Second Program: Week #4

Week 50: Second Program - week 4 out of 15

Week settings:

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

Training:

• Monday: Dione standard (29:07*) +[bonus: 10 straights pullups (00:31*) & 10 Toes to bar (00:51*)]
• Tuesday: Gaia strength 6/10 (24:08* -First time)
• Wednesday: Venus standard (17:09* -PB)
• Thursday: boxing training
• Friday: Poseidon standard (04:51*) +Metis strength 1/3 (01:11* -First time)

Statistics:

• 2'556 points
• 76 minutes

I setup week #4 so that the difficulty remains similar to the previous week. As the saying goes: "once bitten, twice shy". After the 15K run assigned to me last week, I wasn't going to select "Far too easy" any time soon...

The week turned out to be fairly mild.


It started with Dione. My poor performance (~29 mn vs a ~26mn PB), clearly showed that I'm not back in full-shape yet. It gave me a good sweat, but it remains one of the basic workouts. It not outstandingly difficult.
I added a few extra pullups as I feel that it one of the area where my performance decreased the most. Followed by a few Toes to bar (I wanted to test if I could do this move and unlock it in the "advanced skills" menu). This new exercise is actually not that bad. What surprised me is that I expected this exercise to mostly target abs, but it turned out that it's mostly demanding for the shoulders (and you don't want to lose your grip while head-down!)

The only notable session was on day #2. At first I had just seen that I had to perform Gaia 6/10, assuming it was the standard version. I didn't thought much about it (why worry about a partial standard workout?) As I was ready to perform the workout, I noticed that in my program was the strength version.

My main memories of the 2 Gaia that I had performed a few months back, was that I was soaking wet upon completion. Well, strength Gaia take perspiration to a whole new level...


As usual with the new Freeletics program, the difference between standard and strength workouts is that the climbers are replaced by froggers and jumps by high jumps. Gais is no exception. The only novelty is that Gaia's unique standups are replaced by standup-jumps.

These standup-jumps being new, I wondered how they would go. Well, honestly if you already master the standup technique you shouldn't worry about these. The extra jump require a bit of additional energy from your tired legs but nothing unbearable.
What you should worry about are the 30 reps of high jumps. The full workouts has 10 rounds. That's 300 high jumps.
This time, I didn't complain that I was assigned a partial workout...

Usually I always try to perform workouts at max intensity and each time I get a good sweat. But overall, my cardio recovery is relatively fast (muscle soreness is another story). But this is one of the few workouts, which leaves me laying on the ground for a while to recover my breath.I'd say this is harder stuff than Kentauros.


Anyway, days 3 & 4 were not very hard. I actually was asking myself if the week was intentionally less difficult to recover from week #3 and may be as a rest before week #5. Traditionally week #5 is made of Hell Days.
We'll see...

Second Program: Week #3

Week 49: Second Program - week 3 out of 15

Week settings:

• Area of focus: Cardio-Strength
• Number of training days: 4
• Limitations: none
• Last week feedback: "Far too easy"

Training:

• Monday: Metis standard x3 (21:33* -PB) +Apollon standard (27:30*)
• Tuesday: Artemis standard (25:16*)
• Wednesday: Poseidon standard (04:26*) +Metis endurance 1/3 (00:41*)
• Thursday: boxing training
• Friday: 15K run (01:31:30 -PB)

Statistics:

• 4'210 points
• 170 minutes

Last week I was disappointed with he partial workouts that were assigned to me. It felt cheap. I wanted a real training plan, something more challenging. And I wanted it now.
So when setting-up the parameters for week 3, I indicated that week 2 had been "Far too easy". A distant voice in my head. told me that it was a bad idea.
But hey, I'm no Joan of Arc. I don't believe in inner voices. I'm a "tough guy". Tough guys believe in sweat, testosterone and Chuck Norris.

Once you have tried the various workouts available, it doesn't take long to assess the difficulty of a training plan. A minute after clicking on the "Next week" button, my testosterone levels dropped, and instead of Chuck Norris I could hear Al Pacino in the Devil's Advocate saying: "Vanity, definitely my favorite sin."
[After proof-reading this post, I'm starting to think that auditory hallucinations may be a side-effect of Freeletics!]

Reviewing the training plan:
For the first time in a very long time, I wondered if I would be able to complete my week's training program. I'm not speaking metaphorically, I really wasn't sure if I could do it.


