Airdyne – Page 14 – Nick Momrik's Fitness Logs

Another Tweak!

Here are my updating rankings after 19.2. I’m switching to using a percentile, which is standard compared to saying “top X%” like I have in the past. Last weekend I spent a lot of time creating an epic spreadsheet of my results in every Open and each workout. Cool data to have going forward.

19.2

Open Men: 21,830/164,227 (86.7%)
Masters 35-39 Men: 3,457/33,391 (89.6%)

Overall

Open Men: 16,760/183,948 (90.9%)
Masters 35-39 Men: 2,402/37,204 (93.5%)

My placing in the workout was down a bit from 19.2, but good enough to rise in the overall standings for both divisions. Getting even one clean at 225# would have been a huge jump in the rankings for that workout. It still turns out to be my best two-week start to an Open. Let’s keep it rolling…

Warm-up

5:00 Assault Bike
Dead Hang
Banded lat opener
Lunges
Step-ups
OH DB Hold

WHOOP said my recovery had only gone up from 37% to 44% with almost 9 hours of sleep last. I felt great this morning and my back had recovered quite well. I was moving well through warm-ups. Then I went to move my dumbbell across the gym and TWEAK as I stood up. Fuck!

Conditioning

CrossFit Games Open Workout 19.3

200′ Dumbbell Overhead Walking Lunge (50#)
50 Dumbbell Box Step-ups (50#, 24″)
50 Strict Handstand Push-ups
200′ Handstand Walk

Details:

10:00 time cap.
Lunges and handstand walk are 25′ lengths with a 5′ section for each rep.
Step-ups must alternate legs.
HSPU use a 24×36″ box for hands, though the fingers may extend past the line.

My plan was to switch hands every 50 feet of lunges. I was fine starting out with my left arm, but with my right shoulder bothering me lately I could only go 25 feet, so I switched the dumbbell every 25 feet the rest of the way. Got through those in 2:41.

I went right to the corner of the box and got in to it. I felt my back on every box step-up, which was fucking horrible. I kept trying to figure out if there was a way I could step-up to limit the shot of pain, but there wasn’t. I supported the dumbbell over a shoulder with one hand under the head of it. I think I moved it side to side after 16, 30, and 40 reps. My tiebreak was 6:42. Ugh, four minutes is a lifetime on that movement.

By the way, I have to mention how stupid the alternating step-up standard is. It slows everyone down and it’s nearly impossible for both the judge and the athlete to keep track of since it’s not an efficient or fast way to do step-ups.

I wanted to do doubles for the HSPU as long as possible with no more than a 5 count rest. Unfortunately my back affected me coming off the wall too, but I adjusted that easily to not affect my timing or anything. I got through 8 or 10 reps doing doubles when I started to feel the second rep getting slow so I changed to singles with shorter rest. That worked surprisingly well and I was able to quickly get back on the wall for another rep. Squeezed out a double before the buzzer for 31 strict handstand push-ups!

I had no expectation of finishing those 50 even though I would have loved to get just 5 feet of handstand walking since I’ve been working on the skill. Maybe next year.

Going in to this workout I was hoping to be done with the box around 5:30 or 6:00 at the latest, but the back tweak and shoulder issue really changed that. On BTWB a score of 124 was the 90th percentile so that was my goal (even though I rarely hit that 90+%). My score of 121 almost got there so I’m really happy with the effort. Currently it ranks in the 88th percentile on BTWB, so after more scores come in it’ll be right there with my 87 and 85 ranks for 19.1 and 19.2.

This is my best three-week start to the Open due to consistent placing. I hope I don’t wake up with a really bad back in the morning and it can recover for 19.4. Especially since I’m flying out to San Diego on Tuesday for a little vacation. I’ll be out there for Friday Night Lights and hopefully battle by buddy Bryan.

Strength

Bench Press

10×45#
8×95
8×135
8×155
8×175
8×185
8×195

Don’t need my back to bench. Matches the 8×195 I did in January, which felt good after those strict HSPU.

Got home and putzed around for an hour before hitting my cardio so I could relax for the rest of the day. I’m on vacation all week!

Engine Builder – Speed

2 Rounds

8:00 Airdyne (AD2)
4:00 Rest

Based on recent intervals I hoped to hold 80 RPM for these. I was in the ballpark, seeing 79-80 quite a bit when RPMs came around on the monitor. My calories were 258 and 262 with distances of 3.13 and 3.15 miles.

Too Aggressive

After being at 81% recovery yesterday, WHOOP says I’m down to 37% this morning with my HRV being the lowest it has recorded so far. I slept well and the intervals I did yesterday weren’t terrible, so it feels like a fluke reading. Maybe the sessions were harder on the body than I realized. Maybe my body is responding to the back tweak. Will keep an eye on things.

