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.