Author: Nick Momrik

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

Dripping

I’ve been sleeping in lately, though going to bed later a few times too. Wasn’t planning on going to 9am this morning anyway though. Out in the garage around 11.

Warm-up

5:00 Air Dyne (AD2)

Nice easy pace for 1.94km.

Strength

Back Squats

  • 20×45#
  • 5×135#
  • 5×185#
  • 3×205#
  • 3×225#
  • 3×245#
  • 3×265#
  • 3x3x285#
  • 3x5x205#

Debated going for more than 285, but didn’t want to push it and tweak my back again. Also though about doing 5 sets with it, but the 3rd set started to feel weird so I dropped the weight and did some speed drop sets. No reason to push it and end up with a set back again.

Conditioning

IMG_4884Ski Erg

  • Easy 600m, including a few surges at the tempo to be used for the 400s
  • 2:00 Rest
  • 5x400m w/ 30s rest between
  • 5:00 Rest
  • 4x400m w/ 30s rest between
  • 5:00 Rest
  • 3x400m w/ 30s rest between

* Target pace is 5-8 seconds slower than a 2k pace. Works out to 2:05-2:08 for me.

I went 2:45.9 on the warmup and here are my work sets:

  • 1:40.8 – 1:41.1 – 1:40.6 – 1:40.7 – 1:40.2
  • 1:40.4 – 1:40.4 – 1:40.1 – 1:39.5
  • 1:39.8 – 1:39.6 – 1:38.5

Humid as a mother fucker in the garage, even with the door open.

Went to the 5:30 class at CFi. Was there early so did Crossover Symmetry Activation and some bottom squat holds.

Warm-up

  • Shoulder Pass-thrus
  • 30 Mountain Climbers
  • 20 Jumping Jacks
  • 10 Push-ups
  • 5×45# Shoulder Press
  • Plyo Push-up (12″)
  • 5×95# Shoulder Press
  • Plyo Push-up (14″)
  • 5×125# Shoulder Press

Pass-thrus are iffy on the shoulder again. 😦

XWOD

  • 5-5-5-5-5-5-5 Shoulder Press (137.5#)
  • 2-1-2-1-2-1-2 Explosive Push-ups
    • 2s: Clapping Push-ups
    • 1s: Plyo Push-up (18″)

That was 2.5# up from the 7×5 I did last week. I decided not to start another Smolov Jr. cycle since I want to cut back on the shoulder pressing a little. I’ll wing it going off recent weights.

Accessory

8 Rounds (Tabata)

  • 20s Wall Balls (20#, 10′)
  • 10s Rest

Never stopped during work time and caught the ball and rested leaning up against it on the wall to let my arms drop. Got 10 every round. Not in danger of having to stop at all.

Conditioning

7:00 AMRAP

  • 10 Air Squats
  • 20 American KBS (53#)
  • 30 DU

Did everything unbroken throughout. Finished 4 full rounds plus the 10 air squats and 20 swings. Didn’t have enough time to grab the rope.

Midline

3 Rounds NFT

  • 20 Russian Twists (53#)
  • 20 Sit-ups

Shoulder the Load

Sunday is always interesting. Started out with Crossover Symmetry Activation.

Strength

Shoulder Press

  • 5×45#
  • 5×95#
  • 3×115#
  • 3×135#
  • 10x3x147.5#

That finished my second Smolov Jr. cycle. I was hoping to get up to 150, but 147.5 was still a new 3RM PR and an increase of 2.5 pounds over the last session of the first cycle. Can’t argue with improvement. I thought about going right into another cycle, but I’m not sure now. Might try dialing back a little to two shoulder press days a week, especially with the thruster work we’ve started and I need to put some time into working on my jerk. I can still pull numbers and sets from a Smolov Jr. but spread out a lot more than over 3 weeks.

Weightlifting

Snatch

  • EMOM 3:00 – 5×95#
  • 1:00 Rest
  • EMOM 3:00 – 4×115#
  • 1:00 Rest
  • EMOM 3:00 – 3×135#
  • 1:00 Rest
  • E30S 10:00 – 1×155#

All touch and go power snatches. Wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. Worked up a great sweat.

Gymnastics

E30S 10:00

  • 4 C2B Pull-ups

Tried all butterfly. Lost the rhythm in some sets after 2 or 3. Never had to drop from the bar though and when I did lose my cycling I reset right back into the next rep.

Conditioning

  • 16 Rounds (Tabata)
    • 20s Thrusters (25#)
    • 10s Rest
  • 4:00 Rest
  • 16 Rounds (Tabata)
    • 20s Thrusters (25#)
    • 10s Rest

People think we’re crazy. I guess maybe we are. I was doing 8 reps throughout again, then did 10 in the last two rounds. So it ended up being 260 thrusters again. The 10# increase made quite a difference in how this felt. Towards the end of the first 8 minutes I wasn’t sure I’d be able to make it all the way, but the rest was nice.

