Meet Fran

I'm now 5/6 of the way through the Elements class at CrossFit.  After going through another set of basic moves to work on our form tonight, we did our workout: Fran.

Fran is 21 thrusters, 21 pull-ups, 15 thrusters, 15 pull-ups, 9 thrusters, 9 pull-ups.  As fast as you can.  (If you click on the thrusters link, you'll see a video demo on the CrossFit main site.) 14 thrusters in, I thought I was going to lose my afternoon snack.  Fortunately, that feeling passed, and once you're through the first round, you're nearly halfway done.  Woohoo.

I don't know what the bar weighed, so I can't tell you how much I was thrusting.  I can tell you it was enough.  Since I can't quite knock off 45 pullups just yet, I used a giant rubber band to construct a makeshift gravitron (the green one, if that means something to you). 

Fran was hard.  When I do a fixed number of reps, particularly of a difficult exercise, I count backwards.  It's a mind trick; by starting at the end, there's no way I can give up and not finish.  It doesn't actually make sense, but it works for me the same way that setting my clock five minutes fast in the morning gets me out of bed.

Tonight, when I counted down the sets, it was audible.  That's how I know I was struggling.  Grunty guys (sorry, but it's usually guys) are one of my biggest gym pet peeves, so I generally try to stay quiet.  Sometimes, though, a little noise is unavoidable.  That's how I know Fran pushed me.

I lucked out the other day with my 11ish mile run; it didn't make me sore.  I'm not so sure I'll be able to say the same for Fran.  I'll keep you posted.

-Gym Belle-