Pete Plan Group - Startup Aug 20th thru 22nd

[aussieluke]

Great work Piers. Half the battle is just getting through it.

Fair play to you for trying and failing twice but still coming back and getting it done.

[jackarabit]

Piers, 32.5" off your 2k is a fantastic return on your PP investment of time and energy. All best for your racing season!

[G-dub]

Piers - great job! You've made great improvements. My hunch is that this is the first 2K that really meant something and had you near the edge of your confidence and ability. I would have bet on 7:08 going in (not to limit it by any means) and It seems there is more to be had from this one based on how much you had at the end, the excitement you will have on race day and that you know what to expect now. But this one was just to blow off the nerves and reset your head for BIRC - mission accomplished. A finished 2K is great work any day of the week. And you busted your PB big time! Have a beer, sir.

[Kxthor911]

Hey guys, whats up? I have been reading a lot of forum and techinque lately. Also watched some videos that I think helped. Over the past week I realized that I have been doing it wrong. I was kind of starting the catch leaning back a bit, not all the way but not forward enough. I realize now that I was shortening my stroke. Today it all clicked together, I moved my feet position from 3 to 4 which I think helped a good bit as well. Week 10 in the BPP and finally using half way decent form, I'm an idiot hah.

My supposed to be 2:22 average for today was not any easier but I found myself under this time with my normal effort. Today felt great. I'm in high spirits.

@tim back downhill I guess LOL. Thanks for the encouragement.

Week 10 Day 1 - goal 2:22 - actual 9500 - 44:29.8 splits were 2:20.5 at 23spm. I'm stoked guys

[mdpfirrman]

Nice work Piers. That 2K doesn't surprise me at all. I would think based on your 2K X 4 times that under race conditions and with a proper taper you could be much lower than that even. You might even surprise yourself on race day and get close to a sub 7. You've done fantastic work on the PP and it's showing!

Glenn - that was a really nice 8 X 500! I thought that but didn't mention it. Sorry so late. It's great when things are clicking!

Nick - it took me over a year to figure out form. Minor improvements all the time still.

[john_n]

Gordon - Congrats on the new 10K PB. Huge contrast between your PP Beginners Week 12 Day 1 10K and your 5K first row of 2016 @2:46.7. 1/10 second improvement in pace or total time is good, leaps and bounds are super good.

Mike - Thanks. One thing about waterfalls - they always raise the room humidity, as waterfalls would be expected to do.

Piers - That’s funny, that the .1 is annoying. It would not be annoying, probably, if it was 7:09.9 instead of 7:10.1. The mind works in mysterious ways. Congratulations on persisting and vanquishing the “mental demons”. JFDI attitude seems to frighten them and send them to the shadows.

Nick - congrats on beating your 2:22 goal with 2:20.5 on Day 1 of your Week 10. Your body will thank you for having the right form.

John - regarding what you wrote, “Slightly confused by the rest time on the report, does that include your warm down? If so does that mean you are also a no rowing in the rest person?"

That was confusing -I shouldn’t have mentioned warm down in that way, because the only warm down was the rest time after the third interval. That version of RowPro, an older version for Windows, doesn’t have a line showing each rest following each interval. That version of RowPro only allowed the rest periods to be in the same units as the non-rest periods, which were distance in meters. So I set the first and second rests to each be 750 meters and rowed each of those at about 3:00/500m so that each of the first two rests lasted 5 minutes. The last rest after the last interval was set to 2,500 meters and I rowed it at a pace that made it last about 15 minutes, which was the “15 min warm down”. Sorry for the confusion. Thanks for the comment - it helps me in the constant battle to clarify what I write so that it doesn’t reflect my foggy mind.

I always row, during rest periods. So the total rest was a little less than 5 minutes after the first interval, a little less than 5 minutes after the second interval and a little less than 15 minutes after the final interval, all adding up to 24:22.5.

The only graph I have of that session is what’s below, a portion of a screen shot of the RowPro finish screen. If the graph's proportions look weird, it's because RowPro compresses, squeezes the graph together toward the left side of the screen as it paints the newer data on the right:

[jackarabit]

The active distance with rest distance only and active time with rest time only is one of delights of RP thru V. 4.3. Setting the rest as distance equivalent of a specific rest time is an accepted common workaround. I believe there's a have your cake and eat it trick to doing active rest AND achieving ADP and CP energy source recovery. In your case, John N., 600m of active rest in the monitor and 1' inactive on the wristwatch or clock would give you the "free" energy for the smokin start advocated By John. A. WHOOOSH!

