run – Page 31 – Nick Momrik's Fitness Logs

Vary Your Pull-ups

Morning 8am session in the garage to catch up on some of the Monday programming.

Warm-up

2 Sets

5s of StrongFit Tricep & Bicep Openers (8#)
10 Back Squats (45-135#)
8/8 Landmine Rows (45-55#)
20s L-hang (supinated grip)

Strength

E3M – 6 Sets

11 Back Squats (185#)
8/8 Landmine Rows (65#)

Yuck! One more week with sets of 12. I’m having to focus less on recruiting the other muscle groups in my squats as it’s starting to become automatic. Noticing a lot more explosiveness out of the hole late in the sets as I fatigue. I really like these rows a lot more than Krocs, which are easier to cheat.

Gymnastics

6 Sets

20s Pull-ups
30s Rest

Did them all with a regular kip and felt like I had a much better rhythm than in the half Cindy last week. Didn’t wear any grips because I need to get these hands conditioned again. My first four sets were 11 unbroken, then 7-2, and 6-3 for 62 total reps. Being forced to do a regular kip instead of always doing butterfly once you can do them is a good reminder to vary your movements.

Rested to catch my breath and then did Crossover Symmetry Plyo.

Went to the 5:30 class at CrossFit Intuition.

Warm-up

Crossover Symmetry Activation
3 Sets
- 10 Goblet Squats (44#)
- 15 Hollow Rocks
- 150m Row

Weightlifting

2 Snatch 3-Position Deadlifts + 2 Snatches + 2 OHS

45#
75#
95#
115#

Snatches

2×135#
2×145#
2×155#
2×165#
2×175#
2×185#
2×195#

All snatches to a full squat. The warm-up complex was done without dropping the bar. Drop and reset after each rep with the doubles. Was programmed for 6 sets so my goal was 185. It was feeling good, so I went for one more set. Huge save on the final rep with the bar way out in front of me on the left side. Shoulder work must be paying off because I never really save anything that heavy and I was able to pull it in, be patient to stabilize it, and stand it up. I think the 185 and 195 are both PRs for a squat double, but I don’t keep track of those that close so not sure.

Gymnastics

Max Diamond Push-ups
2:00 Rest
3 sets
- @ 50% of max
- 2:00 Rest

Got 40 and did drop sets with 20. All reps with chest touching diamond.

Conditioning

10-8-6-4-2 Burpees
400m Run

Did the burpees outside which makes the run a little short. Took me 10:07.

Of course I’m going to ROMWOD. 🙂

Easy Run

Legs are tired. Went out for a run before lunch. 3.04 miles in 30:09, pretty much the same pace as Saturday. Will get in a couple of ROMWOD tonight.

Fuel

My hips, legs, and lower body in general is tight from yesterday. Put in a lot of work yesterday and a lot of loaded squats. Tough one today that I know is a long grind, but I was actually excited for the chance to redeem myself after what I felt like was a pretty poor time last year. Much cooler day today, with the temperature around 40-45°, compared to last year (May 3) being one of the hottest days of the year.

Warm-up

Crossover Symmetry Activation
Bottom Squat Hold
3 Sets
- 5 ATYs (5#)
- 10 Shotguns
- 50 DU

Got every round of dubs unbroken.

Strength & Midline

E2M – 6 Sets

4 Pendlay Rows (165#, supinated)
30s Hollow Hold

Did 10×45# and 4×135# to warm-up. Second week in a row I went with the underhand grip since I had gone two in a row pronated. I feel these rows just a bit on my left shoulder.

Conditioning

kelly “Kelly” – 5 Rounds

400m Run
30 Box Jumps (24″)
30 Wall Balls (20#, 10′)

There were some complications with the music last year so it wasn’t even a true time for me, but I called it 29:59, which I thought was actually shortchanging myself for how long it took me to fix the tunes. Could I push harder on the runs this year?

The first run started out a little faster, but that’s to be expected fresh. Tried to keep a steady pace on the other 4 runs. I did all step up/down on the box since that many jumps will lock up my back. They were 8 right, 8 left, 7 right, and 7 left every round. Wall balls were 4 rounds of 18-12 with a quick 5-10 second breather and unbroken to finish.

