Pete Plan 2017

[mdpfirrman]

Hello pals,
asking for advice. On 4th of march i´ll take part on a 30m race. My PB is 7666 - 1:57,4 - Tomorrow I´d like to do the last hard unit. How would you do it? 2k, 5k, 10k or 30min with full power? Or an other idea? Any advice for a newbie is appreciated.
Best regards,
Dietmar

Dietmar, if it's out till the 4th, I think you could go hard but I wouldn't drain yourself completely. Perhaps a very hard 5K (but not max). What you read on tapers varies quite a lot. The general thoughts I've read is you want to stop lifting the week or so before a race but you still want to do speed work (and at the same time lessen your total meters by around 1/3). Also the speed work should be short and sweet (no hard longer work after tomorrow). I'd keep it to steady state work and very short sprints for the next week or so (500m to 1000m tops and less than 10 minutes total time). Even some 250m work for 3 or 4 reps might be good. I'd search for forums for taper ideas. I've never tapered for a 30 minute race though.

[Rowingdad1]

Hi folks,
Just started back on the rower in Dec (after watching my 13 year old daughter pick up a silver in the BRIC). I have begun to get a bit fitter and did a 2kTT yesterday and came in at 7-23.2 which improved on December's effort of 7-47.
So I've dived into the Pete Plan with a 4 x2k 5min rest.. Just aiming to do 4 under 8 mins.
Result:
1. avge split 1-58.8 7min 55.3
2. 1-56.3 7-45.1
3.1-55.4 7-41.5
4. 1-54. 7-38.8

Welcome Dad1. It does help if you've got a name along with your signature. You must have rowed in the past as that's a really nice workout for someone not having much rowing experience. Congrats to your daughter too! I'm not doing the plan currently (taking a bit of a break) but started the thread. I just check in from time and time and self moderate the thread (do Dougie the real moderator doesn't have to). There are all levels here - from beginner to really solid rowers (I'm right in between). That's a huge improvement from 7:47 yo 7:23 in only two months. There's a lot of ground between where you are now (I think you're a tad stronger than you realize based off of those interval times) and 7:00 but you certainly could be sub 7 soon at the rate you are improving.

Thanks Mike,
My real name is Kevin (Rowingdad is what I spend about 90% of my spare time involved it these days, which is great!). I've never rowed on the water but did do a lot of indoor stuff after rugby and went to the BIRC as it used to be called for a number of years. My best 2k was 6-43.2 which was at one of the BIRCs.
The last decent time was 6-44 something in 2002, the year before my daughter was born.
I decided I would enter the BRIC this year to give some focus to my training and it always seems a good time to enter when you cross into the next age group. the bad news is that I'm 60 on Sunday! I'm 17 stone at the moment and it would be nice to get a bit closer to 15 stone which I was in 2002 when I last went under 7 mins. It is a bit hard to work out what I should be aiming at now but I'm definitely gunning to get under 7 mins.

[Gaucho1]

Thanks Mike,
I googled for taper and rowing. Very interesting and a little bit confusing.
Best regards,
Dietmar

[cflrules]

Hi folks,
Just started back on the rower in Dec (after watching my 13 year old daughter pick up a silver in the BRIC). I have begun to get a bit fitter and did a 2kTT yesterday and came in at 7-23.2 which improved on December's effort of 7-47.
So I've dived into the Pete Plan with a 4 x2k 5min rest.. Just aiming to do 4 under 8 mins.
Result:
1. avge split 1-58.8 7min 55.3
2. 1-56.3 7-45.1
3.1-55.4 7-41.5
4. 1-54. 7-38.8

Welcome to the forum! Those are some great times for just getting back into it. Your sub 6:45 times are very impressive! My goal is to get down to 6:45 one day. Have done a sub 7 once...in Feb '14 (6:58) and haven't tried since as I just got back into rowing as well.

Good luck with the Pete Plan!

[mdpfirrman]

@ Kevin - I'm familiar with the BIRC (I thought maybe they still called it that). We had three lightweights that rowed in that this past Fall in our group. JohnA still is around from time to time. Not sure where Piers and Rohan (not Rowen) are these days. Piers is still rowing I know. I think all of those guys were in the 40 to 50 group. Incredible times posted by all of you over the pond! I think that BIRC back in the day was probably just as (if not more) competitive as the Crash-Bs.

For you to be rowing even at the pace you are, you did something to stay in shape! My guess would be you lifted quite a bit and just lost some cardio endurance. Based on your last intervals, it won't be long. Not that you need my advise, but for you (and anyone over 50 like me), I've just found it really helpful not to push the SS sessions. That's incredibly hard for me (and I'm sure for you too). Tedious but necessary.


