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!
Showing posts with label 400m run. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 400m run. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
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.
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Cardio-Strength Program: week #8
Week #8 out of 15
This week I'm back on a more normal routine. No Hell Days, and I have returned to the boxing gym after the year-end break. Aside for 1 new workout, my training is based on familiar exercises.
The only challenge was that I have been assigned 5 sessions. To fit them all in my schedule, I decided to start the week with 2 sessions in a row.
Monday:
I wanted to start the week with a personal best. Hades had not improved over the past 2 weeks. Last week, I actually scored longer time than usual due to the Hell Days. So that's the workout that I wanted to improve today.
My pace was good, but I quickly felt that my arms were still a bit strained from my last training on Saturday. In the end my time improved by 6 seconds. It's not much, but it's a step in the right direction. And it's good to start the week on a positive note.
Then I tackled the second session. For a while now I have been wondering when I would break the 70 rep ceiling in Burpees Max. This time I finished in the mid-sixties. Again.
And finally, I did Metis. As I mentioned, my arm muscles were a bit tired and I felt good from my new PB. This was the perfect receipt for slacking-off on the last workout: I had a justification to take-it easy (sore arms) + a good reason not to feel bad about it (already scored a PB). But that didn't happen.
Before training I didn't even bother checking what my personal best was exactly. I just started training. But when I saw that round 1 was cleared in under a minute, I knew that I was on track with my best pace. Personal Best, whatever the exact figure, was reachable. I kept going as fast as possible. Despite my efforts, in round 2 my pace had slowed down. The PB was getting away. But human mind works in strange ways: I became furious that my efforts in round 2 did not materialize in better performance. The last round was just an insane rush. Breathing had become secondary. At this stage, I had no idea if the PB was still possible. I just wanted to give it all to have no regret.
When the counter stopped, I laid on the ground for a good while trying to catch-up my breath. I had improved my PB by 1 second! It's a ridiculously low improvement compared to the effort, but it felt great nonetheless.
Tuesday: ATLAS (24:39*)
Atlas is a new workout for me. It includes running and had to be performed outdoor.
Lately you have seen me complaining a lot about bad weather. So, to be fair, I need to report that today while training during my lunch break, I had perfect conditions.
Sunny but not too much. Mildly cold, but just enough to cool me down during the workout. Days like this, make me look forward to outdoor training in the spring.
Anyway, back to business. Here is what I had to complete today:
My first reaction was that it didn't look too good. But as you can see from my completion time, it didn't take me much longer than other workouts. Sure most exercises have 50 to 100 repetitions, but there is only 1 round.
The novelty for me were the froggers (like in the video below, but I had to bring my feet at the same level as my hands). It's demanding on the Cardio side, but nothing crazy. In term of difficulty, I put it on the same level as climbers.
Wednesday: BURPEES MAX (70* -personal best) +METIS (05:12* -personal best)
Same session as on Monday but this time I did have to complete another session beforehand. It clearly shows in the final results, with 2 personal best.
My favorite PB today, is Burpees Max. I had chased that PB for weeks now, and finally reached 70 repetitions. Ideally I want to go beyond but it's still out f reach.
I have done so many burpees since starting Freeletics, that honestly I don't really mind anymore. But when I have to complete many repetitions per round (50 or above), it remains a bit challenging. At this stage I don't know if it will improve as I keep training, or if I need to fix something in my execution (breathing, may be?)
If I get stuck at 70 for a while, I'll need to look at this more closely.
The Metis completion time is much better than on Monday, but this time no mad rush to finish, the effort was fairly balanced throughout the workout.
Thursday: Boxing training
First boxing training in 3 weeks, but without any major difficulty. Thanks to all the workouts these past weeks, my physical condition was good. I actually found that my execution of Jackknives had improved.
Saturday: APOLLON (23:32* -personal best)
I didn't get the chance to train outdoors on Friday and so I completed my last training over the week-end. This time I paid attention not to lose too much time during the 400 meters runs. All along the workout I was on track to score a PB. Unconsciously, I started to slow down in the third round (which is why it's sometimes preferable not to know exactly what is the reference time to to beat). I had to sprint over the last 80 meters to catch-up this delay. My PB improved by about 17 seconds. Next time if I stay focused during all 3 rounds I should be able to improve it further.
That's all for this week. I have now officially completed more than half of my program. Only 7 weeks left to go. Wow, time is flying. You can expect another post later this week, it's time to give an update on my body-stats.
This week I'm back on a more normal routine. No Hell Days, and I have returned to the boxing gym after the year-end break. Aside for 1 new workout, my training is based on familiar exercises.
The only challenge was that I have been assigned 5 sessions. To fit them all in my schedule, I decided to start the week with 2 sessions in a row.
Monday:
- Session 1: HADES (19:29* -personal best)
- Session 2: BURPEES MAX (64*) +METIS (05:30 -personal best*)
I wanted to start the week with a personal best. Hades had not improved over the past 2 weeks. Last week, I actually scored longer time than usual due to the Hell Days. So that's the workout that I wanted to improve today.
My pace was good, but I quickly felt that my arms were still a bit strained from my last training on Saturday. In the end my time improved by 6 seconds. It's not much, but it's a step in the right direction. And it's good to start the week on a positive note.
Then I tackled the second session. For a while now I have been wondering when I would break the 70 rep ceiling in Burpees Max. This time I finished in the mid-sixties. Again.
