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). 

Cardio-Strength Program: week #15 (Hell week)

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!

Cardio-Strength Program: week #13

Week #13 out of 15

Welcome to "Max Week".
I usually find that doing several MAX in a row tends to be easier than 1 long workout, but I have to confess that it's a bit unsettling to look at your weekly schedule to see 14 workouts. For a split second, I was wondering what happened.
Upon closer examination, it turned out that the training load was comparable to a regular week. Only session 3 looked challenging on paper: 6 MAX in total, with the added difficulty that instead of 6 different workouts it's made of 3 workouts each to be repeated twice. 

Monday: HS PUSHUP MAX (67 -personal best) +PUSHUP MAX (48*) +JUMP MAX (220* -personal best)

The week started with HS Pushup MAX. And I am now able to confirm that I *really* suck at handstand pushups.
I expected to do the MAX in the easy form, but just to see if I had made any progress I decided to first try the normal version. This MAX only lasts 100 seconds, yet after 60s I still had not managed to get into the handstand position against the wall...
But I still wanted to know if I was able to do a HS pushup. So after the first failed attempt, I tried again but this time I had recruited my wife to help me get into the right position. It took a while, but eventually I ended-up in the right position. In the little time that was left I managed to complete ~1.5 repetition. I still have a bit of training before I can pretend competing in the Olympic Games' gymnastics competition... Of course, I didn't record this "performance" (I had to use external help), this was just a test.

I like to understand what are the barriers preventing me from completing certain exercises. HS pushups have been puzzling me for a while. Back in junior school, I wasn't too bad at hand stands. Of course it's a long time ago, but I had expected that after a few trials it would come back. For the past few weeks I had assumed that the main reason for failure was because I wasn't throwing my legs at full strength by fear of damaging the wall (remember I trained inside my house). However, during the last test my wife was there to catch my legs. She could have prevented any damage to the wall. Yet, that didn't solve the problem.
So my guess is that it's linked to some kind of unconscious barrier. To succeed in this exercise, I have to train my brain that it's ok to be upside down. From time to time I'll try to do specific HS training aside from the regular Freeletics exercises. No clock. No pushups. Just me in front of a concrete wall getting used to get these feet up. I'll let you guys know if that works.

After the 2 failed attempts, I still had all my training remaining to be done. So I reverted back to easy HS puhups, to complete the first workout. No star of course, but at least a PB. Followed by a Pushup MAX. Star, no PB.
My last workout was Jump MAX. I only completed it once in the past. It was in the middle of a Hell Day so not surprisingly I didn't deliver a peak performance (approx. 180 reps). This time I wanted to score more than 200 reps.
I did 50 reps before taking a short break to catch my breath. Then 40 reps. Then rounds of 20, reaching a total of 220 reps. A pretty good performance and a new PB. Breathing will be the key to get more reps.


Tuesday: HADES (20:32*)

I had sore calves from the Monday jumps and my motivation wasn't at its top. I haven't re-read all my previous posts, but I have the feeling that on Tuesdays I'm often less in the mood for training. I'll keep an eye open to see if that's really a pattern.
Anyway, as often when the mind isn't inspired, the performance isn't great: Hades over 20mn.


Wednesday: SPLIT LUNGE MAX (166* -personal best) +SITUP MAX (129* -personal best) +JACKNIFE MAX (37*) +SPLIT LUNGE MAX (149*) +SITUP MAX (131* -personal best) +JACKNIFE MAX (31*)


The training started well with 2 PB in a row, the first real difficulty appeared with the Jacknives (much harder than usual due to the previous situps).

What can be worse than a Split Max? Two Split Max of course!
Repeating these workouts twice was my main concern today, but surprisingly it wasn't as bad as I expected. No PB on the second Lunge MAX, but I wasn't very far from the first attempt. I even managed to get a second PB in Situp MAX! I didn't have to wait long to pay the price for this effort. My abs were burning during the last Jacknives.
Overall I was pleased by the results, but this was a fairly demanding day due to the heavy load spread over very few muscles.


Thursday: Boxing training

Training as usual. Just want to confirm that sore butt is definitely a consequence from Lunges...


