Cardio&Strength - W3D2

 Hades: 00:48:23 

I'm back in the game (yes, again and again and again...). I did well in resting last week and not over doing it; my hand pain is completely gone now and my knee feels much better. So, I picked up where I left off; doing Hades. Next training is supposed to be Hyperion... One step at the time I tell myself.

I'm still far far away from my Hades PB (33+ mins), but I'm doing the exercises better now. I think that PB shouldn't really count because I was doing the modified Pull Ups "wrong" (actually the best I could, with my 0 strength at the time). I'm proud because I'm taking my time to perform the exercise correctly and not rushing to beat my PB, and that's important. I see a clear improvement in my Pull Up technique. Where before I couldn't do a singe repetition lowering my body in a truly controlled manner, now I can do 5 excellent, 5 good and the next 5 so-so... I'm not there yet, but I'm getting closer.

Even if the realization of that progress makes me happy, I had mentally a hard time during Hades. I don't know what's going on with my head, but I'm super weak, much weaker than other times. I've been thinking about quitting, about doing less workouts per week, about just doing some type of workouts and not all the coach says... I tell myself I don't really need to train this hard, that I'll start with soccer again next week and that two matches per week is enough exercise in my life...

Doing Freeletics requires a lot of commitment and dedication. It gets hard with a full time job. It gets really hard when you have to train at 10 or 11 PM, outside, in the cold and dark night, because you need a freakin' Pull Up bar and 40 meters, or 400 meters, or 2 km... It gets impossibly hard when you have to hide your training from a loved one.

I started this for myself. I want to finish it for myself. My original idea was to get fitter, yes, but now I see that, even more important than getting fitter is that finishing the 15 weeks will mean I'll be mentally much stronger. 

I doubt myself these days, but I'll keep fighting my own head. Maybe I'll have to take baby steps... But I'll do my best to get there in time.

Cardio&Strength - Week 3 debacle

Sit-Up Max: *121 (25-03-2014)

Sit-Up Max: *123 (26-03-2014)

My coach this week tells me to do: Hades, a new strength workout: Hyperion and Ares + Poseidon. I've been having a lot of pain in my left hand this week... like tendonitis or something like that. When I wash my face and press down with the towel it hurts a lot. You can imagine then why I decided to avoid the Pull Ups... 

Hades was not going to cut it, so I tried to move on to Hyperion and maybe go back to Hades later on. This workout is all strength, and it involves strict Pull Ups and Head Stand (HS) Push Ups. I tried to do the HS Push Ups and failed miserably -it was expected-. I went for the non star version, and -this was NOT expected at all- I couldn't even do those. This is the first time I've had to do a workout where I couldn't even do a single repetition of the non-star exercise... =(

So my moral was on the floor, I decided not to "loose" the workout session and go for a Sit-Up MAX... two days in a row.

Cardio&Strength - W3D1

 Burpee Max: *50 (in 300 sec) PB!

A new week has started! Luckily it has begun with a rather easy workout: the Burpee Max. Its comforting to have to do a well known workout, and knowing in advance a) I'll be able to finish it AND doing it with a star, b) It will all be over in only 5 minutes, and c) I have a good chance of beating my previous record. Taking advantage of my last few days of rest, I managed to beat my PB ☺. It's not a ginormous difference (only 2 more repetitions than the previous time), but its is a PB, and every repetition counts!!!

50 burpees in 5 minutes still sounds to me like a low number. It means it takes me on average 6 seconds to do each burpee... Well, I think the first 15 ones I do them in around 4 secs each, and from then on I loose some seconds catching my breath every X repetitions, and every time it takes me longer to do each one. My next goal will be dropping that number down to a burpee every 5 seconds, and hopefully achieving a bit more of a consistent rhythm. That means a total of 60 burpees, only 10 more than now; sounds absolutely feasible in the short term! I guess getting to 100 repetitions would be my long term goal...

