Nick Momrik's Fitness Logs

When Do You Do Your Best Work?

Yesterday I walked 18 holes on the golf course. I was planning to do this workout last night, but got busy and thought it would be a good idea to rest up before my trip. Good choice, because I woke up with a 96% WHOOP recovery score. I set an alarm and got up for an early (to me) workout since I had a 10:15am flight, so I was in the garage at 7:30.

Year of the Engine – Rocket Race

6 Rounds

3:00 Row
2:00 Rest

Two months ago I did this with an average pace of 1:45.4/500m, though my notes say I wasn’t feeling that great.

2019-09-10-row

Really happy with that effort, which is 15 meters more than last time. Wasn’t sure how I’d react in the morning on an empty stomach. Kind of fitting that the podcast I was listening to talked about how one guy measured when he was most productive at work throughout his day.

Time to pack and head to the airport.

Light Barbell Work

Feeling good. Went to open gym at 10.

Accessory

3 Sets

15 Reverse Hypers (90#)

No B.S. Bench Press

10×45#
8×95
4×135
4×175
4×205
4×225
4x4x240

Still on the low end of the recommended 240-245 for the working sets. Not sure I could have added the extra five pounds to either of the last two sets even. I have to remind myself 245 is my all-time 5RM (which I matched back in May) and I did 16 reps with 240 in this workout. Things are moving in the right direction.

Conditioning

E2M – 5 Rounds
- 10 Power Snatches (75#)
- 5 Muscle-ups
4:00 Rest
E2M – 5 Rounds
- 10 C&J (75#)
- 5 Handstand Push-ups

My original version of this was using 95 and 115, but I switched to 75 and 95 yesterday. I did the first 4 sets of muscle-ups unbroken with a near failure on the last rep of those. Then I finished with 3-1-1. After struggling towards the end of the first couplet, I decided to stay at 75 for the clean and jerks. I also added an extra two minutes of rest because I was not recovering fast enough. As soon as I went for my first strict HSPU I knew it was going to have to change. I did 3-2 and 5×1 strict before switching to unbroken sets of 5 kipping for the other 3 rounds. I probably could have continued with 5×1 strict, but I wanted some rest time!

Damn, that light barbell can really give you a great workout. Too many people think you need to go heavy all the time and keep adding more weight.

Midline

6-4-2 with 10 second holds

Curl-up
Side Plank
Bird Dog

Increased from the 5-3-1 since it had been easy. This was definitely more of a challenge, but the workout may have contributed to that.

Did a bunch of yard work, ran some errands, and then was out in the garage by 8pm

Year of the Engine – Polarized

26:00 Airdyne

** Endurance pace with 7s sprint @ 6, 12, 18, 24

Went 692 calories and 14.93 km.

Don’t Stop

My legs feel a little tired this morning after walking roughly 6 miles on the golf course and running another 3.5. Out in the garage after 9:30am. Warmed up with a two minute row for 513 meters.

Year of the Engine – Rocket Race

15 Rounds

30s Row
1:00 Rest

I did 1:27.7 a couple weeks ago with a tight back for this same thing, so today the goal was 1:27.

2019-09-07-row

Holy shit did I underestimated this one or what? I didn’t remember it being so hard. I wasn’t even close to maintaining that previous pace. Was it because I hadn’t eaten anything yet? Tired legs? The two beers I drank last night? Some days you just don’t have “it” I guess.

When I went to take pictures of the splits I noticed two weeks ago was with 1:30 rests, not 1:00!!! Of course I wasn’t going to be able to keep that pace. I could really feel the loss of power in my first 4-5 strokes, which couldn’t recover with the shorter rest; it all makes sense now. I’m extremely proud of how I fought to keep getting those 165 meters when things fell apart. My mistake turned out to be a great mental and physical test.

Thinking back, I had noticed the guy on BTWB who always smokes me had averaged a 1:27.7 pace. After finding what I had thought was my same intervals I concluded that he maybe was worse than me at the short duration stuff. I should have known better! Based on his scores I would have set my goal at 1:30-1:31. It turns out I have done this one, back on June 8th, with an average pace of 1:31.7, getting 163-164 meters every round, which I beat on each interval today.

Year of the Engine – Speed/Threshold

15:00 Airdyne

Out in the garage again after the Michigan game. Tried to hold 80 RPM. Went 500 calories and 9.63 km.

Friday Night Run

My chest is a little sore today. Maybe from the toes-to-bars on Wednesday? I walked 18 holes yesterday and today both. Went out for a run in the evening.

Year of the Engine – Endurance

34:00 Run

Did a better job with pace, went 3.42 miles, and felt a lot more comfortable with that run. It was a nice night, around 65°, and there was some mist over the last few minutes. Walked about 200 meters home.

Repeat of 2 & 2

Still coughing, but I picked up the inhaler this afternoon, so hopefully it goes away soon. My WHOOP recovery was only 32% this morning, but I feel pretty good and am planning to golf the next two days. Out in the garage during lunch.