Friday: nothing

I intended to do the session 4 on Friday, however I woke-up with a pain just above left ankle, on the outer side of the leg. Probably the tendon, rather than muscles.

Curiously this is not a spot where I'm used to have tendinitis. Usually after too much running or rope jumping I get tendinitis on the inner side of the leg (also just above the ankle). Because of this new location, I assume that it must be caused by an exercise that I'm not used to do. My guess is that the Jumps on Monday did the bulk of the damage, but that I didn't feel it yet. The Thursday training probably finished the job (the boxing stance and movements rely heavily on the ball of the foot, just like when landing those jumps), leading to the inflammation of the tendon.
The pain didn't fade during the day, so I decided no to train to give a full day of rest to my leg.


Saturday:

• Session 4: DIONE (25:43* -personal best)
• Session 5: HS PUSHUP MAX (58) +PUSHUP MAX (53* - personal best) +JUMP MAX (217*)

I could still feel a pain. It didn't seem bad enough to lead to a more serious injury, so I decided that I could finish my training. To support the foot and avoid torning my foot, I wore an ankle brace.

I didn't notice any discomfort during the first workout. It went very well, I finished well under 26:00 improving again my Dione PB and finally beating that time from Mads that I had used as a training goal for weeks. This really felt like a big achievement (I now have to find myself a new target to keep going!).

I followed-up by completing the fifth & last session of the week. I didn't even try to do normal HS pushups this time, and went straight to the easy version. No PB. For pushups, that was painful but I did manage to improve my personal best, finishing with 53 repetitions.

Last but not least Jumps MAX. The exercise went relatively well, breathing was a bit better than Monday so I think that under normal conditions I could have gone a bit above 220. But at the very end of the workout, I felt that the repeated landings were worsening my leg condition. So I stopped before the end of the timer.


That's all for the week. From a training stands point it was very good, with an unusual training routine, many PBs, and a milestone achieved in Dione. The only downer is this stupid tendinitis. I hope that it will not jeopardize week #14 training. The good news as I look at the week #14 training is that it's mostly strength focused, so I won't have to complete jumps or run 1 km.

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 #11

Week #11 out of 15

Good news for you guys. I don't have much to comment this week, so hopefully you'll be spared from my long monologues!
The training program that I was assigned is very standard. No new workout. No particularly difficult assignment. No complaining about the weather.
Just a lot of Dione, it felt a bit like starting the program all over again.


Monday: DIONE (28:21* -personal best)

In week #9, I was assigned my first Dione in a long time. So I had expected to send my 2 months old personal best out of the ballpark. In the end, it "only" improved by about 2 minutes (at 29:16*).
I didn't want any regrets this time. To get good completion time in cardio (regardless if you are aiming at 15mn or 45mn), it's all about pace. Starting too fast jeopardizes the end of the workout. In my case, I have noticed that if I don't pay attention, I tend to slow down during the abs workouts. I slip into a comfortable rhythm instead of my best pace.
In the end I improved my completion time by nearly a minute.


Tuesday: HADES (18:01* -personal best)

For some reason, I was convinced that week #11 started with 3 Dione in a row.
But that evening I wasn't really in the mood for a 30mn workout, so just in case I double checked my schedule. Believe it or not, but I was glad to see that I had to do Hades instead.

Let's pause for a second, and think about it.
Only a few weeks back, I couldn't do 3 normal pullups in a row. But today, my brain categorizes a workout with 45 pullups & 45 pushups as "good news".
I'm not pretending to be a pullups guru. I still have huge room from improvement. But I think that it's a good anecdote to share with for those of you which have just begun training. Yes, these damn pullups may feel impossible. But the more you try, the easier it gets.

Anyway, another PB. I expected an improvement, as last week training was heavily focused on arms. But a 1:28 gain was bigger than I had imagined.


Wednesday: DIONE (29:04*)

Today it was a bit more difficult than usual to get into my training. It felt like I started much slower than usual in round 1. The pace increased afterward. In the end I don't have to be ashamed of the result (it's still below last week's PB), but no new record today.


