Week 55: Second Program - week 9 out of 15
Week settings:
- Area of focus: Cardio-Strength
- Number of training days: 4
- Limitations: none
- Last week feedback: "Hard, but ok"
Training:
- Monday: Ares standard x2 (16:46* -First time)
- Tuesday: Kronos standard (48:39*)
- Wednesday-Sunday: sick days
- Monday: Atlas standard (22:12*) +Kentauros strength 4/6 (26:37* -First time)
Statistics:
Week 9 was mostly made-up of strength-focused workouts.
It started fairly lightly with a Ares x2. While x2 or x3 workouts usually represents a steep increase in difficulty compared to the single version, it's not the case for Ares.
So far my best Ares standard time is 07:46*. Multiply it by 2, it gives you the theoretical time of 15:26*. My first attempt at the double version, was done in 16:46*.
My actual time was 01:20 above the theoretical one. Which means that my pace wasn't completely off the mark during the second iteration. The first explanation is it's a short workout with short sets, so there is less of a stamina issue (Hades x2 is another story). But it's not the only factor (Metis is short workout, yet everyone will agree that the x2 or x3 versions are much harder). What makes a world of a difference is the 60s breaks every round. It provides enough time for the body to recover, making the double work load less relevant.
Tuesday, I started getting a bit of a sore throat but decided to train anyway. Again I had to perform Kronos. Again I was far for pre-Summer PB, but at least my time had improved by ~20s versus my last 2 attempts (49:07* & 49:08*).
I don't know if the effort from training made things worse, but my sore throat quickly evolved in a throat infection. The following 4 days I was completely unable to train. This completely ruined my training schedule. I was really eager to re-start training as fast as possible to catch-up with my program (especially since now the coach subscription only last 15 weeks, with no buffer for missed days). Sunday I started feeling better, but preferred to rest in-order to fully recover before restarting training.
To offset the impact of these 5 lost days, I decided to complete my 2 remaining training days on the following Monday. And depending on my physical shape afterward to skip the rest period in-between weeks 9 & 10.
Completing Altas standard & Kentauros strength 4/6 back to back under a pouring rain was a rough session. I just told myself that this was as if I had organized my own little Hell Day. It's a once-in-a-while spike in effort. Just get over it, and you won't think about it once the regular routine comes back.
At the end of the day I was tired, but felt well enough to start directly week 10 on the following day.
Week 54: Second Program - week 8 out of 15
Week settings:
- Area of focus: Cardio-Strength
- Number of training days: 4
- Limitations: none
- Last week feedback: "Hard, but ok"
Training:
- Monday: High Jumps 100 (04:22* -First time) +Kronos standard (49:07*)
- Tuesday: Iris strength (41:10* -First time)
- Wednesday: Kronos standard (49:08*)
- Thursday: boxing training
- Friday: Hera strength (21:59* -First time)
Statistics:
Good thing that I didn't need an easy week, to recover from Hell Days last week. With 2 Kronos and 2 full strength version workouts, the coach was very generous with me...
I was a bit worried that the 100 High jumps would wake-up my tendinitis but since they were followed by a "no-jump" workout, I had no real issue. However, Kronos was a slap in the face. My completion time was more than 10 minutes over my PB...
During the workout it seemed that I would never see the end of these 300 squats, but the real time wasters were pushups and pullups (I spent around 15mn on pullups alone).
I knew that I wasn't back at my peak on these exercises, but I had not expected such a time.
The difficulty of the strength version of Iris took me by surprise. I completed Iris (standard) many times in the past. The only change in the strength version is that climbers are replaced by froggers. And it turns out that, on Metis strength, I actually prefer to do froggers instead of climbers (I guess frogs are a French thing!)
I expected a nice little workout, under 30 minutes. Boy, was I wrong...
In Metis strength, we trade 45 climbers for 45 froggers. In Iris strength, it's 500 froggers. That makes a world of a difference.
They left me completely breathless. It took me 41 painful minutes to complete the workout (nearly 50% more time than the regular version!). Next time I'll know what to expect.
The main challenge with second Kronos this week, was that my abs were still on fire from the first attempt. The muscles didn't feel particularly painful over the past couple days, but it became noticeable as soon as I started the first set of abs. It resulted in a fairly slow pace, on abs and leg levers. However, I managed to go a (tiny) bit faster on pullups, so the overall time was only a second away from Monday's result.
Last but not least, Hera strength completed my week. Interestingly, this was the opposite of Iris strength. I expected the training to be much more difficult and longer due to the high jumps, but it's not the case. High jumps require a bigger effort and bring more intensity to the training, but the extra effort is mitigated thanks to the 60 seconds breaks. As a result, for my first attempt at the strength version, my time was only 01:30 above my PB in the standard version.
My total training time this week was longer by nearly 40mn compared to the previous week and its Hell Days. Yet the app indicates that I scored less points (3'003 vs 3'184). As you know by now, I'm mostly indifferent points but I understand that they somehow abstractly quantify the efforts of workouts. Which means that it took more time to roughly generate the same output of energy.
Given the amount of time wasted on Kronos starring at a the pullup bar, I'd say that's a pretty good summary of my week. So the point system is probably not that far off the mark afterall.
