Don't be discouraged....
Last night we did Cindy, which is really the only WOD I have to gage at any progress I have made, since I had to bail on Fran due to a sudden intense headache during my box jumps.
Firstly, what Fran are you doing that involves box jumps? Fran is thrusters and pullups.
Secondly, Cindy is not a gauge of your progress since you are not incorporating pullups into your regular routines.
Your x-fit affiliate is going to need to find a new park or figure out a way to get you guys doing pullups. Even if you need to work these on your own you are spiting yourself by not including them in your routine - whether as part of a warmup, strength building or crossfit WODs.
If I were you, I would be seriously pissed that I was not working pullups, esp. since you are losing pullup strength. This would result in me doing them on my own.
Can you kip yet? If you aren't this will be limiting factor #1. Work on your kipping every day until you get the form down and 5 pullups in a row will be a joke.
Pullups are an EXTREMELY taxing movement if you are not conditioned for them. If your pullup ability went down it will translate to fatigue in other movements like your pushups. While you are doing tons of pushups, the lack of pullup strength is taxing you so much that its carrying over.
In short, you need to get your pullup numbers up ... by doing more pullups.
My score was 8 rounds. I was kind of shooting for at LEAST 12, since I had done 10 my last time around, and even then I had increased from 4 rounds my first time around. I can honestly say, without a hint of doubt, I gave it every ounce of juice I had in me, and when they told me I had done 8 rounds, my heart sank!
As stated above, you are being limited by your lack of strength in one particular movement. A loss of strength will translate to a loss of endurance. This has less to do with your CV system than you are implying.
I think the following factors are what's killing my time:
- Ability to do more than 2 pull-ups at a time after my fourth round or so
- Ability to do a full 10 push-ups after my fifth round or so
- Cardio capacity.
Your limiting factor is that you can't do pullups with endurance. You can only do 10 pullups or so (Actually, if i recall, it was 7) at a time. So how do you expect to do 60 in 20 minutes (12 rounds). You are nearly at your max reps every time you grab the bar.
The pushup problem is due to the pullup limiting factor.
As far as push-ups are concerned, I really have no idea what's going on there. If you told me I have done 1000 push-ups in the past month, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised. Towards the end rounds, I was still knocking 10 out in the form of 5+3+2, which isn't too terrible.
Your pain tolerance needs work. When I was doing Cindy I used to do the same thing - 5+3+2. Then one day I was like, just push through this mofo and I got it. That next time I did 5+5 at my lowest even though the temptation to stop at 3 was huge. Once I broke into #4 then #5 came easy. You are actually conditioning yourself to stop at 5 then 3 then 2. You need to break out of this...if its not possible then its not possible, but let your body tell you that with a hard max effort push as opposed to "this is too hard, let me break" which most people do.
Now the biggie, at least in my opinion. Cardio. The coach has pointed out I get hyperventilated and has corrected my breathing many times. It seems the breaths I am taking are too short. I've noticed this when running to. I honestly don't know how I'm going to correct this, if this is something I can correct at all. I have noticed however, that despite the fact that I'm probably one of the few who can run 6 miles at a time, the others don't seem to get nearly as hyperventilated as I do.
Your LSD (Long Slow Distance) CV endurance is fine as per your 6 mile run. You clearly need to work your high intensity CV training. Your heart is being taxed in a way that your body cannot handle - as your heart gets bigger and stronger this will fall into place on the high intensity bouts. This is why it is absolutely necessary to push to your limits on every WOD if you want to see WOD improvements. Push the limits to the point of nausea or puking daily.
Realistically though, your lack of strength is bringing you down the most and that is what needs to be addressed first.
Keep up the good work and keep training hard. Your WODs are probably pushing your CV system to the max and you are probably seeing gross translations of that into other domains despite your lack of performance on Cindy. Get your strength up.
