Pete Plan Thread

[Niek]

Hey everyone!

I am starting with week 4 of the BPP today. Read a large part of this thread and thought I should make a post as well.

About myself:
I am 27 years old and played waterpolo my entire life on a reasonable level (high level till I was 19, comfortable level till now ). I am not entirely happy with my weight with 98kg at 183cm. The waterpolo season ends in april here in the Netherlands so I started going to the gym with my girlfriend and warmed myself up with a 2k row with the damper on 8-9. However, I need a 'goal' or schedule I can keep myself to and just winging it like we where doing was not motivating me enough so eventually going to the gym was often replaced with 'I can go tomorrow'.
Later I felt remorse and started googling for ergometer training schedules (got some olympic rowers on my mothers side of the family and I liked it during my warm-ups).
So now I am here!
I am rowing with damper setting between 5 and 6 which gives a DF of 110.

I really like to keep track of progress and to get 'better', so that is what I am going to post here.

Still working on my form everytime, but it already feels efficient to me. I do notice that when I am doing the SS trainings, my spm goes to about 25-26 if i do not focus on slowing down the recovery.
'
week-# distance description time avg 500m spm
1.1 5000 SS 21:53,1 02:11,3 26
1.2 3000 6x500 Hard 11:11,1 01:51,8 27
1.3 5000 SS 21:16,0 02:07,6 24
2.1 5500 SS 23:47,1 02:09,7 23
2.2 3000 4*750 Hard 11:06,1 01:51,0 29
2.3 5500 SS 23:28,3 02:08,0 24
2.4 4683 20min SS 20:00,0 02:08,1 23
3.1 6000 SS 25:21,9 02:06,8 23
3.2 4000 2x2000 16:18,4 02:02,3 24
3.3 6000 Ss 25:12,2 02:06,0 23
3.5 3000 6*500 Hard 10:40,7 01:46,7 31

felt really good about getting the time improvement at the 6*500m.

Everybody is welcome to give tips and tricks!

[bhartley]

Hello All. I am new to rowing and started a thread in the training section in which I was pointed towards the PetePlan. Decided to give it a go and after spotting this thread decided to move my training posts over here. Here is a summary of my first week with some questions. Any advice is much appreciated!

Week Summary;

Day 1 5000m 19:15.2 (PR)
Day 2 6x500m (2 min rest) 1:45,1:44,1:43, 1:42,1:41, 1:40 (Loved this workout)
Day 3 5000m 19:14.9 (PR) Was much more consistent with pacing.
Day 4 20min worked on slowing SPM plus technique. Averaged 2:13 at 22SPM. Upped drag factor from 110 to 120.
Day 5 2 x 10m w 2 m rest. Averaged 2:12 but at 19SPM ave. Felt good and more efficient. Nice and relaxed. Drag factor 120.

Questions;
1) Although I am a beginner. I did some finishers a few years back after strength workouts for a few months and gutted a 2k at 6:57. Thinking after actually studying a bit and working on technique and putting in 120k meters I figured my 2k would be at least 6:57 or better right now, but after looking at different people on the sight with around 7m 2k's there 5ks seem to be between 18:30 and 18:50 which is much faster than my 19:15. Whats up with this? And what should I be working on? I did a 1k recently in 3:17.5 if that helps anything...

2) Before reading anything I just set the damper at 10 but then it started to hurt my back. I read about drag factor and settled in on a lower end of the range at 110. Back feels a lot better but is this too low?

3) I did Week #1 of the plan 5 straight days and will rest the weekend and do week #2. Is that Ok or should I have some spacing?

4) My primary form of exercise before this has been weight training in which I trained 4x per week. I don't want to stop this, but want the rowing to be the priority. I don't want to create any overuse injuries and want to take a minimum effective dose approach to my strength training so that it enhances my rowing. I was thinking 2 45 min sessions a week (3x5 Power Clean, Front Squat, Pull-ups, Barbell Military press) with optinal 3 day geared towards shoulder prehab, triceps, core specific work. Any thoughts or direction to push me in?

Week #2 Summary;

Day 1 5500 21:58 (1:59.8) 22SPM
Day 2 4x750 1:46, 144.4,143.8, 142.2
Day 3 5500 21:43 (158.5) 23SPM
Day 4 20m 4893m (202.6) 20 SPM (worked on getting SPM down)
Day 5 3x8m (2mrest) 1:58.8 (19spm, 1:57.9 (20), 1:57.1 (22SPM)

Really tried to work on efficiency this week and dropping SPM down while keeping watts up. Splits were slightly higher overall but SPM about 3 strokes lower on average. Feeling good. Any advice appreciated.

[madmuppet006]

hate to be late to the party but is anyone else training the pete plan at the moment?

would love to know others experiences of using it and how it worked out for them ..

Im into my third week looking at 4x1000m tomorrow ..

love to hear how things are going or have gone for others using pete plan and how it helped ..

pete plan has already helped me on the 8x500m and has helped improve my 6k from 24:58.0 to 24:30.3 in a week

my first goal is to get as close to 7 min for 2k as possible by november 23rd and my second goal is to crack 7 min as soon as possible ... last 2k was 7:31.0

thanks

al.

[rascott]

Hi all

Its been a while since I did the Pete Plan so hope everyone's going well.

