Post-program (self-scheduled training): week #43-46

Posting has been quiet on my side over the summer. But aside from a short vacation, I kept training. The piece of news is that since the beginning of September I have started following a 15 weeks program again! 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.


Week 43:

• Monday: boxing training
• Tuesday: Aphrodite (18:57* -PB)
• Wednesday: Hades (17:55*) + Pushup MAX (44*)
• Friday: Poseidon (04:51*) + Metis (05:29*) + boxing training

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.



Week 44:

• Monday: Hera (20:11* -PB)
• Tuesday: Venus (19:00* -PB) +Pullup MAX (30*)
• Friday: Venus (18:44* -PB)

Normal sessions. 3 PB within the same week. It had not happened in ages!

Week 45:

Vacations!

Intentionally giving my body a full rest. No particular physical exercise (aside from a 40mn scuba dive)

Week 46:

• Wednesday: Hades (20:10*) + Squat MAX (189*) + Jumping Jacks x10 ('0:07* - First time)
• Thursday: Jumping Jacks x100 ('01:09* - First time) + Situps x100 ('03:27* - First time) + Metis strength (07:17* -First time) + Poseidon (06:43*)
• Friday: Dione (28:00*) + Pistols x25 (01:20 -First time)

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.

This concludes the series of "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). 

Post-program (self-scheduled training): week #34-42

Here is the usual update on my training schedule. Don't be surprised if this time the training-load seems irregular from one week to the next.

About a month ago, I hurt my wrist and my hip 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. 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. It would be stupid to make the injury worse by returning to training before the body had time to recover. 


Week 34:

• Monday: Pushup MAX (60*) + Situp MAX (151*) + Lunge MAX (178*) + Pushup MAX (55*) + Pullup MAX (25*) + Leg Lever MAX (183*) +Poseidon (05:48*)
• Tuesday: Aphrodite (19:01*)
• Wednesday: Iris (28:05* -PB) + Pushup MAX (50*)
• Thursday: boxing training
• Friday: Dione (24:38*)

Normal sessions.

 
Week 35:

• Monday: Uranos (28:16* -First time) + Ares (07:46*) + Situp MAX (135*)
• Tuesday: Gaia (34:20* -First time) +Poseidon (05:22*)
• Wednesday: Apollon (27:46*)
• Thursday: boxing training
• Friday: Artemis (21:34*)
• Saturday: Burpee MAX (81* -PB) +  Pullup MAX (31*) + Situp MAX (145*) + Pushup MAX (36*)

Normal sessions. Feeling great, tried 2 new workouts (see review below).


Week 36:

• Tuesday: Venus (19:50*) + Dione (30:29*)
• Wednesday: Kentauros (25:22* -PB)
• Thursday: boxing training
• Sunday: Pullup MAX (23*) 

Finally pushed myself to re-do Kentauros. Week 36 was when I hurt myself. Went to the chiropractor on Friday followed by 48 hours of full rest. Sunday was not a training session. Just a quick exercise that I did to test if wrist pains were due to bruises or a mechanical issue.


Week 37:

• Thursday: boxing training

Forced rest. No Freeletics the entire week. 


Week 38:

• Monday: Apollon (25:55*) + Pushup MAX (55*) + Leg Lever MAX (163*)
• Wednesda:y Iris (29:26*) + Pushup MAX (50*)
• Thursday: boxing training
• Friday: 3km run + Venus (19:23*)

Resumed regular training. Back pains returned at the end of the week. Might have been too eager to start training again...


Week 39:

• Tuesday: Pushup MAX (50*) + Pullup MAX (33*) + Pushup MAX (50*) + Pullup MAX (25*)  + Pushup MAX (50*) + Pullup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (50*) + Pushup MAX (44*)
• Thursday: boxing training
• Saturday: Pushup MAX (50*) + Situp MAX (150*) + Pushup MAX (50*) + Squat MAX (219* -PB)  + Pushup MAX (50*)

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.


Week 40:

• Thursday: boxing training
• Friday: boxing training

Again a visit to the chiropractor, followed by 48 hours of full rest and no Freeletics the entire week.


