Fran, Fran, Fran… that word has been going around our Crossfit gym quite a bit for the last few weeks. Granted there’s a “Fran Challenge” going on right now, so, it’s on everyone’s mind.

Eight months into Crossfitting and I have yet to do Fran, until this passed Friday. I have seen people do it. I have seen videos on YouTube of it. I tried my best to coach V when she took on Fran for her 2nd time this past week… I’m not really a good coach as in, I am not very forceful with my instruction, but I tried.

Needless to say, watching all of these people do it, and seeing the videos that I have seen caused quite a bit of anxiety for me as it became clear that I would have to do this on Friday.

If you read my last post, you know that I had some neck issues from sleeping all weird at the beginning of the week. Thankfully, those were resolved. By the time I got to class on Friday, all that was left was some upper back soreness from the night of 100 cleans.

So, here’s Fran (2/5/2010):

• 21 – 15 – 9 {Thrusters (95lb), Pull ups}

That’s it… 45 reps of both. Simple, right? WRONG. This was probably the most uncomfortable 7 minutes and 51 seconds (that’s right, 7:51 Rx’d), that I have spent in my time doing Crossfit type workouts.

All I could think of during the entire time was that I could not catch my breath. It seemed like “air” was always about 5 steps ahead of me. Honestly, it was miserable. I had Nikki, Jody, Wladi, and others shouting at me to keep moving, get on the thrusters, get on the pull ups but “air” became all I could think about. I think I actually saw spots and colors during the 21’s. I definitely felt light headed and had to take a few seconds to get back on it.

Honestly, I have never felt anything like that in my life. My guess, is that using opposing muscle groups as this workout calls for, basically means that every cell in your body is screaming for oxygen at the same time.

All in all, I am happy with my time and that I was able to do it Rx’d as well. Hopefully next time won’t be for a while and I will shave some time off.

Yesterday (2/6/2010), V and I went to open gym. The workout that Nikki came up with for us was rough:

5x

• 400m run
• 7 thrusters (115lb, Rx was 135lb, but that was too much)
• 15 burpees

This one felt never ending. In fact, all of the 5 rounders feel never ending. I got a good feeling of accomplishment from this one as I was able to do each of the thruster sets unbroken. I did OK on the runs too. I didn’t really take too many walking breaks.

My time was  27:01.

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I was very apprehensive about going to work out last night. If you read my previous post, you know about my current physical problem du jour (i.e. I hurt my neck sleeping). Since Monday, I have been doing rehab exercises and using the roller quite a bit to get in there and massage things out.

Yesterday around 4pm, I felt really good. I didn’t have any pain and I was rearing to go. I called the chiropractic office near my house that we have been wanting to go to for a while (Maximized Living in Cedar Park) to see if they had any appointments for today. They have split day hours, open in the morning for two hours and at night for two hours. There were no appointments open for me, so I decided to go to the gym. I figured I would rehab more if I needed to and try a light version of the WOD.

Yesterday’s WOD was:

• 4 cleans on the minute for 25 min

Followed by:

• “5 minutes of fun”

The Rx for the cleans was 155lb for guys. I didn’t want to go Rx as I didn’t want to worry about tweaking my neck further. I tried a few with a modest 135lbs. They felt fine. I didn’t feel any stress on my neck and back. I knew though, that it was really important to keep my form very strict to avoid injury.

So, I started out with 135lb. Scott and Trevor happened to be around watching and were encouraging me to go up in weight. For sets 1-19, I think, I got the 4 reps in over the course of about 10-12 seconds. Bowing in to peer pressure (i.e. Scott and Trevor had the plates ready and I didn’t really have a choice, Trevor says), I went up to 145lb for sets 20-22, then again up to 155lb (Rx) for the last 3 sets.

This workout was HARD. Obviously it would have been WAY harder had I done it entirely Rx’d but, I hate taking chances when I am trying to get over an injury. I am happy that I took it slowly and cautiously building up the weight as I continued to feel OK. Today, I am working on stretching a lot and continued use of the Grid Roller.

