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

Posting has been quiet on my side over the summer. But aside from a short vacation, I kept training. The piece of news is that since the beginning of September I have started following a 15 weeks program again! Since Freeletics underwent some important changes, there is much to say about the new program. I will discuss these novelties in my next posts. In the meantime, here is the summary of the workouts I have been performing while training on my own.


Week 43:

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

Friday used 2 short workouts as warm-up before sparring session. I was definitely, but Poseidon is a bit too intensive to be done before, probably best to do it afterward next time.



Week 44:

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

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

Week 45:

Vacations!

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

Week 46:

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

Returning to training. Goal was to prepare body a bit before increasing the training load in the coming weeks and to test some of the new features of the just released Freeltics app.

This concludes the series of "self-scheduled training" posts. In week 47, I'll cover my first week of the new "Coach" (disclosure as I write these words I have already finished week 1 of my second program and I'm well into week 2). 

Post-program (self-scheduled training): week #27-33

Here is an update on my training schedule.

Week 27:

• Tuesday: Hades (17:21*)
• Wednesday: Atlas (22:39* -PB)
• Thursday: boxing training
• Friday: Ares (07:57*) + Poseidon (04:25* -PB) + Metis (05:02* -PB) + Squat Max (196* -PB) + Pushup MAX (46*) + Situp MAX (124*)
• Saturday: Custom-made workout (14:02). I tested for a reader the following routine: 3 rounds of: 10 Burpees + 30 Squats + 45sec Plank + 2x5 (L+R) Spiderman Push Ups + 30 Mountain Climbers + 60sec Superman (note: I did Sipderman & Climbers assuming both sides = 1 rep)

Week 28:

• Tuesday: Kronos (38:50* -PB First attempt)
• Wednesday: Iris (30:30* -PB)
• Thursday: boxing training
• Friday: Hades (16:54*)
• Sunday: Ares (07:46*) + Lunge MAX (178* -PB) + Ares (07:53*) + Lunge MAX (191* -PB) + Pushup MAX (49*)

Week 29:

• Monday: Artemis (23:11* -PB)
• Tuesday: Dione (26:24*)
• Wednesday: Metis (04:36* -PB) + Hyperion (17:58 -PB)
• Thursday: boxing training
• Friday: boxing training + Poseidon (04:37*) + Leg Lever MAX (165*)

Week 30:

• Thursday: Aphrodite (18:59* -PB) + Pullup MAX (32*) + Pushup MAX (37*)
• Friday: Venus (21:52*)

Week 31:

• Monday: Hades (16:37*) + Poseidon (05:11*)
• Tuesday: Apollon (22:23*) + Pushup MAX (35*) + Pushup MAX (20* -holding 3s in locked arms positions) + Pushup MAX (12* -right arm only) + Pushup MAX (14* -left arm only)
• Wednesday: Zeus (21:25 -PB)
• Thursday: boxing training
• Saturday: Dione (23:17*)
• Sunday: Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*) Test to see how my body reacted to 100 PU broken into in 4 sets of 25 consecutive repetitions.

Week 32 (launch of the Pushup challenge):

• Monday:
• Morning: Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*)
• Evening: Ares (07:56*) + Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*) + Ares (07:52*) + Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*)
• Tuesday:
• Morning: Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*)
• Evening: Aphrodite (19:07*) + Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*)
• Wednesday:
• Morning: Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*)
• Lunch: Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*) + Hera (21:40*) + Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*)
• Thursday:
• Morning: Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*)
• Evening: boxing training (included at least 100 PU)
• Friday:
• Morning: Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*)
• Evening: Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*)
• Saturday:
• Morning: Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*)
• Evening: Artemis (21:46* -PB -includes 100 PU)
• Sunday:
• Morning: Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*)
• Evening: Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*)

Week 33 (last week of the Pushup challenge):

• Monday:
• Morning: Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*)
• Evening: Venus (20:29* -includes 200 PU)
• Tuesday:
• Morning: Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*)
• Evening: Kronos (38:06* -PB includes 100 PU)
• Wednesday:
• Morning: Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*)
• Lunch: Iris (29:03* -PB) + Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (25*)
• Friday: running (3.32km in 16:58) + Pushup MAX (60*)

