Pete Plan 2017

[JerekKruger]

@Jans - that's pretty decent power given the stroke rate. Convinces me even me that with improved fitness you'll see rapid improvements in your speed on longer distances, and with more confidence in your technique you'll be able to speed up your stroke rate on shorter pieces to go a lot faster.

As for your two adjustments: (1) I believe it's true that you shouldn't be going past vertical shins at the catch, if you find keeping your heels down as much as possible helps then definitely stick with it, but a little heel rise at the catch is no bad thing and can even be beneficial; and (2) if I understand what you're describing correctly then this isn't good technique. During the first part of the drive the angle of torso should remain the same until the legs are close to full extension, it sounds like what you're doing is letting the torso bend forwards a little more during the first part of the leg drive which in turn means the handle moves slightly less than it would if the torso angle remained static, which is a loss of connection to the machine. If I had to guess I'd say this is due to your glutes being proportionately weaker than your low back (pretty common in the West) so your body prefers to shift the burden to your low back. This will make you go faster at the moment yes, but it has two downsides: (i) in the long run, your glutes have more potential and you'll go fastest if you force them to strengthen rather than let your low back take the slack; and (ii) using the low back in this way is a surefire way to get back pain, which is no fun. So I'd strongly recommend focusing on not allowing the back angle to change during the first portion of the drive (do this drill as part of your warm up perhaps - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F2VX6N23IM) and not let your desire to go faster compromise good technique (in the long term, good technique will make you a lot faster).

[jans]

@JerekKruger: just what I thought; thx for the insights!

BPP 1.3: 5.000m
Time Meters Pace Watts Cal S/M HR
21:55.4 5,000m 2:11.5 154 828 21 176
4:14.2 1,000m 2:07.1 170 886 19 166
4:21.2 2,000m 2:10.6 157 840 20 174
4:24.0 3,000m 2:12.0 152 823 20 179
4:26.9 4,000m 2:13.4 147 806 22 178
4:29.1 5,000m 2:14.5 144 794 22 184

Not a great one

[-marius-]

@Marius - no I'm getting some face-to-face coaching from a former lightweight world champion that Pete put me in touch with. I'm having my first meeting with him next Wednesday which I'm looking forward to.

You are a serious man I'm to old to do that now

Had some extra rest days W2 of PP due to other stuff going on so week 2 has been stretched out to almost 1,5 week.

W2.4 Should be steady state distance. A little more effort put into this than usual. Kept rate @ 20SPM
3x3500m/1:00r
Time Meters Pace Watts Cal/Hr S/M
39:55.0 10,500m 1:54.0 236 1111 20
13:36.1 3,500m 1:56.5 221 1059 20
13:23.8 3,500m 1:54.8 231 1094 20
12:55.0 3,500m 1:50.7 258 1186 20
r349m

W2.5 Hard distance. Not really up to this as many other things going on these days.
As next month's CTC is 6K, I decided to just set a pace plan that I have as a starting reference(it's about 30 seconds slower than my best(and only until now) 6K)
The first 2K's acted as warmup for the workout.

Time Meters Pace Watts Cal/Hr S/M
21:26.3 6,000m 1:47.1 284 1277 25
3:42.8 1,000m 1:51.4 253 1170 25
3:37.7 2,000m 1:48.8 271 1233 25
3:35.7 3,000m 1:47.8 279 1259 24
3:35.1 4,000m 1:47.5 281 1267 24
3:33.7 5,000m 1:46.8 287 1286 25
3:21.3 6,000m 1:40.6 343 1480 31

Finishing off with a sub 7' 2K@23 SPM then a 2K@16SPM trying to activate the glute as much as possible
2x2000m/1:00r
Time Meters Pace Watts Cal/Hr S/M
14:37.9 4,000m 1:49.7 265 1210 19
6:56.2 2,000m 1:44.0 311 1368 23
7:41.6 2,000m 1:55.4 228 1083 16
r36m

W2.6
3x3500m/1:00r @ 20,22,24 SPM
Time Meters Pace Watts Cal/Hr S/M
38:54.1 10,500m 1:51.1 255 1176 22
13:24.6 3,500m 1:54.9 230 1092 20
13:00.7 3,500m 1:51.5 252 1167 22
12:28.8 3,500m 1:46.9 286 1283 24
r56m

Hopefully week 3 will be a little more organized and following the workouts like they should be

[JerekKruger]

@Marius - well I'm not sure how serious the coaching will end up being. It certainly won't be weekly sessions and it might even end up just being two sessions: one to see where my faults are then another after I've had time to work on them to see if they're gone. We'll see.

Pete Plan 2.1: Speed Pyramid
250m 50.3 (1:40.6 average) at 33SPM, HR 168
500m 1:41.0 at 30SPM, HR 177
750m 2:31.2 (1:40.8 average) at 31SPM, HR 183
1000m 3:22.4 (1:41.2 average) at 30SPM, HR 188
750m 2:34.4 (1:42.9 average) at 30SPM, HR 184
500m 1:41.6 at 32SPM, HR 183
250m 46.5 (1:33.0) at 37SPM, HR 178
Average: 1:40.9 at 31SPM
r: 1718m

Not feeling great this morning and I considered skipping today's workout. In the end I decided not to, and whilst my average speed looks decent (1.8s faster split than last time) I felt weak from the 1000m interval onward. Tomorrow is my first meeting with my coach, and after that I might give myself a day off followed by a few days of light rowing to recover.

