Second Program: Week #2

Week 48: Second Program - week 2 out of 15

Week settings:

• Area of focus: Cardio-Strength
• Number of training days: 4
• Limitations: none
• Last week feedback: "Hard, but OK"

Note: there are 3 status available to give weekly feedback to the Coach "Hard, but OK", "Far too hard" or "Far too easy".

Training:

• Monday: [bonus: 2k run in 09:58] +Hera standard 3/5 (12:02* -PB) +[bonus: 2k run in 10:47]
• Tuesday: Hades standard (19:04*)
• Wednesday: Zeus standard 3/4 (20:06 -PB)
• Thursday: boxing training
• Friday: Hades standard (18:56*)

Statistics:

• 1366 points
• 90 minutes

I had been relatively sparred in week 1, while a number of freeathletes in my network using the Coach had been assigned a few tough workouts. Despite the starless Zeus, I had completed all my workouts with decent times. So, when I clicked on the "Next week"button, I expected the coach to progressively ramp-up difficulty. 

Then I had a WTF moment.

Out of the 4 training days, 2 were made of partial workouts. That may have made sense, if it was intended to compensate for the remaining 2 days. But these other 2 days, were far from being tough enough to justify rest days.

On the Monday, I couldn't imagine only do a 3/5 standard Hera. So I ended-up running 2 km before & after training, to feel like I had really done something. That worked. The runs provided good complementary exercise and it turned out that the Hera session was very intensive. Due to its shortness, I didn't worry about pacing my efforts so I ran the 400m faster than I usually do.

Not much to say about the rest of the week. Training felt definitely too light, and the statistics confirmed it. Overall training time had decreased by 22 minutes (90 vs 112 in week 1) and points dropped from 4'150 to 1'366! (I'm not a big fan of points but they do give a rough sense of training intensity).


At the end of week 2, I was pretty upset about partial workouts. The idea is not bad, but I see them as complements to regular workouts, not replacements. I really hope that training will step-up a notch SOON...

Second Program: Week #1

Foreword: for newcomers, let me clarify how I'm counting the weeks in my posts. The typical program that Freeletics sells lasts 15 weeks. However I have already completed a program once, and I have trained on my own for many weeks. Hence below is week #47 since I first started training, but as I have just re-signed up for 15 weeks, it's the first week of this new program. Hence the 1/15.



Week 47: Second Program - week 1 out of 15

Week settings:

• Area of focus: Cardio-Strength
• Number of training days: 4
• Limitations: none
• Last week feedback: n/a - it's the first week remember? ;-)

As mentioned when I reviewed the new program, now users have the possibility to input several variables before the training plan for the week is automatically generated. Above are the parameters that I have used for week 1.

Training:

• Monday: Metis Endurance 1/3 (00:41* -PB) + Zeus Standard (28:13 -PB)
• Tuesday: Kentauros (25:54* -PB)
• Wednesday: Apollon Standard (22:11* -PB)
• Thursday: boxing training
• Friday: Apollon (22:11*) + Poseidon standard X2 (13:02*)

Statistics:

• 4'150 points
• 112 minutes

The statistics above are generated by the app at the end of the week (convenient, I like it!), I noticed that it only counts the points for the points for assigned workouts. To test the GPS feature, I walked a short distance. Nothing big, but it still credited me a few points. However these "extra-points" and "extra-training time" are not captured in the total of the week.


A few weeks before starting over with the program, I was wondering what my training plan would look like. Would it be similar to the first one (i.e. beginner ramp-up), or would the algorithm take into account my improved performance over these months of training and force me to hit the ground running.

It turned out that the implementation of the new program (endurance/standard/strength) and the modifications of several workout routines severed the link between old and new program. If many of the old PB have been reset, the Coach simply can't take into account past performance. The only unknown was how/if would the Coach would integrate my results on preliminary test to setup difficulty.
Note: this also means that in the first few weeks I'll be scoring tons of PB. Not only most first completion of a standard  workouts, but all the alternate versions (strength/endurance and partial/multiple), will be considered first attempts (hence PBs).

