Pete Plan Group - Startup Aug 20th thru 22nd

[mdpfirrman]

Paul, same for you. Let it go. You're doing fantastic. Don't get sidetracked on your progress. Henry said he was sorry so please drop it. Concentrate on your training. Nothing demonstrates you're serious than actions. You've been doing great. Don't sidetrack this thread.

[Bloodbuzz Corio]

Just got the details for my race on Saturday - guy on one side of me has a 6:43.3 in this year's rankings and guy on the other side did a 6:42.9 in the 2014 BRICs - so I may have ~150m to go when they're both finished!

[mdpfirrman]

I had that happen last year Rohan. The guy I sat next to was over 60 but had recently pulled a 6:54 (he's one of the top over 60 guys in the US, especially OTW). I knew I'd get crushed by him. I had like 150m (or a little under) when he finished. I was at least 24 seconds off his pace.

[hjs]

Just got the details for my race on Saturday - guy on one side of me has a 6:43.3 in this year's rankings and guy on the other side did a 6:42.9 in the 2014 BRICs - so I may have ~150m to go when they're both finished!

Ignore everything the first half. And have a raceplan. And, expect a super slow first pull, 4.xx is normal, again ignore that, do your own thing.
On your pm your the nbr guy, the one just above you and just below. Difference in meters.

[Pie Man]

Good luck Rohan, sounds tough, but I'm sure you will perform well.

Interesting Henry that the first pull can be 4.xx, is that due to reaction time?

[hjs]

Good luck Rohan, sounds tough, but I'm sure you will perform well.

Interesting Henry that the first pull can be 4.xx, is that due to reaction time?

Yep, at home the machine reacts on our pull, during a race we react to the start.

Its pick up de handle. On the pm ATTENTION, READY, ROW. a false start is possible

[G-dub]

Go get em Blood!

Had to go back to back on intervals (less than 20 hours between) from last night due to holiday travel. Interestingly I slept well last night compared to after other interval sessions so wanted to pay attention to not going over 180HR (just below top of TR band) today to see it that meant anything for sleep and recovery. Kept it to 4 reps instead of 5 and wanted to be below 1:50 average. Did 20 minutes @ 2:07 before and 15 Minutes @ 2:11 ish after. So got some decent work in anyway and am getting more used to the 1K interval distance in the mean time. Anyway: 4 x 1250 5'R

[G-dub]

Here is my first time race advice for what it's worth:
1. Enjoy it. You will be buzzing all morning which is a feeling to go with and enjoy.
2. But you also want to stay relaxed and in control we not burn unnecessary energy.
3. Warm up properly - the race is usually at a time of day we are not used to
4. Have someone there with you if can. It makes the experience very awesome and keeps you pushing.
5. Don't get carried away with how great you feel the first bit and don't get worried when you don't feel good anymore. I'm pretty sure that that dreadful feeling is just a cynical question that your body asks.
6. Don't race. You won't win anyway. Just do your thing go for your goal and enjoy the environment you are doing it in.
7. Pat yourself on the back and have a laugh for spending time in the car to go sit on a piece of stationary equipment for about 7 minute with other crazy people who are doing the same.
8. Your throat may get dry. That part sucks. But it will be over soon.

[Litewait]

BPP Week 14.2 3x2000m r4' DF123

25:40.3 6,000m 2:08.3 165 867 27
8:33.8 2,000m 2:08.4 165 867 28 146
8:33.6 2,000m 2:08.4 165 867 27 154
8:32.9 2,000m 2:08.2 166 870 27 160

per Pete vs. Week 12.2 4x1500r3'
25:57.5 6,000m 2:09.7 160 850 27

Pleased as I beat it by over a second and didn't fall apart at all on the last rep like I did on the 1500s (2:12). Think I have to do these intervals at 2:03 or so to even have a shot at breaking 8' which seems miles away.

Can't wait for the BIRC, new to this kind of racing I shall be living through you guys vicariously!

@all - I've been doing some thinking, as far as your return to catch (arms not withstanding) do you think about bringing your knees and calfs to vertical, or bringing your hips forward. I was always dwelling on the former, but I tried the latter and it mentally seems to keep the center of my torso over the hips which "feels" more correct.

[G-dub]

LW - I try to think about hinging hips and torso over my knees. I have to concentrate on that on the hard sessions but. When I get involved with thinking about my feet and knees I don't think my stroke and posture is as good. I don't want to be pulling forward with my lower legs. I'd rather be on top of my legs with my torso if that makes sense. It also saves your legs by giving them a break coming forward

[Bloodbuzz Corio]

Ignore everything the first half. And have a raceplan. And, expect a super slow first pull, 4.xx is normal, again ignore that, do your own thing.

Thanks Henry - appreciate the advice. I am fairly confident I won't get carried away and will quickly settle on my initial target pace - but will be interesting to see how well I actually do on that on the day!

Glenn - nice work on your intervals over the last couple of days and that is a great set of tips. The last one is interesting - certainly something I noticed when I did the 90% 2k yesterday - but I think having some expectation of that and particulalry the second half of your tip 5 are great ones to keep in mind when they happen during the race!

[G-dub]

Where my race is it is they have the heat cranked up. Puts a dime sized dry spot right in your throat.

