Pete Plan Group - Startup Aug 20th thru 22nd

[adam1882]

PPB week 3 session 1. 6k 2:14.1 at r19 strapless. Taking tomorrow off to refresh but I'm sure I'll be checking in to see how all of you are getting along.
Barry

Good stuff Barry

[Pie Man]

@John, I was doing my SS yesterday I was reminded of another couple of distractions.

I use a Garmin Vivioacive watch, which records strokes made, so with a quick glance and a bit of mental maths I can calculate my stroke rate on the fly.

There is one other and this is certainly the best distraction I have found especially as it seems to encourage me to try harder as well. However it unfortunately does rely on having a step machine in your eye line close to the erg and the right person using it... But if you can manage to get those things in place it is a perfect distraction.

As the PP is an iterative process I can't see me going beyond 3 rounds this time. It is very useful for me to see what I can do and to push me hard, especially when coupled with the feedback and encouragement you get as doing it as part of this group. Who knew I could do 5 x 1500m @ 1:54.8 average? Not me, and that I may be able to get close to a 19:10 5k! The last 500m of the last 1500m certainly demonstrated to me that I can actually suffer some serious discomfort to reach a target.

I will need to then pick up another plan as I like structure. To improve my times strength is certainly going to be a useful area to invest my effort in, as my arms are like pipe cleaners according to my children only having a 13 inch bicep.

But that is a few weeks away so thinking about what hard distance piece I am going to do today. I am probably going to look at a 6k, my PB for that was part of a BPP row at 24:14 so I will go 2:00 for the first 4k or so and see how I feel.

[JohnAd]

There is one other and this is certainly the best distraction I have found especially as it seems to encourage me to try harder as well. However it unfortunately does rely on having a step machine in your eye line close to the erg and the right person using it... But if you can manage to get those things in place it is a perfect distraction.

sadly my current gym has neither the right erg placement nor enough of the right people...

As the PP is an iterative process I can't see me going beyond 3 rounds this time

Are you not planning to hang in there until the BIRC? That's my plan for now, after that I don't know but I also need some structure and given how far off my longer distance PBs I am I think I'm unlikely to plateau this year

I am probably going to look at a 6k, my PB for that was part of a BPP row at 24:14 so I will go 2:00 for the first 4k or so and see how I feel.

6k is also my softest PB as I only have a BPP time but I think I'm going to have another go at 30' hard and try and sort out my pacing and rate then next week try a 6k. Am feeling a bit odd as back from the dentist after some root canal so need to wait for the feeling to come back to the left side of my face before I do anything.

[G-dub]

I think it could last more than 2-3 cycles if we were less enthused about smashing through pace targets and dropped them more slowly and incrementally. I also think a long row (an hour and more) as opposed to the hard distance row would make it more long term friendly, but that is not the plan of course. What gets hard for me is being able to concentrate at work the day after the three hard blast sessions. That and being interested in what all you guys are up to. So far so good. I am focusing more on the mid distance and SS work right now which will hopefully preserve improvement in the speed work later?

[JohnAd]

I think it could last more than 2-3 cycles if we were less enthused about smashing through pace targets and dropped them more slowly and incrementally. I also think a long row (an hour and more) as opposed to the hard distance row would make it more long term friendly, but that is not the plan of course. What gets hard for me is being able to concentrate at work the day after the three hard blast sessions. That and being interested in what all you guys are up to. So far so good. I am focusing more on the mid distance and SS work right now which will hopefully preserve improvement in the speed work later?

I'm probably more guilty than most for trying to smash the pace targets but that's because I've upped the volume from a low base and am making the cheap gains, I know this is the easy bit from a motivation point of view and that it will get harder as time goes on when the gains tend to zero or even negative as holidays and sickness take us off path. The group aspect is becoming more important for me and the more time goes on I think that will only get more important and hopefully will see us through the hard times ahead. I'm no purist but I think as long as people are doing at least 4-5 of the interval sessions per cycle your still "on the plan" to me, seeing what people do for the rest of the sessions has been very interesting and there will come a time when the PBs will start tumbling and tests and CTCs need to be worked around. If anything I'm surprised how close everyone has stuck to the plan so far.

[Pie Man]

Ideally doing the plan up to BIRC would work, but I'm trying to be realistic as to how the increasing pace is going to push me. Thinking about it it may be that I slip in easy, medium, hard weeks so that I can keep going till December.

Hopefully your face starts to behave itself soon but it doesn't sound like an ideal preparation for a 30' test.

[G-dub]

Making the big leaps is a gas! I too feel like a door opened this time that was tough to open last time around and I am enjoying the breeze at the moment. Like you John (or maybe even more so) my mid distance times lagged behind my 2K and below times so I'm hoping that there is more slack there to work out which will keep me going for a while.

[mdpfirrman]

As far as doing the plan until the indoor races - last year, I started the plan just a few weeks later than this (I think in October). I did the plan until February and smashed my PB rowing only 5 days a week (it wasn't until after the race I started rowing 6 days a week). Granted, I'm doing it a bit longer this time but Marston even says on the plan if there's a week you feel a bit draggy / tired, just reduce your paces / expectations (and give yourself a break week essentially).

