Freeletics: C&S Coach Week 8

According to the Coach, the goal this week was to complete at least two of the assigned workouts with a star performance. I know that I had been struggling with motivation recently, but this was exactly what I needed to really get back into things. The goal was challenging but obtainable, so I felt particularly compelled to give it my all. At the end of of the week I had successfully pulled off a star performance on everything I attempted, not just the four workouts that the Coach had assigned, but on every workout and exercise that I had added myself as well.

I'm not entirely sure what led to my renewed zeal and fondness for the Freeletics program, but it's certainly a welcome reprieve from the monotony and dullness I had been experiencing. This week actually felt a lot like when I first started, back when I was excited to include additional workouts and when I pushed hard in every single session. Now that I'm closing in on the end of the program I just have to hope that this new found momentum can carry me through to the end.

Session 1: Metis 2x (13:41) (*) (PB) | 50 Sit Ups (1:53) (*) | 10 Pull Ups (0:27) (*) (PB)

Session 2: Venus [endurance] (15:33) (*) (PB) | 50 Mountain Climbers (0:24) (*) (PB) | 50 Sit Ups (2:22) (*) | 50 Mountain Climbers (0:21) (*) (PB) 

Session 3: Hades (26:16) (*) (PB)
Session 4: Gaia [endurance] (21:55) (*) (PB) | 50 Push Ups (1:58) (*) (PB) | 50 Sit Ups (2:19) (*)

Session 5: Hyperion [endurance] (7:43) (*) | 50 Climbers (0:24) (*) (PB) | 10 Pull Ups (0:21) (*) (PB) | 10 Pull Ups (0:38) (*)

   * blue text denotes additional workouts unassigned by the Coach

Freeletics: C&S Coach Week 7

The seventh week of Freeletics marks the halfway point in the program and it is given the moniker "Hell Days." Regardless of the number of training days you typically have set, the Coach assigns only three workout days for the week, but each day consists of two workouts. It's a far cry from the intensity of the Hell Week that concluded the Basic Package, which had workouts assigned for all seven days of the week, but nevertheless, this past week was definitely more challenging than any of the previous weeks in the program.

The Coach says that you can split the workouts into a morning session and an evening session, and that you should take a rest day between each of the workout days. Being up for a challenging though, I ignored both pieces of advice and did my double workouts back-to-back over three consecutive days. I even added in a Poseidon on the fourth day just to stick with my usual workout schedule.

I know that I could have taken it a lot easier than I did this past week, but I really wanted to push myself to help get me back in the swing of things. My motivation was really suffering last week and I found myself struggling to complete the workouts, so I made a point of it to go on the attack this week to build up some momentum again. I can't say that my motivation is back to where it was when I first started the program, but my approach this week definitely helped and I'm feeling a lot more enthusiastic about finishing than I had been. Now that I'm more than halfway through the program I'm basically in the home stretch, and that means that there's no reason not to push hard to the very end.

Session 1: Venus [2/4] (10:23) (*) (PB) | Hades (21:15)

Session 2: Gaia (26:58) (PB) | Venus [2/4] (9:54) (*) (PB)

Session 3: Kentauros [endurance 5/6] (26:21) (*) (PB) | Hades (21:15)

Session 4: Poseidon (5:46) (PB)

   * blue text denotes additional workouts unassigned by the Coach

Freeletics: C&S Coach Week 6

Between Helios, Hades, and Hyperion all on tap for this past week, it seems like the Coach got lazy when it came to picking from the alphabetical list of workouts. When I saw the schedule, my first thought was to stick with the pattern and tack on a Hera at the end of the week, but I had my school's annual overnight retreat and camping with forty middle schoolers just wasn't conducive to having the time to get an extra workout in. I was able to complete everything that was assigned, but unlike in previous weeks, I didn't have a chance to do much more than that.

I had gotten into the habit of adding extra workouts or exercises to nearly all of my assigned sessions, but that fell apart this week and brought a lot of my momentum to a halt. I know that with the camping trip I was a lot busier than I usually am, but that doesn't feel like the only problem here. Each session this week required a ton of mental effort to push myself through, and I'm really not sure why that was the case. Maybe it's because it's getting colder in the mornings, or maybe it's because I'm no longer seeing the same leaps in progress that I had been when I first started, but whatever it is, my motivation has really been suffering lately.

