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!
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...
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