I had my breakfast this morning and then got started around 10am.

Warm-up

3:00 Row (750m)

Engine Builder – Max Aerobic Power

15 Rounds

40s Row
20s Rest

Three fewer than the 18 intervals of 30/30 on Wednesday, but moving 10 seconds from rest to work is a big difference. Instead of trying to get to a pace of 1:37-1:39/500m by the 5th pull I thought 1:40-1:42 would be a smart move. Turns out it was too aggressive.

I knew I was in trouble at the beginning of round 7. Started too hot in the first 6 and didn’t have any starting power left the rest of the way. Maybe that WHOOP recovery score is right!

Total of 2,868 meters and 219 calories. Averaged 191.2 meters and 1:44.6 / 500m (1,351 cal/hr) pace with a range of 198-187 meters. Intervals were 16, 16, 15, 16, 15, 15, 14, 14, 14, 14, 14, 14, 14, 14, and 14 calories and 197, 197, 195, 198, 194, 192, 187, 188, 188, 187, 188, 188, 189, 189, and 191 meters.

Accessory

Dumbbell Curls – 21s

7-7-7 @ 25#
7-7-7 @ 20#
7-7-7 @ 20#

First set felt heavy, but was ok after that. My adjustable dumbbells are definitely more awkward to use than the standard hex heads at the gym.

Engine Builder – Endurance

22:00 Airdyne (AD2)

I tried to stay near 70-75% of max heart rate, which ended up being 68-70 RPM most of the way. There were some weird rises and falls in my HR though. Went 7.57 miles and 536 calories.

Kind of nice to get in two sessions right away.

My back is improving and hopefully it’s good enough for 19.3 tomorrow.

Double Engine

The back tweak from Wednesday turned out to be one. Thankfully it’s not a major one. Yesterday I used my TENS device most of the day. Hopefully it’s a quick recovery so I can do 19.3 on Sunday or Monday. Guess I’ll stick to cardio for a couple of days.

Out in the cold garage by 9am with no food and no warm-up.

Engine Builder – Interval

4 Rounds

3:00 Airdyne (AD2)
30s Rest

Started at 85 RPM but I had to really push to hold 80 by the end of the second interval. Calories were 110-105-103-105. Maybe would do better with at least some warm-up. That 30 seconds was really no time to recover.

In the evening I warmed up with a 3:00 row (760m), increasing my pace every minute. Rested 3:00 before starting.

Engine Builder – Anaerobic

8 Rounds

30s Row
2:30 Rest

In the middle I remembered the other day where I really pushed with my legs to get the flywheel up to speed. Calories were 17-17-17-17-18-18-18-18 and I was getting over 2,400 cal/hr at some points. Looking at my meters and pace shows how I ramped up and found a rhythm.

It was cool to watch my heart rate and see it come down so well between intervals. My highest HR was actually at the end of the warm-up! Also notice that second peak on the way down from the 5th interval. I stood up for a minute to see if I’d recover better and obviously I did not. I started a 5:00 cool down almost immediately after and went 1,055 meters.

Quite a bit different from the biking intervals this morning, which hurt a lot more.

Side Plank Jumps are Better

My nutrition wasn’t great last night and I was up late, so I’m feeling tired today.

Strength

Bench Press

10×45#
6×95
3×135
3×165
3×195
3×215
3×230
3×240
3×245

Only 10 pounds shy of matching my best triple, so at least I’m getting some of my strength back in my upper body. Wish I had tried 250 instead of 245 for that last set.

Helped with plate changing and cheering on some 19.2 attempts, so 25+ minutes before the metcon.

Conditioning

2 Cycles

3:00 AMRAP (continue reps in the 2nd cycle)5 Bar Muscle-ups
- 20 Reverse Lunges (50# DBs)
2:00 Rest

Wore my grips and was able to do all sets of bar muscle-ups unbroken. The lunges got rough and I was surprised how nasty that first three minutes was. I got 2 + 11 in the first cycle and finished with 4 + 21. In the second cycle I was playing around with looking back towards the ceiling in my kip, which it felt like kept me patient in the pull. Something that needs more testing for sure.

Midline

4 Rounds

20 Hollow Rocks
20 Side Plank Jumps (alt)
50 Hollow Flutter Kicks
10/10 Wood Choppers (30#)

I like these plank jumps to the side a lot better. Finished in 9:01.

Accessory

Dumbbell Curls – 21s

3 Sets 7-7-7 @ 20#

The end of the 2nd and 3rd sets got tough. Will I be able to bump up to 25# for one set next time? Maybe I should try increasing the weight on the first set instead of the last one.