Had thought about doing a little metcon with burpee pull-overs. Did a few to try out the movement, but decided we’d done enough for one day.

Shoulders are beat!

Had a bright idea at night to do some push-ups and was going to shoot for a PR at 100 hand release push-ups. Was using the clock to pace myself with 5 reps at a time, but I could tell it was going to be bad, so I stopped at 50 in 2:27. I was already having to break up into smaller sets than 5s and I’d only have a few seconds to spare if I could miraculously keep that same pace for the next 50. Not a good day for more shoulder work. 🙂

Another Mile

Warm-up

  • 3 Rounds
    • 10 Air Squats
    • 5 Push-ups
  • 30 Mountain Climbers

Conditioning

12:00 AMRAP

  • 5 Pull-ups
  • 8 Hang Power Cleans (135#)
  • 10 Burpee over the Box Jumps (24″)

Completed 5 rounds plus 5 pull-ups, 8 cleans, and 5 of the burpee boxes. My burpee box overs were so slow!

10 Rounds

  • 20s Wall Balls (20#, 10′)
  • 40s Rest

Got 10 every round. Easy.

Ran a mile, probably at about an 8:30 pace if I had to guess. Good time to work on shortening my stride and landing midfoot instead of running on my toes.

Strength

Close Grip OHS

  • 2x5x45#
  • 5×75#
  • 5×95#
  • 2×115#
  • 2×135#
  • 2×155#
  • 2×175#
  • 2×185#
  • 1×195#

Up to 135 with pinkies on the inner knurl marks and then after than I had to slowly keep moving them out. With 195# I think my index finger was just outside of the 2nd knurl marks. Still much closer than a snatch grip though.

I let Kevin talk me into running “another mile”, which fucking turned in to nearly 3 miles. A lot of time to practice running technique improvements.

All Day

Played 27 holes of golf today for our last little tournament of the year, so took the day off work. Headed to CFi around 5 for some open gym work. Started with Crossover Symmetry Activation.

Shoulder Press

  • 5×45#
  • 5×95#
  • 4×115#
  • 4×135#
  • 8x4x140#

This was for day 3 of week 3 of Smolov Jr. At the end of last week I figured I’d have to dial back my plan a bit and I did today, dropping 2.5# from the planned 142.5#. Just 140# was hard enough. One more day.

Power Cleans

  • EMOM 3:00 – 5×115#
  • Rest 1:00 extra
  • EMOM 3:00 – 4×155#
  • Rest 1:00 extra
  • EMOM 3:00 – 3×195#
  • Rest 1:00 extra
  • E30S 10:00 – 1×225#

All touch and go reps. Was planning for 3-5 minutes of the singles with 225#, but kept pushing and adding more minutes. Finally said fuck it, get to 10. Not sure why, but I was actually running into my knees with the bar sometimes on those heavy reps. Maybe I wasn’t staying over the bar long enough. Last summer I did an EMOM with 225#, but they were squat cleans and it was a struggle! This was twice as many reps in the same amount of time and powering them.

Row

20:00 Easy

I was keeping around a 2:15/500m pace and finished with 4,492 meters.

Part Two

Back at it after a rest day yesterday. I’ve been “sleeping in” a few times this week. Not sure what’s up with my internal clock. Still made it to the 9am though.

Warm-up

  • 3 Rounds
    • 12 Reverse Hyper (190#)
    • 2 Inch Worms
  • Jump Rope
  • 3 Deadlifts (135#)
  • 3 Deadlifts (225#)
  • 3 Deadlifts (315#)

XWOD

8 Rounds

  • 3 Deadlifts (345#)
  • 4 C2B Pull-ups

Slowly increasing the load for deadlifts so I don’t tweak my back again. Worked on my butterfly chest-to-bar again. Getting more comfortable with it.

Conditioning

EMOM 4:00

  • 5 Thrusters (125#)

EMOM 4:00

  • 5 Thrusters (135#)

It was a continuous 8 minutes, but 125# was feeling a little too easy, so I added weight. Should have done 135# the whole way. This is part 2 of the thruster attack that started Sunday.

Strength

3 Rounds NFT

  • 8 Reverse Hypers (260#)
  • 8 GHD MB Toss (25#)

Jumped on the Ski Erg in the afternoon.

4 Rounds

  • 1,000m Ski Erg
  • 4:00 Rest

My goal was to keep a 2:00-2:05/500m pace. Had only done 1k for warm-ups so wasn’t sure what I’d be able to maintain. My times were 4:02.5, 3:59.7, 3:46.5 (pushed that one), and 3:59.9. Walked a half mile after.