And finally, I did Metis. As I mentioned, my arm muscles were a bit tired and I felt good from my new PB. This was the perfect receipt for slacking-off on the last workout: I had a justification to take-it easy (sore arms) + a good reason not to feel bad about it (already scored a PB). But that didn't happen.
Before training I didn't even bother checking what my personal best was exactly. I just started training. But when I saw that round 1 was cleared in under a minute, I knew that I was on track with my best pace. Personal Best, whatever the exact figure, was reachable. I kept going as fast as possible. Despite my efforts, in round 2 my pace had slowed down. The PB was getting away. But human mind works in strange ways: I became furious that my efforts in round 2 did not materialize in better performance. The last round was just an insane rush. Breathing had become secondary. At this stage, I had no idea if the PB was still possible. I just wanted to give it all to have no regret.
When the counter stopped, I laid on the ground for a good while trying to catch-up my breath. I had improved my PB by 1 second! It's a ridiculously low improvement compared to the effort, but it felt great nonetheless.
Tuesday: ATLAS (24:39*)
Atlas is a new workout for me. It includes running and had to be performed outdoor.
Lately you have seen me complaining a lot about bad weather. So, to be fair, I need to report that today while training during my lunch break, I had perfect conditions.
Sunny but not too much. Mildly cold, but just enough to cool me down during the workout. Days like this, make me look forward to outdoor training in the spring.
Anyway, back to business. Here is what I had to complete today:
- 2km run
- 50 deep squats
- 50 burpees
- 50 froggers
- 50 leg levers
- 100 jumps
My first reaction was that it didn't look too good. But as you can see from my completion time, it didn't take me much longer than other workouts. Sure most exercises have 50 to 100 repetitions, but there is only 1 round.
The novelty for me were the froggers (like in the video below, but I had to bring my feet at the same level as my hands). It's demanding on the Cardio side, but nothing crazy. In term of difficulty, I put it on the same level as climbers.
Wednesday: BURPEES MAX (70* -personal best) +METIS (05:12* -personal best)
Same session as on Monday but this time I did have to complete another session beforehand. It clearly shows in the final results, with 2 personal best.
My favorite PB today, is Burpees Max. I had chased that PB for weeks now, and finally reached 70 repetitions. Ideally I want to go beyond but it's still out f reach.
I have done so many burpees since starting Freeletics, that honestly I don't really mind anymore. But when I have to complete many repetitions per round (50 or above), it remains a bit challenging. At this stage I don't know if it will improve as I keep training, or if I need to fix something in my execution (breathing, may be?)
If I get stuck at 70 for a while, I'll need to look at this more closely.
The Metis completion time is much better than on Monday, but this time no mad rush to finish, the effort was fairly balanced throughout the workout.
Thursday: Boxing training
First boxing training in 3 weeks, but without any major difficulty. Thanks to all the workouts these past weeks, my physical condition was good. I actually found that my execution of Jackknives had improved.
Saturday: APOLLON (23:32* -personal best)
I didn't get the chance to train outdoors on Friday and so I completed my last training over the week-end. This time I paid attention not to lose too much time during the 400 meters runs. All along the workout I was on track to score a PB. Unconsciously, I started to slow down in the third round (which is why it's sometimes preferable not to know exactly what is the reference time to to beat). I had to sprint over the last 80 meters to catch-up this delay. My PB improved by about 17 seconds. Next time if I stay focused during all 3 rounds I should be able to improve it further.
That's all for this week. I have now officially completed more than half of my program. Only 7 weeks left to go. Wow, time is flying. You can expect another post later this week, it's time to give an update on my body-stats.
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Cardio-Strength Program: week #7 (Hell days)
Week #7 out of 15
First of all, I wish a Happy New Year to all my readers. For me the New Year started with sweat & physical efforts: my "coach" had decided that I should start 2014 in Hell.
For the newcomers, in Freeletics-speak from time to time the program requires you to go through "Hell". A week during which you have to train much more than usual.
The last time that I went through Hell was at the end of the pre-program. It was called "Hell Week", with workouts every day for 7 days. Followed by 3 days of rest.
This time the training structure changed. My goal for the week was to complete 3 "Hell days", each of them made of 3 workouts.
The 3 workouts don't have to be completed back-to-back, but they have to take place within the same day. So, athletes are free to do the first in the morning, the second at lunch and the third in the evening. After each Hell Day you should take at least 1 day of rest.
I chose to do all my Hell Days in one go. The last workouts seemed more difficult to complete, but at least I got rid of my daily training once and for all.
Tuesday: APOLLON (24:23*) + JUMP MAX (185*) + KENTAUROS (30:10*)
This was my most difficult day of the week physically & mentally.
Due to scheduling constraints the best time for me to train was early morning before breakfast. I can tell you that when I went outside half-awake, only to realize that I had to do burpees on frozen ground my motivation wasn't very high. While doing the Apollon workout, part of my brain was trying to convince me that I should do the other 2 workouts later in the day. I didn't improve my completion time, partially due to this lack of focus.
Still debating with myself, I decided to do the second workout right away. It made more sense to do Jump Max, while my legs were still warm. This was my first attempt at this workout. I had not fully recovered, so at times I had to pause to catch my breath. I completed as many as I could, but still felt like my results were not optimal. Next time that I do this training, I'm aiming to do much better than 185 repetitions in 5 minutes (>200).