The beginning of the week was clearly more challenging, but nothing insane. Actually that's exactly the kind of extra intensity that I had been looking for in the first place. On Day 1, Metis standard x3 would certainly give me a good sweat, making the subsequent Apollon harder than usual. Tough session, but less than a Hell Day. Artemis on day 2 and its pullups would certainly give my arms a run for their money. But I have completed Artemis 5 times in the past. Been there, done that. No concern.

What really worried me was the 15K run on Day 4.

I'm sure that for the runners out there this seems like a piece of cake. Well not for me. I run a bit as part of my cardio training, but I don't train to run. The last and only time that I ran a long distance was a half-marathon (21K), 10 years ago. And that was done without proper training beforehand. A painful experience/mistake that I didn't forget. Over the past few years, I ran 5.5K at once, at most. Since training with Freeletics, my running activity was pretty much limited to Iris, Hera & Apollon (~2K per session).

My cardio has benefited for that past year of intense training. So I was pretty confident that I could bear a 1h30-2h00 effort without getting any muscle cramps. My top concern was purely mechanical. Repetitive tendinitis forced me to stop rope jumping. Would my joints, tendons & ligaments hold-up to this sudden increase in distance?


Actual performance:
The week passed by as planned.
Day 1: Metis standard x3 lived-up to my expectations (definitely one of the toughest cardio workout out there). I was glad that in this new version jumps replaced the high jumps! Legs were heavy during Apollon, but overall a good session.

Day 2: My pullups are still not back to my pre-vacations level, so I wasted some time on Artemis.

Day 3: The short session (2 workouts: only 5 minutes!) provided a welcomed recovery day.

Thursday, I went to my usual Thursday boxing training but was careful not to ask too much out my legs. The perspective of the 15K haunted me all week, the last thing that I wanted was to have sore muscles before the run.


Day 4: Finally, 15K-Friday came. Given the short-notice I couldn't do a proper body preparation for this run, but at least I tried to stack the odds in my favor by:

• getting a decent night of sleep (undersleep is a bad habit of mine).
• organizing a longer lunch break to have enough time to complete the workout.
• avoiding to run on an empty stomach (well-sized breakfast +cereal bar 1 hr before the run).
• putting some band-aids to prevent blisters.
• bringing a bottle of water along with me.

I completed the 15K run in 1:31:30 (I had targeted 1h30). I'm glad to report that I also fulfilled my 2 secondary objectives: no break, no walking.


On the positive-side, it turned out that my cardio was even better than expected. I was barely out of breath at the end of the run, and didn't get any cramp. 

On the "not-so-positive"side, as I had feared all my issues were mechanical.
Despite my precautions, I felt a blister appearing after a 5-6 kilometers. In the evening I couldn't believe the size of this thing (I'll spare you the graphic pictures). Luckily during the run, it was mildly annoying and didn't slow me down. 
The real challenge came from the joints. Around 5K I started to feel a slight stiffness in my left knee. Past 7K, a similar sensation appeared in the right hip. First it was just a tingle, but it grew more painful and my articulations were losing amplitude (esp. the knee).
Progressively my pace decreased. A few times I tried to re-focus and accelerate, but the stiffness crept back. The last 2 kilometers were really tough.



My overall pace was 06:05 per kilometer. When analyzing the split times, it's clear that while my pace progressively dropped, the run can be divided into 2 chapters.

The first 7K, was "running as usual". Split times per kilometer all remained within a reasonable range. In this section, average pace was 05:30/km, versus 05:00/km-05:10/km per kilometer when I run 2K-3K. Not too far off.

In the last 8K, the pace was sluggish. Stats don't lie: best split time at 06:14, worse split time at 7:09 in the last kilometer. 06:35 on average.

Note: 1st K contains a steep flight of stairs hence I always lose a few seconds there. 2nd K is partially downhill hence I usually go faster there. 15th K is partially uphill. The rest of the run was performed on flat grounds.


In the following days, to my surprise I barely had any sore muscles. However, it took a few days for my knee to recover. From what I can tell, the pain didn't came from the articulation itself (i.e. bones friction), but from a ligament.
I was limping on Friday afternoon, and things progressively came back to normal over the week-end. The next Monday pain was gone, but I felt it would have come back rapidly if I had run again. Thankfully I didn't have any running planned the entire week.
I'm not sure if this was a warning of a knee problem that could become more serious in the future (I'm not getting any younger!) or if it was simply caused because my body is not used to such distances. Based on limited evidence, I'll settle for a symptom of "over-running".