I have previously discussed the Pushup challenge, so I won't cover it further in this post. However another highlight of these past weeks is that I tried a new workout: Kronos.
If you have never met this workout before, you will learn very quickly to respect it! It only has 1 round, but what a Hell of a round:

• 100 Pushups
• 200 Situps
• 300 Squats
• 200 Leg Levers
• 100 Pullups

If you are new to Freeletics, unless you already have an excellent physical conditions pretty much each of these sets will be a challenge. You will need to break each of them into smaller bits (e.g. 10 sets of 10 pushups with short breaks in-between). So expect a very long completion time (over an hour).
In my case, "My Coach" never assigned this workout to me. For my first attempt, I was fortunate to already have 8 months of training (week#28) behind me. From the start, I knew that I would not be able to perform 100 consecutive pushups. Based on my past experience with Artemis, I did short sets (~20) to avoid killing my arms from the start but paying attention not to take too long breaks (~10-20 seconds). The effort was more manageable while avoiding losing too much time. The next 3 exercises were fine. Leg Levers have always been one of my strengths. 200 reps is nearly what I do in 5mn for the MAX, however it took me a bit more time. The effort is more difficult for abs after the 200 situps.
The real difficulty were the 100 pullups. The high number of repetitions makes this set very hard to complete, especially since the previous pushups have already taken a toll on shoulders. I spent nearly 10mn just on this exercise. On my second attempt (week #33), my PB had already improved by ~45s mostly due to better execution on pushups (thanks to the pushups challenge), but I had little gains on pullups side. Improving pure strength to reduce pushups & pullups completion time will be the key to drop further my personal best.



While it requires some time for me to sit down and write these long posts with all my results, it proves to be very useful. Often, I just do one workout after another, without giving too much thoughts about it. Writing these posts forces me to analyze my schedule and see if I stick to my good resolutions.
So let's see how I performed versus what I had planned last time:

• Training frequency: Over 7 weeks I performed 30 sessions for a total training time of ~661 minutes. That's 4 sessions per week on average, each lasting approximately 22 minutes. The increased training load of the Pushup challenge has offset the lack of training during my short vacations in week #30. Conclusion: average number of session/week increased as intended.

• Training content: while my first month without "My Coach" was a bit disorganized, I am getting closer to finding the right training balance. It's now part of my weekly routine to perform 1 outdoor training over my lunch break. This kills several birds with one stone: I regularly practice running, it frees-up one of my evenings, and by doing it on Wednesday I'm in much better shape from my Thursday boxing training (my body gets 36 hours of rest + running workouts don't strain much arms or shoulders). Additionally, I'm more careful to include some Cardio in my schedule as I had leaned a bit too much on the Strength side. 

• Getting out of my comfort zone: One of my fear was that I would follow the path of least resistance and end-up only doing the workouts that I liked. So far I have managed to be disciplined enough to include my routines workouts that I had not performed in months or the ones that I never tried. It's not perfect yet (for the moment I have managed to dodge doing Kentauros!), but workout diversity is definitely a criterion that I take into account when doing my schedule. Since training on my own, I have not organized any Hell Week, but I enjoyed the Pushup Challenge and I might use similar highly-focused training from time to time to push my limits.

As usual, another post will follow shortly to give an update on my body stats.

Cardio-Strength Program: week #12

Week #12 out of 15

My challenge for the week was to get 1 personal best "using a smarter breathing technique".

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

To be honest I was helped by a perfect schedule. Last week was all about Dione with a touch of Hades. I had one day of rest on Sunday, and guess what: week #12 started with Dione & Hades. I couldn't have received better assignments. My mind & body were 100% ready for these workouts, so the PB came very naturally. It fueled my motivation for the rest of the week.


Monday: DIONE (26:14* -personal best)

I'm not going to repeat all that I said last week, but doing over and over again the same workout leads to continuous improvements. My last Dione personal best was only on Saturday and, yet the next Monday the completion time decreased by nearly 50s.

Ever since starting my training, I have been following a fellow athlete named Mads Gregersen. You may have heard of him as he is quite active on Youtube posting Freeletics videos. Mads started training many months before me, so looking at his results gave me an idea of what could be realistic short/medium term objectives for each workouts. But of course, as I improved so did he, so he always remained ahead. A few months back he had a newborn baby and stopped training due to sleep deprivation. It was an interesting experience because instead of aiming at a moving target I now could see the gap narrowing. 