Wore my watch so I could see some of the heart rate data and get an idea of my round times. Unfortunately the HR data had a bunch of drops down near or under 100 bpm so the average is pretty useless. Does show a max HR of 166 for the workout, which should be pretty accurate.

Not easy to tell because the GPS data jumps all over the place while inside the gym doing the reps, but looks like my splits were 4:35, 4:48 (9:23), 4:57 (14:20), 5:02 (19:22), and 4:44 (24:06). During the workout when I checked my watch on each run I kept waiting to hit a wall but it never happened. I felt much better throughout than I was expecting. Really happy with how consistent those round times stayed for a long workout. The last round time came down because I did the wall balls unbroken.

I thought if I was able to PR by 3 or maybe 4 minutes that would be great. I thought a 5 round average of 5:00 was a pipe dream, but I was well under that. Improved by almost 6 minutes! I think I could almost walk fast and get that 30 minute time from last year. haha The heat could have been a big factor too.

Definitely looking forward to ROMWOD tonight!

Diet

I’m not sure if I’ve written about it, but I’ve been counting macros for about 4.5 months now. I used to absolutely hate all of the counting and keeping track, so was never able to stick with it for more than a week or two. Something shifted this time around and I’ve actually enjoyed it. My previous “diets” worked, but usually ended up with me falling off the wagon and I’d gain back the weight. My “go to” was always low carb and try to stay cleaner. Doesn’t really work in the long run for me though because I enjoy food too much.

So I read about Renaissance Periodization and figured I’d give it a shot. It’s been working brilliantly so far and I feel much better mentally and physically. I give almost no care to the quality of what I’m fueling my body with as long as the quantity lines up with my macro number goals. The fancy term for it these days seems to be “flexible dieting” or what a lot of people call IIYFM (If It Fits Your Macros). Another popular company besides RP that will help you is Working Against Gravity. While I can see the value in paying RP or WAG for help, it’s really not that hard to do on your own if you have some discipline. If I can do it, so can you. 😉

Progress was steady for the first 2 months. It leveled out during the Open, when I was having a massive 36 hours way over my macros after doing each week’s workout. I didn’t track food on a week vacation so gained a little bit there, but quickly lost that and have been stable at 203# since. The trend lines are still heading in the right direction and body fat % seems to be decreasing. We’re getting towards the end of an 8 week hypertrophy cycle at the gym so this means the muscle building has been working and muscle gain + fat loss are leveling each other out. Will be interesting to see what happens when we switch back to lifting heavy shit during our strength work. I’d like to drop closer to 195# and get the body fat down to 10-11%.

Lots of Legs

Yesterday I walked 18 holes of golf. It’s already getting easier on the legs. I’m still feeling at least a couple very short back twinges during a round and they usually aren’t during swings. Happens when I’m standing around, lining up a putt, or pulling a club out of the bag. Not pleasant. I also did a 45 minute ROMWOD last night.

In to the gym at 9 this morning for some lifting.

Warm-up

Crossover Symmetry Activation
2 Sets
- 5s of StrongFit Tricep & Bicep Openers (10#)
- 10 Reverse Hypers (210#)

Spilled my damn shaker all over the floor so took me longer than expected to get lifting.

Weightlifting

5 Muscle clean
5 Shoulder press
5 OHS (close grip)
5 Front squat

Did 2 sets through the complex with 20kg and 30kg.

5 Squat clean
5 Push press

Did 2 sets through with 40kg and 50kg.

Clean & Jerk

3x60kg
3×70
3×80
2×90
100
110
115
120

All squats and split jerks. Haven’t lifted either heavy in quite some time so the weights felt heavier than they should.

Skipped out on the class warm-up and didn’t need to hit any extra front squats.

Strength

10:00 EMOM (alt)

5 Front Squats (185#)
10 Cal Row

Conditioning

Partnered up with Bryan.

