Friday's Workout: Super-Fran

In January, my cousin D asked to borrow my dog-eared copy of the P90X Nutrition Guide. "Sure,” I replied, “but I’m not a fan of it - especially now that I’ve gone Paleo.” I directed her to M’s food porn site, too, but didn’t figure D would go for the caveman diet. After all, we were raised on rice and noodles. She wouldn't give it up these staples based on our inane ramblings, right?

But here we are, three months later, and D’s not only thrown herself into Paleo eating with gusto, but she’s also dumped P90X for CrossFit. Oh yeah -- she’s also launched a Paleo food blog with an emphasis on Asian recipes. How’s that for jumping into the deep end of the pool?

D -- a.k.a. Fit Daffy -- is now a regular at Mad Dawg Fitness in Redwood City, but dropped in for our 5 a.m. class at CrossFit Palo Alto this morning. She picked a good day to visit.

Strength Skill:

• Weighted Ring Dips (2 sets of 5, 3 sets of 3)

I love these. I didn’t even try to load up with the same amount of weight that I did back in December, but I’m looking forward to a new PR attempt by the end of this cycle.

Metcon:

We did the sixth and final Games Open workout (a.k.a. 11.6) in class this morning:

As many reps as possible in 7 minutes using the following ladder scheme:

• 3 Barbell Thrusters (100lbs / 65lbs )
• 
3 Chest-to-Bar Pull-ups

• 6 Barbell Thrusters (100lbs / 65lbs)
• 
6 Chest-to-Bar Pull-ups

• 9 Barbell Thrusters (100lbs / 65lbs)

• 9 Chest-to-Bar Pull-ups

• 12 Barbell Thrusters (100lbs / 65lbs)

• 12 Chest-to-Bar Pull-ups...etc.

Even though I called this workout “super-Fran on steroids” last week, in the back of my mind, I figured I could perform on par with my previous Fran attempts. Fran, after all, consists of 45 (slightly lighter) thrusters and 45 (slightly easier) pull-ups. If I can crank out 90 Fran reps in (an admittedly not-very-fast) six-and-a-half minutes, isn’t it reasonable to expect at least 80 reps in seven minutes today?

Apparently not.

The chest-to-bar pull-ups did me in, along with my inability to count to 9. It wasn't hard getting my chest to touch the bar, but I had difficulty finding a kipping rhythm, and ended up muscling myself up instead of using my momentum. Worst of all: At one point, I hopped off the bar and trotted over to my barbell before realizing that I’d miscounted. I was supposed to do 9 pull-ups, but had only done 7 (‘cause 7 comes after 6, right?). “Aw, crap,” I groaned. I turned around and stumbled back to the pull-up bar to crank out two more.

In other words, I wasted more time this morning than those of you who got up to gape at two filthy-rich, unemployed strangers from another country getting hitched on television.

Result: 60 reps as RXed. I finished the round of 12 thrusters and pull-ups, but time ran out before I could clean the bar up again. The frustrating thing is that I know I can do better. (Not by much, but still.)

After our workout, the A-Team arrived to show us how it’s done. Tim, Maddie, Blake and Sean wrestled 11.6 to the ground and then beat it senseless. It looked awesome and miserable and glorious, all at the same time.