I did post a message in health and fitness board but didn't get a huge response. Has anyone had lower back pain due to erging? How long did you rest before starting again? Did you wait until pain had completely gone? I've been following the Eric Murray sessions on YouTube which tend to be 45 mins of work and quite intense. Had a sore back last Tues and took some days off...felt better yesterday so did a C2 short WOD (6 x 500m/1min rest). Felt OK on the erg but pain has returned today.

appreciate anyone's thoughts on this...

[hjs]

Hi all

Its been a while since I did the Pete Plan so hope everyone's going well.

I did post a message in health and fitness board but didn't get a huge response. Has anyone had lower back pain due to erging? How long did you rest before starting again? Did you wait until pain had completely gone? I've been following the Eric Murray sessions on YouTube which tend to be 45 mins of work and quite intense. Had a sore back last Tues and took some days off...felt better yesterday so did a C2 short WOD (6 x 500m/1min rest). Felt OK on the erg but pain has returned today.

appreciate anyone's thoughts on this...

More or less always

Atm pretty severe. L4/5

Do stay active! Walking to begin with, move as natural as possible! Do swing your arms, don,t keep them still. Doing this will first keep you active and secondly it will massage and bring blood to the area. Walk outside on a flat surface.

Re rowing, when you feel a bit better, start out very easy, and really keel the pace, well below your normal pace. Keep the session short. See how react! From there build slowly.
It will take a good while to get fully going, be patient, fully stopping is not the current way to go anymore. And often even a bad thing.

[rascott]

OK thanks Henry, makes sense.

I think yesterday was in hindsight a bit early to get back on the erg. This morning, I had a sharp pain in my lower back while washing a plate in the sink - I was only slightly bent over at the waist The rest of the time is just mild pain when I bend over. I'm trying to keep a straight back and use my legs to pick things up off the floor.

I'll give it another week I think, and focus on the walking in the meantime. It's very hard to be patient as I was really enjoying the intensity of the Murray workouts and my fitness was improving.

[madmuppet006]

It's very hard to be patient as I was really enjoying the intensity of the Murray workouts and my fitness was improving.

I think his workouts are rocket science .. probably why he is the champion he is ..

[rascott]

Agreed - they are superb. Has given me a real appreciation of speed at different ratings.

[hjs]

OK thanks Henry, makes sense.

I think yesterday was in hindsight a bit early to get back on the erg. This morning, I had a sharp pain in my lower back while washing a plate in the sink - I was only slightly bent over at the waist The rest of the time is just mild pain when I bend over. I'm trying to keep a straight back and use my legs to pick things up off the floor.

I'll give it another week I think, and focus on the walking in the meantime. It's very hard to be patient as I was really enjoying the intensity of the Murray workouts and my fitness was improving.

Cheers Robert, get the feeling, but there are no shortcuts, and when you fine again, you often pick up rapidly, its not that your fitness fully fades away.

[madmuppet006]

I bought a polar h10 heart rate monitor to help out on the steady state .. its great I can hook it up too my phone and have it show me my heart rate in real time..

while the versa fitbit was giving wildly differing rates from 98 to 180 for the same level of perceived exertion .. the polar was showing a steady 105 - 112 which means I can potentially push a little more ..

I do need a max heart rate so I can work in the correct zone and hoping the 4x1000m gets me close today

my last 8x500m were between 1:52.6 @33 and 1:49.5@36 so the aim is to keep the rating at 36 and go for 1:50ish splits

[Dangerscouse]

I quite often find when I have slightly tweaked my back and I do a Pilates session it really helps. I thoroughly recommend regular Pilates as a perfect partner to erging.

Motion is lotion, rest is rust.

[madmuppet006]

4x1000m results 20 min warmup with short sprints at rate 36

1:52.2 @35 160HR
1:52.1 @35 167HR
1:52.0 @36 169HR
1:52.2 @36 171HR

was hoping to go a little quicker but my splits are better on the whole than my 8x500m last week by 0.4 ~ 0.5s

1:45.0 only a hop skip jump leap bus tour continent away so I feel Im improving ..

Is it a reasonable assumption to think my max heart rate is low 170's? If so I can work out some training zones

thanks

al.

[hjs]

4x1000m results 20 min warmup with short sprints at rate 36

1:52.2 @35 160HR
1:52.1 @35 167HR
1:52.0 @36 169HR
1:52.2 @36 171HR

was hoping to go a little quicker but my splits are better on the whole than my 8x500m last week by 0.4 ~ 0.5s

1:45.0 only a hop skip jump leap bus tour continent away so I feel Im improving ..

Is it a reasonable assumption to think my max heart rate is low 170's? If so I can work out some training zones

thanks

al.

Yes use that 171, use future sessions to see how that holds up. Can never be very wrong.

[rascott]

More or less always

Henry, how long do you usually take off the erg when you have pain? I know I can't apply this to my situation but I'm just interested to know if its 1 or 2 weeks or 1 or 2 months.

[hjs]

More or less always

Henry, how long do you usually take off the erg when you have pain? I know I can't apply this to my situation but I'm just interested to know if its 1 or 2 weeks or 1 or 2 months.

Most of the time, I hardly take time off, its often just not bad enough to fully stop. Not saying this is wise btw.
Atm, its pretty severe, so I do take days off, will see how long is needed. When I can,t train I am not overly happy. My plan was to maybe do some races this winter. But thats fully out the window now.

For a break, I would think in weeks, never in months. For racing I only do if I can reach a certain level, and for that
I need to train seriously.

But don,t forget, like you say, we are not alike, injurees could be different. And I do think I have a pretty high pain tolerance. And if thats always handy