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 W11D1 - 8/10 Gaia (Strength) // The REAL Hell Week

 8/10 Gaia (X), 00:58:39 

I had planned to do week 10 the last week of February, when I still had soccer, so I only asked for two WODs that week. I ended up postponing W10 to the following week (when soccer was over) so I trained on Monday and Wednesday and was ready for more right away. I thought I'd ask for four training days on week 11, to "compensate".

Remember how the coach asks how hard was your week of training? Well, since on W10 I did one of the best times I've ever done in Aphrodite, broke my PB in Venus and wasn't sore or even tired, I had the brilliant idea to tell the coach W10 had been "Way too easy". V-E-R-Y bad idea. When I saw the programming, I knew right away this was going to be a real Hell Week. I think this is one thing the Coach could be improved on. There are three options to "the level of difficulty for this week was...": WAY too easy, Hard but OK or WAY to hard. Its either all or nothing. Sometimes its just "somewhat easy/hard" but there's no way to tell the Coach that. Sometimes you just want to step it up a bit, but you get Hell Weeks...

I was up to the challenge, feeling confident I could survive this week. Along came Friday and I had to do Apollon (Standard), a nice WOD I have done twice I think, a looong time ago, which includes 400 m runs. Since I've moved to the apartment "in the city" I no longer can do runs as easy as I did at my parents', so I decided to go to a nearby park I had set my eye on and do it there. Here's a confession: I hate having to go out to workout. One of the things I like the most about Freeletics is the fact that I can train at 11 PM in the comfort of my living room. That being said, I know I have to go out for the runs (and also to find a Pull Up bar, which I still haven't!). I used the free run feature on the app to jog my way to the park as a warm-up. Now I know the park entry is located exactly 1 km away from the apartment; it took me 6 minutes 5 seconds to get there. I got in and started to look around to find a spot were I could settle up, do my burpees and squats and measure off the 400 m I needed to run. As it was Friday afternoon-nightish youngsters were messing around, drinking beer, smoking weed, doing slackline between the trees etc. Adults were letting their dogs run around and kids were playing on the games and sand boxes. Me, I couldn't find a decent spot were I could train at ease. Everywhere I looked I would have had to avoid dogs running over me while on the ground or inhale weed smoke. Nobody was exercising in that park! I felt really uncomfortable and out of place, so I went back to the apartment and I didn't do Apollon that day. I actually didn't do anything because my plan hadn't worked out and I was feeling really frustrated...

Along came Sunday and I went to my parents'. I brought along my sport shoes and everything, but I couldn't find the time to train. When I got back to the apartment at night I was feeling pissed, starting to consider to abort W11 altogether. In an impulse I said "f**ck it, I'm training right here, right now", so I looked at the app, skipped Apollon and went straight to the last training session the Coach had planned for me: 8/10 of Gaia, Strength version. Gaia is one of the Greek Primordial Deities, and is the personification of the Earth, the "great mother of all". According to Wikipedia (great source, right?), she was the creator of the Earth and all the Universe, and gave birth to all the Heavenly Gods, the Titans and the Giants. So, why did I jump to the almighty mother of everything and not the second or third training sessions? Well, because second and third are WOD + 4 heavy loose exercises (eg. 2 x 100 burpees + 2 x 100 squats) and I thought that would be too much to start. 

This was my very first time doing Gaia, and the strength version has Jumping Jacks, High Jumps, Froggers and Standup Jumps on it. I had never even done standups before (the escalated version of standup jumps) and I quickly learned I couldn't do them. I just physically couldn't break gravity if I did not use my hands a bit... just a tiny little push, but meaningful enough to make me feel extremely disappointed. As a good strength WOD, Gaia is highly metabolic work, very intense. I was pouring buckets of sweat and breathing heavy almost right away. I had a super tough time, mentally. Every rep was a struggle. I was already coming in discouraged and low on motivation with all the hustle to begin W11, and finding out I couldn't do standups, which seem fairly easy on the videos I must say, was too much. After the 4th round, when I was halfway done, I took a bathroom break; something I had never ever done before. The clock continued to tick, and I just sat on the toilet, arguing with myself, not wanting to go back. I was training in the living room while my GF was cooking. She was cheering me on, and clicking in the app when I was done with each set. I got back after 3 or 4 minutes and I told her "that's it, this is too much, I'm done for today". She wouldn't let me. We argued for about 40 seconds and for some mysterious reason, I just started moving, doing jumping jacks again. She pulled out the strength I had inside me to finish, and I love her even more for that <3.

