Richard Gibney's 365 Days of Fitness: Day 164

Day 164 A few weeks ago, I decided to try my hand at the crossfit workout called Fran. I checked the average time to completion on the internet and found that I was slightly better than average. However, after looking at some of the competitive times, I realized my time was rather unimpressive. Today, my schedule was shaping up in such a way that it left me pretty small workout window. I know wanted something pretty intense and short, so I decided it was time for a second date with Fran.

Like before, I spent a good 15 - 20 minutes warming up. Anytime you attempt a max effort in any workout it is extremely important that you warm-up enough. Prepping the body thoroughly will not only ensure that you perform your best but drastically reduce the chance of injury.

With Fran, deep squatting is a necessity, so I spent a lot time opening up my hips with some foam rolling and dynamic stretches. The pull-ups can be pretty hard on the shoulders and lats so I did a little bit of upper body rolling and shoulder activation to keep things in one piece. All in all I think I did a pretty good job of preparing myself for another attempt at Fran.

Today's Workout:

Fran (Attempt #2)

Superset:

Exercise 1: 95 lb Barbell Thruster (Front Squat to Overhead Press): 21, 15, 9 Exercise 2: Pull-ups: 21, 15, 9

Alternate with descending rep scheme and complete as fast as possible

First Attempt: 6:50 (Day 148 )    Today's Attempt: 5:00

I was pretty happy with how I did today. I don't really have much frame of reference, but I think decreasing my time by almost 2 minutes is pretty good. I banged out the thrusters much faster this time, but I still think I could speed a lot on the pull-ups. I can still only do 1 at a time. I need to learn how to get my kip cycling so that I can lose less time. Oh well, something to work on.

5 minutes isn't a very long workout, but the considering the intensity and the length of the warm-up prior, it felt pretty sufficient. After work tonight, I also played another game of softball. We continued to do well, and won our game. I made some pretty dramatic catches. My somewhat unorthodox style of catching, seems to lend itself to a little bit of drama.

Tomorrow, I'll finish off the work week with a bit of upper body strength training and perhaps a battlerope challenge I've heard being tossed around a bit lately.