Week 41:

• Monday: Pushup MAX (52*) +  Leg Lever MAX (183*) + Pullup MAX (29*)  + Pushup MAX (49*) + Situp MAX (139*) + Pullup MAX (27*)
• Tuesday: Pushup MAX (53*) + Jackknife MAX (45* -PB) + Pushup MAX (49*) + Pushup MAX (50*) + Situp MAX (127*) + Pullup MAX (30*)
• Thursday: boxing training
• Saturday: Hades (17:14*) + Poseidon (05:13*)

Progressive return to training. Almost only push-ups/pull-ups/abs. Adding short running distance on Saturday.


Week 42:

• Monday: Dione (26:51*)
• Tuesday: Hades (18:07*) +Poseidon (05:05*)
• Wednesday: Ares (08:01*) + Metis (05:09*) + Ares (08:01*) + Pushup MAX (48*)
• Thursday: boxing training

Progressively adding back burpees (max 25 reps in a row), climbers and jumps in my routine.

Before running into these annoying issues, I had been quite pleased in week #35 to try Uranos for the first time. On paper I really liked this routine, but 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 both running & pull-ups. It was a before-breakfast training, nice weather but early enough to be cool. I had the park for myself. Perfect conditions.
To complete Uranos I had to go through the following routine:

• 2 km run
• 50 burpees
• 50 pullups
• 50 climbers
• 50 pushups
• 100 jumps
• 1 round only (thankfully!)

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 Khronos or the 2x100 burpees in Helios.

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 Khronos 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? Was just simply 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.
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 Uranos, 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!

I had to sit for a while to recover my breath before attempting the next workout. Interestingly, after when I performed Ares, I had no issue at all to complete the pull-ups. So maybe the 50 burpees had an impact afterall.



I was so fired-up from finally doing Uranos, that the follwing day I tackled another new workout: Gaia. Here is how "mother Earth" looks like:

• 40 jumpings jacks
• 30 jumps
• 20 froggers
• 10 standups
• 10 rounds

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.
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!).

The workout went very well, but I was close to turn into a pool of sweat at the end!

The shorter sets made the jumps much easier than in Uranos (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 stand-ups!
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 requires a bit a technique. It took me 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!)
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 at each repetition. Once I had caught the right movement, repeating the exercise became more fluid and right way I could feel that my pace had improved.



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.

Post-program (self-scheduled training): week #21-26

I had not reported on my training since completing the program. It's only now that I'm writing this post that I realize that 6 weeks have already passed. Time flies.

While I kept training every single week, overall the past weeks felt much more relaxed. Partly because there were more relaxed (less workouts), but also because peace of mind came from adjusting my training around my schedule.

My training was the following:

Week 21:

• Tuesday: Aphrodite (19:43* -PB) + Leg Levers Max (196* -PB) + Ares (08:16*)
• Thursday: boxing training
• Friday: Venus (21:24*) + Leg Levers Max (192*) 

Week 22:

• Monday: boxing training
• Tuesday: Hades (16:04* -PB) + Sit up Max (133*)
• Wednesday: Venus (20:58* -PB)
• Thursday: boxing training
• Saturday: Venus (19:23* -PB) + Leg Levers Max (187*) 

Week 23:

• Monday: Venus (20:14*) + Pullup Max (32*) + Pushup Max (41*)
• Tuesday: Pullup Max (34* -PB) + Pushup Max (47*) +Leg Levers Max (186*)  + Lunge Max (173* -PB) + Aphrodite (20:09*)
• Thursday: boxing training
• Saturday: Venus (21:05*) + Pullup Max (28*) 
• Sunday: Pushup Max (49*) + Pullup Max (29*) + Pushup Max (41*)

Week 24:

• Monday: Venus (21:13*) + Leg Levers Max (188*) + Pullup Max (30*) 
• Tuesday: Venus (21:38*)
• Thursday: boxing training
• Saturday: Aphrodite (20:00*) + Pushup Max (42*) + Leg Levers Max (183*) + Pushup Max (53*) + Pullup Max (31*)
• Sunday: Pullup Max (30*) 

Week 25:

• Tuesday: Hades (17:42*) + Situp Max (145*) 
• Wednesday: Aphrodite (19:38*)
• Thursday: boxing training

Week 26:

• Monday: Venus (24:24*) 
• Tuesday: Hades (17:35*) 
• Thursday: boxing training
• Friday: Venus (19:38*)

If I exclude, the Sunday were I just did a single MAX session for fun, over 6 weeks I performed 17 sessions for a total training time for ~339 minutes. That's 3 sessions per week on average, each of approximately 20 minutes.
True, the average is slightly lowered by Week #21, which was very light on purpose to recover from the preceding Hell Week. But figures don't lie. As outlined in a previous post, I intended to reduce the number of session and focus on strength workouts (which tend to be shorter than cardio).

