Pete Plan Group - Startup Aug 20th thru 22nd

[jackarabit]

Think we've learned a few things first week. Roughly half of us are theoretician/practitioners and that's always a recipe for burning the beans and frightening the children. And we've demonstrated how to impart spin (self-justification) and throw shade (praise and mollify with faint damn). Got the volume on the dialectic cranked up high! Next week we can stop fidgeting and focus that nervous energy on our training.

[hjs]

Henry, the occasion of trying the rate alternation is back upstream a few pages. Joe tried this C2 WOD radical rate alternation at my suggestion and based on the heterodox and not very appropriate strategy I added to a subsequent SS row. Neither Joe nor I expected wonderful performance yields. A goofy experiment which doesn't fit the steady and repetitive order of march in PP. I take the responsibility of encouraging an experiment which wasted a day of prescribed training. I think Greg's anything goes "fourth week" is where these diversions and detours from the plan belong. Apologies to all here for disturbing the scholastic discipline.

Rate changes are fine, but faster stuff, imo, is best done free rate, its tiering enough in its own, fiddeling with the rate makes it worse.
It certainly was not a wasted session, Joe needs to find his paces yet, that 6.20 goal sounds very real in a bit of time.

[mdpfirrman]

Nice work John on the 30'. That is a great time!

I actually was able to go back in to memory (at the rower at the gym) for yesterday - I actually did a 19:42.5 (not a 19:45 as I guesstimated - not a big difference...) but every few seconds count.

I did a 55 minute row today (I often do that time as I get to the gym five minutes into the lunch hour and try to be back at my desk within an hour and a half after showering). SS day for me - 12322 in 55' - 2:13.9 pace. Stopped two times to talk to friends at the gym for a few seconds. Probably would have been more like a 2:12 - comfortable but not too comfortable.

[mdpfirrman]

@ Mike's most recent: Interesting reasoning on L4 for "free rate" continuous distance, Mike. One is "free" to choose low rates on the "timed" day? And the "timed" day is the hard distance day? The "timed" day looks to be a general purpose camel for jockeys with agendas--yours as well as mine.

After having "played" with the plan to suit my needs all year long now (while still trying to stick to the notion of both polarization and periodization plans), I've just learned that if you're going to play with any day of the week of the PP, subbing out a timed free rate row with a hard L4 type of row (HR wise) is a similar swap. I'm talking the 20 to 24 rate stuff from Wolverine (not the 16 to 18 stuff). Even a simple 2' @ 20, 2" @ 22 would work for 40 minutes. That's a hard ass row (as you and I know - perhaps an easier one for Joe and Dean). Not the stuff of SS days at all.

If you get a white powder in the mail Jack it's not cocaine - it's my electrolyte powder concoction I've created - you're going to need it for next week after all the hard sessions and PBs you knocked out this week!

[G-dub]

@ Mike's most recent: Interesting reasoning on L4 for "free rate" continuous distance, Mike. One is "free" to choose low rates on the "timed" day? And the "timed" day is the hard distance day? The "timed" day looks to be a general purpose camel for jockeys with agendas--yours as well as mine.

After having "played" with the plan to suit my needs all year long now (while still trying to stick to the notion of both polarization and periodization plans), I've just learned that if you're going to play with any day of the week of the PP, subbing out a timed free rate row with a hard L4 type of row (HR wise) is a similar swap. I'm talking the 20 to 24 rate stuff from Wolverine (not the 16 to 18 stuff). Even a simple 2' @ 20, 2" @ 22 would work for 40 minutes. That's a hard ass row (as you and I know - perhaps an easier one for Joe and Dean). Not the stuff of SS days at all.

If you get a white powder in the mail Jack it's not cocaine - it's my electrolyte powder concoction I've created - you're going to need it for next week after all the hard sessions and PBs you knocked out this week!

Since we are spinning Hard Distance Days (you would think I would just shut my yap and do the plan without comment), would the committee feel OK about subbing in a longer row every now and again? Long rows are also "hard" they are just not paced as fast of course.

[Pie Man]

Hard distance last night, as my stroke is weak I thought I'd try a rate limited 5k @ 20spm with a target power of 180w or 9w a stroke as my pb 5k was done at 8.5w but 25 spm (19:33). Despite a warm up (2k) I took a while to settle in, I'm not a natural at low rate so hitting the rate target and power took about 2000m. But I did eventually hit it and in the last 1000m could hit the 'golden' 10w/stroke. Of courses at such a low rate with a 116 drag factor I'm gaining power/stroke from the extra 0.6s each stroke has compared to my 25 spm PB but its a start.

I will have to miss the final SS piece unless I can find some time tomorrow, but Roll on week 2. with it's laugh a minute 4 x 2000m.

It's good to be part of a group who are pushing themselves, so thanks everyone for helping me go just that bit harder.

