Pete Plan Group - Startup Aug 20th thru 22nd

[bisqeet]

Decided to carry on despite the drive. I have a medical fast Monday, so didn't want to get too far behind. Turned out anyway. Snagged a nice PB on 30' a full split better than previous best.

looking good. doing it right.
with a tadge more power/stroke i see the magical 8k falling.
at the mo you are about ~8W/Stroke. (220Watts/28SPM) - i would say this is is your most important variable to improve on.

[bisqeet]

image.jpeg

The accomplishments of my BPP Brothers and the outstanding efforts of the seasoned veterans of the plan are keeping me motivated. My goal was to complete this at a challenging yet manageable pace. I set about finishing each section faster than the last. Mission accomplished.

Thanks everyone.

nice work

[JohnAd]

Glenn, great stuff, looks like you were on for pb all the way and emptied the tanks anyway. Agree with Dean 8k is out there for both of us if we keep at it.

Barry, looks very well judged indeed, excellent stuff.

Sanz, nice improvements from a 7.5 PE, mine were more like 6,7,7,8,8 rising to 9 for last 500m so maybe same average but the 9 really takes it out of you.

[Bloodbuzz Corio]

Decided to carry on despite the drive. I have a medical fast Monday, so didn't want to get too far behind. Turned out anyway. Snagged a nice PB on 30' a full split better than previous best.

looking good. doing it right.
with a tadge more power/stroke i see the magical 8k falling.
at the mo you are about ~8W/Stroke. (220Watts/28SPM) - i would say this is is your most important variable to improve on.

Glenn - great stuff! Though if I am being honest I did expect you to hit us with a sub 19' 5k this week after your performance on the 5x1500 - particulalry given the bit of needling you were given in that direction! I do think folks react to peer pressure differently and we need to be sensitive that it's not a positive thing for everyone - but I sense you're actually enjoying the 'competition'.

Dean - my 6.5k yesterday was at similar stats to Glenn here - my 1:56.9 is 219.1 Watts which at 27.2 spm is just a hair over 8W/stroke - and whilst I am loving the PP on the whole - my only concern is that I may be rating at the easiest, but not most beneficial, rate during the various workouts. Having said that my 8x500 on Saturday was at 1:43.5, with the intervals at 32 or 33 spm - 1:43.5 is 315.7 Watts so at 33spm that's over 9.5 W/stroke - and I'm happy enough with my progress that I'm probably unlikely to change things significantly of my own accord - but is just something I've been thinking about - and any advice to the contrary I'd certainly seriously consider!

[adam1882]

This thread is a great read, a mine of information for a newcomer to rowing!

Today's session was PPB W4 Interval - aim was 3x1000m with 3 mins rest. Target 1:56.2/500m. Achieved: 1:52.7.

Hard session. Struggled to keep spm low whilst keeping the pace high. Will take a couple of days rest before really focusing on lowering the spm for the 6500m on Sunday.

Thanks.

[JohnAd]

Hard session.

It certainly is, consensus seems to be that the 1k intervals is the toughest and I think I agree and we get a lot more rest, even keeping this at the same pace as the 500 intervals requires a lot of underlying improvement so going so much faster is great. Don't worry about the rate on the interval days, these are sprints after all and so it's kind of up to you to find what rate works, for most people that seems to be at least 28.

[lindsayh]

W1 S4
45' @2:05
df124 sr23 174w
strapless
weights

[Pie Man]

Wow this thread moves fast.
Some great times coming in congratulations to all

I will pick Mikes times out on his 5 x 1500 as they are closest to mine for special mention. Wow that was some last rep with pulls of 1:40! What were you thinking? What a way to empty the tank congratulations on a great average and thanks for giving me something tough to aim for.

I use very similar tricks as John to make the time pass. On my last 1500 today I realised I was suffering when it took me 150m to work out 600/1500 was not 2/3 but 2/5 I kept getting 2/3 but knew it was wrong only to work it out wrong again!
In the last 200 I keep reminding myself that it is less than 20 stokes and so every one is bringing me to the end...
I like to try and work out the decimal place of a pull from the predicted finish time and current average it can be tricky to do but there is no way to check it as you go along so you never get it wrong.

Did my 5x1500 last night.