Free training is new to me, so I'm still experimenting and trying to find the best balance between personal life & training. I will do a separate post for body stats after these 6 weeks, but there are already a few take-away:

• Adjusting training on the spot to fit unexpected schedule changes is great. That's the kind of flexibility I was looking for before starting Freeletics...

• ...but, I will probably need to fix myself a few strict guidelines. An absolute minimum number of 3 sessions per week is probably a good rule to put in place. As you can see on week 25, one schedule constraint after another led to only 2 sessions being done. It's not dramatic once, but it should not become a habit. Another rule that I'm contemplating is to do each workout at least once every 3 months. Just to avoid becoming too comfy by never doing the messy workouts that require you to crawl in the dirt (like Kentauros).

• Performance gains in Strength workouts have been slower than anticipated. As you can see, I have scored very few personal best lately. With the amount of push-ups that I have performed, I would have though that each new Venus would be easier than the previous one. But it wasn't so. I will need to be more patient to see progress, but also add a bit more Cardio sessions in my training mix (more time for muscles to recover and to keep good stamina).

Cardio-Strength Program: week #15 (Hell week)

Week #15 out of 15


Week #14 was relatively quiet, so I took it as a sign that the last week of the program would be harder than usual. Probably Hell.

At the end of week #7, I wrote that wasn't fully convinced about the Hell Days. I was feeling a bit nostalgic of the Hell Week. I preferred training every day rather than having a few long sessions. Well you know the saying: be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it.

That's exactly what happened to me, I got what I wished for: Hell Week. 7 days, 7 sessions.

The work load was heavier than usual. Not only because of the more numerous sessions, but also several sessions were made of several workouts. Add to the mix some sport that I have been doing aside from Freeletics, and that gives you a pretty exhausting week!


Monday: DIONE (26:45*)

The beginning of the week was as ordinary as it gets. Dione is one the workout that I repeated the most (15 times over the past 20 weeks).
I had a hard time finding my pace, and was rapidly out of breath. So in the end no PB, and a subpar performance.


Tuesday: APOLLON (24:37*) +ARES (08:09*)

My fear this week was to see a tendinitis at the leg come back to haunt me. The pain was gone for only a few days, and yet I have 3 Apollon scheduled this week. Running is not as bad as jumps, but it still generates enough stress on the legs to wake-up an inflammation.

While running, I did feel that my tendons didn't like it very much, but the overall distance was short so the impact was limited. After the workout, I decided to take advantage of being outdoor to practice hand-stands without any risk to destroy my living room walls. I didn't try to do pushups while hand-standing, this was just to get used to the position and train to land on the wall softly. I did 12-15 attempts, and stopped as the shock from landing back on the ground hurt more than the run had. Thankfully the (small) pain didn't last and I wasn't bothered again for the rest of the week.

The workouts were not performed back to back. I performed Apollon during my lunch break, but had to wait to be back home in the evening to be able to do the Ares' pull-ups.


Wednesday: HYPERION (18:48 -personal best) +APHRODITE (21:38* -personal best)

A fairly big day today, with 2 workouts that are usually scheduled as stand-alone.
Hyperion went well, still no star due to HS Pushups & Pistols, but at least I got a new PB. For Aphrodite, my last PB being 2 months old, I was sure that I could improve my time, despite being tired from the previous workout. It improved by only a minute, not bad but I expect to do even better if I attempt it with fresh arms.


Thursday: boxing training +VENUS (23:11* -personal best)

This was the day that I apprehended the most. Venus is heavily focused on arms. But so is my boxing training. Doing Venus first and its 200 puhups early morning would strain my arms and lead too poor performance in the evening. I did several time Metis after boxing, but I honestly didn't knew if I would be able to complete the entire Venus routine.
Skipped Freeletics training on Thursday (for example to do both session 4 & 5 on Friday), didn't feel right. After all, the goal of Hell Week is not just to train a lot but to train every day. 