Luckily, as the sun rose higher the temperature improved. I couldn't use the cold as an excuse to stop training, so I kept going and tackled my my last assignment for the day: Kentauros.
I expected the worse. I had never attempted Kentauros before, a workout that also includes 2 new exercises for me: Lunge walk & Burpee Frogs.
Lunge Walk looks like this (on leg after the other):
While Burpee Frogs are like on this video (except that you only jump forward):
The Kentauros routine is the following:
Given that the people that I follow on the app completed this workout in 25mn to 42mn (25 minutes being the completion time of guys that you see on Freeletics promotional videos...)
I expected to train around 35mn to 40mn. Closer to 40 given that it was my third workout for the day.
To my great surprise, I was done in 30 minutes. Including the several occasions when I was literally sitting on the ground while catching my breath! Which means that next time I should be able to do much better than this.
Honestly, my first impression was that I had made a mistake somewhere. Either by not completing the movements properly or by wrongly measuring the distance. Afterward I watched again the Freeletics video, but it confirmed that I did the exercises correctly.
I have thought of 2 reasons to explain the "good" results:
High jumps remain demanding on the cardio side, but I have noticed some improvements over time. At times I still need to catch my breath for a few seconds after the exercise, but completing the 10 repetitions is done in one-go in less than 30 seconds.
Overall I liked this workout. Like a number of outdoor sessions, it can be annoying to complete if you have to do it in the mud or wet sandy ground (my case). Especially burpee frogs, which a bit harder on shallow ground. But physically it's not as bad as I expected.
Wednesday: Mandatory rest day.
Thursday: KENTAUROS (27:04* -personal best) + HERA (22:14*) + ARES (08:35*)
Upon waking-up I still had sore legs from the Tuesday workouts. I wondered if that would affect my performance today. However it gradually went away over the morning. I had no discomfort when I trained in the middle of the afternoon. This time I could go to a park where both the running exercises and the pullups can be done.
My second Hell Day started with Kentauros. I knew what to expect and I had fresh legs, so without any surprise I scored a personal best, improving the time by 3 minutes. I didn't need to sit this time, but did pause a few times. So I still have a lot of room to improve my time. Once in better physical shape, going under 25mn should not be a big issue.
For the records, I trained at a different location this time and there were marks on the ground that measured exactly 20 meters. So it confirmed to me that I have been training on the correct distance, and that therefore my time is perfectly legit.
I continued the training with Hera. Not much to report here. I didn't improve my time, as I ran slower than usual on the 400m exercises. On the contrary, I had a good pace or the Jumps. Even if I must have looked crazy jumping like that, given the looks I got from a few dog-walkers...
My last session was Ares. For the anecdote, that's actually the first time that I complete it outdoor. When training indoor I have always replaced the running exercise by some high-knee static running. The first time that I attempted this workout, I estimated based on 100m run-time that to have representative completion time I should hold the high-knee static run during 15 seconds. Later in a forum discussion an athlete pointed out that 15 seconds might be too short, as just running 80m is not the same thing as running 80m after pullups and jackknives. Based on his input, in later sessions I have increased the static run to 20 seconds.
Today I got to test this time in real conditions. Each time, it took me about 20 seconds to run the 80m distance. Okay, it was the end of Hell Day so may be on a regular day I would do slightly better, but my point is that the other guy's comment was perfectly valid. I'm definitely sticking to 20 seconds for the moment. I don't want to get new Hades PB, just by artificially decreasing static run. May be in a few months I'll test it again and see if I should decrease the time.
Friday: Mandatory rest day.
Saturday: VENUS (25:06*) + BURPEE MAX (54*)+ HADES (23:31)
Another week, another new workout: Venus. Let's have a look at its content:
As you can see the guys at Freeletics chose the wrong name for this workout. Venus is not just an alternate Aphrodite. Forget Cardio, it's all about muscle building.
In my opinion the challenge here is the number of Pushups. 200 repetitions in total and 50 per round is also fairly long. The Jackknives are no problem, and 50 Deep Squat is the standard number of repetitions in most workouts.
For the pushups, I paced myself to avoid starting too fast and then have no arms left to finish the exercise. My method is to do 10 reps, breath a few seconds while laying on the ground, and repeat until 50. The key is to keep the breaks as short as possible.
Strangely, after 200 pushups the last 2 workouts (Burpees Max & Hades) were more difficult to complete than usual... I could feel that achieving a personal best on any of the two would be mission impossible. However, I focused on keeping intensity as high as possible, to avoid slacking-off.
And that was my last Hell Day. All week long I had been looking forward for this last day. Somehow I had assumed that it would be a nice indoor session. It was definitely doable, but more difficult than expected. I had underestimated the soreness from the previous days and how focused on the arms session 3 was.
Sunday: Mandatory rest day.
I have mixed feelings about these Hell Days. I think that I preferred the Hell Week.
Both make you train much harder than usual. Which is painful on the short term, but in the end brings us closer to our self-improvement goal(s).
Both are annoying to schedule. Hell Week, because training everyday (even for 25mn) is not always possible due to personal constraints. Hell Days because longer sessions (1h00-1h30) are harder to fit within the day, especially outdoor training in the winter when daylight is short. And mandatory rest days mean that you have little opportunity to choose which day to schedule these longer training sessions.
One thing that I really liked about my Hell Week, is that after training 7 days in a row, in the middle of the rest period, I was actually missing training. I wanted more. Sitting in my couch doing nothing felt strange.