These 100 cleans were followed up with “5 minutes of fun” which consists of:

• 1 min regular crunches
• 1 min oblique crunches (left)
• 1 min oblique crunches (right)
• 1 min reverse crunches or leg lifts (I did leg lifts)
• 1 min regular crunches

The scoring on this one is to count your total reps. I was cautious with this one too as crunches usually put a lot of stress on my neck. I counted 282 total reps. I was trying to find the last time we did this on my blog, but I guess I didn’t tag it. Oh well.

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I hate being a bystander for anything that I am interested in.

Yesterday morning, I woke up somewhere around 4am tossing and turning, unable to find a spot that didn’t seem to put pressure on my neck and back. I am not really sure of what caused this; maybe just the position that I slept in, but it’s really annoying and my neck is still sore.

It’s that kind of pain where when you turn your head, the middle of your back hurts. Ugh.

I went to CrossFit last night and thought I would be able to do some stretches and maybe just do a really light workout. I told Dave what was going on and he suggested lots of chin tucks and that stretch where you put your hands behind your head and tilt your head back. I brought me over to Mike (PT director) and he pretty much said the same thing.

I spent the first 30 minutes of the class doing these rehab stretches and exercises. I used the foam roller a bit also. Overall, it felt a LOT better, but I still opted to not push it past and risk severely injuring myself.

V chose to revisit “Fran” after doing it just 3 or 4 days before. She asked me to get in her face for it and help her get her time down. If you know me, you probably don’t think of me as the “in your face” type of guy. Needless to say, I could have been way harder on her, but regardless, she still shaved 4 minutes off of her time (from 12:something to 8:08). I am really proud of her for the effort that she put forth. It was great to watch someone that you care so much about break through mental barriers and grow.

I think I might be out for the rest of the week, or, at least a few days until I can move my head around without my back hurting. While I hate being out and sitting on the sidelines, I would rather wait a few days or a week to completely heal rather than tweak it further and be out longer.

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There are some paleo purists out there who will argue that cramming “paleo” ingredients into “Neolithic constructs” does not a paleo eater make. While most of the time I agree with this idea, sometimes, I just want a damn pancake.

I have tried 3 or 4 different recipes so far for “paleo pancakes”. Up until this point, they have been OK. Some didn’t really hold together; others just didn’t taste good. Also, they have all been almond flour based recipes.

This morning, I decided to try a recipe that was coconut flour based. A simple Google search for “coconut flour pancakes” turned this up:

http://www.comfybelly.com/2009/02/fluffy-coconut-flour-pancakes.html

The recipe was really simple to make and it was the closest thing I have seen to an actual wheat flour based pancake to date. I tried a few with blueberries which was OK, but I think generally, it’s lacking something. The texture and rigidity of the finished product was really good, but it was just a bit bland.

I think that these would make a great vehicle for both sweet and savory ingredients. I will experiment further with this recipe and post what I find if it’s good. Here’s the actual recipe if you are too lazy to click the link =)

This recipe makes about 5 to 6 medium-size pancakes.

Update on 12/6/09 The best way to insure fluffy pancakes is to separate the egg whites, whip them until you have fairly stiff peaks, and then blend the egg whites back into the batter.

Ingredients

• 3 large eggs or 4 small eggs
• 1 teaspoon of olive oil (or your oil of choice)
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon (optional)
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1 teaspoon of honey or maple syrup
• 2 tablespoons of coconut flour
• fresh or frozen blueberries (optional)

Preparation

1. In a bowl, add all the wet ingredients and whisk together until well blended.
2. Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, and whisk mixture again until well blended and frothy – this will get them even fluffier!
3. Add additional olive oil or butter to a frying pan on medium to low heat and let warm for a few minutes. Next, pour the batter into small circles in the frying pan without letting the edges of each circle touch. Keep the heat fairly low and let the pancakes heat up slowly and rise – about 3 to 5 minutes.
4. Wait until there are several bubbles appearing on top of the pancake circles and the edges are cooked, and then flip each pancake to cook the other side. This will not take long, so watch them carefully, and then move the pancakes onto another plate. Continue this until all the batter is gone.
5. Enjoy!

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This week was rough for me. Ever since the workout last Friday, I have had some really bad soreness in my legs. I have only experience soreness to this degree a handful of times since starting crossfit, but this one was a doozy.

