I’m getting a lot of sleep, but WHOOP says I’m still not recovering to the green zone; been in the yellow every morning after 19.4 and the rowing I did on Friday. My back continues to feel better each day. My legs feel tired walking up the stairs today.
Too much I’d have to substitute at the gym again, so did everything at home.
Warm-up
3:00 Row (805m)
Engine Builder – Anaerobic
6 Rounds
45s Row
3:30 Rest
Tried to get over 2,200 cal/hr by the 5th pull and stay there. My calories were 26-27-27-27-26-26 and you can see below that I started running out of steam after the 3rd interval. This was pretty nasty.
Looking back at my 250m PR, I pulled 45 strokes/min. I guess I need to cycle through my strokes faster.
Accessory
Dumbbell Curls – 21s
3 Sets 7-7-7 @ 25#
Got up to the 25s with all three sets. One more session and then I’ll switch things up. Really happy with the progress in under 2 months.
Conditioning
5 Rounds
20 Hand Release Push-ups
30 Sit-ups
Wanted something where I could keep moving but not too intense after the anaerobic work. This did the trick. I did 4×5 every round of push-ups. First set was done in 40 seconds and about 50 for round two before I started taking a little more rest between every five push-ups. Sit-ups felt good the whole way and took about a minute each round. Finished in 9:35.
Good to be home and get a good night of sleep. I’m already missing the great San Diego food though. I put on almost three pounds, but that may all be water weight from so many carbs. WHOOP was saying that I burned around 4,000 or more calories most days I was out there because of all the extra walking I was doing. My recovery score is low again at 36% after no workouts yesterday, but the travel home from SD.
Strength
Bench Press
10×45#
10×95
3×135
3×175
3×205
3×225
3×240
3×250
My best triple is 255 almost exactly two years ago, so I’m happy to hit this today. If I can’t work on my lower body lifts, at least I’m getting my bench press back and can make another run at 300.
Conditioning
15:00 AMRAP
5 Strict C2B Pull-ups
10 Hand Release Push-ups
15 Hollow Rocks
20 Side Plank Jumps
I did all singles on the chest to bars and was surprised at how great they felt through the entire workout. Push-ups were all unbroken sets and didn’t slow down much. The side plank jumps were the gasser. This was a deceiving workout. I did 8 rounds plus 5 pull-ups.
Accessory
4 Sets
5 Jefferson Curls (45#)
10 Glute Bridges (3s hold)
New movement with the Jeffersons. Damn good stretch down the posterior chain and especially in my hamstrings at the bottom. The Oly coach out in San Diego said I might have weak glutes that result in my back tweaks, so I’ll try adding in more accessory work like this. I guess the rehab stuff I did last year had a good amount of glute work, so I’ll have to go back and look at that too.
Dumbbell Curls – 21s
7-7-7 @ 25#
7-7-7 @ 25#
7-7-7 @ 20#
That lighter third set felt pretty easy now, but the next two sessions will be all with 25s before switching up to one of the alternative 21s workouts.
Engine Builder – Endurance
While watching Michigan vs. Michigan State I thought I’d add an extra cardio session since all I have planned for tomorrow is 24 minutes on the Airdyne.
24:00 Row
The plan was to hold an easy 2:05 / 500m pace and I was spot on the entire way. Finished with 366 cals – 5,760 meters.
My shins we getting show from the hike last night already. My HRV and recover score are the highest recorded so I should be ready to crush this workout.
My percentile rankings for 19.3 turned out to be exactly the same as 19.1 (when rounded to 1 decimal place) in both the Open and Masters divisions. Looking at scores and tiebreak times of some fit people I know, my HSPU strategy worked amazingly well. I’ve been doing singles when workouts have strict pull-ups and may have to play around with this type of strategy for other movements.
I wish my back had been healthy, which would have allowed me to get through the first two movements quicker and have even more time for HSPU. That’ll be a fun workout to redo later this year. The high ranking in 19.3 gave me another good boost in the overall rankings. My best 3 week start to an Open by far.
Note: I forgot to mention it in previous ranking updates, but I only count against people who posted a score for the workout or have at least one score for overall placing. The iOS app looks like it calculates percentiles based on everyone registered, but there are always plenty of people who never post a score.