This time I was really glad to get a rest on Sunday! But that day didn't last long, as I write these lines I'm already well into week #8 training.
To be continued next week...
First of all, I wish a Happy New Year to all my readers. For me the New Year started with sweat & physical efforts: my "coach" had decided that I should start 2014 in Hell.
For the newcomers, in Freeletics-speak from time to time the program requires you to go through "Hell". A week during which you have to train much more than usual.
The last time that I went through Hell was at the end of the pre-program. It was called "Hell Week", with workouts every day for 7 days. Followed by 3 days of rest.
This time the training structure changed. My goal for the week was to complete 3 "Hell days", each of them made of 3 workouts.
The 3 workouts don't have to be completed back-to-back, but they have to take place within the same day. So, athletes are free to do the first in the morning, the second at lunch and the third in the evening. After each Hell Day you should take at least 1 day of rest.
I chose to do all my Hell Days in one go. The last workouts seemed more difficult to complete, but at least I got rid of my daily training once and for all.
Tuesday: APOLLON (24:23*) + JUMP MAX (185*) + KENTAUROS (30:10*)
This was my most difficult day of the week physically & mentally.
Due to scheduling constraints the best time for me to train was early morning before breakfast. I can tell you that when I went outside half-awake, only to realize that I had to do burpees on frozen ground my motivation wasn't very high. While doing the Apollon workout, part of my brain was trying to convince me that I should do the other 2 workouts later in the day. I didn't improve my completion time, partially due to this lack of focus.
Still debating with myself, I decided to do the second workout right away. It made more sense to do Jump Max, while my legs were still warm. This was my first attempt at this workout. I had not fully recovered, so at times I had to pause to catch my breath. I completed as many as I could, but still felt like my results were not optimal. Next time that I do this training, I'm aiming to do much better than 185 repetitions in 5 minutes (>200).
Luckily, as the sun rose higher the temperature improved. I couldn't use the cold as an excuse to stop training, so I kept going and tackled my my last assignment for the day: Kentauros.
I expected the worse. I had never attempted Kentauros before, a workout that also includes 2 new exercises for me: Lunge walk & Burpee Frogs.
Lunge Walk looks like this (on leg after the other):
While Burpee Frogs are like on this video (except that you only jump forward):
:
The Kentauros routine is the following:
- 2x20 meters Lunge Walk
- 10 High Jumps
- 2x20 meters Burpee Frogs
- 10 High Jumps
- 6 rounds
Given that the people that I follow on the app completed this workout in 25mn to 42mn (25 minutes being the completion time of guys that you see on Freeletics promotional videos...)
I expected to train around 35mn to 40mn. Closer to 40 given that it was my third workout for the day.
To my great surprise, I was done in 30 minutes. Including the several occasions when I was literally sitting on the ground while catching my breath! Which means that next time I should be able to do much better than this.
Honestly, my first impression was that I had made a mistake somewhere. Either by not completing the movements properly or by wrongly measuring the distance. Afterward I watched again the Freeletics video, but it confirmed that I did the exercises correctly.
I have thought of 2 reasons to explain the "good" results:
- Top athletes don't do this workout often. Their 25mn personal best is several months old, and probably not very representative of their current performances
- When doing the Burpee Frogs, from the start I always jumped forward as far as I could. In this exercise you have to cover a fixed distance: the longer your forward jump is, the less repetitions you need to do. Therefore, by making an effort on the jump, you actually save time & energy.
High jumps remain demanding on the cardio side, but I have noticed some improvements over time. At times I still need to catch my breath for a few seconds after the exercise, but completing the 10 repetitions is done in one-go in less than 30 seconds.
Overall I liked this workout. Like a number of outdoor sessions, it can be annoying to complete if you have to do it in the mud or wet sandy ground (my case). Especially burpee frogs, which a bit harder on shallow ground. But physically it's not as bad as I expected.
Wednesday: Mandatory rest day.
Thursday: KENTAUROS (27:04* -personal best) + HERA (22:14*) + ARES (08:35*)
Upon waking-up I still had sore legs from the Tuesday workouts. I wondered if that would affect my performance today. However it gradually went away over the morning. I had no discomfort when I trained in the middle of the afternoon. This time I could go to a park where both the running exercises and the pullups can be done.
My second Hell Day started with Kentauros. I knew what to expect and I had fresh legs, so without any surprise I scored a personal best, improving the time by 3 minutes. I didn't need to sit this time, but did pause a few times. So I still have a lot of room to improve my time. Once in better physical shape, going under 25mn should not be a big issue.
For the records, I trained at a different location this time and there were marks on the ground that measured exactly 20 meters. So it confirmed to me that I have been training on the correct distance, and that therefore my time is perfectly legit.
I continued the training with Hera. Not much to report here. I didn't improve my time, as I ran slower than usual on the 400m exercises. On the contrary, I had a good pace or the Jumps. Even if I must have looked crazy jumping like that, given the looks I got from a few dog-walkers...
My last session was Ares. For the anecdote, that's actually the first time that I complete it outdoor. When training indoor I have always replaced the running exercise by some high-knee static running. The first time that I attempted this workout, I estimated based on 100m run-time that to have representative completion time I should hold the high-knee static run during 15 seconds. Later in a forum discussion an athlete pointed out that 15 seconds might be too short, as just running 80m is not the same thing as running 80m after pullups and jackknives. Based on his input, in later sessions I have increased the static run to 20 seconds.
