6/24 – ‘Fran’

Ah, the lovely ‘Fran’.  Nothing like some benchmark programming a week out from the biggest local crossfit competition – hosted by our very own Southern Crossfit.  The day that tapering was meant to start and ‘Fran’ graced the whiteboard, who can say no to that?

So many things were going through my mind as I showed up to the box – would I scale the weight, go a bit slower on the WOD? Could I push harder, briefly? PR?  It was a muddled mess but one that as flexible in nature.

I wasn’t going to scale the weight, 30kg is no longer that heavy for me so I loaded the bar.  I wasn’t sure though that my pull-ups would hold up – they’ve been missing lately, at least a little.  Shoulders niggly and aching.  The smell of deep heat and tiger balm my new perfume. 

WOD 'Fran'
21-15-9
Thrusters (42.5/30kg)

Pull-ups 

7:26 Rx PR! 

Going in I thought my biggest struggle would be on the pull-ups so wanted to push through the thrusters as fast as possible and use the rest on the pull-ups.  Funny how things change mid-WOD.

I started the first set of thrusters going 12-9 which worked well.  Always aiming to get one more rep that I’m aiming for to make that second set a little easier.  I focused mostly on breathing through the movement not wanting to get too gassy before the pull-ups.  I started the pull-ups and managed to not come off the bar for the first 6.  Game on.  I followed that up with three sets of 5 and was back on the thrusters for the dreaded round of 15.  My time as solid so far, not too much rest or slowing down, I started to wonder if a PR was on the agenda.

The round of 15 thrusters started to really hurt, I could feel the fatigue in my shoulders and wasn’t enjoying it at all, I tried to just keep pushing through.   I can’t remember how I split up the thrusters – I was aiming for 3 sets of 5 but pretty sure I did 8-7.  I do remember that the last one of each really did hurt, my shoulders going overhead were not happy and the weight felt incredibly heavy.

This is where my pull-ups started to fade as well.  I was aiming again for 3 sets of 5 but that didn’t happen.  There was a big ol’ mess in there.  I think I did 4 or 5 then 2 or 3 and two sets of 4.  No idea, might have even had to just jump back up for a single at the end (or perhaps that was the final round).  It sucked though I still tried to keep a big kip and minimize my rest time.  The problem was that I wasn’t able to keep active shoulders (they were burning) so linking my kip was a struggle.  Something to work on.

After the round of 15 pull-ups I looked at the clock and had a little over 90 seconds until my previous PR time.  I wasn’t sure I could make it but really wanted to try.  This urged me on more – when I wanted to put the bar down I didn’t – I went 5-4 on the thrusters then I think 3-3-2-1 on the pull-ups or something like that but it was merely just dropping off and getting right back up again, I wanted that PR badly.  When all was said and done I had knocked 5 seconds off.  I was happy to have done so as well given how I was feeling going into it, how my shoulders (and pull-ups) have been lately) and knowing how my training was going the last time I did ‘Fran’.  Definitely happy.  Definitely improvement.  Loved it.