Was really hoping I’d be fine with the snatches today after not picking up a barbell since last Wednesday. When we got to the gym it was painful bending over in to position to start a snatch with a PVC pipe! Laying on the lacrosse ball really opening things up for me though. Debated waiting until Sunday or Monday to do the workout.
Going in I was hoping to get some bar muscle-ups in the third round. I had to be really careful with the snatches though and you can see that with how long it takes me to pick up the bar and get my first rep. I did 6-4 on the snatches each round with normal powers. Felt like my burpees were getting slower each of the first three rounds. I finished with a tiebreak of 4:22.
Felt fine when I first got on the bar and did 5 bar muscle-ups and wanted to get 5 more, but could feel things going south already. I did 3-2 to finish. After the burpees I did a double and 8 singles with too much rest between each one, but I did not want to miss and each rep was a struggle. Got my second round of burpees done and had about 10 seconds left, but I knew I didn’t have it in me to get another bar muscle-up so I collapsed to the ground. It wasn’t worth risking a fly off the bar moment. So I finished 5 rounds for 110 reps. Early ranking on BTWB is only the 79th percentile.
I did another five minutes on the Assault Bike to cool down.
I worked out my splits on the workout. Here are the times each movement ended and then in parens are the times (in seconds) per movement, including transition/rest.
My snatches were slower than normal because I had to be extra careful with my back.
I should have gone unbroken on the last round of snatches and pushed the burpees after.
Overall pretty consistent with the burpees.
The second round of bar muscle-ups were the workout. It took me two minutes to get through them.
I should have jumped up to try for a muscle-up at the end.
While heats of the workout were going I jumped on the rower since tomorrow will be a travel day.
Engine Builder – Max Aerobic Power
12 Rounds
500m Row
1:00 Rest
I did 1:49.9 twice, 1:49.8 four times, another 1:49.9, and five at 1:49.8 to finish. Consistent!
My back was getting really tight sitting around the gym while everyone did the workout. Glad I ended up doing 19.4 though so I have more time to recover for 19.5 next week.
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.
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.
This right shoulder may have something going on. It feels like other times I’ve had an issue. I’m really hoping it’s a couple day thing that passes. Like other times I didn’t really do anything in a workout and I started feeling it on Monday when I only did cardio work. Maybe the cumulation of workouts Friday, Saturday, and Sunday?
I got a great night of sleep. I don’t think I’ve mentioned it, but I got one of the WHOOP bands last week and I’m really liking it. Nice to have sleep tracking again and the recovery scores and data really push me to improve these other areas of my life. Before I got out of bed I was thinking I’d wait and row before lunch, but after I got moving I felt like getting it done.
Engine Builder – Max Aerobic Power
18 Rounds
30s Row
30s Rest
Tried to get down to 1:37-1:39/500m by the 5th pull and towards the end I realized I could be using my legs better in those first pulls to get up to speed sooner. My overall average pace was 1:41.6/500m and 1,446 cal/hr, which would be 216 calories. There isn’t a way to go back and see cals for each interval, but I saw that the last one was 12 so the maths work. Meters for each interval were 148-150-148-147-147-148-147-146-145-147-147-147-147-147-147-149-148-149 to total 2,654, for an average of 147.4 and a range of 150-145.
I thought this heart rate graph was interesting in several ways.
I think I’m actually liking the cardio to start the day! Went to the 4pm class.
Warm-up
5:00 Machine
10 Hang Power Cleans (45#)
10 Front Squats (45#)
10 Hang Squat Cleans (45#)
Weightlifting
2 Hang Power Cleans + 1 Hang Squat Clean
45#
95
135
165
185
205
215
225
Wore my lifters again and put the belt on starting with 185. Tried to drop under the heavier power cleans more instead of getting really wide with my feet like I normally do.
As I was wheeling out the Assault Bike, my back started to lock up and it felt like a tweak. I tried to stretch it and roll on the floor. Seemed good enough to do the workout and if it is a tweak I know it doesn’t gets worse after it’s already happened. I guess my body didn’t like the combination of squat snatches followed by 117 deadlifts yesterday and then the cleans today.
Conditioning
10 Rounds
6 Strict Pull-ups
10 cal Assault Bike
25 Double Unders
All single pull-ups. Obviously. I used a shorter bar than usual, got my arms in to extension and picked my feet off the ground. Did my pull-up, dropped from the top to skip the descent, and then right back on the bar for the next rep. There is no reason to do sets unless you can immediately jump on the bar and bust out every set unbroken.
