Freeletics: C&S Coach Week 4

According to the Coach, this week in Freeletics was all about taking my training outside. Fortunately for me though, I'm no stranger to braving the elements since I run outside every day, but getting rained on while performing pulls ups on a tree branch and doing burpee frogs down a gravel driveway was a completely new type of challenge for me, one that I really found myself enjoying. I love being outdoors and since my job confines me to a classroom for most of the day, it takes more than a little bad weather to keep me from getting my fix of fresh air. It actually rained nearly every day this week, and while it may have slowed me down a bit, it certainly didn't stop me.

For the first few weeks of the program, the sessions had been just a bit too easy, but now it seems as though the difficulty is much closer to what I'd like it to be. The sprints that started off the week had me running faster than I usually do, and it was nice to find that my foot which had been injured for the past few weeks didn't cause me any trouble at higher speeds. On top of the sprints, this week introduced me to Kentauros, a brutal workout in which I felt totally wiped after only having to do half of it, and it reintroduced me to Dione, an old nemesis of mine since I have a history of struggling with the straight leg levers. All of this amounted to what I would call a comfortably challenging week and I'm proud of what I accomplished, even if I didn't set as many PB's as I have in previous weeks.

Session 1: 200m (0:47) (PB) | 200m (0:44) (PB) | 400m (1:41) (PB) | 400m (1:35) (PB) | Poseidon [3/4] (5:44) (PB)

Session 2: Kentauros [3/6] (16:15) (*) (PB) | 50 Sit Ups (1:40) (*)

Session 3: Dione (35:21)

Session 4: Ares (10:01) (*) (PB) | 50 Sit Ups (1:40) (*) | 50 Squats (0:41) (*)
Session 5: 50 Push Ups (2:09) (*) | 50 Sit Ups (1:47) (*) | 50 Squats (0:41) (*)

   * blue text denotes additional workouts unassigned by the Coach

Freeletics: C&S Coach Week 3

Between ramping up my mileage in preparation for some races that I have on the horizon and all of the extra jumping that comes with doing Freeletics, it seems that I've come down with a bit of a foot injury. My right arch has been causing me some very minor discomfort for awhile now, but this was the first week were it actually got painful enough that I had to ease up on my running. I suspected plantar fasciitis at first, but I've had that in the past and it seemed unlikely since the pain wasn't at its worst first thing in the morning; instead, my new diagnose is peroneal tendinosis, which makes more sense based on the location of the pain and the fact that it gets worse, and not better, over the course of a run. I know that it would heal faster if I actually took some time off from running, but with my 300^th day of running in a row set for this Tuesday, I'm just way too committed to my run streak at this point to even consider breaking it any sooner than reaching a year. I'll just continue running lighter mileage for the time being and hoping that doing so will be enough to get me over this injury.

Aside from that though, everything else has been going really well. As a runner and an indoor cycling instructor, I came into Freeletics with a pretty strong cardio base, but constantly pushing myself to set new PB's has helped me quite a bit in that department and has definitely shown me that I still have plenty of room left for improvement. Where I've noticed the biggest gains though is in my upper body strength. Push ups and pulls ups are way easier than they were when I first started; in fact, I've become so fond of doing them that Poseidon is now my go-to workout for when I'm looking to add a little something extra to whatever the Coach has planned for me. It's working hard and then actually seeing that progress from week-to-week that really make Freeletics an incredible program.

Session 1: Metis (4:47) (*) | Poseidon (7:33)

Session 2: Hyperion [endurance 4/5] (6:27) (*) (PB) | 50 Push Ups (2:03) (*) (PB) | 50 Squats (0:40) (*) (PB)

Session 3: Ares (10:22) (*) (PB) | Metis [strength 1/3] (1:39) (PB) | 100 Jumping Jacks (1:09) (*)

Session 4: 5K (39:59) (PB) | 50 Sit Ups (1:38) (*) (PB)
Session 5: Poseidon (6:20) (PB) | 50 Sit Ups (1:57) (*)

   * blue text denotes additional workouts unassigned by the Coach

Freeletics: C&S Coach Week 2

Aside from the two sets of 50 Push Ups that started things off, the Coach only assigned me cardio workouts for my second week. Hera, which consists of alternating jumps and sprints, was a workout that I had never done before, but it quickly became one of my favorites. It's such a simple workout, but the intensity is ideal and the two exercises are a perfect compliment to each other for developing the fast twitch muscle fibers in the legs. I was actually kind of bummed that the Coach only had me do two of the five rounds. As much as I've now come to love Hera though, I unfortunately can't speak as highly of Metis.

Metis is short, and brutal, and I absolutely hate it. You would think that there wouldn't be much to complain about with a workout that literally takes less than five minutes, but the combination of burpees, climbers, and jumps just leaves me doubled over and panting. Plus, once you earn yourself a decent time, it becomes extremely difficult to make improvements since the workout is already so short; seconds become harder and harder to whittle away, and an already tough workout just hurts exponentially more each time you try to push passed your limits and set a new PB. There's also apparently no shortage of irony in the universe, because as much as I loathe the Metis workout, I have it on the schedule again twice next week, one of them a full standard workout and the other just the first round of the strength variation.

Overall though, the week as a whole wasn't too bad. In fact, just like with the first week, I ended up feeling like it was a little too easy for me. I still decided to tell the Coach that the difficulty was right on target though; I'd rather just add in extra workouts and sessions on my own than get assigned something way too strenuous or time consuming to complete. From what I hear, the difficulty increases after the fifth week anyway and I like having the freedom to choose which supplemental workouts to include, so at least for now, I'll stick with what I've been doing for as long as it seems to be working.

