Coach, W18 and 19 - Air Pollution

Well hello hello everybody! As I said in my last post, I've been like crazy with work and extracurricular activities... I thought things were calming down but it has not been the case. I actually enrolled in a night class once a week, so I have even less time than before! I've kept on training but not as much as I would like to (and should), and I had intended to write about that. Now, let me explain why my training volume has gone so low in the past weeks, other than because I am busy and unfocused.

These past three weeks have been really hard here in Santiago in terms of air pollution. For those of you who read this from distant latitudes, I'll have you know that Santiago is the capital city of Chile, and with 15.403 km², it only represents 2% of the country's total area. However, about 40% of the population (that is over 6 million people, including myself) lives in that 2% area, so you can imagine... It's nowhere near Hong Kong or Tokyo crowded, but still, that's a lot of people in a rather small space.

The city was founded in 1541 by the Spanish conqueror Pedro de Valdivia, and taking that into consideration, well, it was build in a valley, secluded and protected by the Andes mountains and hills. That was great when you were under attack and had to get cover to save your life, but almost five centuries later, with gazillions of cars and factories and inhabitants, this location turned out to be a pretty lousy one. We  are so secluded by the mountains that there are awful ventilation conditions. Every winter, when the air gets colder and lowers closer to the ground (basic physics, hot air goes up, cold air goes down), we have a large accumulation of smog. This year particularly, it has not rained AT ALL. We have had two or three days with a couple of raindrops, barely enough to damp the streets, and definitely insufficient to clean the air. For the first time in 16 year the government had to declare "environmental emergency" on June 22^nd. That day we had over 500 µg/m³/hour of PM_2,5 which is Particulate Matter that's smaller than 2,5 micrometers, and therefore can get all the way inside you alveoli and cause severe respiratory troubles. It's basically breathing dust and smoke with particles small enough that they can penetrate into your lungs. That's definitely unhealthy, specially for those at higher risk (infants, elderly and people with respiratory diseases).

As you can imagine, training with this amount of pollution has been a struggle. I'm trying to be healthier here, leading a sporty life, and I'm torn between exercising while breathing that sh#tty air and not exercising at all. Since I'm doing a lot of activities outside work, there are only certain days I can go out and train at night with reasonable time ahead of me, so what do I do when there's pre-emergengy or emergency conditions and I have to run 2 km???

Writing this, and being the scientist that I am, has made me search a little bit more information about the subject on the web. It turns out that the World Health Organization (WHO) states that average hourly values under 25 µg/m³/h of PM 2.5 are considered safe (see here)... and here we are, having ten and even twenty more times!!! The Chilean law states that up to 99 µg/m³/h are considered good measurments (safe), up to 199 µg/m³/h regular, up to 299 µg/m³/h alert, up to 499 µg/m³/h pre-emergency and over 500 µg/m³/h emergency. There's a lot to take into consideration when declaring there's an emergency, like closing factories and prohibiting the use of cars (we have a system where according to the number your license plate finishes in, you are forbidden to drive on pre-emergency and emergency), but I think that the set values should be WAAAAAY lower. It seems unreasonable to me to wait until we get twenty times above the safe limit to establish an emergency situation. I red here that the government is intending to slowly lower these numbers to comply with the WHO recommendations by 2032!!! That's nearly 17 more years of breathing sh*tty air, every winter... You can imagine, I'm not pleased about these findings.

I went out and run my 2 km (2 x 1 km) from Iris on a day there was pre-emergency. It was on Saturday, the day I usually train with my group in the park. I regret having run that day. I don't know if it was psychological or not, but I felt I had trouble oxigenating properly... After finishing the workout I started coughing my lungs off, and I even had a bit of dusty phlegm that afternoon; absolutely disgusting! After that, I made the decision of not training at all with emergency levels, and on alert and pre-emergency days to only do the new 2x2 workouts, indoors. For those of you who haven't heard, the 2x2 is a new feature that was introduced in the Freeletics Coach about two weeks ago (quite conveniently for me right now) that modifies the workouts that require a given space and running distance so that you can perform them in 2 x 2 meters (basically anywhere). I haven't had the opportunity to test it, but my next workout is Iris again, so I'll let you know how the 2x2 thing works out.

