Pete Plan Summer 2015 starts June 14

[Galeere]

Christopher, the PR you refer to being 1 second slower than from February is an 8x500 PR? Nice time BTW. And nice improvement in a short period of time.

I did an age modified Pete Plan (no hard distance piece) as my Crash B prep last year. In Feb, I did the 8x500m @1:38.0. Since Crash B's, I have been on a diet of mainly steady state with a weekly Cross Fit workout and a weekly endurance interval workout. Six weeks ago, I switched my PP cycle to a five week program of speed - endurance - speed - endurance - rest. So I am just beginning my second cycle. This is my second go at 8x500m and only my third speed interval workout since Crash Bs. I am cutting myself a little slack on these speed intervals as I adapt to working at a faster pace. My endurance intervals have been steadily improving so a PR almost every time. My primary goal for the year is to improve on my 2015 Crash B time of 6:38.8. My improvement curve had flattened so I decided to focus on my weakness (aerobic endurance) for this off season. I hope to be a supporting anecdote for the UT2 steady state believers in the forum. The jury is still out.

IMO good plan. Will be interesting to read how it shakes out. If you don´t mind my question and due to your reference to an age modified Pete Plan: How old are you?

[christopherregisryan]

IMO good plan. Will be interesting to read how it shakes out. If you don´t mind my question and due to your reference to an age modified Pete Plan: How old are you?

Relevant question. I will be 54 later this month. To support my concern about plateauing on my speed focused plan, here are my 2k SB's since I started training:
48 - 7:48.5; 218.0
49 - 7:17.4; 268.0
50 - 6:55.3; 313.0
51 - 6:46.7; 333.7
52 - 6:40.2; 350.0
53 - 6:38.8; 353.2

Hence, my motivation to focus on developing aerobic endurance in an effort to find a new path to improvement. I hope it is not to late for me to build heart and lung capacity. That is the weak link in my chain.

[G-dub]

With those impressive times and at your age I hope you are at least 7 feet tall.

[christopherregisryan]

With those impressive times and at your age I hope you are at least 7 feet tall.

Haha! Not quite 7 feet (you know that Shaq has a custom Model E). I am 6' 5" and 230 lbs. I can pull hard for short distances, but I have trouble sustaining power. That puts me a long way off the pacesetters for my age group. We shall see if the high volume UT2 work will help me maintain power for longer.

[G-dub]

Oh I see you now. Ranked 17 last year, right? Nice stuff. Need to catch your fellow Conneticutan Hillclimber it looks like.

[christopherregisryan]

Oh I see you now. Ranked 17 last year, right? Nice stuff. Need to catch your fellow Conneticutan Hillclimber it looks like.

Hillclimber pulled his best time last year at CT Indoors with me as his pace boat. He is a very fit dude. It was an honor to cruise in his wake. He beat me at CRASH B's too. As he is much older , we were not in the same group. He is a little bit faster at 2k, but he is significantly faster at longer distances. Part of my training motivation is to get closer to HC in the middle distances.

[Edward4492]

Damien brings his aerobic fitness over from bike racing. Not that I'm at that level, but my bike racing background carried me into erging with a solid aerobic base.
I'm a midget compared to you guys (59 six foot LWT), I believe that the aerobic system simply needs to be trained. IMO that means several 15k's per week at 20r and an HR cap at 70-80% should do the trick. Your times are already solid...time to build a big motor.

[G-dub]

Oh I see you now. Ranked 17 last year, right? Nice stuff. Need to catch your fellow Conneticutan Hillclimber it looks like.

Hillclimber pulled his best time last year at CT Indoors with me as his pace boat. He is a very fit dude. It was an honor to cruise in his wake. He beat me at CRASH B's too. As he is much older , we were not in the same group. He is a little bit faster at 2k, but he is significantly faster at longer distances. Part of my training motivation is to get closer to HC in the middle distances.

Dang that HC. He seems like a decent dude too.

[Balkan boy]

Hello all.
Is this still happening, or is it time for Autumn season?

I'm back on the rower after two months. I've been training with kettlebells and a spinner bike in the meantime. I've also (involuntarily) lost about 8-9kg and some strength and stamina. It's been an extremely hot summer.

Today:
Speed Intervals: 8 x 500m / Rest: 3:30min
I wanted to take it easy at the beginning, but as usual, I got carried away. Modest times, nonetheless.
First split at 1:58/500m, then negative splitting down to 1:55/500m for the last one.
Cooldown: 2km.
I was too close to my maxHR (180bpm) on every split. I guess that's a result of drop in overall fitness.

[G-dub]

BB- I'm thinking of starting again second week of November. I'm lost in 10K land at the moment. Not sure what everyone else's schedule is.

[gregsmith01748]

BB- I'm thinking of starting again second week of November. I'm lost in 10K land at the moment. Not sure what everyone else's schedule is.

That's about right for me too. As soon as the otw season is done, I'm going to do the tests and start Pete planning again.

[Galeere]

BB- I'm thinking of starting again second week of November. I'm lost in 10K land at the moment. Not sure what everyone else's schedule is.

That will probably work for me if health keeps up.

[jackarabit]

Ditto. Have sprain left hand and fingers which has proven not quite as trivial as "young" Dr. David, my General Pill Pusher, thought (and I hoped!). Reduced my erging to 38-40k per week but after three weeks still have some swelling, stiffness and "trigger finger" movement in knuckles of three fingers. Have apptmt with nurse practitioner tomorrow. I know she is still capable of practicing medicine so not likely she'll act as an unwitting enabler of compulsive erging nonsense. I could write my own ticket if I had a license: steroid shot, no strenuous activity involving hand, probably some therapy, do it myself or pay as you go. Nobody to blame but me really; distracted Doc only a useful accomplice! All very predictable given my allergy to doctors. Oddest thing is not having CTS symptoms left hand past few weeks.

With more luck than I deserve, I may be back on the seat in plenty of time for some more Pete Plan, geriatric edition.

[Hillclimber]

On board with the 5k Pete Plan beginning this weekend. Chris Ryan's significant improvement is a ringing endorsement (although I'm sure all of you guys on the PP this summer made great strides, I just have not been keeping up with the reports). Aiming for 5k+ PBs at end of Nov. then switching to the 2k plan.
Here's a level-set piece done yesterday - and posted already in "training .... today"
5 x 1500 - 1000 active rest
Splits:
1:52
1:50.9
1:50
1:49
1:48

Mostly UT2, creeping to dead center on AT beginning at 1000 to go in final interval. Officially marks the end of random, r20 - r26 moderate endurance work these some months, as well as weekly 2-3 hour, hilly bike rides. Should have a good base for more disciplined work.
Damien

[christopherregisryan]

On board with the 5k Pete Plan beginning this weekend.

Welcome abord, Damien. Nice baseline piece. You'll crush that next time around for sure. I am doing one Pete Plan workout per week (unless I do a test piece that week) alternating between speed and endurance intervals. Mostly on a diet of UT2 Steady State. For me, that's 2k + 28.