Tag: Airdyne

Bench is Taking Off

My back wasn’t pinching on me like it did on Sunday. Stayed up late on Sunday night again, so not a great night of sleep. Last night, however, I got more sleep. My back is even better today. Out in the garage at 3:30.

Warm-up

3:00 Airdyne

Jumped on the bike while I was waiting for Kevin to show up. Got 63 calories and 1.56 km.

Bench Press

  • 2x6x45#
  • 6×135
  • 4×185
  • 2×215
  • 3×240
  • 3×245
  • 3×245
  • 3×250
  • 3×255
  • 1×270
  • 1×280

The program called for 5×3 @ 240-245 this week. Last cycle, where I used the same base weight, I did 240 for all five sets and struggled. I felt amazing today so pushed higher and ended up matching my all-time 3RM with 255#. The heavy singles are the most I’ve touched in 2 years and only ended 10# under my PR. Cutting back on warm-up sets and all of the extra accessory work is paying off!

Accessory

  • 10/10 DB Tricep Kickbacks (10#)
  • 10 Barbell Curls (45#)
  • 10/10 DB Tricep Kickbacks (15#)
  • 10 Barbell Curls (55#)
  • 3 Sets
    • 10/10 DB Tricep Kickbacks (25#)
    • 10 Barbell Curls (65#)

Those working sets were tough!

Year of the Engine – Rocket Race

10 Rounds

  • 1:30 Airdyne
  • 1:30 Rest

Doing another Rocket Race on the bike to keep the stress off my back. I wanted to keep 90 RPM for these and was right around there throughout. Ended with 683 calories and 10.73 km.

I’m out for 20.3

My back felt much better after the run yesterday. Since Wednesday it was feeling like something was out of place, so maybe it was and the run shifted things around. As I was chilling last night watching TV I was getting a little excited for 20.3 and thinking I might actually be able to go for the 315 bar this year. Then I woke up this morning and my back was pinching as I moved around the house. Open gym at 10.

Warm-up

  • 10 Reverse Hypers (50#)
  • 12 Reverse Grip Bench Press (45#)
  • 6 Skull Crushers (35#)
  • 10 Reverse Hypers (50#)
  • 6 Reverse Grip Bench Press (95#)
  • 6 Skull Crushers (55#)
  • 10 Reverse Hypers (50#)

Accessory

4 Sets

  • 12 Reverse Grip Bench Press (145#)
  • 12 Skull Crushers (65#)

That was getting rough!

Conditioning

5:30 AMRAP

  • 25′ Walking Lunges

This was obviously not the planned workout. My back tweaked as soon as I drove up for the first burpee box get over in the real workout, so I tried again. Nope. After putting my shit away I lunged for the last 5:30 on the clock, using the course set out for the Open. Got 20 lengths of the 25 foot course.

Means I won’t be doing 20.3 tomorrow. I did Diane earlier this year so it’s not really a big deal other than I won’t have a real ranking for the Open. Disappointing though, because if I could still deadlift like I could three years ago it would be a really good workout for me. My HSPU are stronger than they were in January when I did a 5:30 Diane.

Midline

10:00 EMOM (alt)

  • 40s Handstand Hold
  • 20s Hollow Hold

Year of the Engine – Polarized

36:00 Airdyne

** Endurance pace with 7s sprint @ 6, 12, 18, 24, 30

Out in the garage after 1 o’clock. Might as well do some sweating today. I got 1,032 calories and 21.43 km. Only 0.07 km from my best at this time domain, which was with one more sprint.

I’m going to order pizza and watch Tiger get win #82 tonight!

Speed & Endurance

Last night my legs were really feeling the fatigue from those two Airdyne interval workouts. I think it means I need more of that. Didn’t get a very good night of sleep. Out in the garage after 9:30.

Warm-up

3:00 Airdyne

Increased pace each minute. 94 calories and 1.85 km.

Year of the Engine – Time Trial

10:00 Airdyne

Tried to keep a consistent pace from the start with 87-90 RPM instead of going out hot for the first minute plus. My pace still faded through the middle of the workout and I didn’t have as much kick for the end. I never looked at the calories until I was finished and I felt pretty good, so I thought I had a good chance of beating 400. Not today. 393 calories and 6.91 km.