I remembered one of the rules that I set: boxing comes first. So I decided to train at full capacity & intensity and do Venus right after. 

My arms were exhausted, my abs were strained from situps, leg levers and jacknives, so the only "comfortable" exercise was Deep Squat. It was very tough, I stopped thinking, my brain went completely on autopilot. Completion time didn't matter. Before starting I had already accepted that it could take up-to an hour,  as long as I could complete the workout.

To my great astonishment, I got a PB, improving my completion time by over 2 minutes!
This was only my second attempt at this workout so of course I had a margin for improvement, but given the context this was completely unexpected.
That night my arms were absolutely destroyed, but I was quite happy that the worse day of the week turned out to be a highlight of the week.


Friday: APOLLON (23:08* -personal best)

Another Apollon. My biggest room for improvement is on the running (that applies to all the workouts that include 400m run or more). The first round was fast, but I started losing my breath and slowed down for the second round. For the last round I was in "damage control" mode. Basically, I pushed to increase my pace. Not as fast as in round 1, but as fast as I could.
It paid off with a new PB, my time having improved by a few seconds.

Again, I practice a bit doing hand stands. I'm getting more comfortable at landing on the wall, hopefully with a bit more work I'll be able to do these damn HS pushups!


Saturday: APOLLON (22:35* -personal best) +PUSHUP MAX (38*) +VENUS (24:43*)

For the first time since starting the program, I changed the order of my training sessions. Session 7, originally scheduled on Sunday was very long and incompatible with my calendar. I would be gone all day skiing, and there is nowhere were way I can do Apollon by night. So I swapped days 6 & 7, in order to do the big session on Saturday.

Apollon went very well. This time I maintained a constant pace during all 3 rounds, and improved again my PB by a few seconds.

The real challenge came from the last 2 workouts. My shoulders & arms were still dead from Thursday's training load. While I didn't have sore muscles or felt any pain while at rest, when attempting the Pushup Max, it was clear that I had no juice left. I went through the motions to finish both the MAX and Venus, but a PB was clearly out of reach today.


Sunday: Skiing +HS PUSHUP MAX (69) +PUSHUP MAX (45*) +SITUP MAX (148* -personal best )

The numerous Squats & Deep Squats this week (800 reps if I counted well), took a toll on my tights. This time the skiing session was physically a bit more challenging than last time, but overall it was a very good experience.

After a full day spent driving & skiing (~5 hours of effective ski time), I was extremely glad to only have a few MAX to complete. Frankly, swapping sessions now really seemed like the wisest decision. Given my level of tiredness I probably would have risked injury by doing a big session tonight.

My arms had started recovering a bit, but HS pushups and Pushups were still more difficult than usual. No PB.
For the Situp Max, my abs were OK and mentally I was fired-up. This was the last workout of the program! Surely not the time to be holding back! I used whatever energy I had left to keep the pace as fast as possible. 
I literally got rug burns from these situps (and I still do as I write these lines 3 days later!), but I made it:148 reps. 6 more than my previous PB.

The program is over.

Free at last, Free at last, Thank Freeletics Gods almighty I am free at last!

Or am I?


Yes, I have completed every single workout in the program. I even tossed in a few extra. But now, the real challenge begins. I the next few weeks I won't be following any specific program. May be I will in the future, but in the meantime I will decide freely how frequently to train, what workouts to do and how to arbitrage between Strength vs. Cardio.

This is a welcomed break, as I will be able to tailor my workouts perfectly around my regular sport training and take into account any possible injury. For example, focus on arms & abs until my tendinitis is fully healed.

By now, I'm familiar with most Gods, so mixing the workouts to come-up with a good schedule will not be too difficult. The real challenge will be maintaining a high level of physical activity. This will require a lot of discipline and engagement. I like the results that I have obtained, and I want to get even more. So hopefully my motivation will remain as high as it is now!


Many of you have asked to see pictures after the program. I can tell you that the stats & photos have been taken, I just need to sit-down and summarize them in a post. It will come soon, so stay tuned!

Cardio-Strength Program: week #14

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!

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:

• 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.

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".

I don't know if I breathed smarter, but with 4 PB in 4 sessions, I guess that I can say "mission accomplished!"

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. ;-)

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.