Pete Plan Thread

[G-dub]

Rayofsunshine - I think they say to “stretch” after workouts when warm. Before the workout it is nice to do things like goblet squats, swings, get-ups and other things with a medium light kettlebell. Also overhead squats with just a broomstick or very light bar. Some standing rows with an exercise bungee etc. I am finding that sitting in a deep goblet squat for 30”-60” for sets of 3 or so really is helping. In other words, warming up can be a minny workout that gets your body parts moving well and with longer range of motion over time hopefully. I also do the above during my longer pieces at 10-15’ intervals for something to break monotony and to lengthen out again. If you think about squat, hinge, press, pull, and also lunge and carry you have a nice list of movements (created by others) to choose from that we want to be able to do forever. Also getting up off the ground is good practice so says Dan John. I have been having fun learning the Turkish get ups

[jackarabit]

It's only been recently figured out that Vitamin K2 directs WHERE to put the Calcium - in our bones, not our arteries!

. . . and will be refIgured out next week! I have recently decided to stop reading the monthly AARP bulletin and eat it instead. Plenty of fiber for stool bulk. That alone would probably put most of the chalk in a bottle pharmacopeia in the shade. Also, I have modified my kbell workout to include the Turkish staydown (with or without the horse weight).

[RowerGal]

You guys provide a lot of great information and make me laugh.

For me, I do 500-1000m warm up and cool down for all sessions except for the steady state rows. I know the PP suggestion is to do some light paddling in between intervals but (if I can get up off the seat ...) I walk around, do some deep breathing and light stretching of my legs/hips before I start the next interval. I just like the thought of "unkinking" my femoral arteries/veins for a bit to get some better blood flow to my legs. It's a visual that works for me. After ALL workouts I stretch, but nowhere near as much as I should. I "should" also do yoga, but I don't, because I find it boring. I had back surgery in 2010 so I do stretches from that rehab (prayer stretch, hip cross overs with bent knees, pelvic tilts, supine knees to chest). For my hamstrings, I just throw my semi-straight legs up against a wall and stay there for several minutes. I also use a foam roller on my quads and hips or wherever I feel the need. The whole thing takes about 15-20mins. I do not lift weights or do any sort of cross training during indoor rowing season. I do add cycling, boot camps, weights, along with rowing in the off season - at least I did last year.

As far as diet, I have tried many. Hi carb, Low Carb, Low fat, Paleo, IIFYM (macro counting), Eat-All-Of-The-Things. But typically it was just for experimentation or to "follow the herd". I am fortunate in that genetics have allowed me to never having had to really watch my weight. Right now I am just cutting out some junk food, but I do eat some. I do my workouts in the mid to late afternoon. So I do my session, have a protein shake while I am making dinner, then I eat dinner. I eat a lot for a 53+ year old woman. I have no idea how many calories or grams/kg of protein I eat. I have tried Creatine when I was Crossfitting, where I believed it helped, but I stopped taking it when I started rowing. I have also tracked my food intake in the past but I do not wish to do it again. I do know that I am currently 9 lbs lighter and leaner in appearance than I was during the indoor rowing season last year. Highly unusual for a woman my age in the middle of menopause (sorry guys, but it is pertinent to the conversation here ...). I have also rowed a lot more SS meters this season (a couple at 17K) than last year when I maxed at 10K. I also used to take Vitamins, including B Complex, but stopped that too when I started strictly rowing 2 years ago.

Sleep for me is mostly good, but occasionally inconsistent. I fall asleep early but tend to wake around 3am (night sweats) but can fall back asleep easily. I am good with 6-7 hrs per night and I usually get that.

I agree that there is a lot of frustrating, conflicting and inconsistent information out there on diet, nutrition, and what constitutes "good health". We are all so different so I think you have to do your homework, give things a try and find out what works best for you. In the end, we are all just an experiment of one.

[RayOfSunshine]

I do not lift weights or do any sort of cross training during indoor rowing season. I do add cycling, boot camps, weights, along with rowing in the off season - at least I did last year.

