Author: Nick Momrik

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

Sweat Me a River

The humidity is picking up and so is the temperature. Just over 80 degrees tonight during class. I need to make the switch to mornings, but there are some good athletes that go to the 4:15pm or 5:30pm classes, which makes you push harder.

Warm-up

  • Tabata Mountain Climbers
  • Tabata Monkey Fuckers
  • Tabata Bear Crawls

WOD

3 rounds

  • 200m Run
  • 50 Ring Rows
  • 30 KBS
  • 10 SDLHP
  • 200m Run

Yes, that’s a run to start and end each round, so you end up running a couple of 400s unless you take a break between rounds. I used a 55# KB for the swings (American) and a 71# KB for the SDLHPs. Doing that many ring rows was the biggest trouble for me. I had to split them up into sets of 5 for the most part and even some smaller sets. My hands are hurting from earlier in the week and I still have a good blister from the 350 Russian KBS the other day. I finished in 29:37.

Strength

Work up to a 1RM Clean and Jerk, doing 1 rep each minute. My sets were 135#, 155# 165#, 175#, 180#, and 185#. I did a full clean on the last two reps and on my last jerk my split was so small I’m not even sure you could call it a split. I had to muscle it up because I didn’t get under the bar. That’s a 5# PR on the clean, 15# PR on the jerk, and 20# PR on the combination. Not a bad day at the gym!

Packed House

Biggest class I’ve attended, but Tuesday is usually pretty big because there is only a 5:30pm and a 7pm at night. I think we had 18 or 20 people there. It’s cool to see the box growing especially in the new space.

Warm-up

3 Rounds:

  • 200m Run
  • 50 Jumping Jacks
  • 50 High Knees
  • 50 Butt Kicks

Pretty easy warm-up, but it did its job and got the blood flowing.

WOD

15:00 AMRAP

  • 5 Box Jumps
  • 10 Wall Balls

I used a 28 inch box and a 20# MB. Started out strong going rep for rep with the fittest guy in the gym, but I couldn’t keep up and fell 2 rounds behind him by the end. I completed 15 rounds + 4 box jumps, so that’s an entire Karen in there.

AB WOD

5 Rounds:

  • 1m Russian Twists
  • 30s Side Plank on each side
  • 1m Ab Crunch
  • 1m Hand Plank
  • 1m Scissor Kicks
  • 1m Rest

I used a 30# KB for the Russian twists which was plenty with all of the other stuff in there. The ab crunches were probably the hardest but nothing was easy I guess. Had to take breaks during most everything except the side planks and only one short break during the hand planks.

Great workout today and probably the most I’ve sweated during a CrossFit workout since I started. I feel like I lost 5 pounds. It’s not even 60 degrees out, so I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like when it gets in the 80s or 90s with high humidity.

Be Careful

We had to call 911 today. A guy stopped in to talk to someone, jumped on the pull-up bar, and fell off after the first pull-up. He landed on his head and neck area. I didn’t see it happen because I was facing the other way, but there was quick reaction by some nurses in the class to run over and stabilize him. He was out cold for 10 seconds or so, but then was alert, responsive, and could move his extremities. I bet he’s going to be sore for a few days, but hopefully everything else is fine.

On another note, I’ve now been doing CrossFit for 6 months! Half a fucking year. Amazing! That’s twice as long as any other exercise program I’ve ever done. I still love it as much, if not more, than day 1.

Warm-up

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

  • MB Power Clean & Presses
  • Burpees

I used a 20# MB and completed this in 6:16, by going pretty much non-stop.

WOD

  • 50 Russian KBS
  • 21 Sit-ups
  • 21 HR Push-ups
  • 50 Russian KBS
  • 18 Sit-ups
  • 18 HR Push-ups
  • 50 Russian KBS
  • 15 Sit-ups
  • 15 HR Push-ups
  • 50 Russian KBS
  • 12 Sit-ups
  • 12 HR Push-ups
  • 50 Russian KBS
  • 9 Sit-ups
  • 9 HR Push-ups
  • 50 Russian KBS
  • 6 Sit-ups
  • 6 HR Push-ups
  • 50 Russian KBS
  • 3 Sit-ups
  • 3 HR Push-ups

That’s 350 KBS in total. I did the first set unbroken, then started the rest of the rounds off with 25 unbroken and usually broke down the last 25 into 15 and 10. Sit-ups were all unbroken, but I broke the HR push-ups down into 2 sets during the rounds of 18 and 15. I used a 55# KB for the swings and finished in 20:10.

Strength

I started to do front squats by warming up with 135#. It was during that set of 5 reps when the accident happened and the class was done after that.

Hero: Erin

Even though I worked out or ran Monday through Friday, I still put on 5 pounds during the week due to all of the food and deserts I ate at the work meetup in Florida. I’m home now so will get back to Paleo and should be able to drop the weight by the end of the week.

Today was my first workout at the new Survival Fitness location. The pull-up rig is much nicer than the moving bars at the old location, because this thing doesn’t budge.

