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 W15 // HELL WEEK D1 - Helios (S) + Metis (S)

 Helios (S), *01:07:42 (PB) 

 Metis (S), *00:08:02 (PB!) 

This week, you will gain a major Freeletics experience: Hell Week. Every now and then we choose to go through hell to come out even stronger. Freeletics Hell Weeks are all about reaching true exhaustion, reaching our performance limits several times within a short period of time and with little rest and exceeding our own expectations. Hell Weeks made many of our athletes much stronger – both physically and mentally. Hell Week means a lot of training. Seven days, seven times Freeletics. All out: Seven days in a row, high volume and high intensity. As always, try to break your PBs. This week, however, it is even more important to successfully complete every single session. You know the game. Make sure to stay hydrated and to maintain good form, especially as you get weaker. And remember: This is Freeletics. Quitting is not an option. Once more give it your all!

Technically I didn't choose to get Hell Week, but I don't really have a choice and I'm think I'm more up for the challenge than I actually think I am!!! When I finished last week, I thought "I'll tell the coach this week was a bit easy and I'll ask for three training days, I can squeeze three workouts + two soccer matches". Instead of that, the Coach says I get Hell Week. I thought "well, it will probably be like last time, with 4 training days.." but no, it's seven days of training ! I have a relatively tough week at work and soccer matches on Tuesday and Saturday so I'm not really sure how I'll survive, playing and training the same day AND having trained all other days... but we'll see!

The first Workout of Day 1 is Helios, a workout I have never done before. If I had the choice, I wouldn't start with an unknown workout, and I think that's precisely why the Coach did it; to put me to the test mentally. I hate the unknown, and I have to start being more comfortable in uncomfortable scenarios. 

#CoachKnows

Helios is a one "A-B-C-D-C-B-A" series workout of Burpees (A), Lunges (B), Climbers (C) and Sit Ups (D); (and then again Climbers, Lunges and Burpees). The number of reps varies from 100 to 150. I think its very hard on the mind to have to do 100 or 150 times the same thing, repeating the same movements over and over. Workouts with several series of 20 - 50 or even 75 reps are "easier" on the mind. Even if in the end you did the same total number of reps, It's not the same to do them all at once or in several series. It took me absolutely forever to finish, but I did finish, which is a small victory in itself. I started thinking about the week of training ahead of me and I think that pushed me to take it slower than I ought to, "saving energy" for the impending future.

Of course, it wouldn't be Hell Week if I didn't have to do another workout after over 1 h of Helios. Luckily it was good old Metis: I knew it would take me less than 15 minutes to finish it, and then it would all be over. I took a 3 - 5 minute break and I jumped right into it. The tought of finishing Day One fast gave me unexpected energies, and I went all crazy on the first round of 10 Burpees and Climbers. I knew right away I was on track to beat my PB, and that gave me even more energy! I had to slow down during the series of 25 reps, and for a moment I feared I had lost my impulse, but then I pushed and pushed and managed to improve my time by 48 seconds!!! It was really a huge surprise. I didn't think I could go so fast after training for 1 hour. I'm sure being all warmed up and having done all those Burpees before hand played in my favour. Day One of Hell Week ended up the best way possible; with two PBs on my bag (ok... the first one doesn't actually count since it was the first time doing the workout, but still =)

Coach W12D3 - Atlas (Standard)

 Atlas (S), 00:31:52 

Last training session of Week 12, and it's a workout I've never done before: ATLAS. In Greek mythology, Atlas was one of the Titans that rebelled and fought against the Olympians. After loosing the battle, Zeus punished Atlas by having him stand on the western edge of the Earth (Gaia) and hold up the heavens over his shoulders for eternity. That way he was kept apart from his brother Menoetius who was condemned to the tartarus. Atlas has been long time misrepresented as holding Gaia over his shoulders, when the myth clearly states that he is holding the heavens... The thing is, how do you represent the heavens? It's certainly easier to make a painting or a statue of Atlas holding the Earth!

Did Atlas, the workout, feel like I had to carry the weight of the heavens over my shoulders? Not really, but it is certainly was a complex workout, involving 6 different exercises which pretty much had me doing a bit of everything.

The workout starts off with a 2 km run. On Sundays the large avenue in front of my apartment is closed from 9 AM to 2 PM and everybody goes out to run, ride their bikes, roller skate, walk their dogs etc. I measured the distance online and I managed to run up 1 km and down 1 km the closed street, and finish in around 12 minutes.  I hate running so I think it's a decent time, but it can most certainly be improved. After that, I got back into the apartment and went on with Squats, Burpees, Climbers, Leg Levers (which are supposed to be straight but I had to do Hand Helped so, no star) and finally Jumps. Overall it went smoothly, up until the Leg Levers which put me a bit in a bad mood because I see and feel the limitation of still not being able to do them straight. I'm working on it though, that's what's most important I guess... My psoas suffers tremendously during the Leg Levers  so,  having to jump afterward is a BIG challenge.

