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