I'm not worried about finishing the 15 weeks—when I commit to something, I commit to it entirely—but it's hard to maintain the necessary level of determination when the workouts aren't feeling as fun as they had been just a short time ago. If things continue like this, it's going to be a real struggle to make it to the end, so I just have to hope that this week was a fluke and that my outlook will improve.

Session 1: Helios [endurance] (37:28) (*) (PB)

Session 2: Hades (27:51) (*)

Session 3: Hades (23:56)

Session 4: Hyperion [endurance] (7:57) (*) (PB) | Hyperion [endurance] (7:32) (*) (PB) | 50 Sit Ups (1:41) (*) | 50 Push Ups (2:12) (*)

   * blue text denotes additional workouts unassigned by the Coach

Freeletics: C&S Coach Week 5

September always brings with it the start of a new school year and the seemingly relentless temptation of sweets. Between birthday cupcakes, doughnuts in the faculty lounge, and surprise treats from the parent association, the opportunity to overindulge is ever present. Combine that with the fact that due to my foot injury I've been running less than half the weekly mileage that usually I do, and you have the recipe for some weight gain that I'm not too happy about. Realizing the need to counteract my dietary transgressions over the past month, I've committed myself to reverting back to the much healthier habits that I had no problem employing prior to the first day of school.

Don't get me wrong, I'll still split the occasional pizza or share a pint of ice cream with my wife—what's living if you don't splurge from time to time on the weekends—but I've sworn off the mid-week treats. I've also tacked on even more additional exercises than I normally do after my assigned Freeletics workouts this week and I've spent more time on the stationary bike. Tightening up my diet and shifting my workout balance towards more cross-training activities will have to be my plan until I can get back to my normal running routine.

Fortunately, the Coach seems to agree with what needs to be done and was happy to oblige since this past week featured a noticeable increase in the difficulty of the program. With the rare exception, I had gotten pretty accustomed to spending less than 10 minutes on each of my assigned Freeletics sessions, but this week essentially doubled the duration of my workout time. The four workouts that the Coach issued this week were all much tougher and longer than the majority of the ones that had been appearing in the program thus far, and looking ahead, it seems that next week is even harder. Attacking those tough sessions is exactly what I need though if I have any hopes of maintaining my fitness as I go through running withdrawal.

Session 1: Venus [endurance 3/4] (10:46) (*) (PB) | 50 Climbers (0:28) (*) (PB) | 50 Sit Ups (2:06) (*) | 50 Squats (0:40) (*) | 50 Climbers (0:27) (*) (PB)

Session 2: Hades (27:29) (*) (PB) | 50 Sit Ups (1:55) (*)

Session 3: Kentauros [endurance 4/6] (18:01) (*) (PB) | 50 Push Ups (2:13) (*) | 50 Sit Ups (2:08) (*) | 50 Squats (0:40) (*)

Session 4: Gaia [8/10] (20:57) (PB) | 100 Jumping Jacks (1:08) (*) (PB) | 50 Sit Ups (1:57) (*) | 50 Squats (0:38) (*) (PB)
Session 5: 50 Climbers (0:26) (*) (PB) | 10 Pull Ups (0:29) (*) (PB) | 50 Sit Ups (1:54) (*) | 10 Pull Ups (0:30) (*)

   * blue text denotes additional workouts unassigned by the Coach

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

a measure of my fitness

After surviving Hell Week and completing the Basic Package, I took two days off from Freeletics, but I just couldn't bring myself to stay away any longer and I actually ended up doing an Aphrodite after yesterday's run. I found that choosing your own workouts though just isn't as satisfying as completing ones that have been assigned to you, so I made my commitment official today by signing up for the Coach, the 15-week paid version of the program.

When you sign up for the Coach, the first thing you do is decide whether you want to focus on cardio, strength, or both, and from there you are promised a series of customized workouts each week based on your progress and past performances. My primary goal is to become a more well-rounded athlete, so going with the Cardio & Strength Coach was an easy decision for me. After that was done, my first real task was to complete three exercises to test my athletic prowess and establish a baseline for the upcoming weeks. Once my results for the test were entered, I was promptly given the list of workouts for the first week of the program.

I won't be starting with the Coach until Monday though since I want my Freeletics schedule to start on the same day that my running schedule starts on each week, but I'm definitely excited to begin. I'm also ready to get back into things because the Freeletics team has just recently rolled out a ton of new changes to the program, and I'm really interested in trying them out. Early reports seem to suggest that some of the changes are great, while others are half-baked, but either way, Monday is the official kick off and I'm pumped to get back on a structured schedule.