I started out around 70 RPM, fell in a rhythm around 68, and then realized I could pick up the pace for the last 3 rounds. Am I getting better on the bike or was this just not a taxing workout on the lungs? Probably the latter. My dubs felt great and I never missed. Finished in 15:38.
Accessory
Dumbbell Curls – 21s
7-7-7 @ 25#
7-7-7 @ 20#
7-7-7 @ 20#
Tried a new route by increasing the dumbbells on the first set this session. Interesting that the end of sets two and three didn’t feel like as much of a struggle as it had been using 20s for every set.
I did some foam rolling on my back and will get on the inversion table tonight. Hopefully I wake up fine in the morning and I’m over the hump. Fingers crossed that this isn’t a back tweak and my shoulder feels better too!
Was thinking maybe 1:40/500m before I started, but I quickly felt that was too slow. Results were:
1:18.8 – 34 cals
1:18.5 – 34 cals
1:18.2 – 34 cals
1:17.9 – 34 cals
1:17.5 – 34 cals
Looking at some other’s results on BTWB I probably should have gone harder. It’ll take me some time to get the feel for my different rowing paces. I haven’t done this stuff in a couple of years.
Went to the 4pm class.
Warm-up
10 Shoulder Rolls (PVC)
10 Overhead Squats (PVC)
10 Snatch Balance (PVC)
5 High Hang Snatch (PVC)
5 Hang Snatch (PVC)
5 Snatch (PVC)
That got me warmed up!
Weightlifting
High Hang Squat Snatch + Hang Squat Snatch + Squat Snatch
45#
75
95
115
5 Sets 135
Wore my lifting shoes for the first time in two years. It was programmed for the working sets to be at 75% and if I go off my lift from a couple of weeks ago that would be 145. My right shoulder is feeling a little weird though so I stayed lighter and tried to work on a few things like a wider beginning stance and my speed. Started feeling snappy a few sets in to the 135.
In one of the sets I somehow hit my nose on the way back down. That was a first! Good thing it was a bar without center knurling.
Conditioning
15:00 AMRAP
9 Deadlifts (155#)
12 Hand Release Push-ups
15 Sit-ups
I knew this one would be quick with no real reason to rest other than in the push-ups, so I started off hot out of the gate. It’s fun to do that from time to time and see how many people will follow along. 🙂 Deadlifts were all unbroken. I went 7-5 every round of push-ups and they slowed down but I never hit failure. Sit-ups felt fine the whole way. That’s another 180 reps today after doing 200 on Saturday! I got through 12 rounds the deadlifts and 2 push-ups.
Skill
Worked on handstand walking after class for about 15 minutes. Got a few good attempts in, but was really working to keep my legs together plus get the forward lean going.
Based on a recent 30 minute row I planned on a pace of 2:08/500m. That was too easy though. By the end my average was 2:04/500m and according to my heart rate, I was right in the 70-75% zone. I went 4,839 meters or 310 calories.
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.
5 False Grip Ring Row (feet under me to cut down on weight)
Damn the false grip hurts!
Conditioning
E5M – 4 Sets
500m Row
15 Box Jumps (30″)
Max Muscle-ups
My goal was 3×4 muscle-ups each round, but I had a suspicion that hip fatigue would kick in from the rowing and high box jumps. Well, I’m not sure if that was the case or it was the breathing, because after round two my pace fell off a lot. I rowed 1:50-1:51 for the first two rounds and then 2:00 was a struggle for the last two. I stepped down from the box for most of the first two rounds and jumped down after that (no rebound though). On the rings I went 4-4-4, 4-4-4, 4-2-2-2, and 4-2-1-1 for a total of 42 muscle-ups. I don’t think I’ve ever accumulated that many in a workout. After finishing the box jumps I walked right over and jumped up to get that first set at fatigue and I’m really happy I was able to start with a set of four each time.
No grips (have never needed them on the rings) and no rips. The big blood blister from last Tuesday is healing well.
I think this was the end of my first set…
Skill
I did some handstand walking after class. I went 10 feet a bunch of times after just getting it on Sunday for the first time. Even got over 15 feet once! It’s feeling a lot more comfortable.
Nick Momrik's Fitness Logs 