As I look back at week 3, I'm proud that I was able to meet this challenge. I pushed my limits and accomplished something that I would never have tried on my own. But I won't lie, I don't think that I could have endured a much longer distance without walking. I will need much serious preparation before attempting longer distances.

The running is a nice addition to the Freeletics routine. But I can't help to wonder how the coach can go from assigning 3/5th of Hera (i.e. 1.2K aggregated) and then a full 15K the next week. Honestly, this feels a overkill and actually bit risky.

There are so many great workouts to choose, I hope that next time that I request more difficulty, I'll be assigned more difficult workouts, not simply asked to to run a marathon...

Second Program: Week #2

Week 48: Second Program - week 2 out of 15

Week settings:

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

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

Training:

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

Statistics:

• 1366 points
• 90 minutes

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

Then I had a WTF moment.

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

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

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


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

Second Program: Week #1

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



Week 47: Second Program - week 1 out of 15

Week settings:

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

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

Training:

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

Statistics:

• 4'150 points
• 112 minutes

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


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

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

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

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

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

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


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

Week #2 will follow shortly.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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



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


Workouts


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

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

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

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

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

Exercises

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

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

Runs

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

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

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

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

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


Week 43:

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

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



Week 44:

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

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

Week 45:

Vacations!

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

Week 46:

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

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

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

Post-program (self-scheduled training): week #34-42

Here is the usual update on my training schedule. Don't be surprised if this time the training-load seems irregular from one week to the next.

About a month ago, I hurt my wrist and my hip while boxing. These were not serious injuries (i.e. no hospital), but the resulting back pains were incapacitating enough that I had to reduce my training significantly. While I try to keep a minimum of physical activity when I'm sick (unless I have fever), I'm much more conservative when it comes to injuries. It would be stupid to make the injury worse by returning to training before the body had time to recover. 


Week 34:

• Monday: Pushup MAX (60*) + Situp MAX (151*) + Lunge MAX (178*) + Pushup MAX (55*) + Pullup MAX (25*) + Leg Lever MAX (183*) +Poseidon (05:48*)
• Tuesday: Aphrodite (19:01*)
• Wednesday: Iris (28:05* -PB) + Pushup MAX (50*)
• Thursday: boxing training
• Friday: Dione (24:38*)

Normal sessions.

 
Week 35:

• Monday: Uranos (28:16* -First time) + Ares (07:46*) + Situp MAX (135*)
• Tuesday: Gaia (34:20* -First time) +Poseidon (05:22*)
• Wednesday: Apollon (27:46*)
• Thursday: boxing training
• Friday: Artemis (21:34*)
• Saturday: Burpee MAX (81* -PB) +  Pullup MAX (31*) + Situp MAX (145*) + Pushup MAX (36*)

Normal sessions. Feeling great, tried 2 new workouts (see review below).


Week 36:

• Tuesday: Venus (19:50*) + Dione (30:29*)
• Wednesday: Kentauros (25:22* -PB)
• Thursday: boxing training
• Sunday: Pullup MAX (23*) 

Finally pushed myself to re-do Kentauros. Week 36 was when I hurt myself. Went to the chiropractor on Friday followed by 48 hours of full rest. Sunday was not a training session. Just a quick exercise that I did to test if wrist pains were due to bruises or a mechanical issue.


Week 37:

• Thursday: boxing training

Forced rest. No Freeletics the entire week. 


Week 38:

• Monday: Apollon (25:55*) + Pushup MAX (55*) + Leg Lever MAX (163*)
• Wednesda:y Iris (29:26*) + Pushup MAX (50*)
• Thursday: boxing training
• Friday: 3km run + Venus (19:23*)

Resumed regular training. Back pains returned at the end of the week. Might have been too eager to start training again...


Week 39:

• Tuesday: Pushup MAX (50*) + Pullup MAX (33*) + Pushup MAX (50*) + Pullup MAX (25*)  + Pushup MAX (50*) + Pullup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (50*) + Pushup MAX (44*)
• Thursday: boxing training
• Saturday: Pushup MAX (50*) + Situp MAX (150*) + Pushup MAX (50*) + Squat MAX (219* -PB)  + Pushup MAX (50*)

Switched to light training. Only a couple sessions. No burpees, squats, jumps, running, or anything that would cause stress to the hips. Hence mostly push-ups.