Year of the Engine – Rocket Race

8 Rounds

2:00 Row
2:00 Rest

I did these same intervals on June 29th with an average pace of 1:42.8/500m, so today I was shooting for 1:42. Got 588-588-589-588-588-588-588-588 meters, which is 36 more overall than last time.

2019-09-04-row

Went to the 4pm class.

Warm-up

400m Row
3 Rounds
- 5 Good Mornings
- 5 Kip Swings
- 5 Air Squats

Conditioning

E3M – 10 Rounds

10 cal Echo Bike
10 cal Row
10 T2B
3 Deadlifts (4×185, 4×225, 2×245)

The bike got a little slower over time. Could really feel the leg fatigue from the last few days. Wore my Bear KompleX grips and kept the toes-to-bars all unbroken. The deadlifts got heavy and I didn’t wear a belt. Did them all with a neutral grip too, which I’ve been doing a lot of since I haven’t been going heavy.

Midline

4 Sets

50 Russian Twists (35# KB)

The end of set 3 and about half way through 4 really started to slow.

My body is ready for the “rest” days!

Core Stability Prehab/Rehab

The doctor thinks I might be suffering from allergies and some bronchitis, so I got an antibiotic, an inhaler (well, I should be able to get this tomorrow), and started taking an allergy pill. I was out in the garage during lunch.

Year of the Engine – Polarized

24:00 Airdyne

** Endurance pace with 7s sprint @ 5, 10, 15, 20

My legs were definitely tired from yesterday and my quads are starting to get sore. I did 665 calories and 14.02 km.

Went to the 4pm class.

Warm-up

300m Row
2 Rounds
- 10 PVC Pass throughs
- Front rack stretch (both arms)
- 8 KB Swings (35#)
- 5 HR Push-ups
C&J
- 5×45#
- 5×95

Conditioning

E4M – 5 Rounds

5 Power C&J (135-155-175-195-215#)
400m Run

The percentages were set at 50, 60, 65, 70, and 75. These numbers I picked would be pretty spot on based off of all-time max, so it felt good to hit them in this. I did all singles and wore my belt for the last 3 sets. Each round took 10-15 seconds longer than the previous one, which I thought was pretty good. I think my first round was around 2:10 and the last one was around 2:50.

10-20-30-40-50

Russian KB Swings (53#)
Push-Ups

It was programmed with Americans, but I did Russian swings and was able to go unbroken on all of them. I’ve done over 350 swings in the last 3 days! I did 10 unbroken push-ups to start and then all sets of 5 through 15 (maybe) of the 50 when I started doing mostly triples. Finished in 9:36.

Midline

5-3-1 of each movement with 10 second holds

Curl-up
Side Plank
Bird Dog

I read a good article about core stability for low back issues this weekend so I am going to start doing their recommendations and see if it makes a difference for me.

All Sevens

Up early to do the 9am heat at the gym.

Warm-up

Bottom Squat Hold
200m Run
Line drills

Conditioning

This workout was to honor State Trooper Timothy O’Neill, who died a couple of years ago.

7 Rounds
- 7 Thrusters (95#)
- 7 Burpees
- 7 Back Squats (95#)
- 7 Wall Balls (20#, 10′)
- 7 Russian KBS (53#)
- 7 T2B
- 7 Box Jumps (30″)
- 700m Run
49 Push-ups

Instead of doing 135# for the back squats I used the one bar. There was already plenty of squatting. Didn’t do American swings with 70# either. This came down to how fast you ran because 7 reps of each movement wasn’t a big deal if you kept moving. After 2 rounds I had to start doing quick T2B singles because my hands were so sweaty and I was not going to risk flying off the rig.

2019-09-02-hr

My finishing time was 59:06 and my splits were:

7:16
7:56
8:05
8:47
8:50
8:32
8:21
1:15 (push-ups)

Not good consistency at all. I don’t remember the last time I did an hour workout. I need to push my running because it would have been nice to keep my rounds around eight minutes or less. I also think whatever is causing this cough and being stuffed up for 4 weeks is affecting me. I booked an appointment with my Doctor for tomorrow morning.

I really wanted to golf today or maybe hit an Engine Builder workout in the evening, but I was wrecked from that workout. I got a headache and everything, so it turned out to be a lazy rest of the day.

Russian Annie

I slept in, but made it for open gym at 10am. I was the only one working out today!

Warm-up

3 Sets

15 Reverse Hypers (90#)

Watched some videos on technique again and made some corrections to what I was doing. Felt the movement in a lot more muscles even with the lighter load.

No B.S. Bench Press

10×45#
5×95
5×135
5×175
5×205
5×220
4x5x230
MAX @ 225 (7)

Matched my max reps from the first week of this cycle. The descent on the 7th rep felt like a really weird path and then I really struggled pressing it. Disappointing, especially since I stayed at the low end of the recommended 230-235 for the working sets. I guess another way to look at it is I was able to hit the same max reps number as 3 weeks ago with the seven previous sets all being heavier. 🤷🏻‍♂️ It’s important to remember that I’m still progressing and I have enough time to run a 3rd cycle before testing my 1RM.

