't even bother checking what my personal best was exactly. I just started training. But when I saw that round 1 was cleared in under a minute, I knew that I was on track with my best pace. Personal Best, whatever the exact figure, was reachable. I kept going as fast as possible. Despite my efforts, in round 2 my pace had slowed down. The PB was getting away. But human mind works in strange ways: I became furious that my efforts in round 2 did not materialize in better performance. The last round was just an insane rush. Breathing had become secondary. At this stage, I had no idea if the PB was still possible. I just wanted to give it all to have no regret.
When the counter stopped, I laid on the ground for a good while trying to catch-up my breath. I had improved my PB by 1 second! It's a ridiculously low improvement compared to the effort, but it felt great nonetheless.
Tuesday: ATLAS (24:39*)
Atlas is a new workout for me. It includes running and had to be performed outdoor.
Lately you have seen me complaining a lot about bad weather. So, to be fair, I need to report that today while training during my lunch break, I had perfect conditions.
Sunny but not too much. Mildly cold, but just enough to cool me down during the workout. Days like this, make me look forward to outdoor training in the spring.
Anyway, back to business. Here is what I had to complete today:
- 2km run
- 50 deep squats
- 50 burpees
- 50 froggers
- 50 leg levers
- 100 jumps
My first reaction was that it didn't look too good. But as you can see from my completion time, it didn't take me much longer than other workouts. Sure most exercises have 50 to 100 repetitions, but there is only 1 round.
The novelty for me were the froggers (like in the video below, but I had to bring my feet at the same level as my hands). It's demanding on the Cardio side, but nothing crazy. In term of difficulty, I put it on the same level as climbers.
Wednesday: BURPEES MAX (70* -personal best) +METIS (05:12* -personal best)
Same session as on Monday but this time I did have to complete another session beforehand. It clearly shows in the final results, with 2 personal best.
My favorite PB today, is Burpees Max. I had chased that PB for weeks now, and finally reached 70 repetitions. Ideally I want to go beyond but it's still out f reach.
I have done so many burpees since starting Freeletics, that honestly I don't really mind anymore. But when I have to complete many repetitions per round (50 or above), it remains a bit challenging. At this stage I don't know if it will improve as I keep training, or if I need to fix something in my execution (breathing, may be?)
If I get stuck at 70 for a while, I'll need to look at this more closely.
The Metis completion time is much better than on Monday, but this time no mad rush to finish, the effort was fairly balanced throughout the workout.
Thursday: Boxing training
First boxing training in 3 weeks, but without any major difficulty. Thanks to all the workouts these past weeks, my physical condition was good. I actually found that my execution of Jackknives had improved.
Saturday: APOLLON (23:32* -personal best)
I didn't get the chance to train outdoors on Friday and so I completed my last training over the week-end. This time I paid attention not to lose too much time during the 400 meters runs. All along the workout I was on track to score a PB. Unconsciously, I started to slow down in the third round (which is why it's sometimes preferable not to know exactly what is the reference time to to beat). I had to sprint over the last 80 meters to catch-up this delay. My PB improved by about 17 seconds. Next time if I stay focused during all 3 rounds I should be able to improve it further.
That's all for this week. I have now officially completed more than half of my program. Only 7 weeks left to go. Wow, time is flying. You can expect another post later this week, it's time to give an update on my body-stats.
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Cardio-Strength Program: week #7 (Hell days)
Week #7 out of 15
First of all, I wish a Happy New Year to all my readers. For me the New Year started with sweat & physical efforts: my "coach" had decided that I should start 2014 in Hell.
For the newcomers, in Freeletics-speak from time to time the program requires you to go through "Hell". A week during which you have to train much more than usual.
The last time that I went through Hell was at the end of the pre-program. It was called "Hell Week", with workouts every day for 7 days. Followed by 3 days of rest.
This time the training structure changed. My goal for the week was to complete 3 "Hell days", each of them made of 3 workouts.
The 3 workouts don't have to be completed back-to-back, but they have to take place within the same day. So, athletes are free to do the first in the morning, the second at lunch and the third in the evening. After each Hell Day you should take at least 1 day of rest.
I chose to do all my Hell Days in one go. The last workouts seemed more difficult to complete, but at least I got rid of my daily training once and for all.
Tuesday: APOLLON (24:23*) + JUMP MAX (185*) + KENTAUROS (30:10*)
This was my most difficult day of the week physically & mentally.
Due to scheduling constraints the best time for me to train was early morning before breakfast. I can tell you that when I went outside half-awake, only to realize that I had to do burpees on frozen ground my motivation wasn't very high. While doing the Apollon workout, part of my brain was trying to convince me that I should do the other 2 workouts later in the day. I didn't improve my completion time, partially due to this lack of focus.