Session 1: Pull Up Max (11) | Burpee Max (11) | Split Lunges Max (111)

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)

Freeletics: Basic Package Week 4

Departing from what has become the typical routine of long, monstrous sessions, the fourth week of the Freeletics Basic Package actually gives us an incredibly short workout instead. But while each of the four Metis sessions can be completed in significantly less than 10 minutes time, it is still a formidable workout in its own right.

Metis calls for three rounds of burpees, climbers, and high jumps. With just 10 reps of each exercise in the first and third rounds and 25 reps in the second, this workout involves considerably less work than Aphrodite or Dione, the two other cardio workouts that we've seen thus far. The real difficulty in Metis lies in the fact that all three of the exercises are compound movements that demand a great deal of effort and stamina to be performed quickly. Combined that with the steep requirements on each of the movements to earn a star, and you're looking at one tough, albeit short, workout.

A: Burpees | B: Climbers | C: High Jumps

I was skeptical about whether or not a workout as short as Metis would feel like enough, and I ended up being half right in my initial doubts. While it left me sweating and panting throughout the workout and immediately afterwards, within a few minutes of finishing and catching my breath, I found myself wanting to do more. Freeletics actually promotes going above and beyond what is called for on any given day when you're feeling up to it, but I figured I'd adhere to the guidelines of the Basic Package so that I could get a true sense of the outlined program.

I showed a lot of improvement over the week, knocking off about 20 seconds each time I attempted the Metis workout, and I'm really happy with that. The star, however, remained elusive for me. At this stage in training, the burpees were no problem at all, and even the climbers, which required your feet to come all the way up to the outside of your hands, didn't slow me down too badly; it was the high jumps that got me. Failing to get my knees to my shoulders on each rep meant that I had to resort to the modified version of the exercise, but unlike with the pull ups and leg levers of previous weeks, I'm fairly confident that I'll be able to nail a star on the high jumps in the near future since I'm already pretty close.

With only one week left in the Freeletics Basic Package and school about to start again, I'll have to decide how best to continue with my training. I'm unsure of whether I want to buy the Coach, a 15-Week training program that customizes your sessions based on your goals and the results from your previous weeks, or if I want to just go at it on my own in a less structured manner. I'll definitely have to give the whole thing some thought over the next several days.

Session 1: Metis (6:20) (PB)

Session 2: Metis (5:55) (PB)

Session 3: Metis (5:29) (PB)

Session 4: Metis (5:09) (PB)

Freeletics: Basic Package Week 3

Big changes occur in the third week of the Freeletics Basic Package, and instead of the Aphrodite workout that has thus far been the bread and butter of the program, we're given two completely new workout routines instead. The first is heavier on cardio, so if your goal is to lose weight, choose Dione; the second, on the other hand, is more focused on strength, so if you're looking to build muscle, choose Zeus. There is, of course, always the third option of choosing to alternate the two workouts for a more balanced approach, and this is exactly what I ended up doing with my sessions for the week.

Dione involves three rounds of high intensity cardio, with each round consisting of 75 jumping jacks, 25 burpees, 50 leg levers, 75 jumping jacks, 50 sit-ups, and 25 burpees. Compared to the mega sets of burpees featured in Aphrodite, Dione actually looks pretty easy on paper. This is a trap you don't want to fall victim to though, because once you start the workout, you soon realize that it's not the repetitions you have to worry about here; it's the recovery. The sit-ups, leg levers, and jumping jacks get the heart racing almost immediately and then they end so quickly that you hardly have time to catch your breath before you're off doing another set of burpees. It's an unbelievably intense workout that definitely gets the sweat dripping, and it's not one to be taken lightly.

A: Jumping Jacks | B: Burpees | C: Leg Levers | D: Sit-Ups

Zeus, the mighty ruler of the Olympians, is an entirely different kind of beast. This is a workout that is all about strength, and while there are two minutes of mandatory recovery between each round, the four rounds of 5 handstand push ups, 15 pull ups, 25 push ups, 35 sit-ups, and 45 squats will take some serious muscle if you're looking to pull off a star performance.