Conditioning

50-40-30-20-10

Double Unders
AbMat Sit-Ups
Russian KB Swings (53#)

My back is really tight so I scrapped other ideas I had for today. This was the gym’s metcon on Thursday and I’m always game for an Annie variation. I did everything unbroken in 10:39. There is a small chance I did 10 extra sit-ups in the round of 40 because one of the kids was grabbing my jump rope and I wasn’t sure if I was on 26 or 36 before I yelled at him. I’m 95% sure I did the correct number, but there is always that doubt.

No Year of the Engine workout today since tomorrow is a very leg intensive workout for Labor Day and my back could use more recovery time. I also don’t plan to have a rest day from the gym until I golf on Thursday.

400

I can feel a little pull or tightness in my back, but doesn’t seem like I tweaked it yesterday. Was out in the garage after 10:30.

Warm-up

3:00 Airdyne

Went a little faster each minute. Ended up with 90 cals and 1.82 km.

Year of the Engine – Time Trial

10:00 Airdyne (aka 300 FY)

My PR was 387 calories during month three of the program, so it’s been a while. Following previous strategies I started out hot for the first minute and then tried to settle in, holding 85 RPMs through the middle. Mentally it gets hard after 5 minutes. Then I try to pick the pace back up for the last 90 seconds and keep pushing harder each 30 seconds if I can. A couple of years ago when I first went over 350 calories I wondered if 400 was possible and today I hit it exactly! That’s a big 13 calorie PR. The distance was 6.97 km.

Year of the Engine – Endurance

32:00 Run

After recovering for about 30 minutes I went out to run. I went 3.19 miles and definitely did not hold a steady pace.

2019-08-31-run-pace

According to WHOOP, my heart rate was perfectly in zones 2-3 and according to my Garmin watch, I was getting in to zone 4 near the end of the run.

Where Did That Come From?

I walked 18 holes yesterday. My biceps and lats are still sore from Tuesday. The muscle-ups on Wednesday may have contributed to that too. Out in the garage before lunch. Warmed up with a two minute row for 520 meters.

Year of the Engine – Rocket Race

18 Rounds

15s Row
45s Rest

This is the start of phase 3, differentiation, where we work on speed and power, now that we’ve built up a solid capacity. Looking forward to an even better engine!

There were some 20 second intervals in phase one with 1:40 rests, so I wasn’t sure what kind of pace to go for these. I thought 1:26-1:28/500m might be good, but was worried about the short rest. Since there is a minimum interval time of 20 seconds on my rower I set it for 20/40, didn’t use the first interval, and waited until there was 16 seconds left before I grabbed for the handle each time. This makes the average pace and stroke rate useless though. My meters were:

82-84-85-83-86-88-86-86-87-
88-86-87-87-87-87-87-88-88

As you can see it took several intervals to get a feel for the short time duration. After finding myself, I was hitting 1:21-1:23 by the fourth pull and holding it. Using the pace calculator, 86-88 meters would be an average pace of 1:25.2-1:27.2, so I was pretty close with my guess. On BTWB I saw a guy, who I consistently beat on every other type of interval, post an average of 107 meters for this. Come on buddy, that would be an average pace of 1:10/500m!!! Not a chance. If I started at the beginning of the 20 second intervals, stopped at 15, and included the rollover meters I would have done that, so that’s probably what he did.

Went to the 4pm class.

Warm-up

16 cal Assault Bike
2 Rounds
- 20 PVC Passes
- 8 DB Shoulder Presses (25#)
- 10 Ring Rows

Strength

Shoulder Press

5×45#
5×95
5×115
3×135
1×150
1×160
1×170
1×180

Going in I was hoping to hit 165 pounds because I haven’t done much shoulder pressing in the last two years. Basically since I hit my all-time best of 185 I haven’t had an estimated max come close to that, as you can see below.

I have no idea where this 180 lift came from, but it sure was a nice surprise. Must be a lot of carry-over from the bench program. That last rep may have gotten my back though, with over-extension, even though it went up pretty smooth. Should have wore my belt! Hopefully I’m ok when I wake up tomorrow.

Conditioning

E3M – 6 Rounds

10 Push Jerks (115#)
10 Pull-Ups
10 Handstand Push-Ups
10 Power Cleans (115#)

We did something very similar almost 4 months ago and it wrecked me because I increased the reps by one each round! It was jerks, t2b, hand power cleans, and HSPU. Today actually had SDLHP, so I subbed in power cleans since I’m not risking a shoulder impingement on that stupid movement. This time instead of cutting back to 95# and increasing the reps by 1 each round I stuck to the Rx weight.

My goal was to do everything unbroken. I didn’t even come close! After 3 rounds I took the tens off and was down to 95#, just in time to start round 4. Then I was off pace the rest of the way. I was able to do every set of pull-ups unbroken, but the quick turn-around from jerks to HSPU is what really got me. They were so slow and then I had to start breaking them up in the 3rd or 4th round. I did a whole bunch of singles on the cleans because I was so blown. I kept going to finish my full 6 rounds after the clock, so it was probably 19:00-19:30. I should have gone 95# the whole way like last time.