Recently in "Fran" Category

Scott had his class do "Fran" tonight--21, 15, 9 reps each of thrusters and pull-ups. I didn't want to do a lot of kipping pull-ups and risk re-aggravating my elbow tendonitis, so Scott had me substitute V-ups. I just used a 45-pound bar for the thrusters. I finished the workout in 3:11 and felt a little bit like I was going to throw up. It was great! I haven't been doing enough CrossFit lately because of the combination of the elbow problem and the fact that in the evenings, when I used to do CrossFit, I'm now training people.

My elbow is slowly getting better. About half the time it doesn't hurt at all, and half the time it's mildly symptomatic. I'm seeing and following the advise of the therapists at Integrated Manual Therapies in Shoreline.

I had a client cancel last night so I jumped into a workout class five minutes into the warm-up. We did overhead squats for a while; I got up to 35 kg (not my max). Then it turned out we were going to do "Fran." My time this time: 6:18.

21 thrusters (weight: 65 pounds)
21 pull-ups
15 thrusters
15 pull-ups
9 thrusters
9 pull-ups
Time: 5:34

Last time (a couple of weeks ago) I did "fran" all alone in the gym and I was slower with less weight. Yesterday I was well rested and there was a noisy room full of people working out. I was really glad to be that much faster and heavier, and had no shoulder problem.

I had been unusually tired the previous two days after doing a lot of snatch practice followed by heavy squats to a new max (96 kg) on Monday. I wasn't sure that should have made me feel totally spent for two whole days, but Scott told me he experienced the same thing when he was doing more O-lifting practice.

Last time, a year ago, I did Fran in 5:56 with 65 pounds. Today I did it in 5:57 with 55 pounds. Ever since I started having that sporadic shoulder problem (which I think of as "the twang") I'm more tentative with thrusters. No shoulder problem today but I'm always anticipating it. I'll work on thrusters and pull-ups for a couple of months and do it with 65 to see how it goes. My press is way stronger than it was a year ago for sure, but the thruster is so much more aggressive.

I practiced snatch drops and snatches today at 15 to 22 kg, working on my ability to catch it low and get out of the power-snatch trap. Then I did 11 and 15 overhead squats with 22 kg. All that was with Scott and before "Fran," which I did alone in the gym.