Coach W12D2 - 3x Metis (Standard)

     3x  Metis (S), *:00:32:15 PB!!! 

Second training day of the week, second day of training in a row. Wednesday is Metis day, again! Except this time it's the standard version, three times. After doing the strength version yesterday, standard Metis seems much more friendly. It's just Burpees, Climbers (although Froggers seem more easy to me for some reason), and Jumps - knees at least at hip level, I'm not confused anymore -. I find it amazing to see how mental perception changes completely the way I approach and engage the workout. I was excited and sure I'd perform great. Quite different from what I was feeling the prior week!

I went at it full power. As I always say, when you know well what you're up against, everything seems easier. I guess in a way it's like the saying "practice makes perfect". Having done roughly the same movements the day before helped tremendously. I knew exactly how to tackle Metis. I took short breaks when I absolutely needed them. I pushed hard, both physically and mentally. Again I had some trouble breathing although it seemed a bit less than the day before. I think that's because strength workouts in general are way more metabolic than the standard workouts, so It's only natural I'd have to breathe heavier on a strength workout than on a standard one. My having EIB (Exercise-Induced Bronchospasm) theory is gaining evidence rapidly, so a few more times and I guess I'll have to check with a MD. EIB or no EIB, I had done this exact workout about a month ago, and I improved my time by almost 12,5 minutes! I'm really pleased to have made such a big time jump. Maybe I don't have a sixpack yet, but I'm definitely fitter -numbers don't lie-. I also feel there's plenty of room to improve even more, so my next goal with this one is going to be dropping the time below the 30 min mark. Totally doable, don't you think?

Coach W12D1 - 2x Metis (Strength)

 2x Metis (X), 00:35:57  

I decided to pull the plug on W11 without completing all the workouts the Coach had assigned for me, and move on to W12. I left pending some loose exercises: 2x 100 burpees, 2x 25 High Jumps and 50 Squats, and also a whole WOD; Apollon. I trained on Sunday, Monday and Wednesday, so I had the whole weekend to complete the missing exercises. The thing is, I went again (see here for the first trip story) on a weekend trip to the countryside, this time with both my parents and my GF. I asked permission from my boss to miss Friday and she said I just had to pay back the missing hours by staying late all week, so that was cool. We left on Friday morning and I drove around 4,5 hours to get to the countryside. We had lunch at my dad's cousin's farm and then went on a quest to buy local honey, which took another couple of hours. My parents stayed at the countryside while me and my GF drove another hour or so to Pichilemu (the beach). I was not going to miss the chance to take my third surfing lesson, being that close, right?! On Friday night I was extremely tired from the trip and all the hours driving, so I was not about to begin training. 

On Saturday morning we went to a beach called Punta de Lobos, which is a 10 minute drive from Pichilemu. That beach is considered one of the best in Chile for surfing, and they often organize championships there. I decided  while I take my lessons I might as well try out different beaches, so I took a 1 h private surfing lesson there with Kotaro-san, a Japanese surfer who's living 2,5 years in Chile. He turned out to be a great teacher and we got along super well. I had a blast in the water and learned quite a bit from him! My surfing skills are improving every time I get on the board, which makes me very happy. The waves and currents at Punta de Lobos are a lot stronger than in any of the other places I've surfed before, so it was much more physically demanding than other times (also a bit scarier). I had some lunch, took a little nap and then went back in the water for another hour or so of solo practice. During my lesson in the morning we were a handful of people in the water. The day was gorgeous and when I got back to the beach around 5 or 6 PM there were surfers everywhere. It turned out to be a not-so-good first solo experience. I had to jump at least 5 times from my board to avoid collisions, mainly with some of the younger surfers out there. There was a group of 4 or 6 kids, around 14 years old, who jumped in at any wave and didn't look much in front of them until they were coming straight at you, full speed... Also the tide was very high so the waves were even bigger than in the morning and the currents stronger. Note to self: until I get really good, only surf in the mornings and avoid the crowds...

After all that time in the water I was of course exhausted, so I didn't train on Saturday either.I woke up on Sunday morning with a few bruises in my hips from the board, and with very sore biceps. We slept in a little bit, packed our bags, and drove 1 h to the countryside to have lunch and pick-up my parents. Then I drove another 4,5 hours back to the city. You can imagine the last thing I wanted to do when I finally got home was to train. Monday came along and to be honest I just didn't want to stay stuck on W11 any longer, so I told the Coach the week had been too hard, and that I just wanted 3 training sessions on W12. I'll try my best to do the missing exercises at some point during the following weeks, but for the time being, it is new week time.