W17, Community Partner, Sickness, Free Training and Pain

I'm not dead!!! (yet). I've just not been writing about my training... This past month I've been having a lot of trouble finding time to fit in 24 hours everything I need to do during a single day, 7 days a week, week after week after week. The blog has been one of the biggest casualties of this crazy period, and that does not make me happy. I actually apologize, to anybody who reads this, and also to myself for not stepping up. I'm doing my best to regain control of my life (that sounds sooo dramatic). This past Friday was a holiday so during the weekend we finally managed to clean and sort out the apartment, which was long due. I take this new order as a sign of better times coming.

About a month and a half ago, I was contacted by the guys of Freeletics Headquarters (in Germany) and was offered to step up my role as an affiliate, and become a Community Partner. It took very little thought for me: I said yes right away. Being a Community Partner means that I somehow "represent" Freeletics here in Chile, and one of my tasks is to set up public group training sessions so that we can reach more people and turn them into Free Athletes. I've set up a Facebook Group where I publish as an event where and when we will get together and train. At first I started training with colleagues and friends, but slowly I'm reaching out to more people. The group will be listed in the "Community / Groups" tab of the Freeletics page and I hope that will draw more people to our training sessions. So far it has been an interesting experience for me, going from training completely on my own to training with 2 to 6 more people (for now), explaining to others how to do exercises correctly and so on.

I'm currently in week 17 of my Coach, and I've been stuck in W17 for about twenty days. Everything was going great at the beginning; I actually got a PB on Aphrodite, which made me hyper mega happy!!! It has been a very long time goal of mine to lower that time. Aphrodite is and will remain my "key" workout, and I was aiming to get below the 27 minute mark I had established more than a year ago, back when I was training harder.

That night I even got some of the guys of my group to come and train with me in a public square near my house... But then I had to pause midway through the week because I got sick. I got a sinusitis which then turned into bronchitis. I had to take antibiotics for ten days, and it took me a little over two weeks to feel completely normal again. The first week I was feeling so bad that training was the last thing in my mind, but then the second week, as I was 50 - 70% recovered, I just wanted to do something! Once your body gets used to exercising a certain amount of hours per week, you really feel the urge to move when you have been standing still for too long. During those days I red this interesting post on the Freeletics Knowledge Center called "Exercising and illness: when excuses are allowed" that talked about sickness and exercise and how it was recommended that if you had taken antibiotics for X days you should wait another X days after finishing the therapy before resuming your training...

I was not going to stand still another ten days, but I was very cautious and waited until I felt really recovered before I re-started training. The problem is that the Coach said I had to do Atlas, and getting off of a bronchitis I was not feeling well enough to run those 2 kms in the autumn cold. I decided to keep the Coach on standby and do some free workouts with a little less cardio involved. With my crew being composed of guys who are trying out Freeletics and still haven't purchased their coaches, I only make them do exercises that are for free en in Freeletics App... so two weekends ago we did Venus, and I actually got a PB which surprised me tremendously,  coming out of my illness!!! After that, during the week I did Dione which felt harder and made me feel like a turtle. Hopefully I will regain my speed fast.

This Saturday I changed the usual training spot of my group for a park that I had seen that had a cool set of bars so that we could start incorporating Pull-Ups and such into our training. I'm not strong enough to do strict nor kipping Pull-Ups, but I can do some negatives (jumping P.Ups) and I'm convinced that the only way to get better at any particular exercise is practicing over and over again, each time with a little more difficulty added. That being said, we did Zeus, and it was brutal. One of the guys turned all white after round one and had to lay down for more than 5 minutes to recover... He only finished two of the four rounds. I was the only one doing jumping Pull-Ups (I had to lead by example, right?) and it was absolutely way too much.