As Rohan mentions earlier peer pressure can affect people differently, I must admit when I sat down on the erg I felt apprehensive, having seen all the very solid times people had put in on this piece, but also because if Pete is right, I am trying to improve on a 1:55.5 pace which if I achieved in a 5k test would be 20 seconds under my PB and I remember that PB as being pretty tough.
2k warm up. With strong 1:55ish pulls at 500, 1000, 1500
This seems to work better for me but there is a room for improvement as I still seem to take time to get into the piece.
DF 117 as kept bouncing around 116 so settled on that.
Last time 1:55.5 average this time 1:54.8 (Monitor calculated it as .7 but it's .8 by my calculation)
Rep 1: 1:55.1 @30 HR 152
Rep 2: 1:55.0 @31 Hr 157
Rep 3: 1:55.0 @ 31 HR 158
Rep 4: 1:54.8 @ 31 HR 160
Rep 5: 1:53.8 @ 32 HR 164

1000m CD

Stroke rate is what it is but it's one stroke less per min for the last two reps with all but the last rep done faster than any of my previous reps (last rep was @ 1:53.0 last time).

The last rep was a real tough one, got to 500m out at around 1:54.5 and then just dug in, my eyes 'defocused' and I could only see the pull pace which I kept at 1:53 till the end, or one pull from the end as I do have a bad habit of not doing the last stoke It's annoying as I know to row the whole distance but sometimes I don't put that last pull in.

I am pleased with the result it's a solid improvement on a time I thought was good for me, now weighing up whether I should 'test Pete' and see what my 5k PB is, or if I should just try a 6500m row or similar to take the pressure off.

[bisqeet]

yesterday turned out to be a bit heavier than intended.
A HM at R18 2:05 pace followed by a quad OTW training ~90 minutes. Sprints, Starts, 30min cruising pace ~14km/h.
legs were a bit shot to be honest.

todays "hard" was a funny one. the FTC starts today (Fall Team Challenge) and i hate to let the team down - so a HM.
there was no way i could go hard on the HM and not suffer badly (race on saturday) so I decided to do the first 1/4 at hard pace ~1:54, second relaxed R18, 3rd hard, 4th relaxed.

the transition from a 10W R18 stroke to a R25 was more difficult than i imagined. did the 3 1/4 at paddle - the higher R22 was because i forgot to change the drag it was still on 140.

the last bit was at R14/R15 just for giggles

[JohnAd]

Piers, looks like a great session. I like the decimal place pull thing but a shame about the lack of reward but I'll have a play with today. I also find it's a good gauge of high PE when my ability to do mental arithmetic goes. Interesting that you also do the last stroke avoidance thing, in training I almost never stroke if the catch is going to be less than one strokes worth. I also don't think it's a great habit but I like to start the recovery that extra second or two early

Based on that session I'd have thought all your PBs are ripe for the picking but I think maybe trying the 30' might be a good way of checking progress without having the extra expectation of PB target. I like seeing what the ranking percentile is for the hard distance, climbing slowly up the ladder is good motivation.

[JohnAd]

i hate to let the team down - so a HM.

I'm pretty sure I can speak for everyone in that we won't feel let down by anyone doing longer than the PP says. Your 2 hard sections there are longer than most of us will be doing this week. Impressive stuff as always especially the 16.5 DPS in the low rate at the end.

[adam1882]

I am pleased with the result it's a solid improvement on a time I thought was good for me.

You should be! Well done

[G-dub]

Thanks guys - it feels good to share with those who care! The wife just doesn't seem to get it sorry for the blab below:

Dean, I hear you on rate/watts and was working on it this summer. AND since I've been using a little softer stroke I've been able to improve my splits on mid distance pieces by a long shot. And my PE is way better - I was dying on them before. At 5'-8" I feel like using the slide a little more is helping me and worthwhile. I do wonder now if I can rate up to 36 or so on 2K to match the feeling. That is my curiosity - that I will run out of rate on the 2K if that makes sense.

Blood - I had 5K on my mind and to do it Friday. But I got home last night and wanted to do something after a long drive in the car and that lead to the 30'. I had it in the back of my mind that it was open for the challenge for awhile now, just needed to know I could make the distance. As far as peer pressure, I am not feeling pressure so much as enjoying exploring what is possible, within reason, at the moment and you guys are inspiring. Each session I am taking stock in how I feel in warm up and deciding then. I will probably only attempt to just barley improve speed pyramid and 4 X 2 this coming week unless things feel good. It's all good at the moment.

And whoever said 8K is in sight is nuts. I think 7750 would be hard enough at this point!

[G-dub]

Piers - solid session! Go with what feels good. I know when I feel like I'm getting worked up over a PB shot it doesn't work great. I think it is why I've been able to sneak in a 6K and 30' one so far - sort of baited and switched which took pressure off. 6K is a nice distance to do because it doesn't have the same "I should be doing this pace" aspect to it since we don't talk about it much. Or just do a solid row and wait for the right time! No worries.

[G-dub]

Adam - great row! Those 1K's are brutal and you don't have much rest on yours. Well done. We are all getting caught up with rate at the moment. There is no absolute "right" when it comes to that and your ratios will evolve as you keep getting stronger and fitter. But as John said, the speed intervals are about working in speed endurance first and foremost.