Still debating with myself, I decided to do the second workout right away. It made more sense to do Jump Max, while my legs were still warm. This was my first attempt at this workout. I had not fully recovered, so at times I had to pause to catch my breath. I completed as many as I could, but still felt like my results were not optimal. Next time that I do this training, I'm aiming to do much better than 185 repetitions in 5 minutes (>200).
Luckily, as the sun rose higher the temperature improved. I couldn't use the cold as an excuse to stop training, so I kept going and tackled my my last assignment for the day: Kentauros.
I expected the worse. I had never attempted Kentauros before, a workout that also includes 2 new exercises for me: Lunge walk & Burpee Frogs.
Lunge Walk looks like this (on leg after the other):
While Burpee Frogs are like on this video (except that you only jump forward):
The Kentauros routine is the following:
Given that the people that I follow on the app completed this workout in 25mn to 42mn (25 minutes being the completion time of guys that you see on Freeletics promotional videos...)
I expected to train around 35mn to 40mn. Closer to 40 given that it was my third workout for the day.
To my great surprise, I was done in 30 minutes. Including the several occasions when I was literally sitting on the ground while catching my breath! Which means that next time I should be able to do much better than this.
Honestly, my first impression was that I had made a mistake somewhere. Either by not completing the movements properly or by wrongly measuring the distance. Afterward I watched again the Freeletics video, but it confirmed that I did the exercises correctly.
I have thought of 2 reasons to explain the "good" results:
High jumps remain demanding on the cardio side, but I have noticed some improvements over time. At times I still need to catch my breath for a few seconds after the exercise, but completing the 10 repetitions is done in one-go in less than 30 seconds.
Overall I liked this workout. Like a number of outdoor sessions, it can be annoying to complete if you have to do it in the mud or wet sandy ground (my case). Especially burpee frogs, which a bit harder on shallow ground. But physically it's not as bad as I expected.
Wednesday: Mandatory rest day.
Thursday: KENTAUROS (27:04* -personal best) + HERA (22:14*) + ARES (08:35*)
Upon waking-up I still had sore legs from the Tuesday workouts. I wondered if that would affect my performance today. However it gradually went away over the morning. I had no discomfort when I trained in the middle of the afternoon. This time I could go to a park where both the running exercises and the pullups can be done.
My second Hell Day started with Kentauros. I knew what to expect and I had fresh legs, so without any surprise I scored a personal best, improving the time by 3 minutes. I didn't need to sit this time, but did pause a few times. So I still have a lot of room to improve my time. Once in better physical shape, going under 25mn should not be a big issue.
For the records, I trained at a different location this time and there were marks on the ground that measured exactly 20 meters. So it confirmed to me that I have been training on the correct distance, and that therefore my time is perfectly legit.
I continued the training with Hera. Not much to report here. I didn't improve my time, as I ran slower than usual on the 400m exercises. On the contrary, I had a good pace or the Jumps. Even if I must have looked crazy jumping like that, given the looks I got from a few dog-walkers...
My last session was Ares. For the anecdote, that's actually the first time that I complete it outdoor. When training indoor I have always replaced the running exercise by some high-knee static running. The first time that I attempted this workout, I estimated based on 100m run-time that to have representative completion time I should hold the high-knee static run during 15 seconds. Later in a forum discussion an athlete pointed out that 15 seconds might be too short, as just running 80m is not the same thing as running 80m after pullups and jackknives. Based on his input, in later sessions I have increased the static run to 20 seconds.
Today I got to test this time in real conditions. Each time, it took me about 20 seconds to run the 80m distance. Okay, it was the end of Hell Day so may be on a regular day I would do slightly better, but my point is that the other guy's comment was perfectly valid. I'm definitely sticking to 20 seconds for the moment. I don't want to get new Hades PB, just by artificially decreasing static run. May be in a few months I'll test it again and see if I should decrease the time.
Friday: Mandatory rest day.
Saturday: VENUS (25:06*) + BURPEE MAX (54*)+ HADES (23:31)
Another week, another new workout: Venus. Let's have a look at its content:
As you can see the guys at Freeletics chose the wrong name for this workout. Venus is not just an alternate Aphrodite. Forget Cardio, it's all about muscle building.
In my opinion the challenge here is the number of Pushups. 200 repetitions in total and 50 per round is also fairly long. The Jackknives are no problem, and 50 Deep Squat is the standard number of repetitions in most workouts.
For the pushups, I paced myself to avoid starting too fast and then have no arms left to finish the exercise. My method is to do 10 reps, breath a few seconds while laying on the ground, and repeat until 50. The key is to keep the breaks as short as possible.
