Back Squat

Wake Up

Felt ok this morning, but maybe there wasn’t enough time yet for me to feel the effects of last night’s session. At the gym at 10 with the guys. I don’t remember the last time I was up and out of the house that early. I actually had to set my alarm to make sure I got up earlier than usual so I could eat something and be ready.

Snatch

Imagine that, another 3RM.

2x3x20kg
3×40
3×50
3×60
3×70
3×75
3×80
1×85, miss
miss, 3×85

Happy to have fought and made that final set. I’ll take it since 90+ is usually where my consistency with singles goes out the window. I think I’ve done a TnG triple with 165, but never tried multiple reps at much more than. PR ✅

Bench Press

Three working sets of doubles with 90%.

10×95#
6×135
4×165
2×185
2×215
2×235
2×245
2x2x255

Was feeling good and it’s been 18 months or so since I tried a max, so I went bumped it up on the last two sets. Got ’em, but barely.

Three working sets of 4 @ 80%.

4×185#
4×225
4×275
3x4x305

Not used to this, but felt better than I expected.

Conditioning

4 Rounds

10 OHS (95#)
100 DU
20 Russian KBS (70#)

I scaled back from the Rx 135#. Probably should have tried 115, but I’m fine with it. I incleaned the swings up from 53#. The dubs were by far the worst part. After hitting 60 unbroken in my second set of the first round I missed about 5 times to get the last 15-20. Each round I had way too many misses after 1 or 2 reps, which costs a lot of time. Overhead squats and swings were all unbroken. Finished in 11:52.

Will try to get in my final Tabata thruster day tomorrow, but we’ll see how I feel after going out tonight.

Hybrid WOD

Starting some Hybrid Performance Method programming with Bryan and Weston. Figured I’d jump in with them and give my routine some structure.

Power Clean + 5 Push Press

Big PR on the push press! I’ve done 198 for 5 and 205 for 6 before. In the 2nd or 3rd rep of the final set I could feel myself over-extending so I braced hard and kept much better positions to finish the set. Barely. I could feel my back tight on the left side for the rest of the workout, but not a painful tightness, which is good.

Snatch Pull

3×135#
3×185
2×205
2x1x225
2x1x235
1×245

Odd doing singles, but was able to go heavy. Didn’t use straps at all.

Back Squat

6×135#
6×205
6×235
3x6x265

The working sets were at 70%, which felt good.

Conditioning

3 Rounds

15 Wall Balls (20#, 10′)
5 Muscle-ups
15 Hang Power Cleans (135#)

Scaled down the wall balls from 25# since we don’t have that. Tried slam balls but the ones we have for that weight don’t bounce off the wall at all. Was not going RX+ with 30#. I also dropped the muscle-ups down from 7 to keep intensity up and be closer to Bryan’s time.

I went 3-2 on each set of muscle-ups and 6-5-4 on the cleans. Finished in 9:24 about 30 seconds behind Bryan so scaling was the right thing to do. I really need to start pushing sets more instead of playing so safe all the time. Should have gone unbroken on the first set of muscle-ups and tried to do the cleans in 2 sets each time.

Update: None of us realized the cleans were 135/195#, probably because we are so used to seeing 135/95 our eyes didn’t pick up the difference. Looking at the other days for the week it seems these metcons are programming for Regional level athletes, which is definitely not us. Will be scaling back a lot or just sticking to the women’s weights. Using 70% of the assigned men’s Rx seems appropriate.

Squats on Squats

Needed the rest day yesterday and got a bunch of stuff done around the house on my last day of break. Went to the 6:30 class but squatted instead of doing shoulder press.

Strength – Back Squat

10x20kg
5×60
5×80
5×90
5×100
5×110
5×120
5×130

Not real great on the back between sets. I wore Nanos but used the belt for 100+.

Conditioning

4 Rounds

5 Front Squats (60kg)
5 Pull-ups
5 Hang Power Cleans (60kg)
10 Hand Release Push-ups
5 Push Jerks (60kg)
15 Air Squats

Stuck with kilos since I had them on a bar for the squats already. Unbroken on everything. Going from air squats into front squats was teh suck! Push-ups were the most annoying part of the workout. Finished in 9:42.

