Nick Momrik

Iliya’s First CrossFit Box

Last year at our company meetup, I was talking to Iliya about how he got so fit. He told me about this thing called “CrossFit” and the next week I started working out at Survival Fitness. Iliya has changed my life through a simple conversation after dinner. Although he’s been doing CrossFit workouts for a couple of years, he has never stepped foot inside a CrossFit box. Iliya lives is Sofia, Bulgaria where there aren’t any CrossFit boxes, so he does his WODs in a globo gym.

I’ve been trying to get him to join me at CrossFit Pacific Beach all week, but the 6am class time wasn’t exactly appealing. Since I wasn’t running the Bootcamp for Automatticians today, I was able to get up a bit later and attend the 7am class. Iliya finally joined me. When we got to the box, you couldn’t get the smile off his face. It was so cool to give something back to him for all that he’s done by getting me interested in CrossFit.

Warm-up

400m Run
6 Skin the Cats
12 Strict T2B
9 Wall Squats

Strength

Push Press: 3, 3, then max reps (85%)

I did some warm-up sets in addition to the working sets. Here are my sets:

6 @ 45#
5 @ 75#
3 @ 105#
3 @ 125#
3 @ 145#
6 @ 165#

The we did a few sets of OHS to get ready for the workout. I used the bar, 65#, and 75#.

WOD

8:00 AMRAP

20 Push Press (75#)
20 OHS (75#)

Started out strong by doing the push presses unbroken. I knew it wouldn’t last. Had to break the OHS down into 10 and 10 in the first round. In round 2, I did the press presses in sets of 12 and 8. I think the OHS were 10, 5, and 5. In round 3 I did 10 and 10 push presses. Then I didn’t get a stable active shoulder before beginning my OHS and had to bail on the first rep. I think I did 8 and 6 before time was up. Finished with 2 full rounds plus 20 push presses and 14 OHS.

My shoulders are fried! Tomorrow I’ll be flying home so it’ll be a rest day

800 Meter Sandwich

Feeling pretty good this morning. My legs are fine and I wasn’t tired getting up at 5:20am. Went in to CrossFit Pacific Beach again for the 6am class.

Warm-up

400m Run
10 Samson Stretches
10 Inchworms
10 Zombie Kicks
10 Air Squats
10 Skater Plyos

We also did a little more stretching. I liked doing a bottom squat hold while putting all of the weight over one heel to stretch out that ankle and calf.

Agility

Ladder drills

These were quick but fun.

WOD #1

800m Run
40-30-20-10
- KBS (53# KB)
- Box Jumps (24″)
800m Run

As you probably know, I love box jumps. I’m not used to doing that many American KBS, but I tried to keep to big sets and never did less than 10 in a row. Box jumps were nearly all unbroken. The last 800m sucked ass. I finished with a good time of 16:40.

Then it was back to the hotel to lead the last day of the Automattic Bootcamp at 7:30am.

Warm-up #2

50m

High Knees
Bear Crawls
Zombie Kicks

WOD #2

Partners

50 Broad Jumps
80 HR Push-ups
100 Lunges
80 Tuck Jumps
50 V-ups

I was kind of a 3rd partner in this, so it wasn’t bad. Seemed like people really liked the Bootcamp throughout the week.

Automattic 5K

Today we did a 5k to start the morning. I think nearly 15 people walked or ran. I screwed up when starting RunKeeper, so missed the first 0.08 miles, which would have put my distance pretty close to an actual 5k. Started out way too fast and my pace really fell off in the 2nd and 3rd miles. I ended up logging 3.02 miles in 21:45, which is the fastest I’ve run a quite a while. No CrossFit today.

Snatches and Burpees

My legs are a little sore from the back squats, thrusters, and air squats. Got up again and went to the 6am class at CrossFit Pacific Beach. Although it’s easy for me getting up because of the 3 hour time difference I’m really liking getting in my workout so early. Might have to try it when I get back home.

Warm-up

400m Run
2 rounds
- 7 Push-ups
- 9 Burpee Tuck Jumps
- 11 Ring Rows
50 DUs

I did really well on the ring rows, but it’s probably because they were higher than I’d normally have them. We did some PVC work and a bit of stretching after the above warm-up. Then we did a few snatches with increasing weight to get to something comfortable to use in the WOD.