A: Handstand Push Ups | B: Pull Ups | C: Push Ups | D: Sit-Ups | E: Squats | X: Rest

At the start of the week, with Zeus looming on the horizon, I knew my ride on the star performance train would be coming to an end; there was just no way at this stage in the game that I was going to be able to do the handstand push ups and the pulls ups without switching to the modified versions. I did not, however, foresee that it would actually be Dione that would bring about the demise of my star streak. When it came to it though, I just could not get my legs completely straight up without having my hands beneath me, instead of having them at my sides.

While I still felt like I worked really hard, performance was obviously not a major success this week; the real victory was in fully embracing the whole "the world is your gym" philosophy that is often touted by Freeletics athletes and other bodyweight trainers. My wife and I went to visit her parents for the week, so I did the Dione workouts in the backyard to avoid annoying the rest of the house with all of the jumping around, and since I didn't have a pull up bar with me, I drove to a nearby park for the Zeus workouts. There was just something really invigorating about hitting the earth and kicking up grass. I wouldn't necessarily want to do it every day, but I really enjoyed it and I will definitely be incorporating some more outdoor workouts into my routine in the future.

As the week draws to a close for my Freeletics workouts, I'm left with only my long run to look forward to tomorrow. The weather is supposed to be perfect for a five mile jaunt, and once that's in the books, it will be just about time to start thinking about what the fourth week of Freeletics will bring.

Session 1: Dione (39:36) (PB)

Session 2: Zeus (31:16) (PB)

Session 3: Dione (38:42) (PB)

Session 4: Zeus (30:13) (PB)

Freeletics: Basic Package Week 2

The second week of the Freeletics Basic Package brings with it a return of the Aphrodite workout, but it also kicks things up a notch by including two additional max workouts. The first of which is Push Up Max, and it definitely doesn't play around; it may only be 100 seconds long, but if you're looking to score a star performance on this one, you're going to have to get your chest completely on the floor and briefly lift up your hands between each repetition, ensuring that the muscles go through their entire range of motion. The second max workout is Squat Max, and while this one comes in at 300 seconds long, after all of the squats from last week's Aphrodite sessions, it really isn't too bad at all. At the end of the day, the addition of a couple of max workouts to an already established workout isn't the most exciting change to the program, but it does add a new challenge.

The directions are actually pretty unclear though as to whether you're meant to do all three workouts in each session or if you're supposed to alternate between Aphrodite and the two max workouts. Thankfully, a fellow blogger by the name of Catalina was able to get some answers directly from the source. It turns out that it's entirely your decision; according to the folks over at Freeletics, you can choose to do all of them together or alternate between the sessions, whichever aligns best with your goals, progress, and current fitness. I opted to stack all of the workouts together for each of the four sessions this week, mostly because it seemed like a good way for a teacher on summer break to put off all of the things that he should actually be doing, like lesson planning, studying for the GRE's, and getting our house ready to sell.

Starting off the sessions with the two max workouts certainly made the Aphrodite workouts tougher, but at the end of each session I was extremely surprised to find that I hadn't done as poorly as I thought I would do. I guess even when you're worn out and it doesn't feel like you're making progress, the numbers speak for themselves, and you really can experience a positive change in just a short period of time. The highlight of the week was definitely the third session, when I finally broke the half-hour mark in Aphrodite for the first time, but I was also super pumped with the fact that I had pulled off at least one new PB in each session.

If you're willing to commit yourself to getting all of the sessions done each week, you'll undoubtedly see results. The workouts are long, and oftentimes grueling, but there's an incredible satisfaction that comes with completing them and seeing tiny bits of measurable progress each day. I've only been at it for two weeks now, but I'm already thinking about how I can rearrange my schedule so that I can continue beyond the Freeletics Basic Program once school starts again. At least for right now though, I definitely have next week to look forward to.

Session 1: Push Up Max (38) (*) (PB) | Squat Max (165) (*) (PB) | Aphrodite (38:28) (*)

Session 2: Push Up Max (40) (*) (PB) | Squat Max (186) (*) (PB) | Aphrodite (33:45) (*)

Session 3: Push Up Max (41) (*) (PB) | Squat Max (174) (*) | Aphrodite (29:52) (*) (PB)

Session 4: Push Up Max (40) (*) | Squat Max (190) (*) (PB) | Aphrodite (31:13) (*)

Freeletics: Basic Package Week 1

After signing up, the Freeletics workouts are available to you right from the start (all of them if you buy the app, and a small selection of them if you don't), but without paying a fee for a structured program, you're pretty much left on your own when it comes to scheduling the various routines. However, with your registration you are automatically enrolled in the Basic Package, a free trial that provides a list of workouts for the upcoming week. The current iteration of the Basic Package only supplies three weeks worth of instruction, but an older plan, which can be found by doing a little searching, consists of a full five weeks.

