Sunday, August 24, 2014

Freeletics: Basic Package Week 5

When King Leonidas instructed the 300 Spartan warriors under his command to "Ready your breakfast and eat hearty, for tonight we dine in Hell," he just as easily could have been talking about this past week as he was about facing an endless onslaught of Persians. The fifth week of the Freeletics Basic Package features a family reunion of the Greek deities that we've encountered thus far, and with sessions scheduled for all seven days of the week, some of those sessions even including multiple workouts, this final week is aptly known as "Hell Week." Here is where you really get to test your absolute limits, and see just how far you've come since starting your Freeletics journey.



Maybe you came to enjoy a particular workout or two along the way, or maybe you just hated them all. Either way, every workout that we've previously encountered from the Freeletics catalogue makes at least one reappearance in the final week. There are a few times where you're once again given the choice between Dione or Zeus, but otherwise, things are very clearly mapped out.

There are no rest days this week, but other than that, you can expect to be doing the usual, a single workout for nearly all of the sessions this week. However, on two of the days, you'll be given three workouts in a single session. The first time this happens, on Day 2, it actually isn't so bad since Squat Max, Push Up Max, and Metis are all short workouts, but on Day 7, the intensity is turned up as high as it will go. For the very last day of the Basic Package you're given a choice between Dione or Zeus, both incredibly difficult workouts in their own right, but just to ensure that everyone ends the program completely exhausted and humbled, a Metis and a Squat Max are tacked on as well.

The schedule this week was daunting, and it had my mind constantly at odds with itself every time I did a workout. It wasn't that I was unsure of whether or not I could do it, because at this point I knew at the very least I had committed myself to finishing no matter how long each session took. Instead, a battle raged within me over whether I should conserve my energy for the heavy training load or whether I should push as hard as I could on each workout. I knew that I would regret it if I reached the end of the week and didn't feel as though I had given my all, so I held nothing back.

I've been sore, and tired, and ravenously hungry every day this week, but I feel incredibly accomplished. I actually pushed myself so hard that I set new PB's on every one of the 11 workouts except for two. I flirted with my limits, and now I'm absolutely addicted to finding those boundaries and putting in the work to progress past them. My plan is to continue with my running and to take it much easier on my cross-training for a week, but then on September 1st, I'm coming back strong and I've decided that I'll be starting the 15-Week Cardio & Strength Coach.

Session 1: Zeus (29:45) (PB)
Session 2: Squat Max (220) (*) (PB) | Push Up Max (42) (*) (PB) | Metis (6:13)
Session 3: Dione (36:07) (PB)
Session 4: Aphrodite (24:43) (*) (PB)
Session 5: Zeus (26:39) (PB)
Session 6: Aphrodite (23:40) (*) (PB)
Session 7: Dione (32:46) (PB) | Metis (6:50) | Squat Max (235) (*) (PB)

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