At that point I thought that a long, slow WOD, using the help of my hands to stand up, was better than no WOD at all, so I kept pushing. Slow but steady, I didn't care about my time anymore (with the bathroom break it was all messed up anyways), I just cared about getting to the end. And eventually I did finished it, and it was a great victory. Maybe it was not the best physical workout I'd ever done, but it sure was one of the hardest mental workouts I've ever done.

There is no success without hard work.

~WE NEVER QUIT~

Coach W5D2 - 5/6 Kentauros (Endurance)

 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!!!

Cardio&Strength - W5D4 // I'm back!!! + New Year Sale

 Kentauros: *01:15:08 

Happy New Year everybody!

I hope 2014 will bring only good things to all of you and that it'll be the year that you change your lifestyle for good with Freeletics :-). If you didn't already know, there's a 30% off deal on the website for the Freeletics Coach and the Nutrition Guide with the coupon code getitfor2014. The deal will last until January 15th so you still have a few days to decide!

To explain my absence would be long story... but to sum up: I got discouraged by my last performances, I got super tired and even a bit ankle/knee injured with all the soccer and the training and I got a new job so I needed some time to settle in and figure out how to make time to train. On top of everything, the main reason I had to take this little break is because my training was causing trouble to someone very close to me who has body-image issues and a past eating disorder. I found it very hard mentally to keep going and getting better, stronger and faster when, while doing so, I was hurting someone I love. 

Now we're starting to work things out. We've talked a lot about this, they are going to therapy, and we agreed that my being better should be an inspiration and not a negative trigger... So, to make that change happen, we took action and trained together! I can't even begin to tell you how happy that made me. After having to hide my training these past months, silencing my excitement about my progress and how well the blog is doing so that I wouldn't hurt them, now I can finally be open about it (well, still cautiously but at least I'm not in the dark). The best part is that it was their idea (I dreamed about it but I never thought that mentally they could take it)... So now I'm trying to make Freeletics a positive change in lifestyle not only for myself but for the both of us.

Along that line, I don't know if you remember that one of my last sessions was Kentauros, and I couldn't finish it. It took me over 40 minutes to get halfway, and I was in so much knee pain that I just had to quit. That day my decline began, and I ended up taking the break just when I had to do Kentauros again. So this, my first comeback training session was, of course KENTAUROS. I gave it my all, and was prepared with knee protectors this time. It took me an eternal hour and a quarter to finish, but I fricken did it, and with a star!!!!. It made me very very proud to finish up something a few weeks ago I just couldn't do. Now I hope I (we) will only keep going up, as I was doing before.

Cardio&Strength - W5D1

 Hades: 00:37:12 

Starting week #5, I realize I'm about to get to the "same" point as with the Free Guide... I was fearing I would get a "Hell Week" for week #5, but lucky me that didn't happen. In total I've been training (well, at the end of this week I will have trained) for 10 weeks. It sounds like quite a long time. There's been ups and downs, PBs beaten and struggles, a lot of sweat and almost tears... I feel I've come a long way from where I started (not even able to do a strict burpee... not even imagining myself doing a Pull Up etc.) and I'm very happy about that.

Yesterday I started at a new job. I will definitely miss being home and having tons of time to do whatever pleases me, whenever it pleases me. Of course that also means my training window has been dramatically reduced, I can't train at 1 AM anymore and, very important, I'm overall more tired. Today I got home late and exhausted. I had to do Hades again so I struggled quite a bit with finding the strength within me to train at 11 PM. I feel I have changed because, even with all that, I went out and trained, because WE REALLY NEVER QUIT, and that seems to have stuck with me for good. I did not beat my PB but today I don't care about that because for the first time I was able to do the modified Pull Ups the right way, i.e. getting down in a controlled manner, in (almost) every single repetition. It may have taken me almost 4 minutes more to finish the whole workout, but It's so worth it when I think that last week I was dropping down from the bar like a heavy potato while this week I'm lowering my body slowly!!! On top of that, I realized I'm getting quite good at the Push Ups; my struggles are a thing of the past, and so are the modified repetitions. I had no problem with doing all 15 repetitions the strict way!!!

