Coach W6D2 - 4/5 Aphrodite (Standard)

 4/5 Aphrodite (S): *00:30:01 

Second training session of this week, and it is Aphrodite (standard version), but only 4/5, meaning I don't have to do the last series of 10 reps. Well, when you've done the series of 50, 40, 30 and 20 reps, doing the last series of 10 feels like a walk in the park, and I don't really see the point of skipping that... but hey, I'm not about to begin questioning what the #COACH tells me to do, right?! He's probably just saving my strength for the third workout of this week...

I wanted to finish in under 30 minutes and I missed by just 1 second (which is basically the time that it took me to press the "finish workout" button after actually finishing), so I'm pleased I sort-of-met the goal I had set for myself. I had to rush through the last series of 20 reps because I had rested a bit much during the previous series and lost quite a few seconds. At some points I was really gasping for air and sweat was pouring heavily. I don't remember ever sweating as much as I do when I do Aphrodite. I guess we can blame it on having a more active metabolism and on the high intensity training?

Overall I felt good, faster and stronger than the last time I did Aphrodite. The only thing I can point out is that I had a rougher time than expected on the squats. I felt it right away; this time squats were not going to be part of the "active rest"... I really don't know what it was because I wasn't sore at all to begin and I had rested well, but my quads just felt tired and lazy. Usually I can do the 50 reps in two series of 25 but this time I had to break the series into 15 - 15 -10. I can only think that it is because I've been exercising my legs a lot this past couple of weeks and it has accumulated. 

After finishing the workout I stretched long and hard. I must confess I do not always elongate well after training, and I know it is not smart. It's that kind of thing that you know perfectly well that you MUST do, but you still don't do it well (like eating clean all the time or training dirty). The difference that it makes to elongate all your body while still being warm from the exercise is evident. I felt immediately relieved and I woke up the next day in great shape. I wasn't sore at all (and I'm still not sore!). I'm only feeling my hamstrings -surprisingly not my quads- quite tight, and I can only imagine what they would feel like if I hadn't stretched!

Afterwards I fixed myself a quick "dinner"; I ate a slice of turkey breast ham and a hard boiled egg to provide the protein, and then I made this yummy greek yoghurt with chia seeds, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and a little bit of granola. It was super fast and delicious, it also looks great don't you think? It's one of the perks of the #summer!

#ClapClap   Eat clean 

A week after Kentauros...

Last Sunday I did Kentauros. I was happy to be back, proud to have completed a workout that proved to be my doom, and exhausted. I knew I would be sore but I didn't know to what extent. I had to train very late, so I ended up sleeping only 6 hours that night. I'm a big sleeper. I need around 8 hours every day to be good. With 7 hours I'm only OK (I can function), with 6 it becomes hard because I get very sleepy... with 5 hours or less I'm in no mood to be messed around with. So, training hard + only sleeping 6 hours = I had a very hard Monday. 

Then, on Monday night I met up with a friend who lives in the US and is visiting for a couple of weeks, so we had dinner and a drink and we chatted... and I ended up going to bed at 2 AM again. So that makes two nights in a row only 6 hours sleep. I woke up on Tuesday and I could barely a) keep my eyes open and b) get out of bed and go down the stairs. My quads were killing me, and were stiffer than I've ever seen them. All day long I moved around at turtle speed. Then, as usual, I had soccer that night. I thought after a good match I would loose all my stiffness... well, NOT THIS TIME! Starting to play put me through a lot of pain. My legs were barely responding. After a while it got better, but the pain never went away completely. I was considerably slower than usual, both in terms of running speed and in response to changing movement. Overall, I was nowhere near my usual soccer self. And on top of that, we ended up loosing the game. It sucked!

On Wednesday my soreness was pretty much the same than on Tuesday. Soccer didn't help at all... or maybe it did, and if I had not played, on Wednesday I would have needed a wheelchair to go to work xD. We will never know! I had every intention to train again that night since I couldn't go to Yoga. I got home late and was still so sore, and exhausted after not sleeping enough, so the wisest thing I could do was to go to bed early to recover. Remember, I had to play another soccer match on Thursday night! That morning, even with my proper 8 hours sleep I was still very sore, but less than the previous days. I could almost go up and down the stairs normally and not look like I was dying in the process.That night I got to the field, all excited about my match as usual, and it turns out the other team didn't show up so we won by WO. I wasn't to happy about that (I needed to score plenty that day to keep up with the fight of higher scorer of this league...) but at least we played a reduced-just-for-fun match between ourselves, so I did do some exercise.

Then came Friday. I haven't talked about my upcoming trip to Europe... A few months ago there was a government strike here, so everything got upside-down and the last few months have been hectic. I have tried several times to have my passport renewed and it was absolutely impossible.I couldn't wait any longer for the situation to go back to normal, because I'm all booked and I depart on February the 2nd. The only way to get my passport was to get up at dawn and go stand in line at 6:20 AM (they open at 8:30). To give you an idea of how the situation is: even by getting there 2 hours 10 minutes before their opening time, I was the 40th person in line!!! At least the system didn't collapsed that day and I went out of there at 9:45 AM. My passport is due the 21st, so I should be OK to travel. After a day like that, well, that night I couldn't go to bed soon enough so I didn't even consider training. On the brighter side, I was almost pain free and ready to take on the new training session...

Week 2, Day 4 / MAX

 Push-Up MAX: 41 

 Squat MAX: *105 

I have a soccer match tomorrow so today was a MAX day again. I didn't feel as tired as I have these past few days, but I was sure yesterday's Aphrodite wouldn't be for free. I was hoping to improve my MAX scores, even if it was only by a few reps, and I did. I set two new PBs, only by a couple more reps than the previous ones but hey, baby steps, right?!

Today I did 41 Push-Ups (girly style, knee-on) in 100 sec and 105 Squats in 300 secs. I felt stronger during the push-ups but I'm still far from where I would like to be. I got very tired around rep. 15 and by rep. 25 I had to really push through every single repetition. I hope I'll gain more resistance so I can do more push-ups (and faster) before I drain myself out. Hopefully I'll be able to start doing the proper push-ups soon too. As I said before, I've never been a push-up kind of girl, so it'll be intresting to "achieve" that new excercise, I guess that's a goal by itself.

As for the squats.... what can I say. Between soccer and trainig everyday my quads are quite tired. It's not that they're sore, nor stiff, it's only that I know that I could do more reps if I had had more rest. In spite of this, I feel a difference in the way my muscles contract. I don't know if it's my imagination or what, but I feel bulkier on the outer part of the leg, (the orange muscle on the drawing, Vastus lateralis). During the squats I can see the muscle geting defined, and that's quite a novelty!!! As Freeletics says; be proud every step of the way to achieving your goals.