I've had some questions about how I'm structuring my workouts away from the PP. Just to give you an example of a common workout for me today - first of all, I stick to the "structure" of the PP nearly all year.

The structure of the PP (for those of you on the BPP) goes something like this:

Day 1 - Fast / short sprint intervals
Day 2 - SS
Day 3 - Longer intervals (based around 5K recent PB pace)
Day 4 - SS work
Day 5 - Longer hard row (from 5K to 10K) -- this was my workout today.
Day 6 - SS work again.

Today was Day 5 for me. Keeping with the plan (but having a little freedom "de-loading" from the plan to the letter), I did a 1K W/U @ 2:15. Then I did around 25 minutes of supersetting. I love Kettlebells. Did around 3 rounds of the following - 25 or so pushups, 1 arm KB swings (with around a 16kg KB, around 20 with each arm), Kettlebell military (shoulder) presses, KB back rows, some heavy rope, Slant board sit ups, KB deadlifts (with 2 16kg KBs - around 15 to 20). Just enough rest to move to the next exercise.

Did a "pyramid" today. Started with a very high DF and forced myself to do slow rate work. As I moved down the DF, my rate (naturally) increased each round. I just set the machine to 6K and didn't know if I'd be able to do 4 sets, five sets or 6 sets. Ended up doing 4 sets with a 1K C/D and just aborted the final 1000m.

1000m @ damper 8 (around 200 drag factor) @ 1:57 / rest 30"
1000m @ 2:02 @ damper 8 (had to turn it down) - rest 30"
1000m @ 1:59 @ damper 6 - rest 30"
1000m @ 2:00 pace / damper 4.5 (DF 125 or so)

1000m C/D (@ 2:15)

Still gets the idea of doing a "hard longer session", though not quite 5K my heart was racing already getting on the rower. The longer sessions are meant to be anaerobic threshold work. This was certainly that.

Was done with the whole workout in around 55 minutes.

A lot of you are getting close to being done with the BPP (and some have asked for ideas as of what to do next as they enjoy the structure of the PP). I enjoy having structure too. I like to lift and I've actually found lifting on the "hard" days to be easier than lifting on the SS days (those I keep as true recovery days). I also like if I want to HD (handle down, which I never do when I do the full PP), I HD if I so choose. If I want to do a "fly and die" workout (which I did today), I don't worry about it. I just stick with the basic ideas of the PP but shorten the number of intervals (and in some cases do them faster). For me, as a 52 year old, I was able to sustain this pretty much most of last year -- especially by taking it easy when necessary on the SS days.

[Litewait]

BPP 24.3 30' DF124

30' @ 2:10, had a plan to break 7k, legs still wiped from 2 days ago and HR way up. Forget the plan, do better when I hop on and just row

@kevin - welcome to the pond, lovely, another body to blow by me like I am standing still.

@ben - I'll do one more optional and maybe a 30r20, but I think we've reached the end of the road. Raising a cold one to you right now, you've done splendid buddy.

@gordon/andy - I will wait at the end of the dock for you guys, you are almost there.

Next week I'll start the PP, do one round, and if I have the grapes, 2KTT. From there another PP (or the "Mike-modified" PP) I guess.

@vets - wouldn't have reached here without you. many thanks.

[cflrules]

20 min - 5199m

1:55.4 21s/m

Trying the lower stroke rate with harder leg push...need to build up my chicken legs.

[IefTheChief]

Paul, nice session, very much in control of your pace.

PP Cycle 2, 2.2
10,000m steady

46:06.9 10,000m 2:18.3 23
9:27.8 2,000m 2:21.9 23
9:15.4 4,000m 2:18.8 23
9:26.3 6,000m 2:21.5 23
9:09.6 8,000m 2:17.4 23
8:47.8 10,000m 2:11.9 24

My speed at these SS sessions is still all over the place, still finding it difficult to find balance power / stroke rate balance. Used too much power in the pyramid session two days ago, with sore knees and hips as a result.

[mdpfirrman]

Paul / Gordon - your recent workouts indicate both of you should be solidly under an 8 minute 2K! There are three really good indicators / predictors of what your 2K time will be - the 750 / 1000 / 750 part of the pyramid, the 4 X 1000 (what your average pace is) and the 8 X 500 (by adding 3 seconds to your average). I'm referring to the full PP. Tim - I know you're getting ready to start the full PP. If you're struggling to know what your 2K PB is, these three workouts (with the full PP rest) give you a REALLY good idea.