WOD #1

5 rounds

3 Power Snatches (95#)
6 Ring Dips
9 Pull-ups

After each round, rest for 2 minutes.

My rep scores for the rounds were 45, 37, 35, 35, and 30. Ring dips were my biggest struggle, but I didn’t use any bands throughout the WOD. Pull-ups also got me in the last round. I think this was the first time I’ve done barbell snatches in a WOD and I really liked it.

I got back to the hotel, ready to run another day of Bootcamp for Automatticians. We warmed up with some air squats to loosen up the legs from yesterday and then did some World’s Greatest Stretches.

WOD #2

The original plan was to do 100 burpees for time with a 10:00 time limit. But only 4 people showed up today and I was pretty exhausted from the WOD at the box, so I switched it up.

10:00 EMOTM

10 Burpees

I went with 10 burpees, which gives me a solid 24 seconds of work. I had everyone else base their number off when I finished in that first minute. I’m glad we didn’t do the original plan for everyone’s sake, including mine. I felt like I was really dying in the last 5 minutes, but was able to keep hitting my 24 second sweet spot.

Finisher

3 Tabata Rounds

Standing Bicycles
Flutter Kicks

Tomorrow we’re doing a 5K as one of the company meetup activities so it’ll be a rest day from the WODs.

WOD at CrossFit PB and an Automattic Bootcamp

I’m trying to stay on Eastern time for the most part this week because it allows me to get up in the morning and workout before work stuff starts. I got up at 5am this morning and went to the 6am class at CrossFit PB. There was 7 of is class which I thought was surprising for so early.

Warm-up

2 rounds

5 Front Squats (45#)
10 V-ups
20 DUs
Samson Stretch

We also did some PVC work and stretching before getting started.

Strength

Back Squats

5 @ 45#
3 @ 135#
3 @ 155#
3 @ 175#
3 @ 195#
3 @ 195#
6 @ 215#

The idea here was to warm up for a few sets. Then do 2 sets at about 65% of 1RM. For the last set use 85% of 1RM and do max reps. I didn’t do any strict calculations, but I think my weight choices worked out pretty well.

Thrusters
Do a few sets of 3 to get warm for the WOD. I did 45#, 65#, and 95#.

WOD

12-9-6 Thrusters (115#)
24-18-12 T2B

I picked a pretty perfect weight on the thrusters and broke each round into 2 sets. Did well stringing T2B together in round 1, but my hips were shot in the 2nd and 3rd rounds so it was tough to get a kip going. At the end I was actually only doing 1 or 2 at a time. Finished in 8:02.

I rushed back to the hotel where I was putting on a Bootcamp for my coworkers at 7:30am. I skipped the warm-up, but did the rest with them.

WOD #2

8:00 AMRAP

5 HR Push-ups
10 Sit-ups
15 Air Squats

We did this on the wet grass outside the hotel. Not the greatest of locations, but hey, this is CrossFit and we have to be ready for the unknown. I managed to get 7 rounds plus the 5 push-ups.

Finisher

2 rounds

1m Plank
1m Side Plank (30s each side)
1m Rest

I think the Bootcamp went pretty well and ended almost exactly after 30 minutes like I had planned.

San Diego Sunday

I arrived in San Diego last night for our yearly Automattic company meetup. Got up early this morning and hit up the fitness center in the hotel for a workout.

Warm-up

Did an easy 800m run on the treadmill.

WOD

100 DB Hang Squat Clean Thrusters (30# DBs)
Every minute on the minute (except for at the beginning), do 5 burpees.

We did this a few months ago at SF from the ground instead of the hang position. Back then I took some rest minutes doing 0 clean thrusters and finished in 23:42. Today I did them from the hang starting position like the video done by Jason Khalipa where this WOD came from. Finished in 15:35 today without taking any “rest” minutes.

Finisher

100 Russian Twists (25# DB)

I did these in sets of 50, 25, and 25, but didn’t time it.

An Easy-ish Deck

I made it to the 10am class which gives me enough time to pack and get ready for my trip. Flight leaves at 1:30.

Warm-up

4 rounds

15s Jumping Jacks
15s High Knees
15s Air Squats
15s Mountain Climbers

WOD

Deck of Cards

Suits:

♣ – Russian KBS (53# KB)
♠ – 1m Plank
♦ – Air Squats
♥ – Burpees

Ranks:

10, Jack, Queen, King, Ace – 10 reps
2 through 9 – Face value in reps
Joker – 150m Run

I finished in 32:36. Planks really sucked because they brought down the intensity and at one point I had 6 of 9 cards come up a spade. Usually deck of cards is pretty brutal but today it wasn’t bad with the selected movements and the fact that the highest rep count was 10.