[calalli]

Hello again everyone. I have been following along but took a detour from the BPP so I wasn't posting. Everyone seems to be making great progress, it is cool to see. I had a couple of weeks of family stuff and doing more LSS sessions. I had a goal to hit 1M meters before my birthday so I focused on that for a bit; I did set PBs for HM, 60M and 10K over the course of a week, but nothing impressive since numbers were so weak to begin with. Anyway, I am resuming BPP at week 19. I took a step back on the sprints and intervals but hope to make it up quickly.

28/8/17 BPP 19.1 10000M - Not a great effort, I did a few sessions quicker last week, but I did some much slower.
Time Meters Pace Watts Cal/Hr S/M end HR
42:51.8 10,000m 2:08.5 165 866 23 143

29/8/17 BPP 19.2 5x800M /2'r - First interval session in 3 plus weeks - I just started with a pace I knew I could negative split
Time Meters Pace Watts Cal/Hr S/M endHR
15:06.3 4,000m 1:53.2 241 1127 28
3:05.6 800m 1:56.0 224 1071 28 144
3:04.3 800m 1:55.1 229 1087 27 149
3:02.0 800m 1:53.7 238 1117 27 152
2:59.9 800m 1:52.4 246 1146 28 156
2:54.6 800m 1:49.1 269 1226 30 161

[nhopkins]

Hello,

I just got my own Erg last week, and its been a long week of learning. I started the BPP yesterday with a 5000m row. Im still fine tuning my stroke and learning how to pace my self but i feel like I'm progressing I didn't have a goal besides finishing.

21:42.5 5,000m 2:10.2 158 844 27
2:16.6 500m 2:16.6 137 772 26
2:05.6 1,000m 2:05.6 177 907 26
2:05.7 1,500m 2:05.7 176 906 27
2:07.1 2,000m 2:07.1 170 886 28
2:11.3 2,500m 2:11.3 155 831 28
2:13.0 3,000m 2:13.0 149 811 28
2:11.7 3,500m 2:11.7 153 827 28
2:13.1 4,000m 2:13.1 148 810 27
2:13.6 4,500m 2:13.6 147 804 28
2:04.9 5,000m 2:04.9 180 917 28

Today is day 2, 6x 500m 2min r. It was the first intervals training on my erg id ever done so again I just wanted to finish. I feel like I'm getting a better handle on my form but there is still lots to come. now i have some bench marks as i go through the 24 weeks.

12:12.8 3,000m 2:02.1 192 960 24
2:00.8 500m 2:00.8 199 982 25
2:01.4 500m 2:01.4 196 972 23
2:04.5 500m 2:04.5 181 923 24
2:05.0 500m 2:05.0 179 916 23
2:03.3 500m 2:03.3 187 942 24
1:57.8 500m 1:57.8 214 1036 25

[-marius-]

@calalli - Welcome back again A PB is a PB, it is progress we are after isn't it?
@JerekKruger - I would probably benefit having someone go over my technique as well That 1000m can really drain all energy out of you, I was very close to HD after doing that interval too fast first time I did the pyramid

W3.1 - 4x1000m/5:00r row
Target avg pace from last time was 1:38.1. Morning workout on water + 100mg caffeine as energy after only 3.5 hours of sleep. Still went pretty good and a new avg target pace set for the next round.
Time Meters Pace Watts Cal/Hr S/M
12:53.5 4,000m 1:36.6 387 1631 32
3:17.9 1,000m 1:38.9 361 1542 31
3:15.7 1,000m 1:37.8 374 1584 31
3:13.5 1,000m 1:36.7 386 1628 32
3:06.4 1,000m 1:33.2 432 1786 37
r1,416m

[JerekKruger]

@calalli - welcome back and congrats on hitting 1M metres.

@nhopkins - welcome to the thread and congrats on getting your own erg.

@marius - yeah, the problem with the pyramid is I usually go into the 1000m with a faster average pace than I should, and can just about force myself to maintain it for the 1k. This just leaves me weak going into the 750m and 500m (the 250m is short enough that I can always do it fast).

Going for my coaching soon, which will replace today's stay state. Looking forward to it.