With Freeletics I've learned to push myself, and three times I've pushed beyond my limits. Back in 2013, when I first started training, I remember I could not walk for three days after doing some Leg Levers, and then I also had an incident with my first Pull-Ups (see this post). The third time I've pushed too far was this Saturday. Finishing Zeus was hard, with all the Pikes, Pull-Ups and Push-Ups (Situps and Squats were my happy resting time). Afterwards I felt my arms extremely tired and tingly, so I knew muscle pain was coming my way. I ate protein and stretched well. On Sunday I had some pain, but it was manageable... But yesterday and today have been excruciating. I can't take off my T-shirt or put on a coat without help. Carrying my backpack and putting it over my shoulder has been awful. I feel that my biceps are "swollen", I can't bend or extend my arms all the way... At some point, I even started to worry about Rhabdomyolysis, but as I am very well informed about it (you should be too, and if you are not, please read this) I know I don't have any of the systemic signs. I'm keeping well hydrated and keeping an eye for any indicator of kidney damage...

That being said. It was too much. I am a T-Rex. I'll re-start doing Pull Ups but I think I'll take it down a notch :D.

Coach W15 // HELL WEEK

I've been very lazy at writing my workout posts because I've been training like crazy and between that and my job I haven't had much spare time. It is not that I haven't trained, quite the contrary! The thing is I've fallen so far behind on my updates that I decided I'll write just a single HELL WEEK post, summing up days 2 to 7 (I managed to write an individual post about Day 1). I want to start with a visual summary of what my Hell Week was (remember "my code": S stands for standard workout and X for strength workout):

Day 1	Helios (S) Metis (S)	01:07:42 ★ (PB, 1st time) 00:08:02 ★ (PB!)
Day 2	Venus(S) 100 Burpees 100 squats	00:24:13 00:16:47★ 00:04:52★
Day 3	1/5 Iris (X) Dione (S) 50 Froggers	00:24:14★ (PB, 1st time) 00:52:36 00:04:56★ (PB!)
Day 4	2/5 Hera (X) Aphrodite (S)	00:09:38 (PB, 1st time) 00:37:18 ★
Day 5	Dione (S) 25 Burpees 25 Squats 25 Burpees 25 Squats	00:39:42 00:02:01 ★ (PB) 00:00:33 ★ (PB) 00:01:56 ★ (PB!!!) 00:00:28 ★ (PB!!!)
Day 6	Apollon (S) Hera (X)	00:31:36 ★ (PB) 00:24:13    (PB, 1st time)
Day 7	2x Metis (X) 100 Burpees 100 Situps 100 Squats 100 Leg Levers	00:26:11    (PB) 00:11:54 ★ (PB) 00:03:31 ★ (PB!!!) 00:03:48 ★ (PB!!!) 00:04:37 ★ (PB, 1st time)

When I look at this table I can't help to feel proud and have a big smile on my face. I've faced, I think, three Hell Weeks in the past. None of them were as heavy as this one, and I didn't finish any of them 100%. I always had some excuse not to train all days, or not to do all the exercises I was told to do on a single training day. I have a hard time believing I did all this training in seven days... It looks like at least two or three "regular" weeks of training! I started this week knowing I was going to have to train late at night because of my work, and that I had already planned a soccer match on Tuesday (Day 2), a friendly match at work on Thursday (Day 4) -which turned out to be 1h30 long- and another match with my team on Saturday (Day 6). Things didn't look easy at all.

When I saw the week schedule I told my GF I didn't think I was going to be able to pull it off, considering work and soccer... Her new CrossFitter-cheering-motivated self proceeded to tell me (actually, yell at me haha) I was capable of doing it and then she put this image as my phone screensaver. All week long, every time I looked at my phone I was remembered "I CAN and I WILL". I repeated it like a mantra. Even when it was 10 PM and I was just getting home from work, and all I wanted to do was to go to sleep, I thought "I CAN and I WILL. I've gotten this far, I can't fail on Hell Week now" and proceeded to go out and train my heart out.