Today I got to test this time in real conditions. Each time, it took me about 20 seconds to run the 80m distance. Okay, it was the end of Hell Day so may be on a regular day I would do slightly better, but my point is that the other guy's comment was perfectly valid. I'm definitely sticking to 20 seconds for the moment. I don't want to get new Hades PB, just by artificially decreasing static run. May be in a few months I'll test it again and see if I should decrease the time.
Friday: Mandatory rest day.
Saturday: VENUS (25:06*) + BURPEE MAX (54*)
Another week, another new workout: Venus. Let's have a look at its content:
- 50 pushups
- 20 Jackknives
- 50 Deep Squats
- 4 rounds
As you can see the guys at Freeletics chose the wrong name for this workout. Venus is not just an alternate Aphrodite. Forget Cardio, it's all about muscle building.
In my opinion the challenge here is the number of Pushups. 200 repetitions in total and 50 per round is also fairly long. The Jackknives are no problem, and 50 Deep Squat is the standard number of repetitions in most workouts.
For the pushups, I paced myself to avoid starting too fast and then have no arms left to finish the exercise. My method is to do 10 reps, breath a few seconds while laying on the ground, and repeat until 50. The key is to keep the breaks as short as possible.
Strangely, after 200 pushups the last 2 workouts (Burpees Max & Hades) were more difficult to complete than usual... I could feel that achieving a personal best on any of the two would be mission impossible. However, I focused on keeping intensity as high as possible, to avoid slacking-off.
And that was my last Hell Day. All week long I had been looking forward for this last day. Somehow I had assumed that it would be a nice indoor session. It was definitely doable, but more difficult than expected. I had underestimated the soreness from the previous days and how focused on the arms session 3 was.
Sunday: Mandatory rest day.
I have mixed feelings about these Hell Days. I think that I preferred the Hell Week.
Both make you train much harder than usual. Which is painful on the short term, but in the end brings us closer to our self-improvement goal(s).
Both are annoying to schedule. Hell Week, because training everyday (even for 25mn) is not always possible due to personal constraints. Hell Days because longer sessions (1h00-1h30) are harder to fit within the day, especially outdoor training in the winter when daylight is short. And mandatory rest days mean that you have little opportunity to choose which day to schedule these longer training sessions.
One thing that I really liked about my Hell Week, is that after training 7 days in a row, in the middle of the rest period, I was actually missing training. I wanted more. Sitting in my couch doing nothing felt strange.
This time I was really glad to get a rest on Sunday! But that day didn't last long, as I write these lines I'm already well into week #8 training.
To be continued next week...
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
Cardio-Strength Program: week #6
Week #6 out of 15
Kids do all kind of unexpected things. But one thing that you can be sure of, is that they'll always share their germs & viruses with you. My kids are no exception. So this week I was sick in bed Wednesday & Thursday. That wasn't fun, but the good news is that it didn't really impact my training schedule.
I was assigned 5 sessions this week. Thankfully, I had loaded Monday & Tuesday with 3 sessions, to get as much training out of the way before Christmas day. Once recovered from illness, I had only 2 sessions left to complete week #6.
Monday:
- Session 1: HADES (19:35* -personal best)
- Session 2: SITUPS MAX (87*) +SITUPS MAX (93*)
The week started very well with a nice personal best in Hades. Just like my last attempt in week #5, I started the workout at a high pace. But this time I managed to keep a good rhythm during the third round. My overall completion time decreased by 2 minutes.
The big surprise came from the situps. After the Hades PB, I was fired-up and ready to blow away my situps record. That never happened. After only 40 situps I could feel pain in my abs muscles, as if I had done 150 or 200 repetitions. I completed the workout with difficulties, but decided to follow-up immediately with the second Situps Max.
During the second workout pain my abs were still sore, but was gone. I completed more repetitions than in the first attempt, but didn't improve my personal best (102).
At first I couldn't understand how I got sore abs, when my last abs focused exercise was more than 10 days ago. Then I realized where it came from: pullups!
My pullup bar is installed within a door frame. I can't pull myself perfectly vertically without banging my head against the frame. So my upward movement is slightly diagonal. To keep my body completely straight, all my core muscles are contracted.
Until today, I had not realized how straining this exercise was for my abs muscles.
Tuesday: BURPEES MAX (68* -personal best)
Not much to say today. The PB in Burpees Max was expected, this time I started with fresh arms while last attempt was done after another workout.
With about 2 weeks since the last Ares training, I also expected new PB. A 1 minute improvement on such a short workout was pleasing.
Friday: HADES (22:38*)
Yesterday I had toyed with the idea of doing session #4 on despite still being not well. I'm glad that I ruled out this unwise option. My body was still tired from the illness.Training today was more difficult than usual. I did my best to keep a high intensity but honestly scoring a PB was not going to happen.
Saturday: APOLLON (23:49* -personal best)
The week-end is dedicated to a family gathering. The only time available to do my last session was early morning before breakfast. If you don't like burpees, wait until you try burpees on frosted ground... :-)
Physically, I wasn't in top shape, but clearly felt better than yesterday. The training was alright. I scored a new personal best, improving the Apollon completion time by about 2:30.
It has been another challenging week. I'm glad that I'm done with it. Usually, as soon as I have completed my weekly program, I move on to the next week so that I can start scheduling my workouts. This time, I have decided to take a complete rest during the next few days. I will only discover the week #7 program on Monday night.