Controlled Falling

Got moving pretty late this morning, but still made it to 9am, even though it was a few minutes late. I’ve never been late to a class. Legs are pretty tight today, either from the thrusters on Sunday or back squats yesterday.

Shoulder Press

  • 5×45#
  • 5×95#
  • 5×115#
  • 3×125#
  • 7x5x135#

Phew! Somehow made it through all the sets again.

Conditioning

5:00 AMRAP

  • 10 Wall Balls (20#, 10′)
  • 10 American KBS (53#)

All unbroken for 5 rounds plus the 10 wall balls. Got to the kettlebell, but didn’t get it locked out in time for a rep.

Rested 2:00, then…

5:00 AMRAP

  • 5 Curtis P (95#)
  • 5 Burpees

Ugh, damn barbell. Finished 3 rounds and with only about 8 seconds left I didn’t pick up the bar.

At 6:30 I attended a running technique class. Dan recorded us, talked about running form, had us do a bunch of drills, and then recorded us again. My main problem was running too much on my toes, which is what I’ve always thought running on my midfoot. Apparently not. But at least I don’t heel strike like the majority of people. Felt weird to try landing more back on my foot. I’ll have to continue to think about it as well as concentrating on the lean, which I’ve already been trying to work on.

Started feeling my hamstrings a lot more in the afternoon and at night. I’m surprised I could run at all with my quads tight from thrusters and squats and now my hamstrings from the deadlifts.

DSC_0472

Paying Off

I’m very surprised that my legs work today. Usually after doing “Karen” I can barely walk for 3 days, so was sure that the 260 training bar thrusters would be worse. In for the 9am class at CFi. I didn’t really warm up much today other than a 2:00 squat hold.

Strength

  • 10×45# Back Squats
  • 5 Push-ups
  • 5×135# Back Squats
  • 5 Push-Ups
  • 5×185# Back Squats
  • 5 Push-Ups
  • 6×225# Back Squats
  • 5 Push-Ups
  • 6×235# Back Squats
  • 5 Push-Ups
  • 6×245# Back Squats
  • 5 Push-Ups
  • 6×255# Back Squats
  • 5 Push-Ups
  • 6×265# Back Squats
  • 5 Push-Ups
  • 6×275# Back Squats
  • 5 Push-Ups

Taking it easy so I don’t tweak my back again. Focused on not bottoming out with a butt wink. Did nice and controlled descents on the push-ups with an explode up, trying to keep a vertical forearm.

Midline

10-20-30-20-10

  • Sit-ups
  • Russian Twists (35# KB)

Not for time, but all done unbroken.

Conditioning

21-15-9

  • Deadlifts (225#)
  • Over the Bar Burpees

Did my deadlifts in 12-9, 9-6, and 9. Didn’t stop on the burpees and had a little let to push on the last round. Finished in 4:41. If I were to do it again I think I’d go for the round of 15 unbroken.

Jumped on the rower for an easy 10 minutes and covered 2,045 meters.

Hit the garage in the afternoon to use the Ski Erg. Warmed up with 1,000 meters in 4:52 and then I hit the interval workout I did on the first day I got the machine, which wasn’t much more than a month ago. I didn’t just beat my times on everything, I destroyed them.

Max effort intervals

  • 60m (0:12)
  • 2:00 Rest
  • 60m (0:12)
  • 2:00 Rest
  • 100m (0:19.7)
  • 2:00 Rest
  • 100m (0:19.3)
  • 2:00 Rest
  • 150m (0:29)
  • 2:00 Rest
  • 150m (0:28.4)
  • 3:00 Rest
  • 150m (0:28.2)
  • 3:00 Rest
  • 200m (0:37.2)
  • 3:00 Rest
  • 500m (1:45)

Although this is programmed as a continuous series of intervals, it really should be treated as 2 sections. The 1st 3 intervals (2×60, 2×100, 1×150) and the 2nd 3 intervals (1×150, 1×200, 1×500). The 1st intervals are short and very explosive efforts that will recruit your fast twitch muscle fibers. The 2nd 3 intervals are all gearing up to that final 500m max effort. The final 3 intervals are focused on creating endurance while your fast twitch fibers are fatigued.

Set PRs on every interval and if the distance repeated, I beat it again! I’ll keep track of the 100, 200, and 500 on the PR page. The first time I did this, it absolutely smoked my arms, but I didn’t get any of that today. Hopefully the improvement is a combination of hard work over the last month and improved technique, not just the latter. Walked a half mile to cool down.