I did not only finished HELL WEEK, performing every single workout as it was programmed, from Monday to Sunday, 7 days in a row. I did it hitting personal best (PBs) times and reps on pretty much every workout from Friday to Sunday. And I did several workouts I had never done before. I trained even after I got home from soccer, already tired. I trained late at night, even if I was not feeling good. I CAN and I WILL. After this, I believe I can do anything.

I can only begin to describe the sense of pride and satisfaction I get from completing this week. I really had not much faith in myself, and this week changed that. It is more than a crazy hard physical challenge. It has really had an impact in my way of thinking and seeing myself. My body is ready, it is my mind that has to go along with it a bit more (a LOT more). I know now, for instance, that I am more than capable of training on soccer days, and still perform well...

#ClapClap to all of us, Free Athletes :D

Coach W15 // HELL WEEK D1 - Helios (S) + Metis (S)

 Helios (S), *01:07:42 (PB) 

 Metis (S), *00:08:02 (PB!) 

This week, you will gain a major Freeletics experience: Hell Week. Every now and then we choose to go through hell to come out even stronger. Freeletics Hell Weeks are all about reaching true exhaustion, reaching our performance limits several times within a short period of time and with little rest and exceeding our own expectations. Hell Weeks made many of our athletes much stronger – both physically and mentally. Hell Week means a lot of training. Seven days, seven times Freeletics. All out: Seven days in a row, high volume and high intensity. As always, try to break your PBs. This week, however, it is even more important to successfully complete every single session. You know the game. Make sure to stay hydrated and to maintain good form, especially as you get weaker. And remember: This is Freeletics. Quitting is not an option. Once more give it your all!

Technically I didn't choose to get Hell Week, but I don't really have a choice and I'm think I'm more up for the challenge than I actually think I am!!! When I finished last week, I thought "I'll tell the coach this week was a bit easy and I'll ask for three training days, I can squeeze three workouts + two soccer matches". Instead of that, the Coach says I get Hell Week. I thought "well, it will probably be like last time, with 4 training days.." but no, it's seven days of training ! I have a relatively tough week at work and soccer matches on Tuesday and Saturday so I'm not really sure how I'll survive, playing and training the same day AND having trained all other days... but we'll see!

The first Workout of Day 1 is Helios, a workout I have never done before. If I had the choice, I wouldn't start with an unknown workout, and I think that's precisely why the Coach did it; to put me to the test mentally. I hate the unknown, and I have to start being more comfortable in uncomfortable scenarios. 

#CoachKnows

Helios is a one "A-B-C-D-C-B-A" series workout of Burpees (A), Lunges (B), Climbers (C) and Sit Ups (D); (and then again Climbers, Lunges and Burpees). The number of reps varies from 100 to 150. I think its very hard on the mind to have to do 100 or 150 times the same thing, repeating the same movements over and over. Workouts with several series of 20 - 50 or even 75 reps are "easier" on the mind. Even if in the end you did the same total number of reps, It's not the same to do them all at once or in several series. It took me absolutely forever to finish, but I did finish, which is a small victory in itself. I started thinking about the week of training ahead of me and I think that pushed me to take it slower than I ought to, "saving energy" for the impending future.

Of course, it wouldn't be Hell Week if I didn't have to do another workout after over 1 h of Helios. Luckily it was good old Metis: I knew it would take me less than 15 minutes to finish it, and then it would all be over. I took a 3 - 5 minute break and I jumped right into it. The tought of finishing Day One fast gave me unexpected energies, and I went all crazy on the first round of 10 Burpees and Climbers. I knew right away I was on track to beat my PB, and that gave me even more energy! I had to slow down during the series of 25 reps, and for a moment I feared I had lost my impulse, but then I pushed and pushed and managed to improve my time by 48 seconds!!! It was really a huge surprise. I didn't think I could go so fast after training for 1 hour. I'm sure being all warmed up and having done all those Burpees before hand played in my favour. Day One of Hell Week ended up the best way possible; with two PBs on my bag (ok... the first one doesn't actually count since it was the first time doing the workout, but still =)

