Aphrodite (S), *00:35:18
2/6 Kentauros (S),*00:16:00
Hell Day #3 has its name well deserved. Monday, and I was exhausted after finishing painting the apartment. I was feeling extremely lazy and did not want to train, let alone do two workouts. I went to my parent's house in the morning to help with some chores, and I had planned doing the 2/6 of standard Kentauros there; I have measured around the house the 20 meters I need for the lunge walks and burpee frogs. Then I would "rest" during the day and do Aphrodite at night in my apartment. Things and chores got in the way and I ended up not having enough time to train in the morning. When I got back to the apartment it was late and I was hungry, so I had to eat and then wait to digest until it was even later to begin training. I must confess that I have a little bit OCD and the fact that things didn't go the way I had originally planned set me off. I had little time, so if I wanted to finish Hell Day #3 in time (during Hell Week + 1 day considering the knee impasse) I was going to have to do Aphrodite and Kentauros in a row... That's quite the mental wall to overcome, so much that it sounded better not to even try and let the training for the following day.
I struggled for around an hour with myself, and I had to kick my own butt into starting Aphrodite. I remembered my favorite motivational phrase, the one that's on the header of this blog: "every accomplishment starts with the decision to try". So I made the decision, and I tried. When I finished the round of 50 reps I was feeling unwell and had some reflux (I waited almost 2 hours after eating, but still...). I started to get anguished I would throw up and the voice inside my head started asking: WHY THE F*CK ARE YOU DOING THIS IF YOU ARE TIRED AND FEEL SICK?! I really don't know what happened in that moment. I was about to quit, but I just didn't. I kept on going, slow but steady. I started thinking of other things, shutting the anguish down. One burpee led to the next, and before I knew it I had finished the round of 40 reps. From that point on, everything started feeling simpler and I completed Aphrodite with one of the best times I've had in a while. I cannot explain what actually happened, what pushed me to continue or gave me the strength to keep those burpees coming, but I'm glad it happened.
Aphrodite was gone and I was then faced with another tough decision. I could either do Kentauros right there -which sounded crazy given the circumstances and considering my past horror history with this workout-, or I could postpone just Kentauros for the morning after, consciously failing to follow the instructions from the coach that say all workouts form a given Hell Day must be performed during the course of one day. I was feeling so bad at the beginning of Aphrodite that the thought of Kentauros was horrifying, but then I felt good, and did a great time so I decided to stretch my luck and give Kentauros a try. I measured the hallway that goes in a straight line from the kitchen to the bedroom in the apartment, and it was 10 meters. I decided I'd do Kentauros right there, 4 x 10 meters instead of 2 x 20 meters. It was AMAZING. I've never felt better doing the burpee frogs. I think that having all the muscles warmed up and already worked out was actually in my favor. I didn't have to stop for rest or breath much, and by the end I was pouring sweat like crazy -I think the most sweat I've had in training ever-. Proportionally (2/6) it was also one of the best times I've ever done in Kentauros.
Overall, HELL DAY 3 had a bit of everything; tons of sweat, tears (not really, but almost), reflux, anguish, mental battles, strength, joy, pride... It turned out to be one of my best training sessions, and it ended up making me very proud and happy to finish both workouts with good times. I consider this day definitely as an accomplishment, and it all started with the decision to try.