Midline

3 Sets

10/10 Side Bends (53# KB)

When the KB was in my left hand I could feel a tug on my back.

Back in the Rack

It helps me to have at least a general idea of my upcoming workouts, especially during a period like this where it’s easy for me to skip out and stay in me comfy recliner. Last night I mapped out a general idea of doing squat triples and a metcon with some snatches. As I sat in my chair this morning, drinking my coffee, and wasting time on the computer, I finally made the move. Once I take that first step I’m good to go.

My upper body is still a bit sore and I can feel my biceps more than anything this morning.

Strength – Back Squat

6×45#
6×95
6×135
6×165
6×195
3×215
3×235
3×255
3×275
3×295

Fitting when “Get Low” comes on in the middle of a squat session, something is right in the world. Was wearing lifters and put the belt on for the triples. Feels good to be under some weight again.

Conditioning

10:00 AMRAP

15 Push-ups
10 Hang Power Snatches (75#)
15 Sit-ups

Went 9-6 on all push-ups. Was trying to rush through at the end so the 6th set had some short pauses at the top of reps in the set of 6. All unbroken snatches. Really tried to rip those wrists in the turnover, which may help when I get real weight on the bar. Was able to finish the 6th round and get in 3 extra push-ups.

Just what I needed. Now I can pack up and head out of here for a few days. Worked out 3 days in a row for the first time in 3 weeks. I don’t even recognize myself. haha

Déjà vu

Feeling a little sore in the upper back and chest from the workout last night. Made it to the 5:30 class.

Warm-up

30s Bottom Squat Hold
10 Wall Balls (20#, 10′)
30s Bottom Squat Hold
10 Burpees

Strength – Back Squat

10×45#
6×135
5×185
4×215
3×245
2×265
1×285
1×305
1×315
1×325

The last time I had more than 205 on my back was October 28th! I wasn’t expecting much today and was happy with anything over 300 pounds. Was much more difficult than I’d like it to be, but you can’t go almost 2 months without squatting heavy.

Conditioning

Buy-in: 10 Curtis P (95#)
5 Rounds
- 7 Push-ups
- 7 Deadlifts (95#)
- 7 T2B

Very similar to what I did last night. I could feel the push-ups in that first round. Finished in 4:53 with everything unbroken.

Midline

10-15-20-15-10

Sit-ups
Russian Twists (44#)
Double Unders

Took me 6:40.

Heading to Iceland

Wanted to get in something before I head to Iceland this afternoon, especially since I don’t plan to do much during the week. Out in the garage to try something different…

Interval Weight Training

I’ve been hearing about IWT for about a year now and have looked it up a few times. Has always looks nasty from the few examples I was able to find and the science/theory behind it makes sense. After seeing it come up again last week I did a little more digging and found an article on Breaking Muscle of all places with some great info and what looked like a good way to get started. I warmed up with some power cleans, 5 touch-n-go each with 45-95-135 pounds.

Part 1 – 3 Rounds
- 8 Power Cleans (155#)
- 2:00 Ski
- Rest 2:00
Rest 5:00 (total)
Part 2 – 3 Rounds
- 8 Back Squats (205#)
- 2:00 Air Dyne
- Rest 2:00
Rest 5:00 (total)
Part 3 – 3 Rounds
- 10 Mountain Climbers
- 10 Push-ups
- 10 Burpees
- 10 Air Squats
- 10 Box Jumps (24″, step down)
- Rest 1:00

Something I really struggle with is steady state cardio, when fatigued, like the working this week with running. As soon as I got into round 2 of part 1 that couldn’t have been more clear. My meters on the ski erg went from 554 to 530 to 509. I think there is a lot of room for improvement there. All of the cleans were TnG.

When I got to the Air Dyne I was able to stay consistent or maybe I paced too much in the first two rounds. I got 63-62-63 calories on my AD2. The body weight circuit was pretty consistent two with splits of 1:30-1:30-1:33.

Other than trying to keep up a pace on the erg, the hardest part was the first box jump each round. Hopefully I can repeat this each week for a month or two (maybe switch up the movements after a month) and see where it takes my conditioning.

