Author: Nick Momrik

I'm searching for my first hole-in-one. I enjoy being active and making things. I work for Automattic.

4 Plates

My lats were a little sore this morning. Maybe from the presses or burpees? Don’t remember rowing every making me sore. Was up and to the 9am class.

Warmup

  • 3×10 Reverse Hyper (140#)
  • Pass thrus
  • Air Squats
  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • Jumping Jacks

Strength – Deadlift

  • 10×45#
  • 6×155#
  • 6×225#
  • 3×265#
  • 3×305#
  • 3×335#
  • 3×365#
  • 3×385#
  • 3×405#

I haven’t had 4 plates on the bar since sometime before May. Felt ok, but didn’t want to push it.

Conditioning

  • 21-15-9 American KBS (53#)
  • 21-15-9 Goblet Squats (53#)
  • 30 DU

Good little burner. I went with American swings today since it wasn’t high reps. Unbroken on the weighted movements, but my dubs were shitty again today. Missed in the first set at 25 and missed 2-3 times in the second set, but got the last one unbroken. Finished in 4:17.

Accessory

5 Sets

  • 10/10 Kroc Rows (70#)
  • 5 Strict C2B Pull-ups

Why do the Kroc rows never seem to get easier? I sweat like a pig during them. Kind of a nasty combo with pull-ups. I’m going to try to do all strict pull-ups during accessory work or even weighted ones.

Burpees over the Rower

Took a complete rest day yesterday. Staying up late over the weekend to play Halo and this time change has me all messed up. Plus my nieces were here the last couple of days so I was up way earlier than I like. Headed to the gym around 3pm today for my workout.

Warm-up

  • 10 Revers Hyper 140#
  • 10 Back Squat 45#
  • 10 Shoulder Press 45#
  • 10 RH 140#
  • 4 BS 155#
  • 4 SP 75#
  • 10 RH 140#
  • 4 BS 205#
  • 4 SP 95#
  • 10 RH 140#
  • 4 BS 235#
  • 4 SP 115#

Strength

10:00 EMOM (alt)

  • 4 Back Squat (265#)
  • 4 Shoulder Press (135#)

Squats felt better than the sets of 5 with 245# last week. Shoulder press was rough though.

Rowing WOD Week 14 Session 1

So not only is the focus on rowing for CrossFit, but now we’re adding burpees into the mix!

E2M 20:00

  • 15 Calorie Row
  • 8 Burpees over the rower

Each round is done for time. The numbers were based off the 30 second intervals we did last week. My times were 0:54, 0,:53, 0:53, 0:54, 0:54, 0:57, 0:58, 1:04, 1:09, 0:59. Around the end of round 7 I started to feel sick during the burpees. So I slowed down in rounds 8-9 and somehow powered through round 10 because I didn’t want to go over 1:10 and made it back under a minute.

Then a much needed 5:00 rest.

3 Rounds

  • 15 Calorie Row
  • 8 Burpees over the rower

My legs ran out of juice towards the end of the first round on the rower. Burpees held out pretty well. Took me 3:33 and then I collapsed on the ground for several minutes. Finally got moving and went outside to cool off and walked 400m.

That was one fucking nasty ass workout. One of the hardest things I’ve done recently.

Tricks & Treats

Pretty tired from not getting much sleep the last two nights. Damn Halo! 🙂 We kind of did some fun unusual stuff today at the gym.

Warm-up

Did 4 rounds of Rowling. Hard to do a lot with a big group.

Strength

Speed Bench Press

  • 10x3x155#

Warmed up with 10×45 and 3×135#. Didn’t want anyone to go over 60%.

Conditioning

  • 100 Partner Wall Ball Tosses over object

Most people went over a pull-up bar. Bryan and I went over a stack of boxes for more space. We had them stacked 24-30-30″. Pretty fun going unbroken.

We split into 3 teams and did a relay race with:

4 Rounds

  • 20 cal Row
  • 15 Sandbag Toss over Shoulder
  • Move Shit

I think I had a 20# MB, 35# KB, and 53# KB set out for each team. We had to take all of the objects down about 30-40 feet and then back to the starting point. Teams had 4 people so you got a little rest waiting for your turn. Each station could only have one person working and you couldn’t move on until the person in front of you was done.

Halloween – Year 4

Today marks the 4 year anniversary since I started doing CrossFit. Changed my life!

Was up late playing Halo 5 last night. First time I’ve done that playing videos games in a few years. Made it for the 10am class. Weighed in before class for the challenge since the party is tonight. On my scale at home, I went from 16.3% to 13.4% body fat and 208.7 to 198.7 pounds. At the gym I think I went from 20% to 17.5%, but that’s with using it on the “normal” setting instead of “athlete” to make it consistent across the board for everyone.


I definitely feel a lot better and have said for a long time that 195-200 is a better weight for me to carry around. That body fat % still seems high though.

