Strength Endurance: How Should I Prioritize Competing Variables?

[u/Jbrehm]

I've read both TBI and TBII. I'm finishing up week 5 of Base Building, and even so, I'm still uncertain how to optimally program and run SE sessions. I'm hoping to get some clarification here. 

When choosing movements and loads at the beginning of Base Building, what would be an appropriate maximum number of reps that I should be able to do with a given movement knowing that I'm going to be increasing the number of reps I complete of each movement each week? 

What should I be prioritizing during each session when deciding how to break up each set that goes over the number of reps I can do, muscular failure or reduced rest periods? For example, with pushups, doing 3x40 requires that I break up the sets. Here's 2 different ways I could break up each set:

1. I prioritize strength-endurance for specifically being able to do pushups (and would apply the same principle to every other movement in the circuit) by going to muscular failure. I manage to do 40 reps my first set, and then the next set I reach muscular failure at 26 reps, and it takes 2-4 more mini-sets to get the remaining 14 reps. But, prioritizing strength-endurance for pushup performance comes then at the cost of increased systemic fatigue, which increases the frequency and duration of rest breaks throughout the session, making the overall session longer. 
2. I prioritize reducing the frequency and duration of rest breaks by breaking up my pushup sets into manageable reps that do not reach muscular failure, such as 25>10>5. This reduces the systemic fatigue and allows me to keep up a faster overall pace due to having fewer and shorter rest breaks. 

Thoughts?

[u/elasticpast]

The books say use token resistance, rest-pause as needed, and click off the reps. You don’t need a strategy for breaking up the sets. No analysis needed.