Strangely, after 200 pushups the last 2 workouts (Burpees Max & Hades) were more difficult to complete than usual... I could feel that achieving a personal best on any of the two would be mission impossible. However, I focused on keeping intensity as high as possible, to avoid slacking-off.
And that was my last Hell Day. All week long I had been looking forward for this last day. Somehow I had assumed that it would be a nice indoor session. It was definitely doable, but more difficult than expected. I had underestimated the soreness from the previous days and how focused on the arms session 3 was.
Sunday: Mandatory rest day.
I have mixed feelings about these Hell Days. I think that I preferred the Hell Week.
Both make you train much harder than usual. Which is painful on the short term, but in the end brings us closer to our self-improvement goal(s).
Both are annoying to schedule. Hell Week, because training everyday (even for 25mn) is not always possible due to personal constraints. Hell Days because longer sessions (1h00-1h30) are harder to fit within the day, especially outdoor training in the winter when daylight is short. And mandatory rest days mean that you have little opportunity to choose which day to schedule these longer training sessions.
One thing that I really liked about my Hell Week, is that after training 7 days in a row, in the middle of the rest period, I was actually missing training. I wanted more. Sitting in my couch doing nothing felt strange.
This time I was really glad to get a rest on Sunday! But that day didn't last long, as I write these lines I'm already well into week #8 training.
To be continued next week...
First of all, I wish a Happy New Year to all my readers. For me the New Year started with sweat & physical efforts: my "coach" had decided that I should start 2014 in Hell.
For the newcomers, in Freeletics-speak from time to time the program requires you to go through "Hell". A week during which you have to train much more than usual.
The last time that I went through Hell was at the end of the pre-program. It was called "Hell Week", with workouts every day for 7 days. Followed by 3 days of rest.
This time the training structure changed. My goal for the week was to complete 3 "Hell days", each of them made of 3 workouts.
The 3 workouts don't have to be completed back-to-back, but they have to take place within the same day. So, athletes are free to do the first in the morning, the second at lunch and the third in the evening. After each Hell Day you should take at least 1 day of rest.
I chose to do all my Hell Days in one go. The last workouts seemed more difficult to complete, but at least I got rid of my daily training once and for all.
Tuesday: APOLLON (24:23*) + JUMP MAX (185*) + KENTAUROS (30:10*)
This was my most difficult day of the week physically & mentally.
Due to scheduling constraints the best time for me to train was early morning before breakfast. I can tell you that when I went outside half-awake, only to realize that I had to do burpees on frozen ground my motivation wasn't very high. While doing the Apollon workout, part of my brain was trying to convince me that I should do the other 2 workouts later in the day. I didn't improve my completion time, partially due to this lack of focus.
Still debating with myself, I decided to do the second workout right away. It made more sense to do Jump Max, while my legs were still warm. This was my first attempt at this workout. I had not fully recovered, so at times I had to pause to catch my breath. I completed as many as I could, but still felt like my results were not optimal. Next time that I do this training, I'm aiming to do much better than 185 repetitions in 5 minutes (>200).
Luckily, as the sun rose higher the temperature improved. I couldn't use the cold as an excuse to stop training, so I kept going and tackled my my last assignment for the day: Kentauros.
I expected the worse. I had never attempted Kentauros before, a workout that also includes 2 new exercises for me: Lunge walk & Burpee Frogs.
Lunge Walk looks like this (on leg after the other):
While Burpee Frogs are like on this video (except that you only jump forward):
:
The Kentauros routine is the following:
- 2x20 meters Lunge Walk
- 10 High Jumps
- 2x20 meters Burpee Frogs
- 10 High Jumps
- 6 rounds
Given that the people that I follow on the app completed this workout in 25mn to 42mn (25 minutes being the completion time of guys that you see on Freeletics promotional videos...)
I expected to train around 35mn to 40mn. Closer to 40 given that it was my third workout for the day.
To my great surprise, I was done in 30 minutes. Including the several occasions when I was literally sitting on the ground while catching my breath! Which means that next time I should be able to do much better than this.
Honestly, my first impression was that I had made a mistake somewhere. Either by not completing the movements properly or by wrongly measuring the distance. Afterward I watched again the Freeletics video, but it confirmed that I did the exercises correctly.
I have thought of 2 reasons to explain the "good" results:
- Top athletes don't do this workout often. Their 25mn personal best is several months old, and probably not very representative of their current performances
- When doing the Burpee Frogs, from the start I always jumped forward as far as I could. In this exercise you have to cover a fixed distance: the longer your forward jump is, the less repetitions you need to do. Therefore, by making an effort on the jump, you actually save time & energy.
