After Pete's Plan (round I)?

[Mlevison]

I will soon finish my first pass through Pete’s Plan. I’ve taken 8 months to a 24 week plan . Sometimes finding 3 - 30-50 min workout slots in a week is hard. Also If I muffle a set, I rerow it.

How do I evaluate my progress and learn what I should improve next?

What do people do next? Do it again?

• If I do it again what do I focus on improving? Example today in doing 8x500m/2min rest, I focused on low stroke rate 19–21s/m and all the power I could muster.

• Do I back to building up distance now that I can readily do 10k/12km?

I tried searching the forum for the common advice, but I don’t know the correct search terms. If I missed a good thread, point the way and I would be happy.

Confused (but happy) in Ottawa

[contdrift86]

How to see if you've made progress is to row a distance that you did towards the start of the plan, so from memory there is a 6x500m session in week 1, I would re-row that and see how the times differ.

The Pete Plan is a great plan to just roll through on a 3 week rotation if you like it, but it's somewhat catered towards a 2km time. Maybe do a 2km piece all out, find your PR to it, and then do 5-6 rotations of the normal Pete Plan and then re-do it.

[winniewinser]

I did all 24 weeks back in 2019/20 and have returned to it again to get back into things in earnest. IMO a 2k test at the beginning and at the end is a good way to see the progress.But you can also check what times you did on certain sessions and compare to your current capabilities,

The shorter intervals should ideally be where you push your stroke rate higher to achieve faster times while still maintaining a strong stroke. If you try and muscle them at R19/20 you will never get used to the higher rates and it's easier to hold faster pace if you can get your rate up.

I tend to row all the longer pieces at say R20, then the mid distance stuff (1000, 1500, 2000m intervals) at R24+ then the shorter stuff I'm looking to hold R28+.

All depends on what you want to row for....be it general fitness or settings PB's

[iain]

The BPP is designed to get you rowing the kind of sessions regular ergers do, so the world is now your oyster. So take a while to think what you enjoy in your sessions and what you want to set as your next medium term goal. To help it would be useful to know more about you, whether you just want to maintain the higher fitness you have achieved, or go on to get faster as well as the rate / pace you have rowed some of your best sessions at and your size, age and weight. Alternatively, many people like to take a few months each year of less rowing without a definite goal to recharge before another "season" of rowing as none of us can keep improving forever (next time you would start a bit slower than you finished the program, but you would likely exceed that pace after a couple of months).

Personally I like to focus on an event and work on the weaknesses for that. So for shorter rows for me that is usually rating up so I do more min and 500 intervals, or for longer rows it is about the base so I extend my slower rows to 90 min. These days I focus on the CTC which gives me a couple of weeks to sharpen up for a specific session, although as these are usually short I do also periodically focus on longer events (eg when consecutive CTCs are similar). It is all about keeping the sessions engaging to keep you at it whether that is because they are geared to a longer goal, or preparing for and doing sessions that give you satisfaction.

[p_b82]

Think the others have already covered things.

But I'll just echo the - set yourself an aim/goal and work towards it.

If you want to do a HM by increasing volume then go for it, if you want to build your base r20 pace - go for it etc etc. As long as you enjoy the process then it's all good I reckon, regardless of the rate of progress.

[Mlevison]

@contdrift86 Thanks - "The Pete Plan is a great plan to just roll through on a 3 week rotation" -- what are these 3 week rotations? Do I just do the last 3 weeks of the plan?

I know it's focused on 2km times. For now that seems like fun.

@winniewinser 2km test is coming up. FWIW I've been seeing 1.5 - 2 sec/500m improvement nearly every time I rerow a previous set through the plan. Even last nights 8x500m/2min was 1.5 sec faster than the last set.

I clearly have no idea about good stroke rate. When I slow the rate down to 19/20/21 then I compensate with power. I have a struggle doing that for more than even 500m. My 10km and 12km, all have stroke rates 25->28 per minute.

My goal, when I'm 90, I want to be the world record holder at 2km and 10km. I think that will also hit my other goal of being fit

@Iain I can see the world is my oyster and I must admit the freedom has left me confused. "whether you just want to maintain the higher fitness you have achieved, or go on to get faster as well as the rate / pace" -- I'm in camp go faster. If rowinglevel.com has any value aside from humour, I'm better than 66% of men my age. I do know that my current rate of won't continue forever.