So, there you have it. New job, new found strength, and soon new PB.
 Always remember: we are Free Athletes, and we NEVER quit.

Cardio&Strength - W2D1

 Ares: 00:15:50 
 Split Lunge Max: *101 

It's been almost a week since I've been back from my trip and I'm just starting to get back to normal (for good). I had very important soccer matches on Monday (quarter finals) and Tuesday (semi finals). Against all odds, we won on Monday - I scored the qualification goal :-) yaaaay! - but we lost on Tuesday at the very F***ING last minute... They scored the second goal (the final result was 2 to 1), we got to the center of the field, the ball started to roll and the referee ended the match. We were absolutely devastated because we wanted so much to be on that final, and to come so close just to loose like that... 

Anyways, the idea for me to write this journal is to let people know my experience with Freeletics, how I combine it with soccer and my life in general, but also as a way of committing myself "publicly" to completing the program. This way I feel morally obligated with you to keep on going, so I also feel I owe you total honesty. 

It's been almost two weeks since my last HIWOD, and I was seriously -like never before- considering quitting today. I've been struggling with starting week #2 since I got back, mainly because the workouts got harder and more complicated to do. I got used to training very late (past 11 PM) alone and relaxed in my bedroom when people in the house were asleep or doing their things -so I didn't get interrupted-. Then I stretched, got to the shower and slept with a big smile. I think that's one of the main things that made me love Freeletics; I could do it wherever I wanted, whenever I wanted. But this week, my training program starts with Ares, a workout that includes pull ups and 40 meter sprints. Pull ups the hardest exercise for me to do + they require a pull up bar. For the sprints, well, it's obvious I can't do that in my bedroom at 11 PM. It took me a while finding the mental strength to overcome these technical difficulties -I know, it shouldn't be a big deal, but they were for me- but finally I got to it and did the workout today in my parent's yard. We live in a large piece of land and we have a swing, so I used that as a pull up bar and I sort of calculated 20 meters for sprinting. I know it's not the same sprinting 40 meters at straight than 2 x 40 meters but hey, at least I did it!.

As expected, no star on Ares because I have never been able to do a single pull up starting from a hanging position. It's on my MUST ACHIEVE list of life. The day I can complete a full pull up series (I don't know... 10 - 15 in a row?) starting from a hanging position I will be really really pleased and I'll consider myself truly fit. Today I even had a super hard time at the last repetitions with the modified version (jumping, chin over the bar and dropping in a "controlled" motion). My hands are super sore now and the controlled part was... not so controlled as I'd like it to be...

Luckily, besides Ares, I also had to do a new MAX; the Split Lunge Max, so that lifted my spirits. Before I started I set 100 repetitions as a decent cut off point for me for time and I got there barely with my 101 reps (not dalmatians). I was sweating a lot by the end and I could feel the back of my legs working like crazy!!! The two weeks off weren't free; I felt slower and more tired both during soccer and the workout. It takes much effort to get in shape, but you can loose that state in no time and with no effort at all!!! We'll see how I keep going this week... Hopefully I get back up fast!

Cardio&Strength - W1D1

 Aphrodite: *00:31:55 

What do you do when you finish the 5 week free program? 

You see some results but not quite so many. You know you can do better. You know your times can still go down. You know you can get in so much better shape...

