Crossfit log for Tuesday, October 15th

Today we did Fran.


But first, we did front squat + push press (essentially thrusters) 5 sets of 5-5-3-3-3, did 95#, 95#, 135#, 135# and stopped there. I knew what was coming.

Then we did split jerk from the rack, wasn't happening, struggled at 155#, got 1 at 165# but wobbly, nowhere near my PR of 180#.  Didn't sweat it, I knew what was coming.

Fran is the quintessential Crossfit workout. 3 rounds.  21, 15, 9 reps of thrusters and pull ups.

Previous Fran efforts:
Sept 2, 2011: 13:22 @ 75#
Oct 8, 2011: 9:44 @ 75#
Nov 19, 2011: 13:35 @ 85#
Jan 23, 2012: 8:12 @ 65#
April 6, 2012: 9:16 @ 75#
July 18, 2012: 7:24 @ 75#
Nov 5, 2012: 7:17 @85#
Feb 19, 2013: 9:43 @ 85#
May 21, 2013: 8:08 @ 85#

So here's the deal, in July 2012, looking back at my horrible performance on Nov 19th 2011 I wrote this:

In November after my fiasco, some athletes that used lighter weight and band-assisted pull-ups had times close to 6:00. Francois said they needed to up the weight and us less assistive bands. They were getting too fast at their current effort.

Previously he had said, over 10 minutes and you aren't getting the metabolic conditioning. In fact he sometimes caps the workout at 10:00. 

So I think that's my plan. I'll go back to 75# to get back under 10:00 and work until I can go sub 7:00 or sub 6:30 before I increase the weight again.

I went unbroken the first round at 65lbs in January, but I made it to only 16 of the first 21 today, so I also want to be able to do the first 21 thruster unbroken before I move up. I think next time might be the last at 75lbs. We'll see.

So at the very least, I got a good plan out of today's workout.

Obviously I didn't follow that completely.  The next time was November 5th 2012 and I went straight to 85#. It was a jump but I felt ready for it.  Since then I've promised myself that I won't go Rx (95#) until I can go under 7:00 at 85lbs and first round unbroken.

Wasn't looking like a good plan for a while there, my last 2 efforts were plagued by illness and a Marathon in January.

That being said, my take away from the May 21 effort was to focus on breathing, especially the first round,

I need to breath better on the thrusters. The first 21 left me in serious oxygen debt. If I hope to get through the 15s unbroken some day I'll need to improve that.

so that's what I did.

I went unbroken for the first round, 21 thrusters, 21 pull ups, carefully exhaling on the up and inhaling on the down.  It still cost me for round 2, but it wasn't bad I managed 3 sets of 5 thrusters and 2 sets of 7 and 8 pull ups.  Round three was 5 and 4 for the thruster, and I somehow managed to do the 9 pull ups unbroken.

Time was 6:36.  That's nearly a minute off my previous best.

Looks like next time is Rx.