Fran Finals

($80 for 1st place of non-coaches plus $30 for 5th best improvement since prelims - 1:05 or 16.9%)



Lot's of thoughts running though my head. Six weeks ago I did Fran in 6:24, and today I did it in 5:19. Fastest time of the non-coaches.

I am very proud of my progress. Coaches Sean, Danya and Kevin all had better times. I would say they inspired me. Sadly today, I did not see a single rep that they did. I was busy dealing with 21/15/9 thrusters and pullups, and they all finished ahead of me. But I bet they were awesome to watch.

The pain during and immediately after Fran is horrible. It is so brief, but just hateful. I had one single moment of doubt during my middle round of thrusters. I put the bar down after 11 reps and fought hard in my mind to pick it up as soon as I could. I really did have that moment of "I should just quit - this hurts too much." It is a just mental dog fight, and I guess I did ok.

Six weeks ago I told Jerry that I really wanted to win the challenge. Beating Kevin's initial time of 5:23 (or his PR of 4 minutes) was never realistic, but I really took this seriously. Jerry prescribed a regimen of 10x tabata rows a couple of times a week. I did not do them 3 times every week, but I did them a bunch. Tabata rows really do mimic the horrible short term exhaustion of Fran. It's all out effort with some very short breaks. And 10 intervals = 5 minutes of work, which was my goal. So all in all, I was just 19 minutes off of my insane goal (and damn if I did not beat Kevin's first time.) I guess if I did all my tabata rows I could have gotten there.

Nice job everyone. Some damn inspiring efforts by Jason B. Nate, Bry, Kelly, Mike O, and all the rest. And thanks to Kevin, Sean and Danya for putting a goal out there for me to chase. They are studs and to be near their level is something to be proud of. Thanks to Jerry and Melissa for everything.

In CFOT I trust.