Ivo - I forget, are you rowing unstrapped on your SS work? Two things help with settling in pace - consistency along with meters and form. Mine used to be all over the place too. Your row could just reflect you were extremely sore and you worked it out and got faster (what the SS is meant to do). I used to find that without a very consistent stroke, I had a hard time keeping the pace from jumping around. With rowing unstrapped, I finally figured out at least the sequence I was using was wrong. I've also been working (recently) on using a better hip hinge and not rounding the back. I find I'm constantly reminding myself of "sitting up" with good posture while I'm rowing. It's OK to round the shoulders a bit but not the back in excess. With proper form (if you're not using it), you'll rely too heavily on your lower back and legs and less on your hips / torso and you'll get exhausted and have to switch it from time to time from upper body to legs doing all the work. Once you get the form down (and really work your core / hips / glutes), the workload is more evenly distributed, the stroke gets longer and smoother and the rate evens out.

[mdpfirrman]

@ Paul - I know you've done at least one (recent) 2K under 8. I guess I was just pointing out how the accuracy of the PP intervals can be to your true potential.

[IefTheChief]

Mike, no I'm not rowing unstrapped on SS work, didn't know that was a good thing to do? I will absolutely do that from now on. I very much recognize what you're saying about posture. I also try to tell myself to keep the back straight but I find that very difficult, feels it costs me more energy if I do that. Also, I have the feeling I am going too "far in" on the catch, bending my back too much and maybe overstretching the hip if that makes sense. Only recently noticed that i should have my leg at 90 deg angle with the monorail at the catch, so doing my best with that, too. All in all I'm still working on technique causing big the in pace. But my speed already is so much better than when I started, so I must be doing some things right

On a different topic, please let me know if there's another group I should ask this question. My 11-year old son is hypermobile. He is very active but if he i.e. play football for 20 minutes his body hurts a lot and he has big issues for the next 24 hours or so. He quit tennis, football, judo etc and he started outdoor rowing a year ago and he kind of likes it. It's actually because of him that I bought a Concept 2 last month (yes, only have the erg 7 weeks and already did 380K .

Now I want to create a training program for him to work on his core muscle strength. It should be light for a beginner, but it should help to develop overall strength and stability. He very much wants to join me in my training sessions, so the idea comes from himself. I was thinking about this weekly program:

DAY 1: 10 minutes steady
DAY 2: rest
DAY 3: 4 x 500m / 2' rest
DAY 4: 20 minutes steady
DAY 5: rest
DAY 6: 2,000m hard (test)
DAY 7: rest

Does this program make sense for an 11-year old boy? He is already quite fit as he bikes to school 15km 5 times per week. Focus should ready be on strength and stability. Maybe we can also do some light KB to work on his stability, i.e. single leg kettlebell swap?

Thanks,
Ivo

[cflrules]

Hey guys, what are you referring to when you say SS work?

[Slacker]

Tim: Good job on finishing yourself. Big pat on the back for you as well.

I think we all struggled a little bit towards the end of this thing. Looking back I think it was not real struggles (although there were some setbacks) but more of having raised expectations week by week especially when making visible gains in the early part of the program. I still think the gains were there, they just were not always as noticeable in increased durations and lowered paces. I guess the takeaway and for the guys just starting the plan is not to get discouraged in the second half of the plan.

I finished up with the BPP 24.4 row today and that is my last row for the plan. Little strange row to end on and the execution was strange as well, but it's done and in the books. I intended to do it as a recovery row and I did but partway through I had something strange going on with my HR where it jumped up 30 BPM or so for no apparent reason in the middle of a steady row. Not sure what that was about.

I'd join you on the 1 round of PP and then testing but I only have 2 weeks available. I then get a work forced leave from rowing for 2 weeks. So my plan is to go straight into a test next week but maybe after a day or 2 of easy rows so I don't jump into it straight off the weekend break. What you do next is probably not super important other than to keep showing up. Good luck!

[Slacker]

SS is Steady State. That is those easy rows that Mike and a few others keep talking about that are important to increase fitness and should be done at an easy (seemingly too slow) pace. Many plans have these as much as 80% of the work load.

[mdpfirrman]

@ Paul - I know you've done at least one (recent) 2K under 8. I guess I was just pointing out how the accuracy of the PP intervals can be to your true potential.

Last week 4 x 1k @ 1:59.4 ave.

No worries Mike, 8 x 500 with 3'30"r are speed intervals not 2k predictors

If you add 3 seconds to the average I meant. I find (for me) it to be very accurate. If my average is a 1:46.5, I'm pretty close to a 1:49.5 for my 2K. The other two predictors are the same.