Week 40:

• Thursday: boxing training
• Friday: boxing training

Again a visit to the chiropractor, followed by 48 hours of full rest and no Freeletics the entire week.


Week 41:

• Monday: Pushup MAX (52*) +  Leg Lever MAX (183*) + Pullup MAX (29*)  + Pushup MAX (49*) + Situp MAX (139*) + Pullup MAX (27*)
• Tuesday: Pushup MAX (53*) + Jackknife MAX (45* -PB) + Pushup MAX (49*) + Pushup MAX (50*) + Situp MAX (127*) + Pullup MAX (30*)
• Thursday: boxing training
• Saturday: Hades (17:14*) + Poseidon (05:13*)

Progressive return to training. Almost only push-ups/pull-ups/abs. Adding short running distance on Saturday.


Week 42:

• Monday: Dione (26:51*)
• Tuesday: Hades (18:07*) +Poseidon (05:05*)
• Wednesday: Ares (08:01*) + Metis (05:09*) + Ares (08:01*) + Pushup MAX (48*)
• Thursday: boxing training

Progressively adding back burpees (max 25 reps in a row), climbers and jumps in my routine.

Before running into these annoying issues, I had been quite pleased in week #35 to try Uranos for the first time. On paper I really liked this routine, but the location near work where I usually perform long-distance running workouts has nothing to do pull-ups. Finally, on day-off, I managed to go to a park where I could do both running & pull-ups. It was a before-breakfast training, nice weather but early enough to be cool. I had the park for myself. Perfect conditions.
To complete Uranos I had to go through the following routine:

• 2 km run
• 50 burpees
• 50 pullups
• 50 climbers
• 50 pushups
• 100 jumps
• 1 round only (thankfully!)

At first sight this is an extremely balanced workout. A lot of different exercises, but moderate repetitions. Nothing crazy the like the 100 push-ups/pull-ups in Khronos or the 2x100 burpees in Helios.

While I liked this workout, as often with Freeletics it proved more challenging than I expected. Starting with running is a great warm-up, but be careful not to finish too fast or you risk being out of breath before starting the burpees. The first real challenge is the set of 50 pull-ups. For beginners this will be a huge obstacle. After a few months of training, I was quite confident. This is less than Khronos and my MAX are usually ~25 reps in 1:40. But for some reason, I found the last 20 reps difficult to perform. Were my arms tired from the burpees? The lack of energy from an empty stomach? Was just simply not my best day? I don't know, and I would need to re-do this workout to see if I get the same impression again.
Climbers & push-ups were fine. However the last 100 jumps also proved to be very demanding. This is not an exercise trhat I do very often, but by grouping them by sets of 10-20, it normally doesn't take too long to complete. But in Uranos, these need to be done after 2Km run + burpees + climbers. Needless to say that at this point your legs aren't "fresh" anymore and the heart is already racing! I really had to force myself to stay focused during these jumps and keep going. After the workout I was wiped-out!

I had to sit for a while to recover my breath before attempting the next workout. Interestingly, after when I performed Ares, I had no issue at all to complete the pull-ups. So maybe the 50 burpees had an impact afterall.



I was so fired-up from finally doing Uranos, that the follwing day I tackled another new workout: Gaia. Here is how "mother Earth" looks like:

• 40 jumpings jacks
• 30 jumps
• 20 froggers
• 10 standups
• 10 rounds

This baby is supposed to be a pure Cardio workout. If you purchase the Cardio-only program, I believe that you'll end-up doing this one very regularly.
I expected a good sweat but without much physical difficult. For me, the only question mark for me was how difficult the froggers would be (esp. toward round #10!).

The workout went very well, but I was close to turn into a pool of sweat at the end!

The shorter sets made the jumps much easier than in Uranos (even with sore legs from the previous day). Froggers also felt very balanced (just enough to get a good workout). The real surprise came from the stand-ups!
It turns out that if getting back to one's feet without the hand is not that hard from a muscular stands-point it does requires a bit a technique. It took me 4 rounds to get the movement right (I even had to pause to re-watch the tutorial video to check that I was doing it right!)
The difficulty is to maintain a proper balance during the whole movement and avoid shifting too much body weight on one foot only. In the first rounds I lost much time trying to regain my balance at each repetition. Once I had caught the right movement, repeating the exercise became more fluid and right way I could feel that my pace had improved.



That's all for the moment. I'm not sure when my next post will be. Probably not before the end of August or early September, unless something worth mentioning pops-up.