I better shower and pack so I can make my flight!

Year 5

I started CrossFit 5 years ago!!

Didn’t have candy to pass out so I hid out at the gym for a couple of hours.

Clean

5x20kg
3×40
3×60
2×75
1×85
1×93
EMOM
- 5x1x101
- 5x1x108
- 5x1x115
Heavy Single
- 1×120
- 1×124
- Clarked 128

My head is my biggest obstacle.

Clean Pull

3x117kg
2x3x124

Clean Deadlift

3 reps with a pause at the knee + 1 rep floating

1 set @ 111kg
2 sets @ 117

Pause Back Squat

3 seconds pause in the hole.

2x100kg
2×112
3x2x121

Midline

5 Rounds

20 Hollow V-ups
20 Russian Twists (53# KB)

Those V-ups were terrible after round 1; had to break them up way too much. Did all of the twists unbroken and finished in 6:40.

Snatch Lockout Sucks

Legs were feeling heavy this morning. Went to the gym tonight and Alex worked in with me on the snatch work. First day of Catalyst OTM Week 5.

Snatch

5x20kg
3×35
3×45
3×55
1×65
1×72
EMOM
- 5x1x78
- 5x1x83
- 5x1x88
Heavy Single
- Miss 90
- 1×90
- Miss 92
- Miss 92

I was rushing with the first rep at 88 due to 2 of us lifting in the minute and the weight change. Picked the bar back up and made the lift though. It was getting squirelly with the 88s but I made the rest of them. Not a good performance with the heavy ones after. I can’t get that shit locked in. 😦

Snatch Pull

3x90kg
2x3x95

Snatch Deadlift

3 Pause reps (knee) + 1 Floating

85kg
2 sets @ 90

Back Squat

First rep of each set has a 5 second eccentric tempo.

3x70kg
3×90
3×110
3×122
3×131
3×133
3×135
3×137

Things were feeling rough on the way up, so I scaled back from 3 sets with 137. Actually started feeling better in those last 3 sets so I think I could have made the prescribed weight.

Midline

5 Sets
- 30s L-sit (hands on boxes)
- 1:00 Rest
Rest
3 Rounds (for time)
- 5/5 Turkish Get-ups (35#)

Tried something different by using the boxes today for the L-sits. Definitely a lot easier on the arms without holding on to the rings or parallettes. I decided to go lighter on the get-ups and just get them done because I was almost at 2 hours already. Alternated arms every 5 reps. Finished in 4:55.

1 Mile Race Test

When I looked at Timehop today, it’s pretty crazy it has been exactly a year since I did the 2k rowing test after following 12 weeks of Rowing WOD and now I’m testing my mile in the 14th week of Aerobic Capacity. I swear I didn’t plan this.

Aerobic Capacity – 1 Mile Race

400m Jog
2:00 Rest
200m Run (target: 0:41)
2:00 Rest
200m Run (target: 0:41)
4:00 Rest
400m Run (target: 1:21)
6:00 Rest
1 Mile Run

Once again I don’t understand why the target paces for the warm-ups were so fast. That’s the 5:20-5:30 / mile pace range when they are supposed to give me a feel for the pace of my mile. No fucking way I can hold anything close to that. Maybe they used a typical 400m to mile ratio of 22% based off my recent 1:02 for the 400, but my ration before starting the program was 34%, so not anywhere close to “normal.” Would seem odd to calculate it that way and not take into account my most recent mile PR.

I’ve had a goal to run a 6 minute mile for a few years (haven’t worked on it until this year) and even though I thought it was still too far out of range, I figured I’d go for it. So I used a target pace of 0:45 for the 200s and 1:30 for the 400m. The warm-up 200s felt good at 40 and 45 seconds. Then when I ran 1:33 for the 400m I was getting worried at how gassed it felt.

Maps have been broken on the Garmin site for over a week, so I can’t really look at my laps how I’d like to. I have to rely on memory from looking at my watch during the run. Hopefully they get the site fixed soon!