Tabata Thrusters

Really needed the rest day yesterday. Was up early do go play in a golf scramble. Kind of a shitty day since we had to use all of our rain gear. I was exhausted when I got home.

Got up early this morning, put on the weight vest and headed out for a brisk walk before eating or drinking anything. It was 3.06 miles in 44:05 with the additional 20# strapped to me.

Over to CFi at 12:30 to train with Kevin. Got started with Crossover Symmetry Activation and then did some warm-up sets of shoulder press with 5×45#, 5×95#, and 5×115#. Did a few single muscle-ups and some swinging on the rings too.

XWOD

  • 6-6-6-6-6-6 Shoulder Press (127.5#)
  • 2-1-2-1-2-1 Muscle-ups
    • 2s: Kipping Muscle-ups
    • 1s: Weighted Kipping Muscle-up

First time trying a weighted muscle-up. Failed with 20#, then failed with 10#, and made it with 10# on the last one. Shoulder press was the biggest struggle I’ve had out of any day in the 2 cycles. I may have to reevaluate my plan for these last 3 days. I should have been fresh after the rest day yesterday, but even the muscle-ups felt sluggish in my shoulders.

Gymnastics

E30S 11:00

  • 3 C2B Pull-ups

Was planning to go for 4 every 30 seconds for 8:00 as a step up from 60 total reps doing 6 EMOM 10:00 last week, but after the XWOD I decided to adjust. Went the extra minute to get more volume in. Started doing butterfly chest-to-bar for the first time. Had a kipping one mixed in here and there, but was over 90% butterfly. I’ve never been able to string them together before today. Making GAINZ in many areas lately.

Experimenting

16:00 Tabata (32 Rounds)

  • 20s Thrusters (15#)
  • 10s Rest

Trying out something new. This was all about building an aerobic base for thrusters, which will continue to be built on. The goal is not to go balls to the wall, but slow, controlled, and consistent. I got 8 reps every round and went for it, getting 12 on the final round, which comes to a total of 260 thrusters! Not hard or terrible, but pretty boring. I’m a little worried how bad the DOMS is going to be.

Conditioning

  • Buy-in: 500m Row
  • 3 Rounds
    • 5 Snatches (95#)
    • 10 T2B
    • 15 Ring Push-ups

Pulled around 1:45-1:48 on the row. Did all TnG snatches, 5-5, 5-5, and 5-3-2 on T2B, 5-5-5, 6-5-4, and 6-5-4 on the ring push-ups. Finished in 7:13.

Midline

3 Sets

  • 20 GHD Sit-ups

All under 2 hours.

Friday Grindin’

Forgot I wanted to finish off the 2nd week of Smolov Jr before class, so rushed off to get there. Hit up Crossover Symmetry Activation and got right into it the lifts.

Shoulder Press

  • 5×45#
  • 5×95#
  • 3×115#
  • 3×135#
  • 10x3x142.5#

I nearly missed the last one in the 8th working set, but made sure to keep tight and use the bounce on the final two sets and didn’t have a problem. One more week of the cycle and then I might reset for another one instead of testing my max.

Did some banded tricep stretching after to continue warming up.

Skill

IMG_4866Practiced triple unders for 8-10 minutes. First by just getting one at a time and stopping. I was able to get 2 in a row several times, but I need to work on slowing down the rope after the 3rd spin because it kept coming around and hitting my feet before I had time to jump again. Jump will need work too. I was kicking my feet back a lot. I think I’ll have to work on these using my Rx rope instead of the RPM, because the bare cable can draw blood!

Conditioning

20:00 AMRAP

  • 10 Power Cleans (155#)
  • 15 T2B
  • 20 Deadlifts (155#)
  • 25 Sit-ups
  • 30 Air Squats

All singles for the cleans, 3 sets of 5 each round for toes to bar, and broke deadlifts up into 2 sets of either 10-10, 11-9, or 12-8. Completed 3 full rounds plus 10 cleans, 15 t2b, 20 deadlifts, and 3 sit-ups. It was a grinder!

Accessory

Farmer’s Carry

  • 135m (62# & 53# KBs)
  • 100m (62# & 53# KBs)
  • 100m (2×44# KBs)
  • 135m (2×44# KBs)

Owwww! Shoulders and forearms on fire after this.

Quick afternoon session in the garage. Warmed up with 5 minutes on the Air Dyne at about 55 PRM for 2.18km and then rested two minutes.

5 Rounds

  • 10 Plyo Lunges (Jumping)
  • 1:00 Air Dyne
  • 2:00 Rest

Really had to push in the last couple to keep going. Distances were 0.76, 0.78, 0.79, 0.78, and 0.8 km. Cooled down with another 5 on the AD for 2.14km. Rest day tomorrow!