Cardio&Strength - W5D5

 Apollon: *00:32:45 

After Kentauros' hell week, and recovering completely, today's session consisted in Apollon, an all new cardio workout that alternates burpees, 400 mt runs and deep squats. Compared to a hard strength session as was Kentauros, I find these cardio sessions to be almost a walk in the park (emphasis in the ALMOST part of the sentence), and a "joy" to do. I finally finished week #5!!!! It looked like this day would never come...

Burpees are my friends now and squats were always friendly, so I had no problem doing the workout without any modified repetitions. Yaaay for me! I got a star right away :-P. I had to stop though every once in a while to catch my breath. It is very noticeable when I have not been training steadily. I believe that if I had to to this same workout a couple more days in a row, I could get my time near the 25 minute mark with relatively little effort. We shall see what comes my way now though.

And still on the brighter side of life... I keep on training with company =). My close-one that had trouble with my getting-in shape is now not only doing some Freeletics workouts with me... They are even joining me in the soccer pitch and jogging while I play so WE KEEP MAKING PROGRESS!  

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...

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.

I'm not dead

Well, I'm not dead (even if it looks like I was).

With my new job I haven't been able to train AT ALL these past few weeks. I get home very late every day and I'm super tired all the time. I keep having 2 to 3 soccer matches a week and I'm still attending yoga classes on Wednesdays. That only leaves me Friday, Saturday, Sunday (well, sometimes I play soccer on Sundays too) and Monday to train Freeletics... That's 4 days a week, in a row, to do 4 to 5 training sessions.  If I pulled it off, I'd be exercising 7 days a week with no breaks. 

I'm trying to be realistic here. Yes, I've said we NEVER quit before, but there's a saying that goes "never say never" and I think it applies all too well to my current situation. On the week-end it is impossible for me to train (I know I shouldn't use that word, but it's a fact). I've tried to pull it off during the week, training after soccer (usually past 11 PM) and stuff, but I'm having enough trouble getting up in the mornings as it is. I don't want to perform poorly in my new job and I think, for me, it's neither wise nor healthy to train that much. 7 days a week with no breaks... again, for me, I don't see the point of pushing things that far.  I'm not a pro athlete, and resting is as important for being healthy as eating right and exercising. 

That being said, I don't want to quit. I think I just need some time to settle in and figure things out. I hate leaving things halfway done, so I'm definitely finishing my Cardio&Strength guide... at some point. I know now it will not be done in 15 weeks (I've already lost a whole week...), but it will be done. 

Soccer is my life. Even if I think Freeletics is wonderful as an exercise and a way of living your life in a positive healthy manner, I started doing it to be better at soccer. So, of course, I'm not about to lower my number of soccer matches a week to do the workouts. Soon the leagues will be over and I'll have more time to squeeze the workouts. In the meaning time, I'll train as much as I can, but without putting myself the pressure of doing all 4 to 5 workouts a week.

In other news:

¡¡¡Happy Christmas Eve to you all!!!

Cardio&Strength - W5D3

 Poseidon: 00:11:00 

 Burpee MAX: *46 (in 300 sec) 

I've had a crazy week-end and it was impossible to train for a few days. Today I finally got the time to do day #3 of this week, and I just realized this week has got 5 training sessions planned instead of the usual 4!!! I will definitely have finish up week #5 in way more than a week's time... Day 3 consists in two new workouts with well known exercises; Poseidon, all strength with Pull-Ups and Push-Ups, and Burpee Max. 

I'm getting better at the modified Pull-Ups, but I still have a hard time doing them all the right way and lowering my body completely in a controlled manner. The good news is the Push-Ups are definitely under control and I will never again do the modified version, so that's definitely a progress worth noticing :-). 

The Burpees however were a bit disappointing. I thought I'd be able to do way over 50. Without putting much thought into it I was expecting over 100 repetitions... then as I was doing the workout I realized doing 75 would be a great number, but not even 50?! I think that's a bit of a shame. I think I must review my technique, because I'm not getting any faster when I consider I should.

Cardio&Strength - W5D2

1/2 Kentauros: *00:40:41

Today I had to do a new strength workout; Kentauros. It is composed of six series of a combination of lunge walk, high jumps and burpee frogs. 

If burpees were my personal hell at the beginning of Freeletics, burpee frogs are a whole new level of torture. And lunge walks seem easier than they are... but it's all a lie. Also, I do not recommend to do Kentauros with shorts and over cement; I got bruised knees very VERY fast, and they hurted all the way.

I'm unhappy and I feel disappointed. Remember that we NEVER quit? Well, today I quitted. I was absolutely unable to finish the workout. It took me 40 minutes to do 3 of the 6 series of Kentauros... And I couldn't keep on going. It was, I think, 70% a mental wall, 30% a physical one. I underestimated how tough this workout was. I really believed I would finish it quite fast, and I went for the star right away. I don't think doing the modified version of the exercises would have made that much of a difference, but maybe it would have been enough for me to be able to complete the whole thing.

Now I go to bed feeling ashamed and wondering what I could have done different not to be in this position. A big part of me shouts excuses like: "I was exhausterd today because I've been getting up early al week and last night I didn't sleep well", but I knoww deep inside there shoud be no excuses...

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.