2:00 AMRAP Push Press (135#)
2:00 AMRAP Squat Cleans (185#)
2:00 AMRAP Burpees
5:00 AMRAP Wall Balls (30#, 10′)

We used the jerk blocks for the push presses and alternated every 3 reps to get through 45 total. All singles on the cleans for 20 total reps. Five burpees at a time for 35 total. Then sets of 10 wall balls for 123.

E2M – 6 Sets

70m Sprint

Took it easy on the first, pushed for 3, and then slowed it down for the final 2.

Did Crossover Symmetry Iron Scap before heading home.

Headed out for a run in the afternoon in between watching some Regional action. Went 3.05 miles in 30:11 and had negative splits each mile. Getting easier and easier each time I lace ’em up. Average HR of 135 and max of 149.

Will get in ROMWOD and maybe even a double dose since I put in a lot of volume on the legs today.

A Half Cindy

My outer pecs and lats are definitely sore from the last couple of days. Might as well hit them again with a half Cindy! Got in a little early before the 9am class for my prehab/rehab stuff.

Warm-up

Crossover Symmetry Activation
2 Sets
- 5s of StrongFit Tricep & Bicep Openers (10#)
- 10 Reverse Hyper (210#)
3 Sets
- 10 Rapid Toe Touches
- 20 Hollow Rocks
- 50s Bottom Squat Hold
RDL
- 10×45#
- 10×135#

Strength

E2M – 6 Sets

10 RDL (185#)
8 Weighted GHD Sit-ups (20#)

I did my Romanian deadlifts while standing on 55# competition plates today since I’ve been getting to the ground with a lot of my reps lately. Actually even got to the ground on some in the late rounds. By adding in these GHDs I really work up a sweat and the work rest ends up being pretty much exactly 1:1.

Conditioning

10:00 AMRAP of “Cindy”
- 5 Pull-ups
- 10 Push-ups
- 15 Air Squats
1 Mile Run

My body didn’t know what the hell it was doing on the bar. A lot of the reps were some type of hybrid between a shortened regular kip and a butterfly, or maybe even a little bit of a strict pull-up at times too. Push-ups started to slow around round 8. Air squats were surprisingly pretty good and didn’t slow down too much that I noticed. Even had enough to speed up in the 11th and 12th round. I ended up with 11 full rounds, the pull-ups, push-ups, and 4 of the squats.

No extra rest so I took off running when the clock went off. The first half mile was rough but then I settled in and felt much better on the way back. Took exactly 9:00 according to Garmin, but the import into RunKeeper has a decreased distance and time for some reason. I don’t believe the HR data though, which says I averaged only 112 bpm. Maybe because I was already so sweaty from the half Cindy it was having a hard time reading my wrist.

My best full Cindy is 22+5, so probably would have been close to that with 10 more minutes. I’m sure the last 2 days of upper body volume is part of why push-ups started to slow so early. Hopefully can build up some more endurance there over the next couple weeks.

Forced myself to get in Crossover Symmetry Plyo before I left the gym.

Went out to the garage before dinner and jumped on the Air Dyne for 30 minutes, going 9.25 miles. Just a recovery type page. My heart rate was pretty stable right around 100 bpm the entire time.

I’ll do ROMWOD tonight and it’ll mark exactly a month straight without missing a day. Really enjoying it and seeing solid results.

Over 8 Miles

Walked 6+ miles on the golf course and felt much better (except about my score!) than the first 18 hole round last week. Went out for a run after 7pm. Started faster than an easy recovery pace and felt pretty good so stuck with it. Stopped at 2 miles which took 16:58, which was faster than the run we did as part of class at CrossFit Intuition last week. Felt much easier too and surprised me after the 4+ hours walking earlier. I’ll do some ROMWOD yet tonight.

Faster Slow

2016-05-06-hr-zones Glutes are sore today, either from the plyo lunges (only 60 total reps though!) in the warm-up, trying to fire muscles in squats, or firing has already carried over to activating more in deadlifts. My bet is on the lunges, though I wish it was the latter.

