5/6 Kentauros (E): *00:37:26
On Saturday night I did the second and last training session of week #5 of my Cardio&Strength Coach... In front of me was a modified version of the much dreaded Kentauros: 5/6 Kentauros, with endurance focus.
Modified workouts are, I think, one of the nicest features of the "new" Coach. The same workout (eg. Aphrodite or Kentauros) can be performed in a standard, endurance or strength version, each with the "same" exercises performed in a different way to focus more on a specific goal.
About the endurance focus, the coach says:
Endurance workouts consist of less complex movements that allow experienced athletes to train with higher volume and focus on cardiovascular endurance. They are also suited to introduce beginners to the sport of Freeletics.
I'd like to say I fall in the "experienced athletes" category, but I actually feel more like a "beginner" when it comes to Kentauros!
As you can read on previous posts, I'd done Kentauros (standard) 2 times before. The first time I could not finish it; it took me 40 minutes to do 3 of the 6 rounds, got painfully bruised knees from the lunge walk, was absolutely crushed and just couldn't move past the gigantic mental wall I was in front of. That was the first -and only time- I've quit in the middle of a workout. After that I started progressively declining -motivation wise- and when I had to do Kentauros again, I stopped Freeletics completely; that is how big that mental wall was. A few weeks later I came back to finish Kentauros; using knee protectors it took me an hour and a quarter to finish all 6 rounds. It was awful and I could barely walk for a week after that.
The endurance version of Kentauros is still hard, but MUCH more friendly than the standard one, not only because it is 5 rounds instead of 6 (hence the "5/6"), but mostly because the exercises are different; the lunge walks are HH (Hand-Helped),the high jumps replaced by high knees and the burpee frogs by sprawl frog jumps.
I was very tired and out of breath for most of the workout but got through it in a fairly decent time. I forgot to use knee protectors and I got again both of my knees bruised from hitting the cement during the lunge walks... still I powered through and actually the lunges were my "active rest" time. Being HH actually makes a big difference. The same goes to the high knees, which are much easier than the high jumps. When you are on round number 5, you appreciate those seemingly slight differences all the more!!! I have not many nice things to say about the sprawl frog jumps; they are just slightly less horrible than the burpee frog. Instead of a full burpee followed by a forward keep-your-feet-together jump you just go into plank position and then jump. Again, the extra energy you get from not going down makes all the difference to get through 5 rounds of this!
Today my gluteus and hamstrings are sore, but not as much as I feared. My gluts hurt quite a bit when I'm sitting, (specially on the hard toilet! xD) but I'm pleased I decently got through week#1 of my comeback to Freeletics . Now I'm hungry for more!!!
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