Went for a run close to 2pm.

Year of the Engine – Endurance

44:00 Run

Made it 4.55 miles and I love the consistency over the middle!

2019-10-26-run-splits

Then it was time to mow the lawn.

Double Airdyne Day

Rest day yesterday. I got blurry vision with a headache late in the afternoon and took a long nap. I also slept in this morning. My hamstrings are getting pretty sore from something.

I was really hoping we wouldn’t get something heavy for 20.3, because yesterday my back was not feeling good from Wednesday, and probably mostly from 20.2. Heavy deadlifts are better than heavy squats I guess. It definitely wouldn’t be smart for me to attempt those today, so hopefully I can recover for a Sunday go at it.

Year of the Engine – Rocket Race

4 Rounds

  • 4:00 Airdyne
  • 2:00 Rest

Out in the garage around noon. Protecting that back by not using the rower, which isn’t working anyway. I tried to keep ~85 RPM, doing 156, 158, 150, 152 calories and 2.76, 2.74, 2.67, 2.7 km.

I really need to make a v2 of the custom monitor for my AD since the first one was over complicated and stopped working with Raspbian OS updates. Being able to always see the important info (not alternating through) and on some type of stand at eye level will be a huge difference, especially for intervals like this.

It might be a good idea for me to switch things up more often like this. I’m able to get my heart rate up quite a bit higher on the rower. On the Airdyne, my legs start to burn far before I get my heart rate up.

That finishes month 8 of the program, which leaves one more month of this differentiation phase. A few hours later I was out in the garage again.

Accessory

  • 2 Sets
    • 5 Weighted Chin-ups (25#)
    • 2×5 Strict Ring Dips
    • 10/10 Lateral Step-ups (24”)
  • 2 Sets
    • 5 Weighted Chin-ups (30#)
    • 2×5 Strict Ring Dips
    • 10/10 Lateral Step-ups (24”)
  • 1 Set
    • MAX Weighted Chin-ups (35#)
    • MAX Strict Ring Dips
    • 10/10 Lateral Step-ups (24”)

I got 8 chin-ups, though the weight was briefly resting on the ground between each rep and 18 ring dips. Really close to my best of 21 strict ring dips, after already doing 40 reps! I decided to use a lower box than normal, doing them slower with control.

Year of the Engine – Rocket Race

18 Rounds

  • 30s Airdyne
  • 1:00 Rest

I felt my back pinch during rounds 3-4, so I hopped off, moved around a little bit, and was back on. Didn’t happen again. Held >100 RPM every round to get 549 calories and 7.12 km.

Bench is Back, I Hope

Yesterday I walked 18 holes and it was nice to do a lot of moving with how sore I am from the lunges. My back was tight through a lot of the front nine in the chilly weather and it affected some swings for sure.

With my legs and ass super sore and my back being tight yesterday I’m delaying the rowing intervals until tomorrow. I think it’s been over a week since I did rowing intervals! The next rowing session is high power so it wouldn’t have been a great one to do before lifting anyways.

Year of the Engine – Speed/Threshold

30:00 Airdyne

Did 950 calories and 18.79 km, which is 20 cals and 0.19 km more than a month ago. Even though this is an all-time best for 30 minutes I’m wondering, based on heart rate, if I’m pushing hard enough. I was still in zones 2-3 the entire time, which is endurance. It was far from easy or a conversation pace though. Or maybe WHOOP’s estimate of my max heart rate is too high, causing all the zones to be wrong. For comparison, a few weeks ago in a 30 minute polarized workout with five sprints of seven seconds each, I went 18.13km and 889 calories. I’m not sure how much faster my legs can push though because they were already burning nearly the entire workout.

2019-10-22-airdyne-hr

Bench Press

  • 2x8x45#
  • 8×135
  • 4×175
  • 2×205
  • 6x4x235
  • 2×250
  • 1×260
  • 1×265

I switched up my warm-up sets to limit fatigue. Same weight I used in week 2 of the last cycle, where my notes said I thought about decreasing the weight several times. Today the working sets weren’t an issue and I didn’t even ask Kevin to spot me on those. He did spot on the heavier sets and those felt good too. Hopefully this means the accessory work is helping!