Coach W12D3 - Atlas (Standard)

 Atlas (S), 00:31:52 

Last training session of Week 12, and it's a workout I've never done before: ATLAS. In Greek mythology, Atlas was one of the Titans that rebelled and fought against the Olympians. After loosing the battle, Zeus punished Atlas by having him stand on the western edge of the Earth (Gaia) and hold up the heavens over his shoulders for eternity. That way he was kept apart from his brother Menoetius who was condemned to the tartarus. Atlas has been long time misrepresented as holding Gaia over his shoulders, when the myth clearly states that he is holding the heavens... The thing is, how do you represent the heavens? It's certainly easier to make a painting or a statue of Atlas holding the Earth!

Did Atlas, the workout, feel like I had to carry the weight of the heavens over my shoulders? Not really, but it is certainly was a complex workout, involving 6 different exercises which pretty much had me doing a bit of everything.

The workout starts off with a 2 km run. On Sundays the large avenue in front of my apartment is closed from 9 AM to 2 PM and everybody goes out to run, ride their bikes, roller skate, walk their dogs etc. I measured the distance online and I managed to run up 1 km and down 1 km the closed street, and finish in around 12 minutes.  I hate running so I think it's a decent time, but it can most certainly be improved. After that, I got back into the apartment and went on with Squats, Burpees, Climbers, Leg Levers (which are supposed to be straight but I had to do Hand Helped so, no star) and finally Jumps. Overall it went smoothly, up until the Leg Levers which put me a bit in a bad mood because I see and feel the limitation of still not being able to do them straight. I'm working on it though, that's what's most important I guess... My psoas suffers tremendously during the Leg Levers  so,  having to jump afterward is a BIG challenge.

Coach W12D2 - 3x Metis (Standard)

     3x  Metis (S), *:00:32:15 PB!!! 

Second training day of the week, second day of training in a row. Wednesday is Metis day, again! Except this time it's the standard version, three times. After doing the strength version yesterday, standard Metis seems much more friendly. It's just Burpees, Climbers (although Froggers seem more easy to me for some reason), and Jumps - knees at least at hip level, I'm not confused anymore -. I find it amazing to see how mental perception changes completely the way I approach and engage the workout. I was excited and sure I'd perform great. Quite different from what I was feeling the prior week!

I went at it full power. As I always say, when you know well what you're up against, everything seems easier. I guess in a way it's like the saying "practice makes perfect". Having done roughly the same movements the day before helped tremendously. I knew exactly how to tackle Metis. I took short breaks when I absolutely needed them. I pushed hard, both physically and mentally. Again I had some trouble breathing although it seemed a bit less than the day before. I think that's because strength workouts in general are way more metabolic than the standard workouts, so It's only natural I'd have to breathe heavier on a strength workout than on a standard one. My having EIB (Exercise-Induced Bronchospasm) theory is gaining evidence rapidly, so a few more times and I guess I'll have to check with a MD. EIB or no EIB, I had done this exact workout about a month ago, and I improved my time by almost 12,5 minutes! I'm really pleased to have made such a big time jump. Maybe I don't have a sixpack yet, but I'm definitely fitter -numbers don't lie-. I also feel there's plenty of room to improve even more, so my next goal with this one is going to be dropping the time below the 30 min mark. Totally doable, don't you think?

