Reducing my Stroke

[Sakly]

The way I'm reading the OP posts, I'm still thinking there's a disconnect with what people are responding and the OPs perception of pace. I know some disagree (and prefer to go harder), but many would say that they would do their SS work at 20 to 25s slower pace than their 2k TT. This would be at least 10 and maybe 15s slower than a 5k TT pace. So I suspect what we are all talking about as Steady State work at whatever rate/DF is a much slower pace then the OP is trying or expecting to achieve. HTH.

You might be right.
Best way to approach reducing stroke rate and get a feeling for power/pace is using stroke power calculation. Even if this is not holding true for everyone, we can assume to generate the same amount of power in every stroke for various rates.
Easy example: if I'm able to get to 300W at r30, I want to get to 200W for an r20 and 180W for r18. This is clearly not true for everyone and even not for a single individual in a typical r20 to r24 ratio and a TT in comparison, but it gives a rule of thumb what to expect from a rate reduction.
This was already written between the lines in some of the replies, but not explicitly.

[iain]

Apologies for answering a bit obliquely, but before determining an appropriate pace for the BPP SS sessions, we need to understand how they work for a rower who has already completed the cycle.

As I understood it (although I have never done BPP or studied it in detail) the intention was to introduce rowers to the elements of the full three weekly PP. So the SS rows start at what Pete thought was a modest 5k and built to the 10k required in PP (increases in pace being moderate and probably less than fitness gains so that they become less taxing and allow the recovery for tougher intervals). Intervals are introduced initially at a fairly pedestrian increase to SS (not sure whether that is to get people familiar with them without unduly taxing them or because the assumption is a low level of fitness that means the SS sessions start at a higher load than they need to be in the long term) and starting at lower reps. then through the plan the pace and number of intervals increases to leave the rower fully capable and prepared to start the PP proper.

If I am correct, then the original purpose of repeating the plan would need to be different unless after a significant drop in fitness. We would then need to understand what the purpose of the 5k rows are as they are by individuals fully capable of rowing 10k at a UT1 pace. To be useful I would assume that they should be done quicker as a "grey" session, this would also increase the pace of the initial intervals. However improvement would be slower and so the expected improvements may not occur and the pacing adjustments decreased. In short the plan needs altering!

I appreciate that many people have done more than one BPP cycle and are better placed to understand how it should be used than I am. But without understanding this, I fear we cannot advise on an appropriate method for the OP to determine the optimum pace for these rows.

[Dangerscouse]

The way I'm reading the OP posts, I'm still thinking there's a disconnect with what people are responding and the OPs perception of pace. I know some disagree (and prefer to go harder), but many would say that they would do their SS work at 20 to 25s slower pace than their 2k TT. This would be at least 10 and maybe 15s slower than a 5k TT pace. So I suspect what we are all talking about as Steady State work at whatever rate/DF is a much slower pace then the OP is trying or expecting to achieve. HTH.

The joys of misinterpretation, and you've got a point Mike.

I interpreted it is the OP was happy with his pace, but he was just rowing at too high a stroke rate to achieve it, so when he dropped the stroke rate the effort was consequently too high. I might have missed the point of the question though.