Finisher

Prowler Sprints – 25m High Push followed by 25m Low Push

Casey A. and I did some prowler sprints at the end of class. The first sprint we had 135# loaded on the heavy prowler and it was pretty easy, so we added another 45# plate for 180# of load and did 5 more down and backs. My legs are getting stronger because the heavy pushes are getting a lot easier.

Waiter’s Walk

Feeling good this morning even though I only got about 6-6.5 hours of sleep last night. Went to the 9am class.

Strength

5 Sets

3 Deadlifts
2m Rest

Warmed up with 10 at 135# and 5 at 185#. For my working sets I used 225#, 255#, 285#, 310#, and 330#. The last set actually went up really easy. Matt was yelling at me to be explosive, which really helped, because I often get too slow in my deadlift. The lifts really felt great and my back didn’t act up at all.

Accessory

3 Sets

Kroc Rows
2m Rest

For the first two sets we did 12 reps on each arm and then went to failure on the last set. I used 62#, 71#, and 80# KBs for the sets. On the failure set I got 14 with my right arm and 15 with the left.

WOD

450m Sandbag Waiter’s Walk

Instructions: Get the sandbag overhead so it’s only supported by the arms. Do not rest it on your head or shoulders. We used two hands because the sandbags are pretty heavy and awkward. Every 10 steps, drop the bag down from overhead and perform a sandbag burpee.

I loved this one because I need to build up my shoulder stability strength for things like the OHS and having long strides is a big advantage. I crushed it, finishing in 6:44.

Midline

25 Turkish Get-ups (for quality)

I grabbed the 44# KB, but after one rep I could tell my shoulders weren’t going to be able to handle it. They were absolutely wrecked from doing OHS last night and the waiter’s walk in the WOD. I dropped down to a 40# KB, which was still challenging.

Finisher

I stayed after class since Matt was doing a 1-on-1 with a client. Loaded up the prowler and did some pulling. First I did about 50m with 135# and then I did a 150m loop in the parking lot with 180# loaded on. I had to take 3 breaks while doing that loop. You wouldn’t think it would do much for conditioning, but I was breathing pretty heavy when I got done.

Garage OHS

I figured it was time I use the weights I bought at Rouge Fitness last weekend. I haven’t done any OHS in a long time so they sounded like a good idea. Especially as they are listed as the WOD on the main site for Friday. I decided to go for a 1RM. Warmed up with the bar and then a few at 75#. Knocked one out at 95# and then one at 115#. My previous PR was 130# so I went up to 135# and it felt good. I don’t have any small plates so the next weight I could put on was 145#. It wasn’t pretty on the way up, but I got it done for a 15# PR. Then I got greedy and decided to go for 155#. Wasn’t stable and lost it at the bottom of the squat. Here’s a video of the 145# lift.

I need to get a rack because it was way too much work getting the bar into position. Not to mention I won’t be able to do any heavy front or back squats until I have a rack.

Even more exciting than this PR… I just got the email that I passed the test, so now I’m officially a CrossFit Level 1 Trainer! I scored a 40 out of 45 on the test.

Getting Better at Thrusters

My abs are a little sore today, but not really any more than yesterday, which is surprising. We really blasted them on Monday and Tuesday. I walked 18 holes of golf this morning and went to the 7pm class.

Strength

5 Sets

3 Push Presses
1-2m Rest

I warmed up with a set of 8 at 45# and a set of 5 at 95#. For my working sets I used 115#, 135#, 145#, 160#, and 170#. Had some left in the tank for next time too.

Accessory

3 Sets

MAX Ring Push-ups
90s Rest

I knocked out sets of 28, 15, and 9 (I think). Honestly can’t remember the last set.

WOD

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1

Thrusters (35# DBs)
Box Jump (28″)
150m Run (length of run is the same each round)

Thrusters actually felt pretty good today. I think learning to properly scale my weights is really helping out. I did each set without putting down the DBs. The 28″ box was a bigger deal than expected. I finished in 13:50.

Finisher

DU Tabata

I did pretty good with me DUs today. Got quite a few unbroken strings of around 20.