Session 1: 50 Push Ups (2:15) (*) (PB) | 50 Push Ups (3:27) (*) | 50 Sit Ups (1:44) (*) (PB)

Session 2: Metis (4:38) (*) (PB) | Poseidon [1/4] (2:30) (PB) | 50 Sit Ups (2:05) (*)

Session 3: Metis (4:31) (*) (PB)

Session 4: Hera [2/5] (7:06) (*) (PB) | Poseidon (6:33) (PB)
Session 5: 50 Sit Ups (1:49) (*) | 50 Squats (0:43) (*) (PB) | 100 Jumping Jacks (1:09) (*) (PB)

   * blue text denotes additional workouts unassigned by the Coach

Freeletics: C&S Coach Week 1

I finished my first week of the C&S Coach, and surprisingly I actually found it kind of easy. I'm sure it's mostly because the Coach is still trying to determine my level of fitness, but it's probably also safe to say that I'm starting off with a pretty solid base after having already done five weeks of Freeletics. When it came time to give feedback on how the week went though, I said that the difficulty was just right. I've been hearing some horror stories from the people who said that it was too easy and then got slammed with unbelievably tough sessions in the next week, and I definitely didn't want to experience that. Overall, I had a lot of fun with the first week; it offered up some great workout diversity and it did a good job of demonstrating the new aspects of the program.

The two biggest changes to the Freeletics program are the introduction of different versions for each workout and the addition of mandatory runs. The number of reps and the basic principals remain the same, but all of the workouts now have three versions: endurance, standard, and strength. Endurance uses the modified forms of the exercises to allow the workout to be completed at higher speeds, standard is basically what we're already familiar with, and strength features forms of the exercises that are even harder than doing the standard workouts with a star performance. This is a change that I really like since the added variety makes it easier to progress through the program and to work towards specific goals; the mandatory runs, on the other hand, were not nearly as well thought out.

Many of the Freeletics workouts already included running as a component, but now runs can be assigned by the Coach on their own; this generally ends up being a series of short sprints or a longer endurance run, and usually you'll see one or two of these running-only workouts each week. As a runner though I feel qualified to say that running requires specified training, and without a planned progression to gradually increase mileage over time, it's extremely unlikely to just jump into it without getting injured. My first assigned run was an 8K and that was no problem at all, but I've seen other people with much less experience given a 10K for their first run. While a reasonably fit person can cover that distance with plenty of walking breaks thrown in, it's really not the right way to get into running, and I find it to be an incredibly scary prospect that the running workouts go all the way up to 42K, a literal marathon. Without the ability to opt out of runs completely, or at least the option to limit the distance of these runs, this is going to cause significantly more harm than good.

The Freeletics team has apparently been getting a ton of customer feedback since the new changes came out, so hopefully some of the bigger concerns will be taken care of. I'm fully committed though regardless of what happens, so I'm just ready to begin my second week.

Session 1: Iris (36:43) (*) (PB)

Session 2: Ares (11:31) (*) (PB)

Session 3: Hyperion [endurance 3/5] (5:22) (*) (PB) | Poseidon (7:39) (PB)

Session 4: 8K (59:22) (PB)

   * blue text denotes additional workouts unassigned by the Coach

REVIEW: Born to Run

"Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen"
Christopher McDougall

Running injuries are one of the sport's few potential consequences, but with the release of "Born to Run" in 2009 and its promise of a better way, Christopher McDougall threw barefoot running into the spotlight and helped kick off a revolution. In "Born to Run," McDougall calls into question much of the common doctrine pertaining to training, diet, and running mechanics, and has since paved the way for some much needed debate on these topics. While the fervent interest in ditching one's shoes has since died down, "Born to Run" has left countless minimalist converts in its wake and the ideas presented in its pages are still worth talking about today as continued investigation brings new information to light.

Many runners can certainly relate to having pondered the nature of injury, but few have gone as far as McDougall in a search for answers. "Born to Run" begins with a simple attempt on McDougall's part to ascertain the cause of his running injuries and how he can prevent them, but it quickly sprawls into an adventure of epic proportions. McDougall's quest for running enlightenment brings him into contact with a host of eccentric experts, athletes, and coaches, and takes him on a journey deep into the Copper Canyons of Mexico to learn the secrets of running from the Tarahumara, a Native American group famed for their ability to run hundred of miles in nothing more than flimsy sandals. Through the melding of personal narrative and a well-curated assortment of thought-provoking research, McDougall crafts a truly remarkable novel.

With a cast of unforgettably offbeat characters and the interjection of controversial theory, "Born to Run" has all the makings of a great page-turner. Some may find fault with McDougall's liberal use of artistic license or the fact that the presented research had clearly been chosen to lead towards very specific conclusions, but "Born to Run" is an exemplar of good storytelling more than it is a memoir comprised of irrefutable facts. Taken with a grain of salt, "Born to Run" is an incredible read, especially for those who enjoy tales of adventure or have toyed with the idea of transitioning to minimalist running. Whether you end up loving it or hating it though, there's no denying that McDougall's premier novel has left a lasting impression on the culture and landscape of running, and if for nothing else, is worth reading so that you can engage in the inevitable discussions that continue to occur long after this book's initial publication.