Several hours later I went out to the garage…

Engine Builder – Speed

3 Rounds

5:00 Airdyne (AD2)
2:00 Rest

Based on my best 10 minutes for cals I figured 85 RPM would be a good pace for this. Turns out that was too hot for today. My legs felt heavy from the lunges. I tallied 175, 167, and 174 calories. Happy with the comeback on the final one. You can see from my heart rate that I didn’t push the second interval. Weak sauce!

I really need to fix my custom Airdyne monitor so I can keep an eye an all of the numbers at once.

Slick Saturday

I felt rough after getting home last night but pretty good this morning. Made it for the 9am class on slick roads.

Warm-up

Thunderstruck

Hang from rings and do a burpee every time the song says “Thunder.” My hands didn’t really want to hang but the rings are easier than the bar. Those couple long hangs were rough.

Conditioning

39:00 AMRAP (w/ partner)

E3M (starting at 3:00) both run 3x down and back (~360′ total)
200 Sit-ups
50 Burpees
100 cal Row
100 Wall Balls (20#, 10′)

Partnered up with Weston. There ends up being 12 sets of running. We did 10 sit-ups at a time except for the beginning of round two where we started with a set of 20. Burpees were 5 at a time, row broken into 25 cals, and first round of wall balls was 25 at a time. I was on the wall balls at the end and held on for 33 reps, so we needed about two more minutes (not counting run time) to finish.

That was a good burner and work/rest split.

Conditioning 2

In the afternoon I jumped on the Airdyne (AD2) for 20 minutes, going 6.96 miles, which was exactly 500 calories. I could feel some fatigue in my legs.

Dead Shoulders

Feeling a little rough from yesterday, especially my shoulders. My legs are nearly recovered from Sunday. We got snow last night and this morning, so I shoveled the driveway for a half hour today. Made it to the 4pm class.

Warm-up

5 Inch Worms
5 Snatch Grip (Behind the neck) Press
5 Snatch Grip (Behind the neck) Press in a Quarter Squat
5 Snatch Grip (Behind the neck) Sots Press
5 Squat Jumps
5/5 Cossack Squat
5 Hang Muscle Snatch
5 Hang Power Snatch

All with 45#.

Weightlifting

10:00 EMOM – Hang Power Snatch

3×65#
3×85
3×105
3×125
6x3x135

Didn’t feel like pushing it today with so many snatches coming up and my shoulders beat up from muscle-ups.

Conditioning

6:00 AMRAP
- 30s Airdyne (AD2)
- 6 Hang Power Snatch (95#)
3:00 Rest
6:00 AMRAP
- 30s Airdyne (AD2)
- 6 Hang Power Snatch (75#)

It was programmed as 10 calories on the bike, but the Assault Bike was taken so I figured 30 seconds on the Airdyne would be good. The monitor was unplugged for some reason, but I kept a pace similar to what I’ve been doing at home on my recovery days, about 75 RPM. I scaled the loading down from 115-95 so I could cruise with the barbell. In the second AMRAP I didn’t even dip the bar back down to the hang position and went right from the bounce. I got exactly 6 rounds and then exactly 7.

Really glad I scaled back on the loading today. I was able to keep moving through the workout and no reason to chance an injury during Open season.

Accessory

Dumbbell Curls – 21s

3 Sets of 7-7-7 @ 20#

Felt easier than Sunday with 15-20-20. Maybe my biceps are growing.

Skill

Stayed for more handstand walking but wasn’t feeling as good with it today, probably due to fatigued shoulders. I did make it past 10 feet several times and out to a new PR of 18 feet. Getting started seems to be my biggest struggle.

Looking forward to seeing what is announced for 19.2 tomorrow night.

Motor Monday

My ass was starting to get sore from the lunges last night already and it’s kicking in today. My quads are feeling squats too.

Motor Monday

E2M 10 Rounds (alt)

40 cal Airdyne (AD2)
24 cal Ski Erg

After rowing for 19.1, I wanted to give the movement a rest in this week’s aerobic work. The idea with this one was 90 seconds of work and 30 seconds of rest for both machines, which was based on 73 RPM on the Airdyne and 960 cal/hr on the Ski Erg.

Oats & Whey

Threw together some overnight oats last night and they may become my go-to breakfast. Except for pancake Sundays of course! My back has been really tight all morning, which is a surprise since I didn’t feel anything over the last few days of workouts. Looking back I did feel tight after the stretching on Thursday. Maybe it’s the cumulative effect of pushing hard for 3 days. Hopefully today’s cardio will loosen it up. I was out to the garage by noon and I did not use the heater.