Warm-up

  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • Ring Hang Stretch
  • Good Mornings
  • Presses
  • OHS

Conditioning

5 Rounds

  • 5 Hang Power Cleans (95#)
  • 5 Front Squats (95#)
  • 5 Push Presses (95#)
  • 5 Back Squats (95#)
  • 5 Burpees over the bar

Went unbroken and took a few breaths between sets that I probably didn’t need to. Finished in 6:39.

16:00 AMRAP

Partners share reps and run together.

  • 40 Wall Balls (20#, 10′)
  • 20 Burpees
  • 200m Run

Weston and I went sets of 10 wall balls and caught the person’s last throw off the way to save time. Went 5s on the burpees. we were in our 5th run when time ran out but finished with a solid pace on the last run, so probably about 16:20-16:30 or so.

Picked up Papa John’s on the way home from the gym. 🙂

Ok, I’ll Do Something

Got up and didn’t feel like hitting the recovery work I had planned. Figured I could use a complete rest day.

After a break from work in the afternoon I decided to get on the Air Dyne (AD2) for 30 minutes. Went at a higher cadence that I normally do for active recovery work, thinking back to the HR training stuff I talked about with Joe on my work trip. I wasn’t wearing my HR monitor, but based effort off the rpms on the monitor. Usually I’m going at about 60 and today I was going high 60s up to 70-71 at the end. Went 10.02 miles / 16.12 km, which is nearly 1 km more than I’d done for a half hour according to BTWB.

Wall Ball Squats

Woke up again! Went to the 9am.

Warm-up

  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • Ring OH Stretch
  • 10 Good Mornings (15#)
  • 10 Back Squats (15#)
  • Calf Stretch
  • 10 OHS (15#)

Strength: Overhead Squats

3-3-X-1 Tempo

  • 3×45#
  • 3×95#
  • 3×115#
  • 3×135#
  • 3×155#
  • 3×175#

The closer grips are feeling better and better. Empty bar with a jerk (or even closer grip) is no issue now.

Conditioning

10:00 AMRAP

  • 5x
    • Wall Ball (20#, 10′)
    • Goblet Squat (20#)
  • 15 Russian Kettlebell Swings (70#)
  • 30 Double Unders

The double squat wall balls (not 2-for-1s) were a little confusing. I think I did an extra squat on the 5th “rep” a few times. Kept a pretty steady pace. Missed a few times on dubs. Finished 6 rounds plus the wall ball squats and swings. Picked up the rope but didn’t have time to get any.

Accessory

5 Rounds

  • 10 Decline Push-ups (16″)
  • 6 Ring Rows

All unbroken sets and unbelievably no struggle.

Back to the gym around 6pm

Rowing WOD Week 13 Session 2 – Engine

  • 300 cals at 20s/m
  • 5:00 Rest
  • 200 cals at 22
  • 4:00 Rest
  • 100 cals at 24
  • 3:00 Rest
  • 50 cals for time

Results:

  • 18:40 – 4,616m – 962cal/hr
  • 12:14 – 3,057m – 979cal/hr
  • 5:54 – 1,509m – 1009cal/hr
  • 1:32 – 537m – 1847cal/hr

The distances all include some run off after finishing since there isn’t a way to set a calorie workout on the Concept 2. Total comes to 9,710 meters for the session. In the 50 calorie row I started out holding over 2,000cal/hr through 30 but the burn started to kick in and I was losing power. Not sure why I didn’t think to kick in for a sprint in the last 10 calories or so like I would try to in a distance sprint. Felt pretty smoked after that but would have been a decent 500m time after having spent 36+ minutes on the rower.

9am and the 3 Bears

Actually woke up this morning. Of course in a few days I’ll have to adjust timing by another hour with DST bull shit.

Warm-up

  • 3 Sets
    • 10 Reverse Hyper (210#)
    • 10 Toe Touches
  • Zombie Kicks
  • High Knees
  • Butt Kicks
  • Bar Hang
  • Deadlifts
    • 6×45#
    • 6×155#
    • 6×225#
    • 6×265#

Strength

12:00 EMOM (alt)

  • 6 Deadlifts (295#)
  • 5 Strict C2B Pull-ups

Turned into cardio read quick! 5 was the perfect number on those pull-ups because I was almost missing my last one each set. I touched the ground between every rep and kept a solid hollow body position.

Conditioning

6 Sets

  • 3 Bear Complex (unbroken)
  • 1:00 Rest

I started with 115# and went up 10# every set. Was pretty smooth and steady through the first 5 sets. When I got to the end I would have had 5# sitting on the sidelines so I slapped them on the bar too for a 20# jump. Shit balls! The thrusters in back and front were a struggle and I had to take a second or two to take a breath in a couple of positions. Got through though. I think it took me just under 7:00 to finish all the sets. Didn’t get much rest time with changing the plates.

