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On 26 October 2025 I made a decision:
to take mobility and flexibility seriously.

I started this journey with Calisthenics Movement – Mobility 2.0.
I completed the prep phase and Level 1 twice, and the content itself was solid — but the sessions slowly grew from 10 minutes to almost 30, and that simply didn’t fit my day.
I couldn’t sustain that structure consistently.

So I switched to GoWOD, and honestly: this is exactly what I needed.

What works so well for me:

• innovative, built-in progress measurement
• personalized routines
• three simple modes: Daily, Activation, Recovery
• I choose how much time I have (I always select 8 minutes)
• I can do it at any moment: a break at work, while cooking, between tasks

Because of that flexibility, it became a natural habit.
After almost a full month, my streak holds strong and I’m averaging ~12 minutes per day.

It fits my lifestyle, it works with my training, and it finally gives me a sustainable mobility system.

Finished the cycle. Subjectively the weakest so far — not because the stack “stopped working,” but because it overlapped with a very heavy training block (see: fall after the peak) and the UC Berkeley Exec program (Artificial Intelligence: Business Strategies and Applications). The combo of VO₂ sessions + deep study simply masked day-to-day effects.

What I’ll keep (and for how long)

• DHA — continue for ~1 month, then stop.
• Uridine — continue for ~1 month, then stop.

After that: full 2-month break from the stack. Planned restart: ~Feb 10, 2026.

What I actually ran

Daily protocol as in the Cycle 3 start note; effects were more “structural base” than “wow” under high load.

Takeaways

• Under high physical + cognitive stress, perceived gains flatten even if long-term building (mitochondria, membranes) continues.
• Sleep held up; HRV was volatile and tracked intensity spikes.
• The right move now is homeostasis: let the system self-regulate, keep only DHA/uridine one more month, then full off-cycle.

Unfortunately, I have to return the Lactate Scout Sport, as the device turned out to be too inconsistent and unreliable for field use.

After consuming over 20 strips, only about five readings seemed trustworthy — the rest were completely off.
For example, during today’s easy run (cool weather, HR ~142 bpm, pace ~6:20/km), the device reported absurdly low values of 0.5–0.7 mmol/L.
Just two days earlier, after 7 × 1.5-minute intervals at 3:57/km, it showed 9.4 mmol/L, which made sense.
Similarly, on an earlier easy run (~6:20/km), I got 2.4 mmol/L, again plausible.

So the pattern is clear:
👉 the meter performs fine indoors, but becomes unreliable outdoors — especially in cold (6–10 °C), humid, or rainy conditions typical of autumn.
The strips are extremely sensitive to temperature and moisture, which makes real-world measurements impractical.

For verification, I ran a control test using the manufacturer’s calibration solution:
at a reference of 10 mmol/L, the device displayed 10.3 mmol/L, confirming that the analyzer itself is accurate.
The issue clearly lies in environmental sensitivity, not the internal calibration.

A word on Allmed

The distributor, Allmed, showed remarkable professionalism and empathy throughout the entire process.
They advised me patiently, suggested potential troubleshooting steps, and supported my efforts to identify the root cause.
Wanting to be fair, I even asked them to reduce the refund amount slightly and covered the cost of the test materials myself — it felt right to do so after such great customer service.

Conclusion

While the Lactate Scout Sport works fine in lab-like conditions, it’s not a reliable tool for field testing during typical outdoor training seasons.
Consistency is everything when you’re tracking physiological adaptation — and this device simply can’t deliver that under variable weather.

Still, it was a fun experiment — and I learned a lot about how sensitive lactate testing really is.
Also… quite a painful one 😅 — I used the deepest 21G / 2.4 mm lancets, which left real bruises. Now I know: 1.8 mm max next time!

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Finally, I’ve got my Lactate Scout Sport — and, unlike most people, I actually started by reading the manual 😄
(Good thing I did: the strip code had to be changed in the device first.)

As it turns out, measuring lactate isn’t that simple.
My first test was a mess: the blood drop was too small, I pressed the strip too hard, and the result came back 4.0 mmol/L at rest, which made no sense.
A moment later, more blood started flowing (the 2.4 mm / 21G lancets are no joke).

Then I went for a run:

• Easy run: ~5:40 / km, upper Z2 → 3.8 mmol/L.
• Tempo segment: 3.2 km @ 4:42 / km, avg HR 171 → 177 bpm at the end → 4.3 mmol/L.

Testing blood mid-run was a hassle:
blood flowed much faster with high HR, I ended up with a hand literally covered in blood, strips kept throwing errors, and each test took over a minute.

Three hours after the session, lactate was 0.9 mmol/L at rest,
and the next morning (fasted) 1.2 mmol/L.

Takeaway

Garmin’s LTHR estimate (177 bpm at ~4:42 / km) seems reasonably accurate.
But the key insight is that what my watch calls “easy” may not actually be easy for my body —
my real Z2 could be sitting in the gray zone, with lactate already between 2–3 mmol/L.

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From the beginning, I’ve treated running, calisthenics, and mobility as an investment in health.
These are not just workouts, but part of my daily framework designed to regenerate the brain and sustain intellectual performance.

When balance breaks

I’ve noticed this three times already: when training intensity goes too high (as it is now in week 12 of Amy’s plan), things start to fall apart:

• brain fog — harder to enter flow,
• fewer deep work sessions, and the ones I do manage are shallower,
• even NeuroForge, which normally gives me a huge cognitive boost, doesn’t help this time.

It’s not just a subjective feeling. The body also signals overload:

• HRV fluctuations — values lost their stability,
• heart rate drift — less control at given paces,
• sleep not fully restorative — hours in bed are there, but recovery is incomplete.

Takeaways

This confirms that excessive physical load drains mental fuel.
The point is not to avoid intensity, but to seek symbiosis: physical activities should support intellectual ones, not exist at their expense.

What’s next?

I’ll finish Amy’s plan — three weeks left.
After that, I’ll take two weeks of deload and move into a very easy base and technique phase.
The goal for winter is to create a system where running, calisthenics, and mobility are a natural support for mental work, not a drain on the nervous system.

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