When is indoor rowing season? Are there specific events you train for/compete in? While I did use the C2 back in 2004 to get in shape, I never did much more than that. All my PRs are from then. Now, I'm using it to get back into shape. I might set a goal to enter a competition one day even if it's just online. My old goal was to break 40 min on a 10k. I didn't quite get there, but I should have.

[Gaucho1]

I agree that there is a lot of frustrating, conflicting and inconsistent information out there on diet, nutrition, and what constitutes "good health". We are all so different so I think you have to do your homework, give things a try and find out what works best for you. In the end, we are all just an experiment of one.

I agree. I had my PB 30min 7666m after having lunch in a greek restaurant with two beer. Several weeks later with tapering and focus on nutrition I had 7611m in a race in Starnberg/Germany. So I´m wondering how to prepare this year
Today long Intervals:

Time Meters Pace Watts Cal/Hr S/M HR
28:44.6 7,500m 1:54.9 230 1091 27 166
11:29.5 3,000m 1:54.9 231 1093 27 163
9:36.2 2,500m 1:55.2 229 1086 27
7:38.9 2,000m 1:54.7 232 1097 27 170

Best regards,
Dietmar

[mdpfirrman]

@ RowerGal - good reasonable input! My wife had hard issues with menopause. That's a lot to go through while doing the PP! I would be you don't eat a ton of processed food. Just my opinion, I think women have it harder with all the hormones in play. There are a lot of environmental/chemical factors (both internally in food and externally as well) that wreak havoc on women. At least I know that was the case with my wife.

@ Ray - Go to RegattaCentral. It lists both indoor and outdoor "regattas". Find one close to you and enter it! They are a blast. It certainly got me hooked and wanting to just chase PBs. I've competed at Cincinnati Indoor (in late Jan) the last two years. 2nd place the first year and 1st in my age group last year (not a lot of competitors though). This year, I'm going to Indy first weekend of February to race. I'll get thoroughly beat there, but it will be a lot more fun. Sometimes, they combine some of the age groups together to make it seem more competitive. Can be confusing, too, though, because you're not sure who's in your age group that you're racing against on the PM/screen. The PM (the rowing monitor) is turned into a racing monitor at these events (part of the beauty of C2 as a company, their PMs are very interactive). You see who's ahead of you and who's catching you in real time in meters. Up on the screen (at least in Cincinnati) they have a projector with all the boats racing and you can look up and see where you are currently (like in RowPro). It's a blast. I'd highly recommend it.

@ Dietmar - keep on drinking those beers! Something sure is working for you! Strong session today! First through last rep impressive!

@ Jack - that was pretty funny! I had to chuckle!

@ Glenn - after this race is over in Feb, I'm picking up a lot of intensity with the KBs. Thinking about doing 5K in 30 days (I don't think I could do the 10K in 30 day challenge, would be too much with rowing but I think 5K might be reasonable. We'll see, might start out lighter than that).

Today was hard row or TT day. I use this day to kind of do whatever I want (kind of like the veteran day off in baseball Spring training). I work hard, but I don't always row 5K or more, what the PP prescribes. Today, I did 2K semi hard (around 1:55), then did 3 500m intervals @ 22 SPM (around 1:54) with 2' rest and then went at a 500m hard (held high 1:30s for 250m and then crashed like crazy!).

Finished up with four sets of intervals on my new Air Dyne Pro bike. Man that's a machine that's equally as hard as the rower. Just finished setting up the bike with "air diverter", which was absolutely necessary in this case. It's cold in my basement! LOVE this bike. Can't wait to implement it more in cross training after my race in early Feb.

[jbhop5857]

Good Day,
Thanks for all the comments on recovery, great to see what other people do and think is important.

Cycle 5/ Week 2/ Day 3

17k steady state at 23spm and 2:05/500.

After this week, I will be shortening the steady state to spend more attention on sprints. I also plan on upping the rating to 24/25 for the next couple of weeks. Todays row was more around 22 then 23 and I want to rate up a bit before racing.