From what I remember… The initial 100 was 21 seconds and 200 in 44. Then things slowed a bit to finished the first lap in 1:33. I think I finished the second lap at about 3:20, which would be a 1:47 lap and the third lap at 5:05 for a 1:45 lap. I didn’t push it hard enough over those 2 laps. 😦 Was able to kick it in over the last 150 meters to finish at 6:42 for a 1:37 final lap. I’ll be interested to see how accurate my memory is. Have to admit I’m pretty disappointed in myself for not pushing harder. Wanted a lot more than a 9 second improvement.

Fatigue Factor

When I started, my 400 time was a 1:04 and my mile was a 6:51. Those improved to 1:02 and 6:42. Hinshaw always talks about the “Fatigue Factor” and how 20-21% is the average he’s seen over all of the Beyond the Whiteboard data. Mine was calculated at 34.1% when I started and is 34.8% now. Terrible!! I need a lot more work on volume.

I was finally able to find the formula in a comment from Hinshaw…

The fatigue factor uses the following formula devised by Pete Riegel:

T2 = T1 x (D2 / D1)C
where:
D1 = distance you already raced
T1 = time for the known distance
D2 = distance you want to predict the time
T2 = predicted time for the new distance
C = performance degradation coefficient

After still not being able to come up with correct fatigue factors, I looked up the Riegel formula and Hinshaw missed that it’s the the power of C! Solving for C and knowing the 2 distances, which is the fatigue factor in our case…

Fatigue Factor = $\ln(T2/T1)/\ln(4)-1$

Yes, you have to use logarithms (I’m using natural logs) to solve this. T1 is your 400m time in seconds and T2 is your mile time is seconds.

If you don’t feel like messing with calculators, I whipped up some javascript and a quick form you can use. Go to http://jsfiddle.net/nickmomrik/8an6nzdd/3/ and change the default numbers in the form (leave the code alone) to see what your fatigue factor is.

Final Thoughts

This was the 27th workout of the Aerobic Capacity program and with the changing weather, will be my last for the year. I’ve been waiting for the mile test to come up for a few weeks and it came at the perfect time with the forecast not showing anything in the 60s this week. Since starting on August 5th, it took me about 11.5 weeks to get through this first workout of the 14th week.

I enjoyed the program a lot and would recommend it. At $30/month it won’t break the bank. Overall the workouts were challenging but there were only 2 times where I couldn’t hit/beat the assigned paces. Maybe because my ratio is so bad I should have been going even faster. I may start again in the spring so I can follow it for longer next year. Time for more CrossFit classes.

After watching the Lions make another comeback win, I felt like I should do more today, so I headed out to the garage to get in week 4 day 3 of lifting.

Power Clean

5×45#
3×95
3×135
2×165
EMOM
- 1×185
- 1×195
- 1×205
- 5x1x215

I decided to go with powers again to save my legs.

Clean Pull

3×215#
3x3x245

Used straps for the three working sets.

Pause Back Squat

2 seconds in the hole.

2×135#
2×185
2×225
3x2x245

No belt and no sleeves today. Felt really good actually.

Midline

3/3 Turkish Get-ups (40#)
3/3 Turkish Get-ups (45#)
3x 3/3 Turkish Get-ups (50#)

I’m going to have to try left arm first next time to see if it still floats around as much.

4 Sets

20 Twisting K2E

Much easier without grips on.

Deloading

Out in the garage after 2. Should have probably eaten lunch at some point today. Warmed up with Crossover Symmetry Activation.

Power Snatch

5×45#
3×75
3×95
2×115
EMOM
- 1×135
- 1×145
- 1×155
- 5x1x165

Decided to make them power snatches today since it’s the 4th week and a deload. Made it 8 minutes on the EMOM with the warm-ups instead of just the 5 heaviest.

Snatch Pull

3x3x185#

Back Squat

3×135#
3×185
3×225
3×265
3x3x285

Was not feeling it with the squats today. Maybe because I wasn’t all warmed up due to powering the snatches or maybe the sprints from yesterday beat me up. I could feel that left quad too. Put on the belt for the last 4 sets, but didn’t wear knees sleeves and had on Nano 5s.

Accessory

20:00 EMOM

5/5 Landmine Rows (90#)
6 Strict Chin-ups
8 Strict Ring Dips
6 Evil Wheels

Decided to finally buy a landmine attachment.