[G-dub]

Sorry Paul, my question was to Mike, our fearless leader. It is not part of the other discussion you are having with John and Jack and Henry. I'm doing this to get fit. I get the reasoning for the Plan. But also want to work the aerobic side of things too while I'm at it. I appreciate your religious fervor for THE PLAN! But we all are working things out to our best ends and where we are in the year.

[Joe L]

Joe if you try a 5k hard but not flat out (like your 5 x 1500m) @ 25spm,
now the next week try it again and last 1k try 26, if not 25 no probs
but keep to 25spm throughout.

In a few weeks do same on a 6k for a few weeks same on last 1k r26 but 25spm a min.

The idea is to try it slowly, 10k build up to that in a few months time


Or the next time the 5 x 1500m comes around again (not on a 10k)

Yes sir, I clearly bit off more than I could chew. That seems like sound advice. I'm sorry for missing your post. I'll give it a go next time!

[mdpfirrman]

@ Mike's most recent: Interesting reasoning on L4 for "free rate" continuous distance, Mike. One is "free" to choose low rates on the "timed" day? And the "timed" day is the hard distance day? The "timed" day looks to be a general purpose camel for jockeys with agendas--yours as well as mine.

After having "played" with the plan to suit my needs all year long now (while still trying to stick to the notion of both polarization and periodization plans), I've just learned that if you're going to play with any day of the week of the PP, subbing out a timed free rate row with a hard L4 type of row (HR wise) is a similar swap. I'm talking the 20 to 24 rate stuff from Wolverine (not the 16 to 18 stuff). Even a simple 2' @ 20, 2" @ 22 would work for 40 minutes. That's a hard ass row (as you and I know - perhaps an easier one for Joe and Dean). Not the stuff of SS days at all.

If you get a white powder in the mail Jack it's not cocaine - it's my electrolyte powder concoction I've created - you're going to need it for next week after all the hard sessions and PBs you knocked out this week!

Since we are spinning Hard Distance Days (you would think I would just shut my yap and do the plan without comment), would the committee feel OK about subbing in a longer row every now and again? Long rows are also "hard" they are just not paced as fast of course.

Glenn - I'm hardly the leader. You guys were kind enough to let me sit in last year and I just wanted to return the favor and start the thread. That's it.

I try to stick to the intent (loosely interpreted) of Marston. It's a "lunch hour" plan. The full name is "Pete Lunch Hour Plan", and Marston himself describes the long, hard row (timed row) as 5K or longer. I'm assuming that means longer up to around an hour (to Marston). But Marston limited his plan to make the Wolverine Plan palatable to guys like you and me. If you have extra time and want to go longer, I say go for it. I wouldn't think that doing anything over an hour of a timed row, though, would be productive (unless someone is doing the kind of meters Dean, for instance, is doing - and I don't think hardly any of us are except for him).

The only concern I would have is don't burn yourself out.

[jackarabit]

Mike, you are the group leader. And the pathfinder. And scheduler. And Public relaions director and Head of the Welcoming Committee. None of the hats come down over your ears and you don't act like any of them are too small. Tough job herding cats and you are good at it.

Checked my "line of paces" for WP L4. Thinking over your use of rate/pace combos on hard distance day. Can't see me doing 40' of "208". Relative weakness is not the best vantage point from which to evaluate powerful tools. Need to pick up the hammer before swinging it. Sorry I come across as a 15W bulb. Some days I don't shine but half bright.

[jackarabit]

Strongman stuff, Piers! You might well be laughing after the 4x2.

[mdpfirrman]

Mike, you are the group leader. And the pathfinder. And scheduler. And Public relaions director and Head of the Welcoming Committee. None of the hats come down over your ears and you don't act like any of them are too small. Tough job herding cats and you are good at it.

I'm also the only guy that's been personally corrected by Mike Caviston himself on a thread last year (with a wrong understanding of the Wolverine L4 work purpose), so as Bill Murray once famously said in Caddyshack, "I have that going for me...".

[G-dub]

Indeed Mike, this rat pack (or maybe just Jack and I) needs a leader and you are doing that swimmingly. Just think, we haven't even gotten us all through the first week yet! I am committing myself to less counter productive pontification going forward! It must be a product of the ramp in stress on the mind and body - looking for a way to squirm out! The next step in grasshoppers evolution is to try and live other parts of life while also doing this hard work.

[G-dub]

Well done Pierce! I find that hard distance row a bit daunting sandwiched between the intervals. Great execution.

[G-dub]

Mike, you are the group leader. And the pathfinder. And scheduler. And Public relaions director and Head of the Welcoming Committee. None of the hats come down over your ears and you don't act like any of them are too small. Tough job herding cats and you are good at it.

I'm also the only guy that's been personally corrected by Mike Caviston himself on a thread last year (with a wrong understanding of the Wolverine L4 work purpose), so as Bill Murray once famously said in Caddyshack, "I have that going for me...".

I remember that! Quite funny really but I'm sure it smarted at the time. He launched in out of nowhere!