Back Squat

  • 10×45#
  • 6×135
  • 10:00 EMOM
    • 3×155

Nothing crazy with my back still tight and legs being super sore. Speedy reps.

Pull-up PR

Didn’t sleep well at all and got out of bed around 6am. My back is really tight from 20.2. Went to the gym during the morning 8 and 9am classes to do my own thing, so I could use the 60 pound dumbbells.

Warm-up

  • 5:00 Assault Bike (45 cals)
  • 3 Sets
    • 5 Scap Pull-ups
    • 10 DB Bench Presses (30-40-50#)

Strength / Accessory

5 Sets

  • MAX Strict Pull-ups
  • 10 DB Bench Presses (60#)
  • 3:00 Rest

I got 15-12-10-10-10 on the pull-ups, which sets a new PR set! I haven’t maxed out strict pull-ups since 2014 when I did 13. I weighed about 200 pounds back then and I’ve been around 202 lately. The bench started to feel pretty heavy in the last two sets.

E20S – Until Failure

  • 3 Strict HSPU

I wrote numbers up to 20 on the board kind of joking and ended up maing it through 17 rounds. My first idea was to do a 5:00 AMRAP, so this was just an extra 40 seconds and made sure I didn’t blow up too early. In round 12 I made the mistake of stopping in the bottom on my second rep. I eventually was able to press out of it, but it ruined me for the rest of the way. I had to do three singles in my last two rounds and barely made it so didn’t attempt the 18th round.

5 Sets

  • 10/10 Single Leg Lateral Step-ups (30″)
  • 30s/30s Single Leg Standing Balance (70#)

Then I was out in the garage around 11.

Year of the Engine – Polarized

36:00 Airdyne
**Endurance pace with 7s sprint @ 8, 16, 24, 32

976 calories and 20.88 km.

Time for some food and a nap.

Rocket Bike

My legs have gotten pretty sore from the wall balls and probably some from the squats yesterday as well. With rowing in today’s workout at the gym I thought I’d switch things up and do intervals on the bike. Out in the garage during lunch.

Year of the Engine – Rocket Race

18 Rounds

  • 45s Airdyne
  • 45s Rest

Was doing around 90 RPM through the first 9 or 10 rounds and then started to pick it up and was doing 95-97 by the end. Total of 652 calories and 9.77 km.

Loaded up my GHD in the truck, hauled it across town, and unloaded it for a friend who bought it. It’s nice to get more space back in the garage. Went to the 4pm class.

Warm-up

  • 3 Sets
    • 15 Reverse Hypers (50#)
  • 2:00 Echo Bike (22 cals)
  • 3 Rounds
    • 8 PVC Good Mornings
    • 5 Ring Rows
    • World’s Greatest Stretch
    • 10 PVC Passes
  • Deadlift
    • 10×45#
    • 5×135
    • 5×185
    • 5×225

Conditioning

E4M – 5 Rounds

  • 500m Row
  • 5 Deadlifts (245#)

I belted up for the deadlifts to be safe and used a neutral grip for every set. Going in my plan was to row around a 1:43 pace, but I was feeling good. I did 1:41.5, 1:41.5, 1:41.0, 1:40.0, and 1:37.5. Didn’t really screw around getting to the bar and wasting time before lifting either. I’m loving how well I’m able to recover now in a workout with rest like this.

Since the rower felt great, I checked the drag factor afterwards and it was at 114, so maybe I should lower mine even more at home.

Midline

3 Rounds

  • 1:00 Plank
  • 20 Russian Twists (30# MB)
  • 10 Barbell Sit-Ups (45#)
  • 1:00 Rest

This took around 2:05-2:10 per round.

High Strain Weekend

After hitting my highest WHOOP strain ever yesterday, with an 18.0, I recovered to 83% today on 7.5 hours of sleep. My body is sore in a few more places from the last two days and my glutes are the worst of it, though only about a 5/10. Open gym at 10am.