Part of my confusion. I don't know where to focus my improvements. Lower stroke rate? Increase Power? Up until now, I've gotten away with drop my per 500m pace by at least 1s every time I do a set. I suspect, I'm hiding bad habits and just don't recognize them.

CTC seems like fun. I'm about 100yrs away from that. I suspect that tells me there individual challenges I could do. Hmm.

(Couldn't help but notice you're in Reading, you're approx 5300km from me https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_It_Hap ... om_Reading -- maybe I should row this distance

@p_b82 Maybe my goal should be to match the times in your footer. (I might be doing ok in the 10km department, not so much the 2km game).

All - I think my challenge is that I've not read much about this sport. In most subjects, I just digest a few books to make sure I understand the basics. This forum is amazing, but I get lost.

[Dangerscouse]

Part of my confusion. I don't know where to focus my improvements. Lower stroke rate? Increase Power? Up until now, I've gotten away with drop my per 500m pace by at least 1s every time I do a set. I suspect, I'm hiding bad habits and just don't recognize them.

Imo, you need to focus on every aspect you can think of. Low / mid / high stroke rates with combinations of pace. This is broadly covered by the Pete Plan, but it doesn't cover a 30r20 TT for instance, which is a great challenge.

Ideally, you need to identify your weaknesses and work on them. Do you naturally prefer lower or higher stroke rates? Longer or shorter distances? Whatever it is, within reason, consider training the opposite.

A good stroke rate is the stroke rate that makes you the most efficient. We generally advise r18-22 for steady pace sessions, but these can be done at a faster pace too. This may also be up to r24 if you feel like this is best. There aren't any definitive guides, just what the majority of people agree on.

[Mlevison]

Imo, you need to focus on every aspect you can think of. Low / mid / high stroke rates with combinations of pace. This is broadly covered by the Pete Plan, but it doesn't cover a 30r20 TT for instance, which is a great challenge.

It took more than few minutes of googling to learn what that is. I guess I will do that in a few weeks.

Ideally, you need to identify your weaknesses and work on them. Do you naturally prefer lower or higher stroke rates? Longer or shorter distances? Whatever it is, within reason, consider training the opposite.

Weakness - maintaining a low stroke rate. Probably because I spend too much of my brain staring at the 500m pace.

A good stroke rate is the stroke rate that makes you the most efficient. We generally advise r18-22 for steady pace sessions, but these can be done at a faster pace too. This may also be up to r24 if you feel like this is best. There aren't any definitive guides, just what the majority of people agree on.

In doing r18-22, roughly how much of your legs capacity are you pushing out? Last night at 80-90% of my capacity, I was running into capacity issues by my 5th 500m of the 8. I need to aim for less than that, I just have no idea how to gauge it, which is why I seem to end up doing r25 for 10km.

[contdrift86]

@contdrift86 Thanks - "The Pete Plan is a great plan to just roll through on a 3 week rotation" -- what are these 3 week rotations? Do I just do the last 3 weeks of the plan?

I know it's focused on 2km times. For now that seems like fun.

https://thepeteplan.wordpress.com/the-pete-plan/

Here you go, the 24 week one is the Beginner Pete Plan which is, like others have said, a great introduction to the world of erging. Here is the "proper" one, but both are very beneficial. There are a number of spreadsheets out there if tracking like that is your thing, if not the logbook does a great job at it. The beauty of the 3 week rotation is you will be able to see gains happening every 3 weeks to keep you interested/motivated. Plus if you want on some of the weeks for the 'steady' distances you can really ramp up the metres by doing week 1 @ 10km per steady session, week 2 @ 12.5km, week 3 at 15km and just rotate through those if you'd like. Basically it's a pick your own adventure type of plan and I really like that aspect of it.