Thursday: Boxing training

Friday: Boxing training

Two boxing training this week. The second one was relatively short (~45mn).


Saturday: DIONE (27:03* -personal best) + Bonus: PULLUPS MAX (33* repetitions -personal best)

Sunday: Bonus: PUSHUPS MAX (51* repetitions -personal best)

Again a new PB in Dione. Again, improved by over a minute.
A few weeks back, I was wondering if my plateauing performance in the basic Cardio workouts (Dione & Aphrodite) was not linked to the increased diversity of my training. Or to put it differently, as I started doing a lot of other things (Hera, Kentauros, Hades, Zeus, etc.), I was getting less specialized in Dione & Aphrodite.

My first intuition, seems to be confirmed by my good results with Dione lately. I have been doing the same workout over and over again, and almost each time I have decreased my PB by a minute. The take-away is that if one day you absolutely want to achieve a certain milestone (e.g. Aphrodite under 15mn), but don't seem to get there. The best strategy is to repeat that same exercise over and over again, until you become super efficient at it.


Anyway, on Saturday I had some extra energy left to burn so I decided to do a quick Pullups Max. I had been doing many workouts that includes pullups, but without measuring my progress with a Max.
Shortly after I completed the workout, one of the blog readers (Dimitri) who follows me on the app, commented on the performance. Basically he was joking that 33 reps would look more feasible if it were pushups instead of pullups.

That comment actually reminded me that when I started, on bad days I would usually be in the mid-thirties for Pushups Max. My PB was at 42. Certainly I should be able to do more now. To avoid thinking about it too much, Sunday I did a quick test: 51 reps.
The first 30 reps were actually not difficult. Execution was quick without pausing. It's around 35 reps that my muscles started to be strained, and I slowed down notably.
Out of the 100 seconds that the exercise lasted, I estimate that it took me 50s for the first 35 reps and 50s for the last 16 reps.
So clearly the bottle neck for me to reduce time further is not execution speed but how many reps in a row I can endure. More muscle building is required...

Cardio-Strength Program: week #9

Week #9 out of 15

Last time I suggested that my next post would be an update on the evolution of my body stats. Then I realized that I was already in the middle of week #9. To be consistent with my previous measures, I decided to delay the measures until the week-end. A few days might not make a big difference, but I prefer taking snapshots at clearly identifiable milestones (like "after week #9") than fuzzy ones (like "after 8 and a half weeks").
So first I'm giving an update on my week #9 training, and then the body stats post will follow shortly (measures are already taken, I just need to sit and write them down).


Tuesday: ARES (08:06*) + LUNGE MAX (134*) + POSEIDON (05:55*) + SQUAT MAX (173*)

My training week started Tuesday (impossible to schedule earlier). No easy ramp-up for me this week: my first session was made of 4 workouts, including a new one.

First came Ares, a workout that I consider as relatively easy. As you can see I didn't get a new personal best. This shows that even when a workout is not particularly challenging, you need to be at your max intensity to get these damned PBs. Taking it easy is not an option!

Then came Split Lunge Max. If anyone wants to create the "Lunge Max Haters Club", I will sign-up immediately.  This exercise is basically a static version of the Lunge Walk. The strange thing is that I actually don't mind the Lunge Walk. I even wrote that, to me, it felt easier than Squats. 

After thinking about it, I think that I understand why Split Lunge is harder than Lunge Walk. When you walk, while your left leg moves forward, your weight is 100% on the right leg. Once the left foot connects with the ground, your body weight progressively shifts from the right leg to the left one. It's the same thing when you do a Lunge Walk: progressive weight shift.

To do a Split Lunge, during a split second both feet are off the ground (see video below). Which means that their is no progressive shift, one leg has to absorb 100% of the body weight at once when you re-connect with the ground. Hence the effort is bigger.

Then I completed a Poseidon workout. No PB either. Generally I expect to have a slightly sub-par performance  if I have already completed a few workouts beforehand. In this specific case I was disappointed. The last time that I did Poseidon was on week #2. 7 weeks later it took me 5 additional seconds to complete. This clearly wasn't my best day ever.