Warm-up

  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • Dead Hang

Pretty much a non-existent warm-up to be honest. My shoulders were feeling pretty smoked from 20.1 and the strict HSPU I did last night.

Conditioning

2019-2020 Wodapalooza Online Qualifier Workout 4

  • 150 Wall Balls (20/14#, 10/9′)
  • 75 T2B

**Perform in any order, until completion of total work. Can be broken down or performed in any order.

My plan was 5 Sets of 15 + 8 (4-4) and 5 Sets of 15 + 7 (4-3). Could I keep transitions to a minimum? I remembered to shave my calluses this morning and I wore grips.

The plan worked out well and it took me 10:52. I was done with three rounds in just over 3:00, so I didn’t slow down very much. Around the sixth round, the wall balls started to feel hard after 10 reps, but I wasn’t dropping it. My toes to bars felt good and I’m curious if I could have done all sets of 8 and 7 unbroken or if that would have forced me to break up or do singles late in the workout. Doing 4-4 and 4-3 gave me a few seconds of rest. I did the last set of 7 unbroken. My heart rate was in the 160s the whole workout.

Accessory

A friend recommended some accessory stuff to help with my bench press. I’d never done reverse grip bench, which was weird at first, but I ended up really liking it. To warm-up (plus get a feel for the hand placement, loading, and bar path) I did 10×45, 5×75, 5×95, and 5×115 for the reverse bench and 10×35 skull crushers.

5 Sets

  • 10 Reverse Grip Bench Press (135#)
  • 10 Skull Crushers (65#)
  • 20 Weighted Lunges (35# DBs)

Had some midline stuff planned, but it was already after 11:20 and that was enough. After lunch and mowing the lawn I went to work on the rower and the computer worked fine. Hopefully it continues to work. Out in the garage around 6pm.

Year of the Engine – Time Trial

20:00 Airdyne

A few weeks ago I did 12.73 km and 656 calories. Today I wanted to do a better job of holding 80 RPMs, which I did. I started out faster in the first minute, found my pace, and then kicked in over last two minutes. Finished with 12.94 km and 683 cals, a big improvement.

It was another big WHOOP strain day. I need the rest day tomorrow.

Technology Troubles

I’m a little sore from 20.1. Suprisingly, the worst of it is in my glutes. I woke up with the decision not to redo it. At the end of the day my score doesn’t matter for anything. One. And. Done. I’m already feeling good about it. 🙂 I was out in the garage around 10:30am for rowing intervals, but the computer wasn’t working so I had to pull a switcheroo.

Year of the Engine – Polarized

34:00 Airdyne
** Endurance pace with 7s sprint @ 6, 12, 18, 24, 30

After the third sprint I pulled a wheelie to scootch the front of the bike over and the computer fucking reset! During some of the sprints the front of the bike tends to drift over towards my treadmill and I didn’t want to end up with the handles getting too close. I took the numbers from 16 minutes to estimate totals of 1,015 calories and 20.5 km.

As I was sitting down and updating notes, I accidentally deleted my entire Workouts note, where I plan about a week ahead and have a lot of workout ideas saved. Undo on iOS didn’t work and there is no revision history in Bear. Fuck! I checked both laptops and they’d already synced across the updated empty note. The best I could do was restore an old copy, which had the majority of what I need. I should stay away from computers the rest of the weekend.

During the day I cut up a dead tree that fell two weeks ago and hauled the wood over to a friend’s house. There were some pretty good weighted carries hauling logs to the truck! I got to the gym just before 6pm to use the rower.

Row Tests

  • 100m
  • 2:00 Rest
  • 100m
  • 2:00 Rest
  • 250m

I got 15.8, 15.6, and 39.7. Only 0.1 seconds shy of matching my PR for 100 meters. I had set the drag factor to 130 to start and then for the second 100 I moved the damper from around 5.5 up to 7. I moved it back down for the 250, which was 1.4 seconds slower than my PR. Not too bad with these weak ass legs.