Thanks

David

[Gaucho1]

@Mike That was a challenging session! Especially the final 500. Psychological I´d prefer to get out with a piece where success has a higher probability.
Best regards,
Dietmar

[RowerGal]

@Mike - Yeah, most of the women my age who I know are in your wife's boat. Some of them are quite miserable with their symptoms. I am one of the luckier ones. After the teenage years, hormones basically just suck.
@RayofSunshine - I agree that you should look into indoor regattas or "ergattas" on Regatta Central:https://www.regattacentral.com/regattas. Lots of races depending on how much/how far you want to travel. Also might want to check out the Indoor Rowers League or "IRL" to see what they are up to:http://indoorrowers.org/ or join a virtual online team. IRL has a different distance each month to do and then you post it. You can enter solo or as part of a team of 8. For the online virtual teams, there are quite a few of them here: http://c2ctc.com/.
@Dietmar - I think you should consider a large keg of something just prior to your race this year! You will kill it.

After traveling the last 2 days I had zero motivation (and a headache) to row today. Especially since it is my least favorite session ... 4x2000m on 5:00RI. But knowing Mike suffered through it this week was motivation for me to just get on with it. Knowing that with my new 5K pr I needed to get a 2:07.7 average (5K+0.5, which was far from my 2:09 average from the last time I did it) wasn't helping much. The worst part was the last 800m of #3. The last rep I didn't look at the monitor until I hit a wall and looked up with 420m to go and just held on. Just made it ....

Cycle 5/Week 2/Day 4

[mitchel674]

@rowergal - That's impressive!!! Really nice work there. Glad to hear you were able to row so well even when you didn't feel up for it. That's toughness.

[RayOfSunshine]

Thanks everyone for the information on the rowing leagues. I had NO idea. I got on this board in December looking for a workout. Hell, I have a free support group.

Today was a 2x10' w 2' rest. I took it easy since it was the first row since tweaking the back. I decided on a pace that would cause me to break a sweat but not much more. It was a 2:18 or so pace. On the second 10, the back started loosening up. I tried to hold it at the pace. It became hard to hold it there, so I picked it up a bit. With ~3 minutes left I decided every pull would be under 2:00. With a minute to go, I was about to HD. So, I quickly found a recovery pace (2:20-2:25) that I will go to whenever I hit a wall. I'll call that my anti-HD pace. I think I can safely go there now at any time. In the last 5 days I've realized there are way more mental twists to rowing that I could've imagined and I'm just getting started.

[jbhop5857]

@Ray - Mental toughness is so much larger than I ever expected. I wish I could tell you it gets better. It doesn't because you keep getting faster and pushing yourself. All I have been able to do to beat that feeling is know I am not going to die, the pain will end and I find myself repeating the old adage, I think I can, I think I can. IMHO, HD is not an option. I see myself doing that once and then twice and over and over and over. I love that you have a pace to go to. Since a lot of the PP is based on previous averages, there is no rule that says the average has to go down every time. It would be nice if it does, but if on one round, for one session it goes up a little, all the more to crush it next time..

David

[Erik A]

Crashed and burned tonight. Had a 60 min session with the PT. Legs couldn't handle the 5 k and HD after 1000m. Still shaking after an hour.

Note to self. Row before the PT session

[Dangerscouse]

@ Ray, it's amazing how you think that you're mentally tough until you come across challenges that really push the boundaries. I definitely had that experience.

It does take time and effort to mentally train yourself properly and if you're interested in reading about it i thoroughly recommend Matt Fitzgerald's book 'How Bad Do You Want It" really interesting book even if not looking for mental training.

[Cyclingman1]

I had back surgery in 2010 so I do stretches from that rehab (prayer stretch, hip cross overs with bent knees, pelvic tilts, supine knees to chest).

RG: What sort of back surgery? Are you at all worried that erging could be a problem? I ask because I am 9 days post L5-S1 microdiscectomy. JimG