[JohnAd]

Piers, great work for just getting it done after the previous days jitters and for smashing that PB. I think it's important to have a recent base test to build up from, knocking a few seconds off that shouldn't be too hard over the next 4 weeks. From the splits it looks like you judged the pace pretty well, managing to speed up at the end, did you change stroke at the end to more of an arm based sprint? the rating didn't seem to go up. From my experience I'd be wary of trying to start too much faster next time. How many more 2ks are you planning pre-BIRC? Agree with Glenn that you certainly deserve a beer after that.

John N, thanks for clearing that up and for the graphs, I like an excuse to look at those and compare them to mine, yours seem to have a sharper attack up to the flatter bit on top as well as a steeper decay afterward which I think speaks to your fitness.

[Pie Man]

My hunch is that this is the first 2K that really meant something and had you near the edge of your confidence and ability. Have a beer, sir.

Thanks everyone for all your encouragement. It certainly was at the edge of my confidence and ability Glenn, I feel a lot better having battled through it and what would be the point if it was all easy... I now have a proper target to chip away at, rather than some virtual estimate (although that seems to be pretty accurate even though for a while I wasn't sure I could do it at all)

Piers, great work for just getting it done after the previous days jitters and for smashing that PB. I think it's important to have a recent base test to build up from, knocking a few seconds off that shouldn't be too hard over the next 4 weeks. From the splits it looks like you judged the pace pretty well, managing to speed up at the end, did you change stroke at the end to more of an arm based sprint? the rating didn't seem to go up. From my experience I'd be wary of trying to start too much faster next time. How many more 2ks are you planning pre-BIRC? Agree with Glenn that you certainly deserve a beer after that.

You are so right about having a recent base test, with hindsight I wish I had done one back in August, just to see roughly where I was, rather than have a some vague ball park figure. As to my stroke in the last 500m, it could well be that I started to put more arms into it. My stroke wasn't great at the start of the piece, I tend not to lean into my thighs and so shorten my already short stroke, that improved as I went along.

I want to do at least a couple more 2k's perhaps play around with initial pace and/or DF. I HD at a low 1:48.0 pace, but as I did a 1:47.5 I should be able to start at that shouldn't I? There again I have to fit them in, last night and today I feel fine, when I do my recovery row tonight it will be interesting to see how I go and if my HR is elevated over my normal levels. I have the 5x1500 to do tomorrow, and I may extend my week to Saturday which is normally my rest day so I can get a hard row in.

I have a few things to think of now for the BRIC, like taper, how to start and starting pace, not trying to keep up with Rohan.

[Bloodbuzz Corio]

Piers great stuff on that 2k PB - and echoing John's particular congratulations on backing up after the couple of false starts to get it done!! No doubt some more time to come off that before or on the 10 of Dec also!

[G-dub]

Piers, there is a PP 5K workout that is 3 x 2K and the middle 2K is to practice strategies and to get more acclimated. The first and last are wu/cd ish. It can be sub max, rate capped or one idea is to go full for 1500-1600 then cruise the end in. Or I guess you could do it full on if you are feeling it. There is also a method of doing the first 1500 rate capped then sprint the end. I think my December / January will include this instead of the endurance interval day - my race is end of January.

[JohnAd]

PP 5.1.3 5x1500m 5' rest
Previous 1:49.1
Target 1:49.1
01:49.4 r27
01:49.1 r27
01:49.0 r27
01:48.9 r27
01:47.7 r29
Avg 1:48.8 r27
MHR 175

From the second rep onwards this felt good, I don't think this is sustainable at all for a 5k but good to be chipping away at the times anyway. On the last rep tried doing short sprint strokes at the end bringing in my arms more which did seem to help with the pain tunnel management, so I'll try and incorporate that into my 2k attempt on Friday and see where I get to.

[G-dub]

Magnificent! Nice to see that rate getting up there! Can you believe that you are doing 5 x 1500 at 7:15 ish 2K pace?!

[Pie Man]

Amazing 5x1500 John your last 1500 was only 0.2 slower than my 2k! Looking forward to seeing your 2k.

That 5k test sounds good Glenn 2k practise is needed.

John_n that the 0.1 does rankle 9.9 would of been so much better. But as a 2k is so tough next time i will try harder...

[G-dub]

Piers - from the 5k PP:

"3 x 2k: The 4th type of session changes between a 3 x 2k and a harder distance piece. The 3 x 2k without any explanation would look very similar to the 4min rest rep sessions, and you would pace it accordingly. That is not the idea behind this session, however. This session is a focussed 2k piece, with a fixed warm up and warm down. As such the first and last 2k of the session should be done at the pace of your slower steady distance pieces. The middle 2k is then essentially a sub maximal 2k test. These 2k tests are to gain experience of pacing individual 2k’s, and should be done with a specific plan each time. This could be a pacing plan, such as negative splits, fast – slow – fast, or with a restricted stroke rate, or as a single pace across the entire 2k. They don’t have to be flat out, but should be the fastest workout you do during this 12 week plan."