Wednesday, October 14, 2009

A Sub 3 Fran


I have seen several people complete "Fran" in under 3 minutes over the last couple years. It was at that point. Once upon a time, that was considered unimaginable.

I have done this workout probably about 6 times since I started Crossfit. The very first time was probably a little over 3 years ago. I had never heard of it much less seen it done at the time. I looked at Crossfit.com that day and figured it sounded simple enough. At the time I had been doing Crossfit pretty much by myself for right at 4 or 5 weeks. I can remember going into Golds Gym like I was so cool loading a 95lb Barbell next to the cable machines were there was built in pull-up station.

I thought, "Alright, here we go!"

21 Thrusters - "Damn"
21 Pull ups - "This is freaking hard"
15 Thrusters - "What the Hell was that?"
15 Pull ups - " I think that's 7... I can't Move right now!"
9 Thrusters - I don't think I even made it to this point... Can't remember how far I got but I couldn't make myself finish.
I still will use the month out of training for a knee injury as my excuse.
The point is though, that I was severely out of shape. It wasn't much longer when I saw a video of Josh Everett and Greg Admunson do this workout in just over 3 minutes(still no sub 3's at the time).

About 12 months back I finish it in 3:23 at the Crossfit Cert in Alvin, TX. I felt pretty good about that until Chris Spealer did it 10 minutes later in 2:04(Faster ever at the time). Wow! Twice since that time I have done Fran in 3:38 and 3:52. I am getting slower! Older? Less Driven? Do I weight to much for a sub 3? Every time I come off my last pullup rep and feel paralyzed! I am in the worst pain ever!

"Fran"... I don't care if we never meet again!

Oh wait! Saturday October 10th (one week before my 28th Birthday) our clients are doing "Fran" for the month of Benchmarks 5 Week Challenge. 2 Hours later the Coaches must go.

I considered not doing it! I actually would have love nothing more than to say I was gonna sit it out. But for some reason I decided to give it a go. What the Hell right?... "I think I might vomit" was the only think going through my head.

3..2..1..Go!
21 Thrusters Unbroken
21 Pull ups Unbroken (1:03 feeling good)
15 Thruster (Slight burn in my forearms but finish 15 straight easy)
15 Pull ups (10 and drop... am I gonna slow down? Nope 5 more pop right off)
9 Thrusters (That was way to easy)
9 Pull ups (Ready to drop at 5 but switched my Butterfly to a Kip and Battled for 9 strait)

Time: 2:52

Walk off feeling amped!

Who knew?

Hard Work and Discipline never Fail!

7 comments:

Lion Heart said...

boooyah!

Russell Butler said...

Nice son!! I am still shooting for that goal man. I met her on .com not long ago, and she broke me off as always. 3:50 and I thought I was going to die...Next time we meet...Good job bro.

Mel_Joulwan said...

Congratulations, Mike! That's ridiculously awesome. You=hero.

jbmoblog said...

Impressive, inspiring performance Big Mike!

georgia said...

It was an awesome performance to watch. You could see the determination in your face...no pain...just pure determination.

Congratulations on breaking into sub-3!

Jessica Stephen said...

Nice!! Congrats, that's a good feeling. And nice to know you get nervous for workouts too ;-)

Tra said...

that's AWESOME!