I wrapped-up the day with a Squat Max. No need to say I didn't get a PB. On a regular day this exercise is already a weak spot for me, but doing it after the Split Lunge Max was even more difficult. The positive point is that to stay focused I had set as a personal objective to do at least 170 repetitions. Mission accomplished.

This last workout was my 100th Freeletics workout since starting the program! I took a lot of sweat to get there!


Wednesday: DIONE (29:16* -personal best)

Before moving to my daily training, let me share a personal anecdote. As you know I practice boxing, which is a sport that makes the entire body work. Over the year I have gotten sore muscles pretty much all over the place (even jaws muscles!). Sometimes it hurt in places where I didn't thought that I had muscles. But I never had a sore butt like the one I got on Wednesday!
Ladies & Gentlemen, I may hate this workout, but I tell you: if you are looking to get an ass of steel before the Summer, Split Lunge is the exercise that you should be doing!

Only Dione was on the menu today. I'm very familiar with this workout by now, and my last PB was a 9 weeks old. So I expected a massive improvement, around 5 minutes or more.
In the end, if I did get a new PB, the time "only" improved by 02:11. Was my expectation unrealistic? Was my performance sub-optimal?
I don't know. Next time that I have to complete Dione, if my results improve dramatically (or not), I'll get the answer.



Thursday: Boxing training


Friday: KENTAUROS (30:59*)

When starting this program I have decided to spread the training load over the work-week, and use the week-end to get 2 consecutive rest days. Over the past few weeks scheduling constraints have extended my training to include Saturday as well.

To get back to my original setup, if possible I wanted to do my last 2 sessions on Friday. I can't do pull-ups where I train near work, so I decided that I'd train Kentauros during my lunch break and do the last session in the evening.

Kentauros is a workout that is physically demanding, but fairly balanced. To put it in other words: I respect this training, but that I don't really fear it. My confidence & motivation levels were good when I started training.

The workout began with the Lunge Walk, which was completed normally. But when came the time to do the first High Jumps, at first I couldn't do them. My legs didn't provide enough force to lift me off the ground high enough. The strange thing was my legs did not feel sore at all. I had no pain. Simply the muscles did not respond as expected. Eventually, I got the 10 jumps completed. This shook my confidence at bit but I kept going.
Then came the Burpee Frogs . Doing the burpee part was ok, but I couldn't jump forward as far as I usually did. The ironic thing when training over a fixed distance, is that because my difficulties to jump, I was forced to complete more repetitions. The icing on the cake was that the ground was soaking wet, so my gloves & tracksuit were quickly dripping with water.
Afterward doing the high jumps felt normal again, but the burpee frogs remained very difficult. As you can imagine I didn't get a personal best. I actually scored a "personal worst": 49 seconds more than when I first attempted Kentauros in week #7.

While analyzing what happened, I came to the conclusion that my tights had not recovered from the Split Lunge and the Squats on Tuesday. The leg muscles were still strained from the effort, but I had not realized it because they did not feel sore.

Those of you who follow me on the app saw that, I was a bit gloomy after the training and hoped to have better performance in the evening. Ultimately, it didn't train further. It was a bad day and I came home late, so I took a  rest in the evening.



Saturday: ARES (08:07*) + LUNGE MAX (143* -personal best) + POSEIDON (05:13* -personal best) + SQUAT MAX (171*)

A new day and a new start. I wanted to score as many personal best as possible to wash off the bad Friday. Session 4 was exactly the same as Session 1.
I felt great while doing Ares. I thought that I was flying.
If anything was flying around it must have been my mind, not my body. Because my completion time was not stellar. 1 second more than on Tuesday, that's an average performance.

Next came Lunge Max. I didn't want this exercise to because a phobia, so despite tired legs I gave it all to improve the number of repetitions. It worked, I got a PB.
For Poseidon I knew that I must be possible to improve. I stayed focused and managed to get a PB, improving by over 30 seconds.
For the Squat Max, just like in Session 1, I knew that the PB was out of reach but I didn't want to let my myself slack-off. So, again I set myself the objective to do over 170 reps. I barely made-it with 171 reps, but I was satisfied.