...so you get a Freeletics guide and start the next 15 weeks of your life!
Depending on your goals there are tree types of guides with instructions for 15 weeks of training: Cardio, Cardio+Strength and Strenght. I got the Cardio and Strength guide because, as I have previously explained, I'm looking for a balanced workout to gain endurance and also some strength (abs and back please!) We'll see how I do with this one, and who knows, maybe I can move to the Strength guide afterwards ;-)

The thing is, yesterday I donated blood. I know, it wasn't my brightest idea but well, it's done. I've donated quite few times before, and this is the first time I almost fainted while having my blood drawn >.< It was a bit scary but the nurse was super nice and calm and we got through it. I wasn't supposed to do any exercise, so yesterday I only went to yoga and skipped my Freeletics workout. Today was Aphrodite time -yet again- and boy did I miss those 400 mL of blood! I felt somewhat like I did when I first started training. Very dizzy in some points, like I was going to puke, breathless, just wanting to give up. I missed those red blood cells and the oxygen they were not carrying to my muscles! But, as usual, I kept in mind that we never quit, so I kept going, and I finished the workout in a decent time (31 mins, 55 secs), considering the circumstances.

Hopefully it will not take 3 months (the time I'll get back those missing cells) to regain my previous aerobic condition. I'm a bit scared for Saturday's soccer match...

You can check the detailed description of each guide at the Freeletics website (I've left a permanent link to the page by clicking on the Freeletics colorful logo in the sidebar). I'll keep telling you as much as I can from my workouts but I will not be providing detailed descriptions of the exercises anymore,

Week 3 (still), Day 5 / Dione

 Dione: 00:39:35 

Today was a hard workout. It all started good, and I finished round one in about 11 minutes so I was confident I could finish the whole thing in under 35 minutes and improve my PB. However I wasn't feeling to good and my stomach started to hurt during the sit ups. I felt like puking a couple of times, I don't really know why. Then I felt quite dizzy during the first burpee series of the third round, so I had to do it slower and catch my breath quite a few times. This led to me finishing Dione in 39 min., 35 sec, that is over 3 minutes more than the previous time.

I may not have a new PB but I powered through the nausea and finished the whole workout in under 40 minutes (and without throwing up). I was constantly thinking "we NEVER quit" as I was feeling like puking, and also I was thinking about this image:

I finished the workout in a reasonable time and I feel damn proud of it. I think one cannot expect to be super fine in every single workout. There are days that you just feel worse, and I think it's OK to take a little longer to get the workout done as long as you do it.

In spite of the nausea I felt the overall workout felt "easier", the exercises flowing much better. Burpees are almost a walk in the park and even leg ups are beginning to be less traumatic. I still can't do them fast enough without my hands under my butt, I feel I am close enough though, soon I'll be able to get my Dione star. Tomorrow is the beginning of week #4. I also have soccer matches tomorrow (Monday) and the day after that (Tuesday) so we'll see what this week has in store for me and my workouts...

Week 2, Day 5 / Aphrodite + Push-Up MAX

 Aphrodite: *00:28:39 (PB!) 

 Push-Up MAX: 33  

Yesterday I played soccer so I "rested" from the workouts. Today I had no match so I decided it was a good idea to try and improve my Aphrodite time. Also it is my fifth day of training of week  # 2, which makes me feel quite happy and proud in terms of my commitement to the program. I must confess though, that the MAXs are very tempting compared tot he Aphrodite because they are over so fast!!! So I think this week is also a bit of a mental challenge not to only do MAXs because they are easier. Still, the bigger the challenge (i.e. Aphrodite), the better the reward.

I did the Aphrodite with no modified repetitions in 28 minutes and 39 seconds. I improved my best time in a little less than 2 minutes. Yay me! I think this proves my point; I need to be more "rested" in order to really improve my PBs. I commented about that feeling I had the other day that I could really do thing faster if I weren't that thire. At one point during the series I even thought I could make it in under 27 mins, but the situps held me back this time. As I said yesterday, my quads feel really tired, and today they were better but not great yet. On the brighter side, burpees are each time less of a struggle  =)!

After my new PB, and considering my arms/chest weren't too demanded I thought to myself "there's no need to do BOTH MAXs, you can just do the Push-Up MAX and leave  for another day the Squat MAX" (because I think wouldn't have done even 50 squats in 5 minutes after a full Aphrodite with the way my legs were feeling)... So I did the Push-Up MAX, and I was wrong. I felt really tired and did aroung 10 reps less than the time before. At one point I thought "I already did Aphrodite today, I'll just quit doing this stupid/painfull push-ups"... but then I remembered that 

so I finished my pitifull 33 repetitions and called it a day, exhausted. Even if the workout was lame,  I did it.