The first training session was 2x Metis, strength version. That meant Burpee Squat Jumps, Froggers and High Jumps, which I did with a smile on my face on Tuesday night, well rested and ready for the action. I've been struggling a lot with my breathing and heart rate lately. I know I should be taking paced, deep breaths, but I can't physically do it for a long period of time. With the higher intensity training sessions, I've been noticing that my lungs get obstructed, just as when you have bronchitis. My airway tightens up and I have to cough several times to "loosen-up" and "make room" for the air to come in. With all the coughing and shallow breathing, my heart rate goes up the roof a that of course slows me down (and is not fun). I've never suffered from asthma, but I've been researching a condition called Exercise-Induced Bronchocospasm (EIB), which fits perfectly with all my symptoms and conditions (you can read for free a short but complete paper on the subject of the American Family Physician's here, remember I'm a Biochemist!). If things continue this way I might be paying a visit to a MD soon and ask for a pulmonary function test coupled with an appropriate exercise challenge to see if maybe I need to take some bronchodialator drug prior working out... We'll see. In the meaning time, I messed up the high jumps again, so no star for me, and I did well but not great time-wise.

Funny thing is, the Coach instructions this week were finger-on my problem: 

Week 12! This week it is time to work on your breathing. With the right breathing you can increase your performance. The higher the intensity, the shallower you will breathe. Make sure to switch smartly from shallow breathing to deep and steady breathing and the other way around depending on the intensity of the exercises. The goal of the week is to set at least one new PB using a smarter breathing technique.

Coach W11D3 - 4/6 Kentauros (Strength) + 2x 100 Squats + 100 Burpees

 4/6 Kentauros (X): 00:29:10 

 100 squats: *00:05:23 

100 burpees: *00:14:59 

100 squats : *00:04:29 (PB!)

After training two days in a row, I rested on Tuesday. Wednesday came along and with it, my third training day of week 11. I was determined to face and beat down the mental challenge this week has put me trough, and what better way to do it than with my good old friend Kentauros. I was scared when I saw the programming (Kentauros, strength version + 2x 100 Squats + 2x 100 Burpees), but having learned from the experience of the previous days, I didn't let that get into my head. I decided ahead of time I would, at the very least, do one set of Squats and one set of Burpees after the WOD, and I'd see how to go from there.

Even if it's just 4/6, it's the strength version of Kentauros I'm dealing with. I suffered miserably with the standard version until not too long ago, so I was both excited and scared to see the challenge rise, and to test myself once again. The modifications from standard to strength are subtle but meaningful; Burpee Frogs become Burpee DEEP Frogs (BDFs) and Jumps become HIGH Jumps (HJ). These seemingly little changes mean putting in tons of extra energy to be able to jump from a low squat position, landing accordingly (in case of the Burpee Deep Frogs) and higher, raising the knees to touch the shoulders and not only to hip level (in case of the High Jumps). As you can see from the picture, I was pouring buckets of sweat by the end of it.  I think  this is THE training session I have sweated the most, ever. I had never before seen drops of sweat run down my hair and fall in my shouders, back, neck, floor...

Overall I felt absolutely great. Pumped, motivated, happy to see my mind and body perform at unison. I think it helps tremendously to know the workout well. I know how and when to pace myself, when to speed up, when it's wise to rest a bit, when I can push harder. I'm extremely happy that I finished below the 30 minute mark, and I'm looking forward to repeating this WOD in the near future. I feel I have it in me to drop that time down a bit!. Just waiting for the Coach to give me that chance again. I feel much stronger; the BDFs were not that big of a challenge as I thought they would be. I actually struggled a lot more with raising the knees high enough during the High Jumps! *edition: while writing this, I realized I actually did Jumps and not High Jumps (so I removed the star I had first awarded me) because I started the workout with the confusion of how high the knees had to go in HJ. To be fair, I think if I had "known" (I did know but I was confused) I had to touch my shoulders with my knees, I probably would not have been able to do it in all reps or if I did, my time would have been significantly higher. So there it is. I was all happy about the time with a star, but hey, next time there will be no confusions and I'll hit that workout hard.

After hydrating myself and catching my breath for a little bit (about 3 min rest) I went in for the first 100 Squats. The most squats I've had to do in a row before is 50, during the first round of Aphrodite. I thought twice as many was completely doable, and it was. I had to break into series of 25-ish and rest for a couple of seconds in between sets (rest = kick the air to move around my quads and take deep breaths). I'm hoping to get soon to the point were I don't stop. I thought I'd be under 5 minutes, and I was close. One very interesting thing I noticed is, when I got around the 80th Squat, I felt some sort of smooth warmth expand in my quads, and pressure/pain release. I suddenly felt like I could keep on squatting for a long time. I think it may have been the same thing that happens when you jog; you suffer and suffer and then you reach a certain point, well into your run, when suddenly you feel like you could keep on going for hours. 