I was pleased with my last session. It's not my best day ever, I got 2 PB and it cheered me up after the Kentauros failure. It's always nice to finish the week on a positive note!

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.

Pre-Program (Free trial): week #5 (Hell week)

Week #5 out of 5

I'm glad to report that I came out alive of "Hell Week"! 
The name comes from Freeletics, not me. From time to time in the program, there is a week when the training workload is more intense. Instead of the usual 3 or 4 sessions, week #5 required training every day, for 7 days in a row, some days including several workouts. Afterward there is a 3 days mandatory resting period, so next week will be light.

[UPDATE Jan 2014 - Start]
Please note that this week some of the training content is elective.
In the training schedule below, on Day1, Day5 &  Day7, I chose to do the Dione workout. However, don't be surprised if you see on the Internet that other people have done Zeus instead. They simply chose to focus on Strength instead of Cardio.
[UPDATE Jan 2014 - End]


Monday: DIONE 34:38* (personal best)

I had not train with Dione last week. As my physical shape is improving every day (at least in theory), I was hoping to improve my completion time.
The theory was right this time, I improved my personal best by 36s.
Good omens for the week?


Tuesday: 

• SQUAT MAX: 168* repetitions (personal best)
• PUSHUP MAX: 33* repetitions
• METIS: 07:10*

It started well, Squats had not been part of my training since week #2. I found them much harder than last time. This session was tough, but I scored a new PB in Squat Max. 168 repetitions, versus 165 previously. Not a stellar improvement, but I was pleased that I didn't suffer in vain!

My cheerfulness was short-lived.
The next session, I only completed 33 Push-ups Max, close to my lowest score of 30 reps. Despite fresh arms, I couldn't do better.
And finally, I completed Metis in 7:10. My all-time worse performance. I struggled to finish.

The frustrating thing is that I don't understand why this disappointing performance happened:
I had a good night of sleep.

I felt good. No sore muscle.

I had a nice warm-up.

I was motivated to take-on these 3 sessions.

Yet, I completely ran out of juice.

Let's forget this bad day...

Wednesday: DIONE 33:51* (personal best)

After Tuesday's fiasco, I was a bit pessimistic before training. But no bad surprise today. Training was fine, I even scored a new Dione PB.


Thursday: APHRODITE 27:51* (personal best) + Boxing training

My main concern this week was to integrate the heavy training load with my boxing day. Fortunately, day#4 only included 1 session of Aphrodite. I scheduled an early morning training (this time leaving myself enough time to awake properly before the training!)
Aphrodite was a bit tougher than expected (I had forgotten the "pleasure" of a 50 burpees round), but I got a PB, improving overall time by over a minute.

The boxing training was more difficult than usual. I still had sore tights from Tuesday's Squat Max and lower energy levels after the morning session. 


Friday: DIONE 32:47* (personal best)

I love boxing.
This is the second time since starting Freeletics, that the day after boxing I woke-up feeling regenerated. The long warm-up and stretching completely wiped-out sore muscles. I was halfway through Hell Week, yet I felt like a Monday.
Training went well, I improved Dione by another minute.


Saturday: APHRODITE 25:50* (personal best)

Another good training. Aphrodite improved by 2 minutes since Thursday!
It's very motivating to see progress day after day.


Sunday: 

• DIONE 31:27* (personal best)
• [5 minutes rest]
  
• METIS: 06:33*
• [2 minutes rest]
• SQUAT MAX: 168* repetitions (personal best)

The last day of Hell Week. 3 sessions. I was hoping to score 3 PB. I only got two.

I started Metis on a good pace, completing the first round in 1 minute. However, I lost too much time during the second round. The Dione session & its burpees had taken their toll.

Despite my efforts I couldn't improve my Squats Max, but finished with 168 like my Tuesday PB. According to the app, it still counts as a Personal Best.

Overall, I'm very pleased with this Hell Week. I had expected declining performances over the week as tiredness settled-in. Instead I have gotten a new personal best every day. However such a training-heavy week requires a lot of discipline, and I was lucky not to get any scheduling conflicts. For people who do a lot of business travel or just have a busy life, training every day could be difficult. Thankfully, it's not Hell Week every week!