When I saw that my week's training would start with 1 round of Endurance Metis. I was a bit upset. True, it wasn't the only workout on Day 1. But I took the program to challenge myself, and it started by asking me to do 20% of the easy version of a less than 5 minutes workout. 41 seconds: not even enough to warm-up. 
This was followed by Zeus, a workout completed without star, since I still can't do handstand pushups. Which as a side note, I have not unlocked as an "advanced skill". I wonder what this advanced skills function is all about. Either the Coach is programmed to avoid giving workouts using these skills (in which case it failed miserably), or on contrary to help you unlock these skills (but if you ask people do things they can't do, what's the point of asking them in the first place?)

Aside from this underwhelming first impression, the rest of the week was fine. Kentauros remains a respected/dreaded workout for many freeathletes, so you can't complain about having it too easy when it's assigned to you. 

The real novelty was that I tried for the first time one of these multiple workouts. Well I can tell you that it significantly increases difficulty.
My Poseidon personal best is at 04:20*, on a bad day it's around 05:00*. Even when doing 2 separate Poseidon in a row in week 12/15 of my first program, the aggregated time was 10:12*. Yet it took me 13:02* to complete the Poseidon X2.

Taking no break makes a huge difference for the muscles. The second iteration becomes much harder. And it's also more challenging mentally. My brain was fully aware that I was doubling-up on difficulty, and telling me to pace myself. Not a bad advice, but I really had to stay focused to keep the pace as intense as I could.


Overall the first week was fine. With 1 Kentauros & 2 Apollon, it was definitely a legs-focused week, but nothing insane. Far from being my most challenging week but it was well-balanced for someone coming back from a break.

Week #2 will follow shortly.

Overview of the upgraded program (released Aug 26, 2014)

In the last post I mentioned that I had signed-up again for a 15 weeks program.

Upon completing my first program, I knew I wanted to continue to train using Freeletics but not always with the program. My idea was that I might subscribe to the program once per year, just to make to force me out my comfort zone and challenge my training habits for a few months. 

It was a loose idea, but during the summer I realized that the first week of September would be perfect to sign-up:

• The 15 weeks would be over just before Christmas (it's a bit of a headache for me to follow a tight schedule during the holidys season)
• Most of my training would take place during late-summer and fall, so no worries about where to run when it snows.

I was already 90% convinced I would start, the only drawback for me was that whenever I get assigned 5 sessions per week it starts to conflict with my regular boxing training. And that's when Freeletics released on August 26th an upgraded program with several new features (including the possibility to choose the number of sessions in the week).

The timing couldn't have been better! This will also give me the opportunity to test the new program and see how it works.


On Sunday evening, I bought the program to be ready to start the following Monday. The first surprise was that upon sign-up I was requested to take a physical test!

I had not planned at all to be jumping around for ~12 minutes, but did it anyway as I wanted to complete the sign-up process. As you can see from the screenshot below, I had to take 3 MAX tests. For newcomers, it means doing the maximum number of repetitions of a specific exercise in a given time. Pullup MAX lasts 1:40, Burpees MAX and Lunge MAX 5:00 each.

Optionally, on top-of the Fitness Test you can connect on the website to indicate why "advanced skills" (understand "difficult exercises") you are able to perform (respecting exactly the correct movement).
Supposedly the more of them you master the most likely that the Coach will assign them to you. Note that even if you don't master one of these skills, you may still be asked to try to do it (for example I can't do Strict HS Pushups, but it didn't prevent the Coach to assign me Zeus, a workout that includes HS Pushups).

Note: except the "advanced skills" picture above, all the screenshots below have been taken via the smartphone app. Layout can be slightly different if you connect via the website.



Once the test has been completed, you can choose your area of focus. As before, there are 3 options: Strength and Cardio, Strength only and Cardio only. And, the key feature for me, the number of training days that you want to have (minium 2, maximum 5).
This choice is NOT definitive. It only applies to the current week. At the end of each week, you can decide to change your focus or the number of training days.

Once you click on "Start your Coach", your training for the week is generated and there is no way to change its content. For me the first novelty was that I could see my Training plan directly on my smartphone (that feature was already implemented a few months ago, but since I took my first program almost a year ago, I had never seen the interface up to now).