[Bloodbuzz Corio]

tl;dr:

• Massively enjoyed the PP over the last few months
• Main benefits have been the structure, sense of achievement from progress (certainly made easier by my relative inexperience), and how great this thread has been and will hopefully continue to be!
• Happy with training load over the whole period, travel caused more disruption than I’d have hoped, last two weeks have been somewhat disjointed
• I’m going to move on from the PP after BRIC - though certainly aiming to maintain or even increase total time OTE and this will still be the first thread I read on the board!

With my two races approaching and given some of the chat earlier in the week, this feels to me like an appropriate time to reflect on my performance during, and thoughts about, my PP experience over the last few months. Apologies for the length and if it's not adding any actual content!

First I thought it was worth making sure the ‘spreadsheet was up to date’ - and having an honest summary of my adherence to the desired quantity, form and quality of sessions - so I put the table below together. The order of workouts during the week is not strictly chronological - was the way that made most sense to me to lay things out:



What the colours mean:

Blue - a successful session

• SB refers to ‘session best’ which I consider to be the highest quality execution of the particular session (e.g. 4x2k). Doesn’t strictly require the average time time be faster - my sprint Pyramid on October 8 was 0.1 slower average than previous, but as all intervals were under 1:45 pace for me it was the best I had ever done that workout
• So actually only 9/14 sprint intervals and 9/14 endurance intervals marked blue, 10 hard distance pieces.

Orange - two SS sessions I set up as 5000m intervals intending to do 2 or 3 but stopped after 1 (SS HD?) - not necessarily the third SS session of the week there - just counting down from the top

Red - HD! So looking back through my log, HRM history and monitor photos, I realise there have actually been 3 sprint interval HDs

• Week 7 I sat down to do 8x500m/3:30r, did a 4k/18 minute warm up (following the Fletcher structure, spms etc) - did 3 intervals then stopped
• Week 9 I tried a 4x1k and stopped in the 4th - don’t actually have that in my log book or photos so don’t know the times I did for the first 3 - I’d been in the US for 3 days at that time and so want to blame jet lag (+hangover) for that one but obviously can’t say for sure how justified that is - in any case need to apologise to John A for saying I’d only HD’d once in the 4x1k. Sorry John!
• Week 14 I HD’d in the third interval of a 4x1k - as I posted about earlier in the week - though the sprint intervals in weeks 10 and 12 were both successful 4x1ks

Yellow - PBs on ranking distances

The bottom row is stuff outside the PP schedule - did my 2k PB as a 7th straight day of erging when I’d normally have a rest day (and only 2 days after my 5k PB), 1k TT for CTC last week, and yesterday a 7:11.1 2k (92% of PB Watts) as part of a (maybe not justified or required) taper this week.

A few thoughts:

• Stoked with the consistency and performance over the first 5 weeks
• Both times I travelled (continental Europe in week 6, US in week 9) not only was the week of travel but also the following week disrupted
• Glad to have had two essentially spot on weeks in weeks 11 and 12 with two SBs in the latter, though the short term illness at the start of week 13 was pretty unfortunate.
• When I got back from the US at the start of week 10 I really wanted 4-5 solid weeks leading up to my first race this Saturday - I haven’t quite got that.

The last two weeks look very thin in terms of fast/hard work, and it’s certainly the case that they haven’t been all I’ve been hoping for, but equally it’s not been a complete disaster:

• 1k TT last week
• Despite the HD on Sunday I did end up doing 4.5k at sprint interval pace so got some quick work in
• 7:11.1 2k yesterday

I’ve really enjoyed these last 14 weeks - the certainty of knowing what workout is coming up every day has really worked for me I think I’ve even missed that as I’ve made decisions on the fly over the last week or so. It was also easy for me to make consistent gains (especially for the first 5 weeks!) and the sense of achievement I got from that was huge - the SS days almost became a ‘reward’ for my hard effort on the days preceding them.

In the immediate future - this is what I’m thinking between now and BRIC:

• Going to continue (for better or worse) the taper I’ve got going on in the lead up to Saturday - just did my race warm up and a nice little 2x500 at race pace.
• I’m then going to aim for a full PP week next week (with the exception of this Saturday replacing the Sprint Intervals) - but so 3 SS sessions, an endurance interval and a hard distance piece
• Proper sprint interval session on Sat Dec 3 or Sun Dec 4 (work Christmas party is on Friday the 2nd)
• Another possibly unnecessary taper in the week leading up to BRIC on Dec 10!

I do expect I'll move on from the PP after that - not exactly sure what to yet but does feel like time for a change.

[jackarabit]

Lot of work on the colorblocks and binning of the training sessions but does allow decoupling the essential Rohan the Rower from the incidental evils and pressure of the dailies. Stepping back to see at a glance the training vectors set against chronology.

[G-dub]

Blood / Ro / Rohan - you've been a fun and positive spirit on this years PP journey. You pulled me into places I wasn't sure I wanted to go and I thank you for that. my only regret was that you went on your trip and I had to start chasing John, which didn't last very long. I think your sub 7 was one of the most shocking and awesome parts of this season and it wouldn't surprise me if it didn't motivate our friend Luke just little bit in addition to those of us that have had it on our minds for a while. You've done great work and now it's all about having fun at your races. Well done sir!