[jans]

@nhopkins: welcome and nice start. My first 5k was 2:14 and is still 2:10-ish, so we're in the same boat

BPP 1.4: 20 min row
Time Meters Pace Watts Cal S/M HR
20:00.0 4,609m 2:10.1 159 845 21 165
4:00.0 915m 2:11.1 155 833 18 150
8:00.0 921m 2:10.2 158 844 20 160
12:00.0 905m 2:12.6 150 816 21 165
16:00.0 899m 2:13.4 147 806 21 163
20:00.0 969m 2:03.8 184 933 24 187

[derico]

Decided to leave myself knocking at the door of season target 7:30 2k, missing by 1.2 s and resume another phase of distance/endurance work loosely aligned to PP!
Had a few steady state 30' @ 20 rows since previous post and after cutting back to rowing once per day instead of twice and in much cooler 16C garden shed temperature felt fresh enough to PB by 20 s on 10 km tt this evening on 1:59 pace. This is now my highest ranked piece on C2 logbook on the 78th centile for age group and weight - now need to bring other distances into line from mid-sixties!

Hoping Tom will share his new coaching tips with us shortly...

[nhopkins]

Thanks for the welcome guys!

@jans looks like you are making some good improvements, its nice to see some one who is starting out about the same place.

Today was day 3 of BPP a 5000m at day one average pace. for me that was 2.10. This morning i did a lot of reading and watching of videos on setting the proper drag. Being fairly new at this a figured i would just start low >3. After some trial and error i found that setting around 5 gave me a good drag factor of 119. Today while rowing i turned off the music and just focused on each stroke, noticing when its right how does it feel, and when its wrong how does it feel and what am i doing differently. all in all i thought today went very well. By the last 1000m i realized i hadn't been thinking about my breathing for a bit and was getting gassed. breathing will be my focus on the up coming rows (as well as cementing in a good stroke each time)

21:10.4 5,000m 2:07.0 171 887 22
2:08.4 500m 2:08.4 165 868 23
2:07.5 1,000m 2:07.5 169 880 23
2:07.3 1,500m 2:07.3 170 883 23
2:08.3 2,000m 2:08.3 166 870 22
2:07.4 2,500m 2:07.4 169 882 22
2:05.5 3,000m 2:05.5 177 909 23
2:06.7 3,500m 2:06.7 172 891 24
2:07.7 4,000m 2:07.7 168 878 21
2:06.1 4,500m 2:06.1 175 900 23
2:05.4 5,000m 2:05.4 177 910 21

All in all I'm happy with todays numbers

[JerekKruger]

@Derek - nice PB! I've yet to try a fast 10k but given how unpleasant my recent 30mins was I imagine they're not fun.

@nhopkins - nice improvement on the 5k. I'd avoid the temptation to reduce your split now: stick with 2:07 as the distance increases. If you try to build up both speed and distance you'll likely struggle (or at least I would have struggled). Once you get to week 12 you'll get a chance to start increasing your speed without increasing the distance.

Hoping Tom will share his new coaching tips with us shortly...

Hah! Well the coaching was primarily focused on my technique. He pointed out a few flaws: pausing briefly at the release, overcompressing at the catch (turns out my three quarters slide is probably where my full slide should have been), and using my back ever so slightly at the catch before I use my legs. He gave me some drills to work on these things as well taking some videos so I can see the difference. I have to say, when I was rowing correctly it felt odd, so it'll probably take a while to overwrite my bad technique. That said, hopefully that'll result in "free" speed once I do so.

Other than that, he talked a bit about mental toughness and how to build it in rowing, as well as telling some stories from his rowing days.

I'm definitely going to meet him again in a couple of months to see how my technique is progressing.

[nhopkins]

@nhopkins - nice improvement on the 5k. I'd avoid the temptation to reduce your split now: stick with 2:07 as the distance increases. If you try to build up both speed and distance you'll likely struggle (or at least I would have struggled). Once you get to week 12 you'll get a chance to start increasing your speed without increasing the distance.

thanks for the input! ill keep that in mind. Ive found that most the gains I've made have been from a more consistent stroke, but I'm definitely not going to push it any faster. i think this is good pace for now

[JingsCrivvens]

Hi

Into week 3 of the PP and the long interval session:

dist /500 time watt s/m watt/stroke
3000 @ 2:01.1 12:06 197 27 7.3
2500 @ 2:00.2 10.00.8 202 28 7.21
2000 @ 1:58.9 7:55.5 208 29 7.17

There's obviously a correlation between time, watts, and s/m. Question is - to improve my times should I concentrate on increasing the watts or increasing the s/m ? I notice that my power/stroke is around 7.2. Interestingly my fastest split was obtained at the lowest power/stroke level. My power/stroke seems pretty feeble when compared to many here on the forum - frequently see numbers around 9/10

[nhopkins]

Today was day 4 BPP 20mins at a slower pace than the 5000ms this week so i was aiming for over 1:07, I averaged 1:08 so i guess i hit the target. Today was tough, I've had the ERG for 2 weeks and have used it every day. Im planning to take the weekend off as I'm starting to really feel worn out. I feel like I've made a ton of progress in 2 weeks though. My second day on it i did a 5000m it took me 30 mins, now in in the low 20s I'm happy with that.

20:00.0 4,683m 2:08.1 166 872 19
4:00.0 945m 2:06.9 171 887 19
8:00.0 934m 2:08.4 165 867 18
12:00.0 940m 2:07.6 168 878 19
16:00.0 946m 2:06.8 171 889 20
20:00.0 918m 2:10.7 157 839 20