Cardio&Strength - W2D4

 Sit Up MAX: *119 (in 300 sec) 

 Sit Up MAX: *110 (in 300 sec) 

So, today I had a nice an easy workout to do. I went out for a light run first and then did two Sit Up Maxes in a row. In general I don't like it when I have to do two times the same kind of exercise, only because I know by the second time I'll be tired and I'll perform less well... And who wants to perform poorly?! Today was no exception,  but I think it's quite decent to only have done 9 repetitions less the second time around! 10 minutes of sit ups... sounds like a lot but it really isn't! I did stretch and "rested" for about two minutes in between Maxes. I'm absolutely convinced that the stretching helped me tremendously because I didn't feel particularly tight, sore or tired when I started the second round. For me, the best way to stretch the abs is the cobra position (taken from Yoga). I do that for about 30 seconds a couple of times and it's amazing how you can feel the muscles loosing up right away.

On another subject, today I woke up feeling a lot of pain and tightness in my hip muscles, specially the Psoas major. It hurts when I walk (lift my legs), but also in some positions lying in bed. I think it's all because of the other day's leg levers...  I can't remember exactly when it was, but one of the first times I did Freeletics, back in August 2013, I spent a whole week in excruciating pain with every step in the same muscles. This only means I still got  a long way to go, and I really really need to strengthen those babies a lot more! Looking at the glass half full, the fact that this time around I'm not dying in pain like the first times proves that I've gotten better, even if it's just a little bit....

Cardio&Strength - W2D3

 Aphrodite: *00:34:39 

It's friday night! Last Friday I was at my friend's bachelorette party getting a little too much to eat and drink to endure the strippers. It was quite a tastefully performance must I say; I probably could have endured it without the alcohol, specially considering I'm not much of a drinker. Tonight I'm nice and clean, all showered up and ready to go to bed after doing Aphrodite and eating a good protein ration to help with my recovery process. What a good girl!

I'm very happy because I did Aphrodite last Sunday -that's only 5 days ago- and it took me 42+ minutes to finish, whereas today it only took me 34+ minutes. That means a) I achieved my goal to be under 35 minutes and b) In 5 days I lowered my time by ~8 minutes. I'm still 7 minutes away from my PB, but I'm getting there in no time! Next time I have to do Aphrodite I'll aim to be under 30 minutes.

I've been doing Freeletics (on and off, I know) for 8 months now, and I'm still amazed every time I see these unbelievable progresses happen in no time. Days like this give me strength to endure harder ones like when I have to do Hades or worse... Kentauros.

**** it doesn't get easier... you get stronger! ****

I still have two more training sessions this week, so it will be a Freeletics week-end! Also I have the date of my first soccer match of the season: Tuesday April the 1st. I'm excited and also a bit nervous... though I think that with 3 weeks of training in my body I'll manage well enough to play.

Cardio&Strength - W2D2

 Leg Lever MAX: 114 (in 300 secs) 

 Sit up MAX: *106 (in 300 secs) 

Thank god today I didn't have to do a full-on, long training session. I love it when it happens that you "just" have to do a couple of MAXes. After yesterday's struggle with Hades, training only 10 minutes at high intensity was exactly what I needed to keep me motivated.

This is the very first time I have to do the Leg Lever MAX!!! I still cannot do the levers without putting my hands under my butt. I do them with my legs extended (it's sort of a half-star thing), but if I don't have my hands under my butt, my lumbar area automatically bends and detaches from the floor and I tend to raise my torso. I think it's just that I don't have powerful enough lower abs to keep me in position. I suppose a couple more weeks doing leg levers should get me to the point where my abs can really keep me in place... After struggling with the levers, I was well tired getting into the sit ups so I couldn't beat my PB. Still I think a did a decent job, being over 100 reps, don't you agree?

Cardio&Strength - W2D1

 Hades: 00:42:11 

Today was one of those times where the training is so messed-up that I can't help to wonder "why the f**k am I doing this?!" This is not the first time I do Hades, but it turned out to be harder than the previous ones.

As I was doing burpee after burpee, just to move on to the pull-ups, which I cannot even do properly, I could only think of how much wanted to quit. It was super late, I was tired from work, I was hungry, I didn't want to do another burpee, I didn't want to try and do pull-ups the proper way... But I didn't quit. I kept doing the burpees, I kept trying to do each pull-up a little better than the previous, and I cannot explain why. Something kept me going. Something even more powerful than my own mind...