The Pete Plan:
Week 1:

8 x 500m / 3min30 rest

Steady distance (~8 to 15k)

5 x 1500m / 5min rest

Steady distance (~8 to 15k)

Hard distance (~5k+)

Steady distance (~8 to 15k)

Rest

Week 2:

250m, 500m, 750m, 1k, 750m, 500m, 250m / 1min30 rest per 250m work

Steady distance (~8 to 15k)

4 x 2000m / 5min rest

Steady distance (~8 to 15k)

Hard distance (~5k+)

Steady distance (~8 to 15k)

Rest

Week 3:

4 x 1000m / 5min rest

Steady distance (~8 to 15k)

3k, 2.5k, 2k / 5min rest

Steady distance (~8 to 15k)

Hard distance (~5k+)

Steady distance (~8 to 15k)

Rest

[iain]

For optimum performance you probably will want to focus on all aspects. If your legs are weakening before your breathing is struggling on a piece, then upping the rating may well help, conversely if the opposite, working on work per stroke is more likely to help so lower rate training.

The PP is primarily used by people sharpening for a maximal 2k. To use it longer term you need to take Pete’s initial target pace suggestion seriously: Do the intervals at a pace you could complete them at without the rests. This will make the first 3 weeks of training fairly easy, but crucially give you room for improvement while getting used to it. In every interval session you should try and stick to target for all but the last. This should then be done as fast as you can do it. The average pace for the intervals then forms the new target in 3 weeks.

Many people find 3 hard sessions a week too much. Pete is relaxed on the Hard Distance that can be done sub-maximally when the intervals get tough. He also uses it for other shorter challenges such as the CTC, and this should be the hard session omitted if you cannot do 3. PP is a modification of the Wolverine Plan. The main omission is Level 4 sessions. While Pete sets UT1 sessions at moderate pressure, L4s are at low rate (mainly 16-20) with target paces at varying rates. These can be substituted for the easy distances if you want to increase work per stroke.

Personally I do 5 x 750 r 3:30 rather than the first interval session of week 2. This is because the first 2 intervals of the speed pyramid are too easy at target, but if you push the pace then the middle intervals quickly become unachievable. Some slow these below target, but as the session is primarily to get used to 2k pace, this is counter productive. You may also like to push the 7th interval of the very 1st session or the pace of this can lag and fail to give the main benefit for several rotations (getting used to rowing at a higher rating).

Good luck whatever you decide.

[p_b82]

@p_b82 Maybe my goal should be to match the times in your footer. (I might be doing ok in the 10km department, not so much the 2km game).

All - I think my challenge is that I've not read much about this sport. In most subjects, I just digest a few books to make sure I understand the basics. This forum is amazing, but I get lost.

Careful about wanting to match another's pb's as the goal posts can change at any moment!

But slightly less tongue in cheek I don't follow any plans - I hate doing intervals - and mostly bounce around between the distances. Typically only train 3x a week; but I have upped my game a bit recently (see below).

I spent the first 6 months of this season working on my stroke efficiency; breaking all my old PB's 2k-> HM at r20 instead of an open rate, for no other reason than "because why not" & I wanted to train a better leg drive so I could work more efficiently via dropping my rating a few spm.

Then I decided in Jan to take on a marathon, which I'm doing for charity a week today; last week I set a new 500m pb without having done any speed work during my FM prep, just because I threw it in there for a change & to stress my back post injury recovery.

I mostly just take a look at what my pb's are - see if one of the times I've got is worse than the predicted pace I can achieve via paul's law predictions/ lower than the the others via c2 ranking percentile - and then have a crack at it if I feel like it on the day.

Rowing doesn't have to be too complicated - but it is very easy for it to become so if you let it or get really bogged down.

What's important is to find your preferred drag factor and rate for the general endurance building pieces - 45-90mins duration; aim to perform them with very little cardiac drift or not feeling like the tank has been too badly emptied when you finish if you don't use a Hr monitor.
They are the bread and butter sessions which form the base on which everything else is built imo.

Throw in some hard sessions where are you pushing to your mental and physical limits around those - intervals or TT's etc.
Make sure you don't do too many hard sessions too quickly or too close together - as cumulative fatigue will eventually stop you in your tracks - and you will improve your times or general fitness.

Or follow a plan if they help you with goals and incremental improvements - do what works for you and you enjoy ultimately.

I've only been erging just under 2 years with the aim to get fitter and do something indoors through the winter. My 18k training row Sunday I averaged 3w or 1s/500m less than the r20 HM I performed end of November as a TT (max effort); my HR was 13bpm average lower - this is a good metric I use to see my progress in less competitive terms which is meeting my original aim for rowing.