Accessory

Dumbbell Curl 21s

7-7-7 @ 15#
7-7-7 @ 15#
7-7-7 @ 20#

I guess I’ll do these twice a week, trying to increase the weight of one set every other session.

Conditioning

4 Rounds

3:00 cal Airdyne (AD2)
1:00 Rest
3:00 cal Row
1:00 Rest

My goals were to hit 80 cals (70-75 RPM) on the Airdyne and 60 cals (>1,200 cal/hr) on the rower every round. These are paces I want to be able to sustain for 60-90 efforts during 15-20 minute metcons.

I felt good about my mental and physical effort. Was able to get negative splits, which is always a win. Went 82-84-85-86 on the AD and 60-61-61-62 on the rower (#gram). My hoodie came off after round 2 and probably should have after round 1 because it was a thick one. After I finished, I checked my Tesla and it was 41° in there, so I bet the garage was in the high 30s.

Picked this new BSN protein powder (buy one get one 50% off at bodybuilding.com) based on flavor reviews, so I’m excited to try them. I’ve been using MusclePharm for a few years and am getting close to finishing a supply that had been saved up (months past the expiration date) in the closet when I wasn’t taking protein powders.

Triple Threat

I’m tight in a few areas from the last couple of days. Around 10:30 I took the car out of the garage, fired up the heater, and set out the machines. All I had so far for the day was a cup of coffee. I made my usual workout drink but there was no time in transitions to take a sip.

40:00 EMOM (alt)

12 cal Ski Erg
16 cal Row
20 cal Airdyne – AD2
16 cal Row

I tried something different today and put on headphones and listened to Talking Elite Fitness because the machines make too much noise to understand a podcast over the speaker. I generally don’t get in to audio podcasts and would much rather watch a video podcast, but it really helped me zone out; my eyes could focus on the pace and my mind could pay attention to what they were saying.

I only preheated the garage for 15-20 minutes, but it was enough since I would be doing all my work right there. Somewhere around the midpoint I turned off the heat and then it wasn’t much longer before I ditched my hoodie.

I did the maths last night so knew I had to average 960 cal/hr on the ski erg and 1,280 on the rower to finish in 45 seconds. Maybe a little aggressive for active recovery because I had to keep on the gas, but it felt good.

Starting 21s

Decided to exercise at home today because I planned to do some accessory stuff anyway and then I could sub a bunch in the metcon. Was pretty nice in the garage after I warmed it up for 2 hours.

Warm-up

3 Rounds

1:00 Airdyne
10 Goblet Squats (53#)
10 Sumo KB Deadlifts (53#)

I came up with my own warm-up, which was much simpler and shorter. Something felt weird in my knees on the squats but maybe it was because I had my knee sleeves on.

Conditioning

5 Rounds

14 Bar-facing Burpees
1:00 Plank
30s Double DB OH Hold (40# DBs)
30s Hollow Hold
20 Hand-to-hand Kettlebell Swings (53#)
1:00 Rest

At the gym this was programmed with a 200m run to start each round but running inside sucks. That’s part of the reason I stayed home. I replaced the run with the burpees because we haven’t done any of the bar-facing variety in months, which is not good with the Open in 2 weeks. I was feeling good with the movement this summer, so I should easily be able to pick my technique back up. I put in the overhead hold instead of a bar hang since I’ve been doing plenty of gymnastics bar work and my hands are feeling all of the bar muscle-ups I did yesterday. I also replaced 10/10 single arm swings with the H2H version.

My burpees felt really good and I got faster each round. I didn’t have the greatest setup for them due to the garage floor being a bit of a mess in the winter, but I made it work. On paper the original version of this workout looked like active recovery, but I was working hard! The static work in a metcon is interesting and rare, but it was a really nice change of pace and far from a walk in the park. My round times were 3:51, 3:42, 3:40, 3:38, and 3:31. BOOM! The only real places to go faster in this workout are the burpees and transitions, so 20 seconds is a lot.

BTW, every time I do a double overhead hold I underestimate it. Glad I didn’t try to use 50 pounders.

Strength

dbs-for-21s Dumbbell Curl – 21s

Top half of curls
Bottom half of curls
Full range of motion

I mentioned doing a variation of this on Saturday with my buddy Mo. Found a big weakness for me so I’m going to try to hit them once a week. T Nation has a great article with some other variations and uses of the method. I’m so used to counting to ten for light stuff that I went well past the 7 reps in the first round. Started light, but it’s a start.

10-10-10 @ 10#
7-7-7 @ 15#
7-7-7 @ 20#

Tabata HR Push-ups

Went 13-12-10-10-9-8-8-8 for 78 total reps.