Coach W12D1 - 2x Metis (Strength)

 2x Metis (X), 00:35:57  

I decided to pull the plug on W11 without completing all the workouts the Coach had assigned for me, and move on to W12. I left pending some loose exercises: 2x 100 burpees, 2x 25 High Jumps and 50 Squats, and also a whole WOD; Apollon. I trained on Sunday, Monday and Wednesday, so I had the whole weekend to complete the missing exercises. The thing is, I went again (see here for the first trip story) on a weekend trip to the countryside, this time with both my parents and my GF. I asked permission from my boss to miss Friday and she said I just had to pay back the missing hours by staying late all week, so that was cool. We left on Friday morning and I drove around 4,5 hours to get to the countryside. We had lunch at my dad's cousin's farm and then went on a quest to buy local honey, which took another couple of hours. My parents stayed at the countryside while me and my GF drove another hour or so to Pichilemu (the beach). I was not going to miss the chance to take my third surfing lesson, being that close, right?! On Friday night I was extremely tired from the trip and all the hours driving, so I was not about to begin training. 

On Saturday morning we went to a beach called Punta de Lobos, which is a 10 minute drive from Pichilemu. That beach is considered one of the best in Chile for surfing, and they often organize championships there. I decided  while I take my lessons I might as well try out different beaches, so I took a 1 h private surfing lesson there with Kotaro-san, a Japanese surfer who's living 2,5 years in Chile. He turned out to be a great teacher and we got along super well. I had a blast in the water and learned quite a bit from him! My surfing skills are improving every time I get on the board, which makes me very happy. The waves and currents at Punta de Lobos are a lot stronger than in any of the other places I've surfed before, so it was much more physically demanding than other times (also a bit scarier). I had some lunch, took a little nap and then went back in the water for another hour or so of solo practice. During my lesson in the morning we were a handful of people in the water. The day was gorgeous and when I got back to the beach around 5 or 6 PM there were surfers everywhere. It turned out to be a not-so-good first solo experience. I had to jump at least 5 times from my board to avoid collisions, mainly with some of the younger surfers out there. There was a group of 4 or 6 kids, around 14 years old, who jumped in at any wave and didn't look much in front of them until they were coming straight at you, full speed... Also the tide was very high so the waves were even bigger than in the morning and the currents stronger. Note to self: until I get really good, only surf in the mornings and avoid the crowds...

After all that time in the water I was of course exhausted, so I didn't train on Saturday either.I woke up on Sunday morning with a few bruises in my hips from the board, and with very sore biceps. We slept in a little bit, packed our bags, and drove 1 h to the countryside to have lunch and pick-up my parents. Then I drove another 4,5 hours back to the city. You can imagine the last thing I wanted to do when I finally got home was to train. Monday came along and to be honest I just didn't want to stay stuck on W11 any longer, so I told the Coach the week had been too hard, and that I just wanted 3 training sessions on W12. I'll try my best to do the missing exercises at some point during the following weeks, but for the time being, it is new week time.

The first training session was 2x Metis, strength version. That meant Burpee Squat Jumps, Froggers and High Jumps, which I did with a smile on my face on Tuesday night, well rested and ready for the action. I've been struggling a lot with my breathing and heart rate lately. I know I should be taking paced, deep breaths, but I can't physically do it for a long period of time. With the higher intensity training sessions, I've been noticing that my lungs get obstructed, just as when you have bronchitis. My airway tightens up and I have to cough several times to "loosen-up" and "make room" for the air to come in. With all the coughing and shallow breathing, my heart rate goes up the roof a that of course slows me down (and is not fun). I've never suffered from asthma, but I've been researching a condition called Exercise-Induced Bronchocospasm (EIB), which fits perfectly with all my symptoms and conditions (you can read for free a short but complete paper on the subject of the American Family Physician's here, remember I'm a Biochemist!). If things continue this way I might be paying a visit to a MD soon and ask for a pulmonary function test coupled with an appropriate exercise challenge to see if maybe I need to take some bronchodialator drug prior working out... We'll see. In the meaning time, I messed up the high jumps again, so no star for me, and I did well but not great time-wise.

Funny thing is, the Coach instructions this week were finger-on my problem: 

Week 12! This week it is time to work on your breathing. With the right breathing you can increase your performance. The higher the intensity, the shallower you will breathe. Make sure to switch smartly from shallow breathing to deep and steady breathing and the other way around depending on the intensity of the exercises. The goal of the week is to set at least one new PB using a smarter breathing technique.