2019-10-12-row-tests

BTWB’s stupid 6 month history always screws my Fitness Level score, so I’ve been wanting to hit a few of these tests to get it back up to realistic levels. I really hate that they count interval work as a PR attempt, which is using 1:47.3 as my recent best 500m time, only good for a level 18! Come on bro, that’s about the pace I hold when doing 500m repeats in a metcon. The 1k row wasn’t a test effort either.

Photo Oct 12, 2019 at 61127 PM

Anyway, that served as a good warm-up for the short intervals.

Year of the Engine – Rocket Race

15 Rounds

  • 20s Row
  • 40s Rest

I got 114-116 meters every round. Still had pretty good power left in my legs after the test rows.

 

Since it was a quick workout and I made the drive out, I figured I might as well do some other stuff.

Strength / Gymnastics / Conditioning

  • E2M – 5 Rounds
    • 2 Weighted Pull-ups (30#)
    • 5 Strict Handstand Push-ups
    • 50 Double Unders
  • E2M – 3 Rounds
    • 3 Weighted Pull-ups (30#)
    • 7 Strict Handstand Push-ups
    • 50 Double Unders
  • E2M – 2 Rounds
    • 4 Weighted Pull-ups (30#)
    • 10 Strict Handstand Push-ups
    • 50 Double Unders

The plan was do do 10 rounds of 2-5-50, but it was too easy and I was getting 1:10 of rest each round. Then it was still too easy. Finally it was almost too hard. I missed a double under in round 1, 6, and 7. Then in round 9 after 30+ dubs it was like I’d never done a double under before or the rope was possessed. I missed 4 or 5 times and my rest was down to about 25 seconds! Doing those two sets of 10 strict handstand push-ups was a good challenge. 66 total strict HSPU and I made sure to get an exaggerated lockout on every rep as prep if they come up during the Open again.

Tomorrow I’ll have to see what’s up with my rower’s monitor. I remembered that I can swap with the Ski Erg to see if the problem is with the monitor or somewhere else.

Trade-Off

Definitely getting sore from squatting. Out in the garage during lunch.

Year of the Engine – Polarized

32:00 Airdyne
** Endurance pace with 7s sprint @ 6, 12, 18, 24, 30

I did 883 calories and 18.7 km.

Went to the 4pm class.

Warm-up

4 Rounds

  • 10 PVC Passes
  • 5 HR Push-ups
  • 5 Ring Rows
  • 10 Jumping Jacks

Strength

5 Sets

  • 10 Strict HSPU
  • 10/10 Kroc Rows (53# KB)

I’m benching tomorrow, so I did these strict handstand push-ups instead of 5×10 bench press. Had a good 2-3 minutes of rest between each set, but it was still surprising to get all five sets of HSPU unbroken. I went wider with my hands on my last set, which was a lot easier.

Conditioning

15:00 AMRAP

  • Buy-in:
    • 10-20-30-40 H2H KB Swings (53#)
    • 3-4-5-6 Muscle-ups
  • AMRAP
    • 6 Burpees
    • 30 Double Unders

It was programmed as American swings and 10-20-30-40 pull-ups. The Rx+ version was muscle-ups and I really wanted to do some. I knew I’d get done with the muscle-ups much faster than doing 100 total pull-ups, so I was going to have the joy of a lot more time doing the AMRAP. Win-lose? I finished the buy-in at 6:11. Felt good on the rings and was able to do each set unbroken, even with all the hip fatigue from the swings. Started out a little slow on the burpees, but then, I think, in the third round, Michelle (who was coaching) joined in to push me. I figured she’d drop out soon enough, so didn’t pick up my pace much. When it was clear she wasn’t going away and I saw there were only a few minutes left I was able to speed up my burpees. I ended up doing nine rounds plus the six burpees.

I don’t think 18 muscle-ups is a good sub for 100 pull-ups. There is no way I would have done the 30 and 40 pull-ups unbroken, so I should have been forced to break up larger numbers of MU. Around 30 total MU would have been pretty solid. Doing 3-6-9-12 would have stuck to the 1x-2x-3x-4x pattern and forced me to break 9 and 12 in to 2-4 sets.