My Journey through BreakingMuscle 12 week Program

[christopherd]

Beginner rower here. I've been rowing since June 21st and have logged a quarter of a million meters so far. Hard for me to believe.

My starting stats as follows (sorry metric folks):
34yo, M, 250 lbs, 72', initial 2k best pace: 2:47.9

Current stats:
35yo, 235 lbs, 2:09ish (will know real time after Test)

Granted, I could be on any program and see some improvement, but I'm liking this one so far from BreakingMuscle.com. Well structured and good variety of workouts, with some days I look forward to more than others (blasters are ace, 500m pieces are too, but the steady state stuff is meh).

Best 2k pace so far I actually managed in around 2:09, and that was after a 2:17 3k.

Not good numbers but improving.

So this is my initial post and part update. I hope to update weekly with my workouts and any PB or thoughts.

Doing 2k test tomorrow and aiming for sub-2 pace. I think 1:55 is my guess at a conservative pace given my recent workouts, but not sure. We'll see. I may start at close to 1:50 and adjust. I'm pretty excited. Now it's time to get some rest. Hopefully. 6 AM comes soon.

[christopherd]

I guess my file is too large for c2forum. I'll look for hosting elsewhere I guess. Hope to have it uploaded tomorrow.

[jackarabit]

56". 41% increase in power. That will be a big bump!

[lindsayh]

So this is my initial post and part update. I hope to update weekly with my workouts and any PB or thoughts.
Doing 2k test tomorrow and aiming for sub-2 pace. I think 1:55 is my guess at a conservative pace given my recent workouts, but not sure. We'll see. I may start at close to 1:50 and adjust. I'm pretty excited. Now it's time to get some rest. Hopefully. 6 AM comes soon.

Good luck with your training and well done so far. AS Jack has observed you are setting a very ambitious target for the 2km - there is a lot of territory between 8:30+ and sub 8:00
Pacing a 2km is tricky and the worst thing you could do is head off at 1:50 when your goal is 1:59 or a bit less.
There are lots of threads discussing this but best to start at say 2:00 and split down rather than start off fast and hit an early wall - if you are travelling well and have some left at the end that is much better than running out of steam.

[christopherd]

Thanks for the advice lindsayh and jackarabit. You were right, 1:50 was a bit ambitious, and 1:55 wasn't sustainable after the first 1k (probably physically, maybe also mentally).

But I did do a sub-8! 7:53.4 / 1:58.3
So that feels good now that I've reached that personal goal.

Not sure what my next goal should be, but I'm thinking 7:40, as that would be my 1:55 pace I was aiming for on this one.

[jackarabit]

Early days and impressive progress in two months, Christopher! Breaking Muscle has given you the tools you need. Don't discount the effectiveness of the "meh" stuff. Aerobic endurance is an absolute necessity for stacking ambitious split times into sustained performance at competed distance. Lot of "roadwork" will sustain you in the "ring,"

[Anth_F]

Moving in the right direction that's for sure! It takes a lot of input/effort to see early significant results.. i know this only too well!! As i myself have only been rowing since June as well. But i'm very happy at where i am at now already

Well done going sub 8 in such short time... it's a nice feeling when you do!!

Keep on pushing yourself, and you will see lots of good changes happen very regular

[christopherd]

Hey everyone, quick update.

So I have the zip file ready to be downloaded here: https://1drv.ms/u/s!ApBYWkXtOTPWn0cD2r7KoNIoNrmY

That is a link to the file from my OneDrive. If you're not familiar with the URL then google '1drv.ms' before clicking or downloading. I can vouch only for the safety of the files as they left my computer, so here are the hashes.
Breaking Muscle.zip
MD5: e0c6ac97b0313eab0016cb87edb0ce08
SHA256: 76b2305cf16c67cdc72097ae76d95a77fbf0c4c2514894aa23a80acc41c2b70f
SHA512: 3188aaf5749d6b3d6813fc5faedd8ae3dcb13ea8ff55fbefbbefcbeead14db9f795e8ef22ab6880a2fc4f2452f0a902ed70f4aa50e2eea6aa8c80ed36a0adb19

If the file doesn't match those hashes then please delete it and let me know that there was a difference.

And finally since I'm a pretty new member it would be cool to have a well-known resident computer geek vouch for the safety of this file for me.

1. Unzip to a folder
2. Open Breaking Muscle Training Plan and Log.xlsx
3. You can click on any dates that are hyperlinked. Dates without entries aren't hyperlinked, obviously. Most have HR data on them.

I'm not sure why I'm sharing this much data with you all but I figure there will be some of you that like to pour over this type of stuff and pose questions, critiques or discussions. Maybe one day when I have respectable times this will serve as a historical record of the training that led to such.