Warm-up

  • 4 rounds
    • 15s Jumping Jacks
    • 15s Air Squats
    • 15s Mountain Climbers
    • 15s Squat Jumps
  • 30 Squats (holding PVC as if it were a pole)
  • 20 PVC Pass-thrus
  • 30 PVC OHS

WOD

“Erin”
Five rounds

  • 15 DB Split Clean
  • 21 Pull-ups

The workout calls for 40# DBs, so that’s what I used. The split cleans ended up being much harder than expected. I split them up into 3 sets of 5 during every round. In the first round I knocked out 15 kipping pull-ups in a row for a new unbroken PR (beating 12 as my previous best). I finished in 21:13.

For the rest of the class we did some mobility work.

Last Day in Seaside

Warm-up

Ran 2.09 miles in 17:04. Running an 8 minute per mile pace has become incredibly easy for me due to CrossFit.

Strength

5 sets

  • 5 Leg Press
  • 1m Rest
  • 5 Seated Row
  • 1m Rest

For the leg presses I set the machine to 145#, 175#, 190#, 220#, and 250#. I wanted to simulate heavy squats. Probably could have gone heavier throughout, but I had no idea how I’d do on the machine. For the seated rows I had a pretty good idea of my strength there since I used the machine earlier in the week. I went with settings at 100#, 130#, 145#, 160#, and 175#.

WOD

I went with a pretty simply workout to finish off my week. 200 Russian Twists with a 30# DB for time. I finished it in 4:21.

8 is Great

Warm-up

Didn’t push hard on the run, just a nice easy pace and did it in 9:14.

Strength

5 sets

  • 5 Rotary Shoulder
  • MAX Pull-ups
  • 1-2m rest

For the rotary shoulder I set the machine to 100#, 115#, 130#, 145#, and 160#. I set a new PR on my first set of pull-ups by getting 8. For the other sets I completed 6, 6, 6, and 5 reps.

WOD

5 rounds

  • 20 Sit-ups
  • 15 Push-ups
  • 10 Push Presses

I used 35# DBs for the push presses and they got really tough after the 2nd round, but I powered through and finished in a time of 10:14.

Making the Most of Machines

This morning I headed over to the fitness center in Seaside, FL, which we get access to. Pretty nice facility with a lot of nice machines, an assortment of DBs, and some other equipment.

Warm-up

  • .58 mile run
  • 3 rounds
    • 15 Hip Extensions
    • 15 Sit-ups
    • 30s Plank
    • 10 One-arm KBS (each arm) using a 30# DB
    • 20 Band Walk Steps L
    • 10 Band Presses
    • 20 Band Walk Steps R
    • 10 Band Presses

Strength

4 sets

  • 10 seated row (100#, 115#, 130#, 160#)
  • 10 rotary chest (100#, 130#, 160#, 175#)

WOD

3 rounds

  • 10 Dips
  • 10 Pull-ups
  • 10 Squat Clean and Press using 40# DBs

My total time was 10:55. The squat cleans and presses were really draining on me.

Cool-down

0.34 mile run

Overlooking the Beach

Yesterday I took a well-deserved rest day after the race. Flew out to Seaside, FL and will be here all week for a meetup with some people from work. This morning I headed out for a run and a WOD on the beach. I ended up doing my WOD on the flat part of this stairway with a view.

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Not a bad way to start the day!

I ran a 1.1 mile warm-up.

WOD

8 Tabata Rounds:

  • Plank (on hands)
  • Push-ups
  • Sit-ups
  • Air Squats

Then I ran back the 1.1 miles again at a faster pace.

1st Place

This morning I competed in the Out for Blood Duathlon in Mount Pleasant, MI. The event is a 5k run followed by a 20k bike. There are both road and mountain bike divisions, which is really nice. I finished first in the men’s age 26-35 mountain bike division! Official times won’t be posted online for a few days (they aren’t very organized). I did track each leg of the race using RunKeeper, so I have a rough idea of my total time, depending on how long my transition took (I didn’t hurry).

5k run – 22:20

20k bike – 46:46

That should put me somewhere around an hour and 10 minutes total I’m guessing. Last year I was in the 30-39 men’s mountain bike division and won, but they switched up the divisions for some reason this year. My 5k run was 24:13, so I cut nearly 2 minutes there. Leading up to this year’s race I only completed one run longer than a mile in the last month and it was a 4 mile run at a slow 9:36/mile pace on a recovery day. You don’t need to run to get better at running. Do CrossFit!

My total time last year was 1:12:32, so I probably improved that by a little more than 2 minutes there. I was really cruising on the bike but in the 8th mile, we turned straight into the wind and it killed my pace. Check out the splits on RunKeeper and you can see exactly where it happened. I went from a 3:36 in mile 7 to a 4:43 in mile 8.

I’m really happy with my run and how steady of a pace I was able to keep. Looking forward to the full results getting posted online so I can see how I fared compared to mountain bikers in the other divisions.