6 Rounds

  • 30s Row
  • 4 Burpees
  • ~1:00 Rest (while someone else did their row)

I didn’t strap in my feet for the first 5 rounds and got 156-160-160-160-162 meters. Strapped in and went hard on the last one and got 176 meters, so a big difference transferring power into the machine. My burpees were pretty slow every round.

30s

Planned to get up and hit the garage in the morning, but that didn’t happen. Got to Intuition at 3:20.

Warm-up

  • 3×10 Reverse Hyper (210#)
  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • Back Squats – 5×45, 5×155, 5×225
  • Shoulder Press – 5×45, 5×95, 5×115

Strength

10:00 EMOM (alt)

  • 5 Shoulder Press (125#)
  • 5 Back Squats (245#)

Can tell I haven’t been squatting much. That felt much tougher than it even should.

Rowing WOD Week 13 Session 1 – Intervals

Next phase is going to focus on rowing for CrossFit.

Part A: 15 rounds

  • 30s Row (calories)
  • 30s Rest

Strokes/minute Prescription

  • Round 1 – Rate 18
  • Round 2 – Rate 19
  • Round 3 – Rate 20
  • …
  • Round 11 – Rate 28
  • Round 12 – Rate 29
  • Rounds 13-15 – no rate cap, max effort

Screwed up and started out at 19s/m. Figured that out after a few rounds and scaled it back. It was hard to get into a rhythm with the stroke rates in such a short period of time (as you can see from the log). I forgot to keep track of calories, but using the cal/hr (and rounding down) from the log I came up with 9-9-9-10-11-11-11-12-12-12-13-14-16-16-16 for a total of 181. Those numbers seem about right.

Rest 5:00

Part B: Row 25 calories for time

I was hitting over 2,400 cal/hr and even over 2,500 for a brief moment! I don’t ever remember getting 2 cals in a pull and I did it many times. Took me about 0:39.

Hung around for a bit as the 4:30 class got going. Did 5 or 6 sets of ring swings, working on my hollow/arch positions.

HR Run

Weather looked decent for today so figured I could get in a recovery run when I planned out my workout week. Took a break from work around 1:30. Put on my heart rate strap and headed out with no plan for distance. I actually turned off the pace, time, and distance cues in RunKeeper and set it to alert me about HR every 1/4 mile.

Didn’t feel like I started out fast, but my first mile pace was over a minute/mile faster than the rest of the run, where I settled in at about 11:00/mile. I think the heart rate reading were jacked at the beginning of the run when I had a few apps open that were all fighting for the HR data. I shut those down about 3/4 mile in and then the HR seems to have leveled off after that around 115-120 bpm and slowly increased over the run to the low 130s.

I went 4.63 miles in 49:49.

Before the end of the year Garmin is coming out with a new watch that has some nice features, including HR monitoring built-in, with the ability to set HR zone alerts. I’m going to get one when it comes out mainly to use for running, but will be nice to be able to also use for other HR training on the Air Dyne, Ski Erg, rower, and maybe even during some MAP workouts. Excited to learn/try some new things after running with Automattic’s very own crazy running guy in Park City. My aerobic system can definitely use the work.

Team Up

We moved Super Sunday up to 11 and I got out of bed on my own at 7:45, so just the one day with the alarm yesterday has set me back in the right direction.

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • Ring Hang

Strength: Overhead Squats

3-3-X-1 Tempo

  • 2×15# (demo)
  • 2×45#
  • 2×75#
  • 2×95#
  • 2×115#
  • 2×135#
  • 2×155#
  • 2×165#
  • 2×175#
  • 1×185# (lost it trying to stand up 2nd rep)

Started out with jerk grip again and moved out each weight change. I was still a ways from being at snatch grip with 175# but it was pretty shaky so I went full width for 185#.

Gymnastics & Explosive

Warmed up with 5×20″, 5×24″, 3×30″, and 3×34″ jumps.

12:00 EMOM (alternating)

  • 10 C2B Pull-ups
  • 5 Box Jumps (38″)

Can’t believe I was able to do all 6 sets of the chest to bars unbroken with the butterfly. Putting a focus on my hollow body and arch positions in all pull-ups is paying off. Should have gone higher on the box jumps.

Conditioning

15:00 AMRAP

*Team of 4: Do a round and rest while the other 3 do their rounds

  • 3 Deadlifts (155#)
  • 2 Power Cleans (155#)
  • 1 Thruster (155#)

Couldn’t turn the 2nd clean into a squat clean thruster and gave the option to do a front squat and some type of shoulder to overhead instead of the thruster.

Teamed up with Michelle, Weston, and Bryan. We kept a pretty steady pace the whole time and even got a little faster as we nailed down the transitions between movements in the complex. We each did 17 rounds, then Michelle and I each got in a round, and Weston got 1 deadlift. I thought it would end up getting a lot tougher than it did. Fun workout though.