Monday, December 23, 2013
Cardio-Strength Program: week #5
Week #5 out of 15
As year-end is getting near, my schedule is getting a bit chaotic. I have less days available for training, yet this week I received 5 sessions to complete, instead of the usual 4. Three of which required running and had to take place outdoor.
As skipping training is not an option, whenever possible I have been doing a couple sessions within the same day.
Monday:
This workout is focused on legs:
Last week, it felt strange to get 60s breaks during Ares. I was just standing there, waiting fo the workout to restart. This time, I was glad to have them!
Jumps are less difficult than high jumps (knees only need to go up to waist level), but they are executed faster and with more repetitions. Performed at high-intensity, this exercise gets your heart racing. The rest time is really useful to breath deeply before & after the 400m run.
I performed the 2 workouts back to back. I took a 10-15 minute break in-between, but that wasn't planned. Since the last update the Freeletics app on y phone has been bugging a lot. When saving my first completion time the app froze. I had to kill the app, and record the time later on the website. Even that part was painful. Those of you following me, may have noticed that I posted/deleted 10 times my results before getting things recorded properly.
Anyway, after these technical problems I completed the second workout scoring a new personal best. I got had give everything in the 100m meters to gain these few seconds.
To summarize, this workout is designed for intervals training. However don't underestimate the muscles building factor. The jumps are not just there for the cardio, it's a full legs drill.
Tuesday: IRIS (35:01*)
Another running workout, and I still have sore legs for the double Hera the day before.My calves hurt. Usually after a long run, pain is located in my thighs. So my guess is that the jumps did more damage than the 400m runs.
Iris is a new workout for me, and its structure is a bit unusual:
Unless you have an injury or hate running, the 2km shouldn't be a huge issue. The jumping jacks neither. However, climbers are hell. There are several difficulties here:
Don't be fooled by the 35mn completion time. It's not very long, but the repetitions will grind you down. Iris is amongst the most difficult trainings that I have encountered so far.
Saturday:
As mentioned this week's training plan was irregular. I had 3 days of rest before tackling the last 2 sessions. I felt good, and started Hades at full speed. My pace was high, it took me about 12m to complete the first two rounds. I thought that I would explode my personal best.
However my pace was too high. After the first burpees of the third round, I had a stitch in my side. I kept going, but it slowed me down considerably. Strangely, pushups were by far the most painful. When the clock stopped, I had missed the PB by 5 seconds. There is always a thin line between high-intensity and over-pacing, but it's the first time that I get a stitch doing Freeletics. I could imagine that happening during Iris, but never during Hades which is more strength oriented. I guess it was just a bad day.
A few minutes later, I completed my 2 Max workouts. I had not fully recovered from Hades, but tried focused on keeping a decent pace during the burpees to avoid a shameful performance. The Squat Max personal best was unexpected, and partially saved the day.
I have suffered this week. I guess that after going through 10 weeks of Freeletics training, I need to me reminded: no pain, no gain.
As year-end is getting near, my schedule is getting a bit chaotic. I have less days available for training, yet this week I received 5 sessions to complete, instead of the usual 4. Three of which required running and had to take place outdoor.
As skipping training is not an option, whenever possible I have been doing a couple sessions within the same day.
Monday:
- Session 1: HERA (21:35*)
- Session 2: HERA (21:30* -personal best)
This workout is focused on legs:
- 40 jumps
- 60 seconds rest
- 400 meters run
- 60 seconds rest
- 5 rounds (no rest at the end of the 5th round, the training is over after the run)
Last week, it felt strange to get 60s breaks during Ares. I was just standing there, waiting fo the workout to restart. This time, I was glad to have them!
Jumps are less difficult than high jumps (knees only need to go up to waist level), but they are executed faster and with more repetitions. Performed at high-intensity, this exercise gets your heart racing. The rest time is really useful to breath deeply before & after the 400m run.
I performed the 2 workouts back to back. I took a 10-15 minute break in-between, but that wasn't planned. Since the last update the Freeletics app on y phone has been bugging a lot. When saving my first completion time the app froze. I had to kill the app, and record the time later on the website. Even that part was painful. Those of you following me, may have noticed that I posted/deleted 10 times my results before getting things recorded properly.
Anyway, after these technical problems I completed the second workout scoring a new personal best. I got had give everything in the 100m meters to gain these few seconds.
To summarize, this workout is designed for intervals training. However don't underestimate the muscles building factor. The jumps are not just there for the cardio, it's a full legs drill.
Tuesday: IRIS (35:01*)
Another running workout, and I still have sore legs for the double Hera the day before.My calves hurt. Usually after a long run, pain is located in my thighs. So my guess is that the jumps did more damage than the 400m runs.
Iris is a new workout for me, and its structure is a bit unusual:
- 1km run
- 5 rounds of:
- 100 jumping jacks
- 100 climbers
- 1km run
Unless you have an injury or hate running, the 2km shouldn't be a huge issue. The jumping jacks neither. However, climbers are hell. There are several difficulties here:
- 100 reps per round is a lot for a demanding exercise
- There is basically no opportunity to rest between each round of climbers
- 500 reps in total. The last 2 rounds were exhausting.
Don't be fooled by the 35mn completion time. It's not very long, but the repetitions will grind you down. Iris is amongst the most difficult trainings that I have encountered so far.