Also, if someone wants to have structure of this plan without doing all the harder work necessary (though stress is the reason the plan is so effective), you could easily just reduce the number of intervals (while increasing the paces) and stick with the core of the plan until the race (along with a proper taper). What complaint I've heard mostly about doing the PP all year is it doesn't allow enough slow rate work with strong strokes - essentially L4 type work or it's too stressful - too hard on the body to sustain. The three recovery days allow plenty of SS work in my opinion (and no where does Marston say these have to be fast - he says just the opposite actually). The timed day is what I think a lot of people that feel the PP isn't sustainable have an issue with because it's similar in pace / stress to the intermediate interval day. Why have 2 similar stress days? Because approaching race day you want more stress / less SS work. But if someone wanted to take a bit of a "break" from the PP before their race - just replace that timed day with a SS day for an extra day of recovery or with an L4 type day if you're feeling like you're fresh and ready for harder work. Hopefully that gives you some ideas Piers.

Actually this is what I've essentially done all year long and I didn't "break down" and my times have progressively improved all year long (although gradual). Some would say that doing speed work all year isn't necessary but Wolverine / Calviston states specifically on his plan he's not a fan of periodization (from what I interpreted). In contrast, Marston mentions that the PP isn't intended to be done year long (hinting at more of a periodization approach to me - perhaps I'm way off on that). I think you can sort of blend the best of both worlds by doing limited very fast speed work weekly with mostly SS work during base building season and then gradually build in hard work relative to SS work come closer to race season.

Personally, I feel doing L4 work all year long would be way more taxing (at higher prescribed pacing rates as outlined in the plan) than doing a modified PP all year long.

What you don't want to do is stop doing speed / intermediate speed work before the race. You will need to continue that weekly in order to keep the benefit of what you've gotten so far. Just my two cents...

[Slacker]

Good to see some big picture type of discussions. I'm not about to get caught up in what's next for me only being 4 weeks into a 24 week plan, but it is nice to see some pros and cons laid out. Do many people complete the full BPP or does this one run into issues as well? For me the community helps most with learning. As for getting on the machine regularly a prescribed schedule is best for me personally. If I just got on and decided to row with no plan, it wouldn't be productive for very long.

BPP Week 4 Day 3
6500m target pace 2:20.0
actual 2:20.2

I'm done for the week based on several suggestions to stick to 3 days of work on this plan. Next week is going to be a rush as I have travel at the end of the week but I'm going to try to compress the schedule to get all the work in.

[JohnAd]

Do many people complete the full BPP or does this one run into issues as well?

I did the full thing, with a break for xmas and another for illness, when I stopped I just started where I left off and a made the paces a bit slower. Great session by the way, on target and ready for the lift up next week.

[mudgeg]

Pete Plan Beginners Week 3 Optional session 4

5000m target same pace as yesterday's 6000m (2:12.8)

Actual 2:12.1 SPM 25

Strangely hard to make the same pace as yesterday even though today was a 1000m less. Maybe something to do with the gym air con not working because it was as hot as hell.

I am doing the full five days a week. Not sure if that is necessarily wise but I am enjoying it and right now seeing continuous improvement, so will keep going while I am on a roll.

[JohnAd]

PP 2.1.5 30' Hard
last week 7756 @ 1:56.0 r24 +ve paced
Target < 1:56.0 r26? -ve pacing
1:56.1 r26
1:55.8 r25
1:55.7 r24
1:55.6 r24
1:52.5 r25
7814 @ 1:55.2 r24

Pretty happy with that obviously, much better to be back to negative splitting and with 6 minutes to go the predicted finish was showing over 7800 on the stronger strokes so I pushed it from further out than I might otherwise have done. My rating control still leaves a lot to be desired but the r24 block in the middle bit wasn't as ugly as it has been, I think the strapless SS must be helping, so I went with it and looking now at power per stroke it's about the same as the intervals so probably my rating target was wrong. Would love to have the fitness to rate up and hopefully that will come gradually. Anyway that's 30' hard done with for a while, over to 6k for a bit I think.

[JohnAd]

Gordon, great work pushing though, I find it hard to avoid sweating massively even if the aircon is working can't imagine going for it without it with the humidity as high as it is.

[G-dub]

Awesome John. More to be had it looks like. I'm curious what your thinking/ strategy is on rate in terms of what you are currently doing be what you are hoping to do.

[mdpfirrman]

Nice work Ben!

Gordon - I'm lucky my gym is pretty cool most of the time. That's hard when that occurs. Nice work keeping it going.

John - Very nice 30' session! That's a tough one.

Did my SS work today - 55' around a 2:14 pace. Eased into it - 2:17ish to start down to 2:11 toward the end.

As far as the discussion in terms of progressing each cycle of PP - keep in mind the PP is as much about not LOSING the speed as it is continuous improvement. Retention versus (or in addition to) performance is why both PP and Wolverine have speed work in them ongoing. I don't know if Greg posted it one time or who did, but you lose speed if not trained every 7 days or so. You don't have to do a lot of it to keep it but you have to do some of it ongoing not to lose your progress.