Went for a 2.81 mile run that took 29:13. Average pace was already over 30 seconds per mile faster (and very steady through the run) than the two similar runs last week, with average heart rate actually a hair lower at 126, and I felt good to go when I was done. In fact I went straight into mowing the lawn.

Will hit up a long 45 minute ROMWOD tonight.

Lift Like A Woman

Yesterday I walked 18 holes of golf for the first time this year. The app I use to track my game said it was about 6.25 miles. My back likes to act up sometimes on the course, probably from all of the twisting and how hard I swing. I did a ROMWOD before heading to bed.

This morning I was planning to do some light snatches every 30 seconds to get in reps. Then they announced a couple of Regional workouts and the snatch ladder looked fun, but at the women’s weights!

Warm-up

Crossover Symmetry Activation
2 Sets
- 5s of StrongFit Tricep & Bicep Openers (10#)
- 10 Reverse Hypers (210#)
Snatch
- 3×45#
- 3×95#
- 3×115#

Weightlifting Conditioning

2016 Regional Event #1 (women’s weights)

Squat Snatch

10×135# by 2:00
8×145# by 4:00
6×155# by 6:00
4×165# by 8:00
2×175# by 11:00

With the one miss at 165# it took me 9:11. I was taking my sweet ole time changing the weights because I needed the breather. I had about 30 seconds to spare after the first 3 weights, but the miss set me back on the 4th. I was happy to finish and make all of the time splits. Can’t wait to see a bunch of fit women destroy this!

Here is Rich doing the workout in 6:09. Looks so easy.

Needless to say, I skipped the class warm-up and tried to catch my breath.

Strength

E2M – 6 Sets

9 RDL (185#)
8 GHD Sit-ups (20#)

Was feeling tired from the snatches, so I only did 8 reps on the GHD. Warmed up with 9×45# and 6×135# I think. I’m getting low on the RDLs right away now with my hamstring flexibility improvements. Maybe need to start standing on plate.

Gymnastics

8:00 EMOM

7 Ring Rows (feet elevated)

Conditioining

2 Mile Run

Knew it wasn’t going to be anywhere near my PR time, but I felt much better than I have during the slow 3 mile runs I’ve been doing. I wouldn’t call it anything near a 100% effort either. Took me 17:07 with mile splits of 8:43 & 8:24. My average heart rate was 156 compared to sub-130 on my slow runs. Just gotta keep running and it’ll improve.

I’ll do some ROMWOD tonight.

Some Sore

My legs are sore in many places, but nothing deep or painful anywhere. More annoying than anything.

2 Sets

5s of StrongFit Tricep Openers (8#)
5s of StrongFit Bicep Openers (8#)

The eight pound dumbbells feel much better than the tens I use at the gym, because I think fives would be too light for me. I could go heavier but I think I’d lose some control and it’s about the quality of the positions.

Ran a similar route to Wednesday, just in the opposite direction. Went 2.88 miles in 32:32 and the Garmin data is nearly identical. Heart rate steadily rose over the run and averaged the same 127. Cadence started out in a decent area, but dropped off as I got tired. Going to try and get in 2 runs per week like this on my recovery days and hopefully I’ll feel a lot better by the time Murph is here.

I’ll get in ROMWOD later today. I’ve been doing it daily for over 2 weeks now and really enjoying it. I’ve liked some of the other yoga routines I’ve done in the past but they were always too much of a workout. With this yin style of yoga I feel more relaxed and the long deep poses feel like they are actually making changes.

Easy? Run

Did this week’s long ROMWOD this morning and went for a run in the afternoon. The goal was to run for 30 minutes. The loop I ran ended up being 2.94 miles and took me 32 minutes at an easy pace. Took a few minutes for my Garmin watch to pick up the heart rate data, but this chart that combines HR with pace and cadence is interesting. I didn’t expect to get that fatigued with an easy 30 minute run. My legs really got tired and HR continually rose over the course of the run.

Though it missed the first minute and a half of heart rate data, my average was 127 with an average zone of 2.9. Spent 43% in Z2 and 51% in Z3. I am not in running shape!