While the three week program would have been delivered right to my inbox and easier in terms of committing to it, I chose to go with the five week program since the timing coincides perfectly with when I have to return to school for work. Between maintaining a run streak and either attending or instructing group exercise classes though, it was tough to decide where to schedule in these additional workouts to allow for adequate recovery. Ultimately, I ended up opting for doing Freeletics on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, but the program specifically states to do the workouts whenever works best for you, as long as you get them all in for the week.

Each day that you are supposed to work out is called a session, and the first week of the Freeletics Basic Package consists of four sessions of a workout called Aphrodite. She may be the Greek goddess of love, but there isn't a whole lot to actually love about this workout that consists of five rounds of burpees, squats, and sit-ups. The first round requires 50 reps of each of the three exercises, and each subsequent round decreases the number of reps by ten, leaving you with 40 reps in the second round, 30 reps in the third, 20 reps in the fourth, and 10 reps in the fifth. All of this is against the clock for the best time possible, and by the end of it you will have done 150 burpees, 150 squats, and 150 sit-ups.

A: Burpees | B: Sit-Ups | C: Squats

I thought that I was a reasonably fit individual, but my first session of Aphrodite was pretty brutal. The burpees, in particular, were a real killer; while I could knock out about ten of them at the start of each round, afterwards I was reduced to doing five at a time before taking a break until the round was complete. The sit-ups were much more manageable, but I couldn't do them very quickly, and when it came to the squats, I was definitely in my element, but the workout was just so long that even those started to get tough towards the later rounds.

With the initial fear of not knowing whether or not I could actually finish a full Aphrodite eliminated after doing it for the first time, I was able to improve each time I did the workout. By the fourth and final session of the week, my new personal best for Aphrodite was 30:49, over 11 minutes faster than my first attempt at the workout. I'm also proud to say that I completed all four sessions with a star performance, an award that denotes that every single rep of each exercise in a workout was completed with perfect, unmodified form.

Between the Freeletics workouts and the classes I do at the gym, I'm very content to only have to run over the next two days, but at the same time, I'm definitely looking forward to Week 2.

Session 1: Aphrodite (41:56) (*) (PB)

Session 2: Aphrodite (34:57) (*) (PB)

Session 3: Aphrodite (32:46) (*) (PB)

Session 4: Aphrodite (30:49) (*) (PB)

a venture into more rigorous training

Cycling is often touted as one of the best cross-training workouts that a runner can incorporate into their routine, so for almost a year now I've been teaching an indoor cycling class at my local Y; the obligatory nature of being an instructor insured that I would always get at least one cycling session in each week, and the class worked really well for me in my schedule. However, in an effort to draw in a younger crowd for the summer, I've been switched over to teaching an outdoor endurance class, a class that centers around all of the awesome exercises you can do with cinder blocks and giant tractor tires. I throw some weights around a few times a week, so I'm no stranger to bringing a little strength training into the routine, but this class is a totally different level. It might not have the same counterbalancing benefits of cycling, but it certainly gets the job done in terms of bringing the sweat.

In researching the different workouts that I could incorporate into the class, my eyes have really been opened to a much broader range of strength training activities. My stumble down the rabbit hole of extreme fitness eventually led me to Freeletics, a high-intensity program comprised of bodyweight exercises that are either done for time or for a maximum number of reps. Some of the workouts seem like they could be pretty long, especially when you're first starting out, but as a teacher with the summer off, I figured I'd commit to trying out the program while I'm riding this wave of being really into strength training.

As soon as you sign up and confirm your account, you're sent an email with your first workout: Burpee Max, Sit-Up Max, and Squat Max. Each of these exercises requires you to knock out as many reps as you can in 300 seconds; it's certainly not the most novel first workout, but it's a good way to establish a baseline of fitness before officially starting the program. So after my run today, I did some light stretching, laid out a yoga mat, and hit start on a timer for the first five minute set. When all was said and done, I had pulled off 47 burpees, 65 sit-ups, and 138 squats. I'm not sure how that stacks up in the grand scheme of things, but I'm certainly pleased with those results for the first day.