On the screenshot there are a few things we can notice:

• I have been training for ~11 months but it says "Week 16" at the the top. The reason is that this week counter only takes into account the weeks when one actually followed the premium program.
• The guys at Freeletics have replaced the old term of "Session 1" by "Training Day 1". This is smart, because the old expression confused a lot of people. Beginners didn't knew if they were supposed to do all the sessions in the same day. Now it's much clearer what should be done when.
• Below "METIS" it says: "Endurance 1/3". 

This last bullet point actually includes two of the most fundamental novelty from the upgraded coach.


First of all, the coach can now assign partial or multiple workouts. If we take Metis as and example, you may know that this work out is composed of 3 rounds:

• Round 1: 10 burpees, 10 climbers, 10 jumps
• Round 2: 25 burpees, 25 climbers, 25 jumps
• Round 3: 10 burpees, 10 climbers, 10 jumps

When the coach assigns me "Metis 1/3", it means that I only have to complete 1 round out of 3. So as soon as I have finished my 10 burpees, 10 climbers and 10 jumps, the workout is over and I can stop the timer.
On contrary, if I am given "Metis x 2", it means that I will have to do the workout 2 times in a row (i.e. 6 rounds in total: 10/25/10/10/25/10).
Of course fractions and multiplications are taken into account when tracking Personal Bests. So your PB in "Metis x2" will be tracked separately from the the PB in the regular Metis.

Note that this feature of partial/multiple workouts is only available via the paying program. This means that the Training Plan algorithm can assign you a partial Metis, butr



The second major change is that Freeletics updated its workouts & exercises portfolio:


Workouts


There is the same number of workouts as before (no new god or goddess), but now each workout can be done in 3 different degrees of difficulty. Whichever difficulty you choose, you still have to perform the same number of rounds, only the difficulty of the movements vary:

• Standard (in most cases workout is identical to original routine)
• Endurance (easier movements)
• Strength (harder movements)

While the names of the variants ("Endurance", "Strength") may suggest that the different versions of a given workout have been created to focusing on different training objectives (cardio vs muscles), I believe that these are just politically correct way to describe difficulty level. After all, who wants to say "I am doing the easy Aphrodite, and you?"

When putting side by side the different versions of any workout (see below with Metis), it's clear that difficulty goes crescendo (High knees vs. Jumps vs. High Jumps).

Speaking of Metis, while I mentioned that Standard is almost always identical to the origianl workouts, there are some exceptions and Metis is one of them. As you can see, the High Jumps from the "old" Metis (see screenshot below), have now been replaced by regular jumps. I'm pointing this out because this is something to keep in mind when comparing your results with someone else or with your old results (i.e. comparing "old" Metis to Standard Metis, is not really comparing apples to apples).

Exercises

In complement to workouts (i.e. God names) you can still choose to perform repetitions of a single exercise. But here there are greater changes. First of all, the old "MAX" have disappeared. Instead of doing the maximum of repetitions in a given time, you now much do a given number of repetitions as fast as possible. And we now can choose the number of repetitions.
For example, while the old "Burpees MAX" had to be performed in 5:00, now you can select from various options (don't count on me to test a 1'000 burpees for you!)

Additionally the choice of exercise has been greatly improved. While in the past there were 10 MAX we could choose from, now there are 39 single exercises available (13 endurance, 14 standard and 12 strength).
This brings more diversity to the training. Personally, I'm a fan of Jumping Jacks (great warm-up exercise), so I like the fact that I can now track my time when I perform them.

Runs

Last but not least, Freeletics is now integrating running more deeply in its training routine. The original workouts did include some short/medium distance runs, but it didn't go further than 2 kilometers and only as part of an existing workout.

Now you can record runs separately (several fixed distances available or as well as a free run mode), and for those of you planning to buy the program, the training algorithm can now also integrate running to your training plan (e.g. Training day 4: 5K run).

The running feature is still in Beta mode. Like many fitness app out there, it can use your smartphone's GPS to calculate distances but as I write these lines, this feature is still bugged. When testing it on a familiar route, the GPS gave me some strange results (it calculated a 6K route instead of roughly 2K!!!)
So for the moment my advice is to keep using alternative apps (Nike Running, MapMyRun, etc.) to track your runs via GPS. Once your run is over you can log the result manually into the Freeltics app. It creates an additional step but until they fix the issue it's the only way to be sure that the distance & speeds are correct.

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).