By Wednesday of this week, I was still really stiff and sore, but decided it was time to get in there and move a bit. The workout was mostly OK except for the lunges. We did it “Fight Gone Bad” style:

3 rounds, 1 minute at each station – score reps:

• Lunges
• Pull Ups
• KB Swings
• Sit Ups
• Row (count meters)

It’s typically pretty hard to “take it easy” at crossfit, especially when people are constantly egging you on to “go go go”. I made out with a total score of 818. Here’s how my reps came out:

• Lunges: 21, 20, 18
• Pull Ups: 16, 13, 10
• KB Swing: 18, 20, 16
• Sit Ups: 24, 21, 17
• Row: 192, 209, 203

I ended up using lighter weights that I normally would. For the lunges, I used 20lb dumbbells and for the KB swings, I used a 25lb KB. I felt a bit less stiff after this workout but it was still bad.

Thursday night, I went to tai chi class. I got a good review of some of the lower ranked material, which I really did need. My legs we letting me know they were there pretty much the entire time.

Tonight’s workout looked like it was written for me in my current condition. I was really excited when I saw this one posted on the blog:

Shoulder to overhead any way: 3 – 3 – 3 – 3 – 3

I went a few more than 5 sets on this b/c I got close to 200lbs. At that point, Dave wouldn’t let me NOT try 200lb. My set broke down like this:

95 – 115 – 135 – 155 – 175 – 185 – 195 – 200

This was followed up by 3 rounds of:

• 250m row
• 15 burpees

I finished it in 7:13 and was gassed pretty much the whole time. It did work really well to loosen my legs up. They feel a lot better now. Hopefully they will be back to normal in a day or two.

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Both of my paid workouts this week had 5 rounds of 500m rowing. Eh. My whole body hurts… it hurt already, then last night, I was the only one to show up for class, so Dave & Wladi made me do this:

5x

• 500m row
• 10 back squats (185lbs)

This took me 19:37. I was really trying to beat out my friend Ryan who did this in 17 and change… I was doing really well too until I hit my 4th round. By that time, my legs were all but shot and I couldn’t do more than 2-3 squats at a time. Still, I am happy to have finished in under 20.

This morning for open gym we did 2 WODs, both with a partner, both 3 sets each, both for time. The first was:

3 rounds (taking turns)

• 5 push ups
• 7 squats (used a 25lb dumbbell and did it like a goblet squat)
• 9 burpees

The second one was also 3 rounds (taking turns)

• 200m run
• 7 wall balls (14lb)
• 9 SDHP (25lb kettlebell)

I didn’t track the times that me and V got on these. I am really proud of her for doing good full push ups on everything during these workouts. Sure, it took a little longer, but that’s the only place the strength will come from. Plus it gave me rest which I really needed today. I am so damn sore from yesterday that everything today just felt absolutely awful. I am not kidding. Victoria even pointed out to Dave that I looked really miserable while running. And I was. I hear Dave did a little impression of me… I’d love to see that =)

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I haven’t written about it on this blog, but this past weekend we both had stomach viruses. Victoria got it from the kids in her class and had it REALLY bad. So bad in fact that she had to go to the ER really early on Friday morning.

After the ER visit, she felt a lot better. It was inevitable, though, that I would get it… which I did the following day. Mine was not nearly as severe as hers but it is lasting longer. I haven’t yet gotten to the stage where I can eat my normal diet all day every day. Things like meat and vegetable are still sort of nasty sounding at times.

Anyway. I felt better enough to go workout last night. Since I wasn’t feeling completely better I made a little deal with myself that I would take it slow, do what I could, and generally just not push as hard as I normally would.

The workout was 5 horrible rounds of:

• 500m row
• 30 sit ups
• 15 dead lifts (Rx’d @ 195lbs)

I think I finished this in 25:06 (it might have been 25:04, but I don’t remember). If you read my blog, you know that like to do some math when we do long workouts like this so here goes.

Total Work Done

• 2500m rowed (that’s a little over 2 miles, I think)
• 150 sit ups
• 14,625lbs dead lifted (that’s 7.3125 tons)

Victoria cracked a joke when I said I would take the sit ups slow. She said something along the lines of implying I was already doing that. Funny. Well, I took them slower than I normally go. During the warm up sit ups (2 sets of 15), I literally felt like I was going to hurl every time I sat up. I think this was a good choice.