Monday, I had a good pace while performing Dione, and toward the end it became clear that I would get a new PB. But I did not slow down. Based on intermediary time, I realized that I had a shot at beating Mads' PB (set 8 months ago). I gave everything that I had left on these last 25 burpees. In the end it wasn't enough: it took me 10 seconds more to complete.
Now Mads has started training again, but he's focused on strength so with a bit of luck he won't be doing Dione anytime soon, so I may have another chance to see what it feels like to break his record. ;-)

Note that beating his time is only a game, it's an excuse to push myself to get better results. And given the time I stayed laying down on the ground catching my breath, it worked well!

So, for those of you out there with time over 40mn, thinking that my results are good. Remember that 15 weeks ago my completion time was around 37mn and I was looking at Mads wondering how he was doing it. So keep training and the results will come!

Tuesday: HADES (17:37* -personal best)

As mentioned in the introduction, I had a great momentum from last week. The workout was very smooth with a PB at the end.


Wednesday: POSEIDON (05:16*) + POSEIDON (04:56* -personal best)

For session 3, I had to complete two Poseidon. It's a very short training but intense for the muscles, I wasn't sure if I would do the workouts back to back or not.

I thought that my best chance at a PB was on the first attempt. So I was decided to give it all at the beginning, even if that meant bad performance on the second attempt. But actually something really stupid happened to me. You'd imagine that counting up to 15 shouldn't be too difficult for a 35 year old. Yet, on the second round of pullups, somehow I lost track of the number of repetitions. I lost a few seconds trying to figure it out, and then decided to start over (the round of pullups, not the entire workout).

Given the circumstances, 05:16 wasn't bad compared to my previous PB of 05:13, but I was pissed at myself. So instead of going straight after the second one, decided to take a break and first took the kids to bed. I didn't look at the exact time, but that must have been roughly a 40mn recovery time. Which is longer than what I usually do.

During the second attempt I'm proud to report that I managed to count all the way to 15 without any issue! Yeah, Kudos to me! This time I scored a PB. Given that muscles were still a bit strained from the first attempt, I suppose that I this isn't my best and next time I should be able to gain "easily" a few seconds.


Thursday: Boxing training

I was completely exhausted mid-training, which is rare enough to be worth mentioning. Not sure if it's due to bad diet, lack of sleep or a repercussion from the training load. We'll see how it goes in the next few weeks.


Friday: HERA (21:28* -personal best)

It had been pouring rain all morning, luckily it was only mildly raining when I started training. As I use the app, bad weather is actually a factor that I have to take into account when doing Hera outdoor. Some workouts if you know them by heart, you can launch the timer and perform the entire routine with your phone inside a pocket. Then you just pull it out at the end to stop the timer. But because Hera has some many 60s rest periods, you need to always have the phone at hand. And phones and water don't mix too well...

Anyway, I learned a new lesson today. I don't mind Hera as a workout. Given the good performance this week, I was pretty confident that I'd be scoring a good time. But during my exercise my pace didn't seem stellar. I pushed as much as I could, but I was convinced that I was behind schedule.
I was surprised to see that I got a PB. For some reason I had thought that my best was under 21 minutes, but actually my old PB was 21:30. A 2 seconds improvement, that was short!


When debriefing my training, I realized that improving my Hera completion time would now be very challenging. I now perform the 40 jumps without a single pause and at a relatively fast pace. I'm probably close to my peak performance on jumps. And that 60s breaks, well they will always be 60s long...
This means that main area left for improvement in on the 400m run. I'm far from top-performance on running, but one of the reason that I started Freeletics in the first place was that run training wasn't really convenient for me. So I expect slow progress, and from now on PBs in Hera will probably be a matter of seconds, rather than minutes.

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:

• 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:

1. 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
2. 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.

To summarize, Burpee Frogs didn't seem much more difficult than regular ones. Lunge Walk was not too difficult either, I actually prefer it to Squats. Just be careful if you train on concrete, not to hit the ground too hard with your knee.
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:

• 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...

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:

• Session 1: HERA (21:35*)
• Session 2: HERA (21:30* -personal best)

The week started with a double dose of a new training routine: Hera.
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:

1. 100 reps per round is a lot for a demanding exercise
2. There is basically no opportunity to rest between each round of climbers
3. 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.