I took another break (around 5 minutes) walking around, stretching my quads a bit and drinking some water. Without thinking too much about things, I dropped to the floor to start doing the 100 burpees. If I let myself meditate long enough on what's coming ahead, that's when my mind tricks me into thinking I cannot do it. I didn't give my mind enough time, and it was a good decision. I have calculated before that my current burpee rate is 10 per minute, so I thought It would take me 10 minutes to do the 100 burpees. That calculus did not take into consideration having done 4/6 strength Kentauros and 100 squats before, so of course it took me 50% longer than anticipated to finish! The truth is, I was still thrilled. I had beaten my mind. I had done all 100 burpees, for the first time (just like with the squats, I had never done more than 50 in a row before), even when I was exhausted and pouring and pouring buckets of sweat. I WON. And it was an amazing feeling.

Just when I was doing my last 20 burpees or so, my GF arrived home from her CrossFit class. She saw me struggling a bit and cheered me on. Then, when I finished, she asked if that was my last round and I told her I was supposed to do 100 more squats and 100 more burpees, but that I thought I didn't have it in me to complete that. She said to me "I know you can do it, at least you can do the squats, so come on, I'll squat with you". Getting that support and encouragement from her was the biggest achievement of that training session. I cannot begin to describe how happy it makes me to see these changes in her, wanting to exercise, to get fitter, healthier, to the point where she'll do 100 squats after having done CrossFit, just to accompany me. She pushed me because I needed to be pushed, and it payed off. I got below the 5 minutes, as I had wanted to do in the first attempt. I set a new PB, when I thought I couldn't squat anymore. 

The only thing missing, to have had an absolutely mind blowing successful day, was the last 100 burpees. After the liters and liters of sweat, I really didn't think I could handle another 15 to 20 minutes doing burpees. In total I was already training for around 1 h, and it felt like if I kept pushing that hard, it might have been detrimental. So I made that decision, I don't know if it was 100% honest or if some mental weakness was there too but that was it. My first really real Hell Day, almost done 100%, with great achievements and even a PB. What an amazing day!

Push your limits

Coach W11D2 - Dione (Standard) // The REAL Hell Week

 Dione (S), 00:48:36 

Since this is, for me, THE REAL HELL WEEK, I figured I'd train as much as I can while I can. Therefore, my general planning of letting one rest day in between training sessions went to the freezer and I decided to attack day 2 on Monday after work. I was hoping to have a nice and "easy" workout to bounce back and regain some confidence after the previous night Gaia's mental debacle. The Coach said on day 2 I had to do standard Dione + 100 burpees + 2 x 25 High Jumps + 50 squats. Just reading that long list made me tired... It sounded like a lot, and I attacked Dione with that in the back of my mind. 

I was surprisingly only mildly sore. I thought after almost 1 h of Gaia, I'd be crushed. However no pain did not mean no tiredness. My muscles were noticeably lazy, I was slower than usual and I had to struggle with some movements. It actually took me  +12 mins than my PB to finish the WOD!!! Dione is basically tons of Jumping Jacks and Burpees + Ab exercises (Sit ups and Leg Levers). I still have a rough time with the Leg Levers because my lower back bends if I don't put my hands below my butt. So, once again, no star for me! I still need to develop more ab strength to be able to really move my legs up and down while keeping by back tight and touching the floor. #WorkForIt. I feel like my legs are super heavy and I just can't hold them in place without bending my spine (which of course, makes my lower back hurt a lot, and that's not smart!).

The other thing I noticed this time around is that I woke up the next day with very tight and sore calves, particularly the left one. About a month and a half ago I received a big kick in my left calf during a soccer match and after that I've felt like that leg is still not back to normal. I took care of it after the blow, but it seems it was not enough. It's like the muscle is much more ready to cramp when the one on my right leg is still OK. And today, after all the Jumping Jacks, I'm still noticing that difference; left calve is very tight, has knots all over and hurts when I stand on the tip of my toes, while the right one is just a bit tight. I'm massaging it and stretching thoroughly to make it go away fast.

I was sweating and feeling very tired after Dione so I didn't do any the loose exercises. I thought to myself I'd leave them for an extra training day with just loose exercises. Looking in retrospective, of course I should have done them, but its easy to say that now. In that moment, I was once again weak. I'm absolutely convinced that if I had rested 3 minute I would have been able to do the loose exercises physically. It all comes down, yet again to a mental thing. Freeletics is testing me both physically and mentally, and this particular week it's definitely more a mental challenge than a physical one. So far, I'm not doing all that well... Guess I have found my biggest weakness!