Saturday:
- Session 4: HADES 21:40*
- Session 5: BURPEES MAX (60*) + SQUAT MAX (181* -personal best)
As mentioned this week's training plan was irregular. I had 3 days of rest before tackling the last 2 sessions. I felt good, and started Hades at full speed. My pace was high, it took me about 12m to complete the first two rounds. I thought that I would explode my personal best.
However my pace was too high. After the first burpees of the third round, I had a stitch in my side. I kept going, but it slowed me down considerably. Strangely, pushups were by far the most painful. When the clock stopped, I had missed the PB by 5 seconds. There is always a thin line between high-intensity and over-pacing, but it's the first time that I get a stitch doing Freeletics. I could imagine that happening during Iris, but never during Hades which is more strength oriented. I guess it was just a bad day.
A few minutes later, I completed my 2 Max workouts. I had not fully recovered from Hades, but tried focused on keeping a decent pace during the burpees to avoid a shameful performance. The Squat Max personal best was unexpected, and partially saved the day.
I have suffered this week. I guess that after going through 10 weeks of Freeletics training, I need to me reminded: no pain, no gain.
Monday, December 16, 2013
Cardio-Strength Program: week #3
Week #3 out of 15
Sorry for not posting over the past couple weeks. Due to a busy schedule, I couldn't find the time to sit and blog about my progress. The good news is that I completed all my required training, so I'm completely on track. I will post week#3 right away, and week#4 will follow shortly.
Monday: METIS 06:11* + SQUAT MAX (156* repetitions) + METIS 08:34* + SQUAT MAX (166* repetitions)
This week was full of "combos": several smaller workouts aggregated in one session. As you see, the first session included 2 Metis. Not surprisingly the performance on the second attempt deteriorates perceptibly.
These combo-sessions, are actually not that difficult. The overall effort is comparable to longer workouts, but you get the added-benefits of a few minutes of rest in-between each workout.
Personally I like to limit the rest period, to avoid muscles from cooling down too much. If I had to do 2 Metis in a row, I would take 2-3 minutes to catch my breath and relax my muscles. But when the workouts are completely different (e.g. Metis + Squat Max), I don't really take a break. Just a minute, wile I fiddle with the app on my phone to get the next training started.
This session confirmed to that I hate Squats! I guess that my body remembers that this exercise generated the most sore muscles when I started Freeletics. I am never thrilled by squats-related workouts. Even scoring a PB in Squat-max is only a half-satisfaction.
Tuesday: HADES 23:45* (personal best)
I reached a personal goal by completing for the first time Hades with complete pullups. It was expected, as I had worked toward this objective all of last week, but it stills feel good to officially earn that star!
Pullups are extremely difficult when the body is not used to it, but the good news is that if you repeat it regularly, muscles adapt quick rapidly. I still have plenty of room for improvement, so I will continue doing extra repetitions on the side to build the necessary muscle power.
Wednesday: APOLLON 26:10* + PULLUP MAX (26* repetitions -personal best) + HS PUSHUP MAX (48 repetitions)
Today was another combo-session, however I had to split the workouts due to logistical constraints. I trained Apollon outside due to the running requirements. The problem is that the place where I go running during lunch has no equipment or structure that I can use to perform pullups. So that last part of the training was done at home in the evening.
The session started with an exercise called Apollon. It's the first time that I attempted this workout. It is made of 3 rounds of:
It's a decent workout, with some challenges but nothing notably more difficult than in other workouts. If like me you don't like Squats, then you are not going to enjoy Deep Squats. They are more difficult, but with less repetitions. The only good news is that right after the Deep Squats, we have to run 400m, which is more than enough to move and stretch our tights.
No big surprise with Apollon. I will just highlight that with this workout (as often with Freeletics), it's key to breath properly. You finish round 1 running (with legs a bit stiff from the Deep Squats), followed-up by the burpees of the round #2. At this stage if you haven't carefully paced your breath, the next 400m run is going to be challenging. The same thing can happen in round #3. So don't lose your breath before or during the burpees.
As a side note, it's worth mentioning that this was the first time that I trained outdoor. It may sound stupid, but because it's winter it required a bit more planning than usual.
First of all, in cold weather (negative Celsius temperatures), you need to get the appropriate clothing (note to self: buy sport gloves urgently!). But also because of humidity (I train by the lake), I couldn't just start running, stop after 400m and lay down in the mud to do burpees. I had to plan my training route beforehand. My solution was to measure 200m (thanks to the free Nike running app), so that I could return to the same location to complete the ground exercises on concrete.
In the evening I completed 2 MAX workouts, scoring a new personal best in Pullups Max. I also got the try for the first time the HS Pushups. I decided to try the complete version first. It was a disaster. The last time I did handstand I must have been over 20 years ago. And I wasn't too good at it. To add a layer of complexity, I was training indoor and had to be careful not to kick the wall too hard (somehow, my wife wouldn't appreciate holes or marks on the wall).
As a result I spent most of the time trying to do the handstand. When I succeeded I barely managed to do 2 HS Pushups. And they were so bad, that it would have been dishonest to record them in my training log. Instead I decided to relaunch a HS Pushup Max workout, but this time performing the lesser-form. Which is why I have no star for this workout.