High jumps remain demanding on the cardio side, but I have noticed some improvements over time. At times I still need to catch my breath for a few seconds after the exercise, but completing the 10 repetitions is done in one-go in less than 30 seconds.
Overall I liked this workout. Like a number of outdoor sessions, it can be annoying to complete if you have to do it in the mud or wet sandy ground (my case). Especially burpee frogs, which a bit harder on shallow ground. But physically it's not as bad as I expected.
Wednesday: Mandatory rest day.
Thursday: KENTAUROS (27:04* -personal best) + HERA (22:14*) + ARES (08:35*)
Upon waking-up I still had sore legs from the Tuesday workouts. I wondered if that would affect my performance today. However it gradually went away over the morning. I had no discomfort when I trained in the middle of the afternoon. This time I could go to a park where both the running exercises and the pullups can be done.
My second Hell Day started with Kentauros. I knew what to expect and I had fresh legs, so without any surprise I scored a personal best, improving the time by 3 minutes. I didn't need to sit this time, but did pause a few times. So I still have a lot of room to improve my time. Once in better physical shape, going under 25mn should not be a big issue.
For the records, I trained at a different location this time and there were marks on the ground that measured exactly 20 meters. So it confirmed to me that I have been training on the correct distance, and that therefore my time is perfectly legit.
I continued the training with Hera. Not much to report here. I didn't improve my time, as I ran slower than usual on the 400m exercises. On the contrary, I had a good pace or the Jumps. Even if I must have looked crazy jumping like that, given the looks I got from a few dog-walkers...
My last session was Ares. For the anecdote, that's actually the first time that I complete it outdoor. When training indoor I have always replaced the running exercise by some high-knee static running. The first time that I attempted this workout, I estimated based on 100m run-time that to have representative completion time I should hold the high-knee static run during 15 seconds. Later in a forum discussion an athlete pointed out that 15 seconds might be too short, as just running 80m is not the same thing as running 80m after pullups and jackknives. Based on his input, in later sessions I have increased the static run to 20 seconds.
Today I got to test this time in real conditions. Each time, it took me about 20 seconds to run the 80m distance. Okay, it was the end of Hell Day so may be on a regular day I would do slightly better, but my point is that the other guy's comment was perfectly valid. I'm definitely sticking to 20 seconds for the moment. I don't want to get new Hades PB, just by artificially decreasing static run. May be in a few months I'll test it again and see if I should decrease the time.
Friday: Mandatory rest day.
Saturday: VENUS (25:06*) + BURPEE MAX (54*)
Another week, another new workout: Venus. Let's have a look at its content:
- 50 pushups
- 20 Jackknives
- 50 Deep Squats
- 4 rounds
As you can see the guys at Freeletics chose the wrong name for this workout. Venus is not just an alternate Aphrodite. Forget Cardio, it's all about muscle building.
In my opinion the challenge here is the number of Pushups. 200 repetitions in total and 50 per round is also fairly long. The Jackknives are no problem, and 50 Deep Squat is the standard number of repetitions in most workouts.
For the pushups, I paced myself to avoid starting too fast and then have no arms left to finish the exercise. My method is to do 10 reps, breath a few seconds while laying on the ground, and repeat until 50. The key is to keep the breaks as short as possible.
Strangely, after 200 pushups the last 2 workouts (Burpees Max & Hades) were more difficult to complete than usual... I could feel that achieving a personal best on any of the two would be mission impossible. However, I focused on keeping intensity as high as possible, to avoid slacking-off.
And that was my last Hell Day. All week long I had been looking forward for this last day. Somehow I had assumed that it would be a nice indoor session. It was definitely doable, but more difficult than expected. I had underestimated the soreness from the previous days and how focused on the arms session 3 was.
Sunday: Mandatory rest day.
I have mixed feelings about these Hell Days. I think that I preferred the Hell Week.
Both make you train much harder than usual. Which is painful on the short term, but in the end brings us closer to our self-improvement goal(s).
Both are annoying to schedule. Hell Week, because training everyday (even for 25mn) is not always possible due to personal constraints. Hell Days because longer sessions (1h00-1h30) are harder to fit within the day, especially outdoor training in the winter when daylight is short. And mandatory rest days mean that you have little opportunity to choose which day to schedule these longer training sessions.
One thing that I really liked about my Hell Week, is that after training 7 days in a row, in the middle of the rest period, I was actually missing training. I wanted more. Sitting in my couch doing nothing felt strange.
This time I was really glad to get a rest on Sunday! But that day didn't last long, as I write these lines I'm already well into week #8 training.
To be continued next week...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)