10-09-09: "Fran"

CrossFit WoD for September 9, 2010

"Fran"
Three rounds, 21-15- and 9 reps, for time of:

• 95 85# Thruster
• Pull-ups

Graham Holmberg 2:17, Kristan Clever 2:49 (65lbs), Mel Ockerby 2:59 (65lbs), Heather Bergeron 3:10 (65lbs), Miranda Oldroyd 3:19 (65lbs), Kim Malz 3:45 (65lbs), Rebecca Voigt 3:58 (65lbs), Elyse Umeda 6:08 (95lbs).

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WOD Demo with Miranda Oldroyd - video [wmv] [mov]
Graham Holmberg on today's WOD - video [wmv] [mov]
Heather Bergeron and Mel Ockerby on today's WOD - video [wmv] [mov]

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Brilliant discussion of thrusters, and why they suck so much. (crossfit.com)

Pull-ups. Probably far better than I can do them! (crossfit.com)

So. Fran.  An old CrossFit benchmark.  And man does it ever suck.  I'm writing this the next day, because I was too broken by the experience to write about it too soon. Oh yeah, and I was swamped at work. That might have had something to do with it, too! :S

Went into this feeling pretty good.  Excellent warm-up (jump-rope, active stretching), plus some extra hip capsule work courtesy Kelly Starret's excellent Mobility WoD site (link goes directly to an MWoD designed for Fran...awesome!)  Cranked up the Slash solo album and went to work.  Decided to go with 85# on the bar.  Which was dumb.  As always, my inability to scale a workout to "doable" levels left me crushed by the amount of power output required.  I banged out probably 15-16 thrusters in my first attempt, then held onto the bar while I caught my breath a little. That would be the last "unbroken" set of the day.

Pull-ups were, as ever, a massive pain in my ass. Managed 7 in my first attempt.  That would also be a high for the day.  After that, it was just a matter of trying to grind out 5...or 4...or 3...or 2, to try to finish the actual set. Sometime in the 3rd set, my shoulders were actually getting very fried, so that was broken down into sets of 2.

Total Time: 12:10 (Split times: 3:10; 8:20, 12:10)


Lessons: As my bodyweight keeps dropping, pull-ups (and all other body-weight exercises) ought to get easier, and within reason, they have.  However, my metabolic conditioning (aka cardio, but better known as power stamina) is still utter crap.  At some point, I plan on incorporating some CrossFit Endurance workout to start really fixing that gaping hole.  While a workout like Fran addresses that short-coming too, my guess is that my cardio is *so* bad that I'm not getting the most effect from Fran. If you're resting, you're not working, and if you're not working, you are NOT working the three metabolic pathways (more on this later...basically, traditional cardio ("Long Slow Distance" or LSD) only targets one pathway, ignoring the other two completely.  So, I need to really increase that capacity so as to be able to sustain power output better without having my craptastic inability to breathe be the main roadblock.  We shall see...updates as and when they occur!