Thursday: Boxing training
Friday: METIS 05:31* (personal best) + SQUAT MAX (141* repetitions) + METIS 07:18* + SQUAT MAX (143* repetitions)
Same session as on Monday. For the anecdote, I wasn't very motivated for this session. Not only was I tired after a long day, but more annoyingly I had to train only minutes after eating dinner. I had a heavy stomach and had abandoned any hope to score a personal best. My objective was simple: try not be sick because of bad digestion.
I don't know what happened, but from the start my body found just the right pace. When I stopped the clock, I had improved my personal best by 30 seconds. Versus a baseline of 06:00, that's a lot.
That's just another example of how sometimes we try to convince ourselves to give-up, and how we're just wrong. I'm glad that I didn't listen to myself that evening.
Sorry for not posting over the past couple weeks. Due to a busy schedule, I couldn't find the time to sit and blog about my progress. The good news is that I completed all my required training, so I'm completely on track. I will post week#3 right away, and week#4 will follow shortly.
Monday: METIS 06:11* + SQUAT MAX (156* repetitions) + METIS 08:34* + SQUAT MAX (166* repetitions)
This week was full of "combos": several smaller workouts aggregated in one session. As you see, the first session included 2 Metis. Not surprisingly the performance on the second attempt deteriorates perceptibly.
These combo-sessions, are actually not that difficult. The overall effort is comparable to longer workouts, but you get the added-benefits of a few minutes of rest in-between each workout.
Personally I like to limit the rest period, to avoid muscles from cooling down too much. If I had to do 2 Metis in a row, I would take 2-3 minutes to catch my breath and relax my muscles. But when the workouts are completely different (e.g. Metis + Squat Max), I don't really take a break. Just a minute, wile I fiddle with the app on my phone to get the next training started.
This session confirmed to that I hate Squats! I guess that my body remembers that this exercise generated the most sore muscles when I started Freeletics. I am never thrilled by squats-related workouts. Even scoring a PB in Squat-max is only a half-satisfaction.
Tuesday: HADES 23:45* (personal best)
I reached a personal goal by completing for the first time Hades with complete pullups. It was expected, as I had worked toward this objective all of last week, but it stills feel good to officially earn that star!
Pullups are extremely difficult when the body is not used to it, but the good news is that if you repeat it regularly, muscles adapt quick rapidly. I still have plenty of room for improvement, so I will continue doing extra repetitions on the side to build the necessary muscle power.
Wednesday: APOLLON 26:10* + PULLUP MAX (26* repetitions -personal best) + HS PUSHUP MAX (48 repetitions)
Today was another combo-session, however I had to split the workouts due to logistical constraints. I trained Apollon outside due to the running requirements. The problem is that the place where I go running during lunch has no equipment or structure that I can use to perform pullups. So that last part of the training was done at home in the evening.
The session started with an exercise called Apollon. It's the first time that I attempted this workout. It is made of 3 rounds of:
- 25 burpees
- 400m run
- 50 deep squats
- 400m run
It's a decent workout, with some challenges but nothing notably more difficult than in other workouts. If like me you don't like Squats, then you are not going to enjoy Deep Squats. They are more difficult, but with less repetitions. The only good news is that right after the Deep Squats, we have to run 400m, which is more than enough to move and stretch our tights.
No big surprise with Apollon. I will just highlight that with this workout (as often with Freeletics), it's key to breath properly. You finish round 1 running (with legs a bit stiff from the Deep Squats), followed-up by the burpees of the round #2. At this stage if you haven't carefully paced your breath, the next 400m run is going to be challenging. The same thing can happen in round #3. So don't lose your breath before or during the burpees.
As a side note, it's worth mentioning that this was the first time that I trained outdoor. It may sound stupid, but because it's winter it required a bit more planning than usual.
First of all, in cold weather (negative Celsius temperatures), you need to get the appropriate clothing (note to self: buy sport gloves urgently!). But also because of humidity (I train by the lake), I couldn't just start running, stop after 400m and lay down in the mud to do burpees. I had to plan my training route beforehand. My solution was to measure 200m (thanks to the free Nike running app), so that I could return to the same location to complete the ground exercises on concrete.
In the evening I completed 2 MAX workouts, scoring a new personal best in Pullups Max. I also got the try for the first time the HS Pushups. I decided to try the complete version first. It was a disaster. The last time I did handstand I must have been over 20 years ago. And I wasn't too good at it. To add a layer of complexity, I was training indoor and had to be careful not to kick the wall too hard (somehow, my wife wouldn't appreciate holes or marks on the wall).
As a result I spent most of the time trying to do the handstand. When I succeeded I barely managed to do 2 HS Pushups. And they were so bad, that it would have been dishonest to record them in my training log. Instead I decided to relaunch a HS Pushup Max workout, but this time performing the lesser-form. Which is why I have no star for this workout.
Thursday: Boxing training
Friday: METIS 05:31* (personal best) + SQUAT MAX (141* repetitions) + METIS 07:18* + SQUAT MAX (143* repetitions)
Same session as on Monday. For the anecdote, I wasn't very motivated for this session. Not only was I tired after a long day, but more annoyingly I had to train only minutes after eating dinner. I had a heavy stomach and had abandoned any hope to score a personal best. My objective was simple: try not be sick because of bad digestion.
I don't know what happened, but from the start my body found just the right pace. When I stopped the clock, I had improved my personal best by 30 seconds. Versus a baseline of 06:00, that's a lot.
That's just another example of how sometimes we try to convince ourselves to give-up, and how we're just wrong. I'm glad that I didn't listen to myself that evening.
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