I tried to keep a good ~2min pace on the rows. I think at one point I was in the ~2:30 area, but quickly got it back down after some heckling from the coaches.

The dead lifts were challenging as well and I tried to take them in small sub sets. They also made me feel like I was going to hurl. Hopefully today won’t be as bad and I can push a little harder.

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… if by “fun” you mean “breathing really hard and feeling like death” then, yes, fun. This workout was pretty challenging but all kidding aside, it was fun. Here it is:

2x

3 minutes each of

• Row
• Clean & Jerk (Rx – 135lbs)
• Jump Rope

This workout is 18 minutes long no matter what your fitness level is. We were told to calculate a score by adding calories burned on rower + number of clean & jerk reps + number of jumps. My total came out to be 713, which I was pretty proud of. Here’s how my reps looked:

Wow! I came out swinging! The first round felt great! I felt strong on the row and clean & jerks. I got into a great rhythm on the jump rope. We got a 1 minute rest before round 2, then it all went to crap. I felt like I was rowing as hard as I could on round 2, but I am sure if I were in a real boat, I’d have been slowly drifting down a lake.

The clean & jerks were worse. I felt gassed and weak every time I tried to get a rep. To my credit though, I didn’t mess any up or waste any reps like the last workout with cleans. The fact that I got one more clean on my second round can only be attributed to Wladi yelling at me to get back on the bar and do one more.

I was trying like hell to get to 300 jumps on the second round. I had Duan AND Johnny U encouraging me to go but I just kept tripping up on the last 50 or so jumps. Close… maybe next time.

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Got this one today… how it got past the Google spam filter, I don’t know.

Date: 14th January  2009.

Happy New year,

This mail is to remind you of your registered package.Content: Bank Draft of $800,000 USD and some end of year gift items. Officially registered by your colleague who is currently undergoing Survey project with Nigeria National petroleum Corporation.

For your information the VAT and COD have been paid. The only payment you to make is for Customs Clearance Form charge of £210 GBP. Please Contact FedEx Delivery Department Mr. Richard Raynor for shipment details and requirement. Email: fedex.service_@live.com Tel: +2348071208793.

It is mandatory to reconfirm your Postal address and telephone numbers for urgent Service.

Full Name:

Address:

City:

State / Province:

Phone:

Country:

Always at your service.

Yours Faithfully,

Mrs. Nucleo joaima

©Federal Express Corporation

All rights reserved. © 1995-2010 FedEx.

******************************************************************

This E-mail is only for the above addressees. It may contain confidential or Privileged information. If you are not an addressee you must not copy, distribute, disclose or use any of the information in it or any attachments.

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… that it’s NEVER easy despite how I think it looks written out? I think I should just make a template for these posts as I am about to say again that I didn’t feel like working out last night. I was drained from the day and it’s activities. With all of that, I didn’t want to do anything at all.

The workout last night was all bodyweight (except for the v-twists):

3x

15 – 9 – 6

• V-Twists (20lb medicine ball)
• Lunges
• Mountain Climbers
• Push ups
• Sit ups

I really thought, for some reason that I’d get this done in 10-15. I was wrong. Once I started in on this one, I knew it was going to be closer to 20. In fact, it was 19:23.

If you add it up, it’s 90 reps of everything (v-twists, lunges, and mountain climbers were actually double b/c you had to the amount on BOTH sides), which is more than a 21-15-9 workout (double in fact as 21+15+9 =45).

Again, ab work was my weakest link and slowed me down the most. The v-twists followed by sit ups killed.

In other news, last night for dinner, I tried my hand at some home made gyro meat. My grandmother recently gave me a vertical rotisserie that she had just sitting her garage (boxed, unused). I found a recipe on foodnetwork.com by Alton Brown, which, cannot be bad. I was a little nervous about how it would turn out, but it was really just delicious.

As we are paleo and hardly ever eat dairy (i.e. no Tzatziki sauce), I made a lemon/olive oil dip for the meat. Overall it was delicious and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Here’s the recipe if you are interested:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/gyro-meat-with-tzatziki-sauce-recipe/index.html

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