Pete Plan 2017

[barrec]

Welcome @nhopkins! I hope you find rowing as rewarding as I have. I did the BPP between January and June and it whipped me into shape.

@Derek - bravo on the PBs!

@marius - I drool at your splits and athleticism! Fantastic work.

@Jerek - I think it's awesome you met with a coach. I've thought about that possibility as well (or at least finally taking some video of me erging to put online for feedback). I hope you notice improvements over time.

@Cal - welcome back to the plan! I'll be between plans myself for a few weeks and will focus on some LSS (strapless at that).

PP 3.3.5 - 2K TT - Goal: 1:45.0
Time Meters Pace Watts Cal/Hr S/M
6:58.6 2,000m 1:44.6 305 1350 30
1:45.0 500m 1:45.0 302 1339 30
1:45.1 1,000m 1:45.1 301 1336 29
1:45.0 1,500m 1:45.0 302 1339 30
1:43.6 2,000m 1:43.6 315 1382 31

Well I met my 2K goal . I did 3 cycles of the PP and lowered my splits by 5 seconds from 1:49.6 to 1:44.6. I had a bit of strength at the end, too, and think I could have shot for 1:44.0 - but I'll save that for next time. My muscles were sore but gosh my lungs were inflamed for 12 hours or so.

5K TT
Time Meters Pace Watts Cal/Hr S/M
18:26.1 5,000m 1:50.6 259 1189 28
3:42.0 1,000m 1:51.0 256 1180 28
3:41.9 2,000m 1:50.9 256 1181 28
3:41.9 3,000m 1:50.9 256 1181 28
3:41.8 4,000m 1:50.9 257 1182 28
3:38.6 5,000m 1:49.3 268 1221 29

As I've mentioned, I wanted to pull a 5K TT prior to starting Pete's 5K plan to get a baseline stat. I'll be honest - I had a lot left in the tank and could have shot for 1:50.5 or even 1:50.0 the whole way. Again, I'll leave that for next time .

I'll call both TTs personal bests. I rowed a lot 10 years ago and logged some good times, but none were verified and most of my PBs were rowed on an old Model B which was probably inaccurate anyway.

On a slightly more personal note, I wrote a blog entry about getting back on the erg and losing weight these past 8 months. If you're interested in reading about it, check it out here: barrec.wordpress.com/2017/08/27/on-losing-weight-the-fat-part-2. I definitely give the forums a shout out for resources and support. Let me take another second now and thank you all for your regular comments and encouragement!

Alright, back to the erg.

[-marius-]

@nhopkins - Welcome and congrats with the C2 rower. It's a love/hate relationship, mostly hate
@barrec - Congrats on your PB and reaching your goals. Nothing more satisfying than that. Good luck on the 5K plan
Awesome job on the weight loss, looking good Now go clean those rails and rollers on the erg and start rowing!
@derico - Great work on that 10K and congrats with a new PB

As something has again come up during the weekend I needed to rearrange the PP and go for the CTC for September this week(meaning I skip the waterfall and move it to next week)
W3.2 Should be steady state but used it as preparation for the 6K TT
6000m row - Focused on keeping the rate around 25SPM
Time Meters Pace Watts Cal/Hr S/M
21:51.3 6,000m 1:49.2 268 1222 24
3:39.5 1,000m 1:49.7 265 1210 26
3:39.4 2,000m 1:49.7 265 1211 25
3:39.2 3,000m 1:49.6 266 1214 24
3:37.9 4,000m 1:48.9 271 1230 25
3:38.3 5,000m 1:49.1 269 1225 24
3:37.0 6,000m 1:48.5 274 1242 25

Strapless 3K
Time Meters Pace Watts Cal/Hr S/M
11:00.7 3,012m 1:49.6 265 1212 24
5:00.0 1,348m 1:51.2 254 1173 20
10:00.0 1,379m 1:48.7 272 1235 23
11:00.7 285m 1:46.4 290 1296 29

W3.3 Hard distance - 6K(CTC for September)
Time Meters Pace Watts Cal/Hr S/M
20:29.1 6,000m 1:42.4 326 1419 31
3:31.4 1,000m 1:45.7 296 1319 29
3:29.4 2,000m 1:44.7 305 1348 30
3:27.4 3,000m 1:43.7 314 1379 30
3:24.9 4,000m 1:42.4 325 1419 31
3:23.3 5,000m 1:41.6 333 1445 31
3:12.6 6,000m 1:36.3 392 1647 35

New 6 K PB, 27 seconds better than my previous one

[JerekKruger]

@Barrec - welcome to the sub 7 club! Also that 5k is damn impressive, especially if you felt you had some left in the tank.

I just read your blog post and it's very impressive. I think the realisation that you're rowing to be better at rowing is a good sign as far as the long term goes. Also, as Marius says, clean those rails: you'll knock at least 20s off your splits if you do

@Marius - damn that's an impressive 6k time, and based on your splits I suspect you could go even faster!

I've come down with a cold, so I'm going to give myself a rest till Monday. I'm going to be doing a bastardised version of the Pete Plan, doing four steady state sessions and two faster sessions a week. I want to focus on my technique improvement as much as possible, and going fast is likely to see me revert to my old technique.

[nhopkins]

Thank you again for the warm welcome, I am working on making rowing part of my every day life. so far its been a bit of a battle but hey nothing worth having comes for free right.

@Barrec: I read you blog and it is inspiring as some one who is on the same journey its great to see that is can be done! Keep it up!!

Today is day 5 of BPP 2X10min 2r. My goal pace was in the 2:08 range for the first 10 mins and then to beat that time, seemed pretty straight forward but it wasn't as easy as it sounded.

20:00.0 4,735m 2:06.7 172 891 21
10:00.0 2,357m 2:07.2 170 883 20
10:00.0 2,378m 2:06.1 174 899 23

I managed to do it but i definitely left it all out there, I am beat today.

[calalli]

@nhopkins - welcome aboard! Looks like you are off to a good start - the important thing for now is to just keep showing up. That doesn't mean everyday though; at least one day a week for recovery is as important as anything to keep you going.
marius, barrec, Tom - you guys just bow me away when I see the times you are posting.
@Derek - good job on the 10K - I had hoped to be under 40min by now but it seems a long way to go yet.

30/8/17 BPP 19.3 3x10min / 2'r - took this kind of slow, just want to get a feel for negative splits again
Time Meters Pace Watts Cal/Hr S/M endHR
30:00.0 7,173m 2:05.4 177 909 25
10:00.0 2,378m 2:06.1 174 899 25 137
10:00.0 2,380m 2:06.0 175 901 25 141
10:00.0 2,414m 2:04.2 182 927 26 144

31/8/17 BPP 19.4 30min - supposed to be rate capped at 22, SS session. I didn't follow the plan, new pb for 30 minutes. Also HR strap battery failed
Time Meters Pace Watts Cal/Hr S/M
30:00.0 7,335m 2:02.7 189 951 24
6:00.0 1,411m 2:07.5 169 879 23
12:00.0 1,442m 2:04.8 180 918 23
18:00.0 1,455m 2:03.7 185 935 23
24:00.0 1,475m 2:02.0 193 962 24
30:00.0 1,552m 1:55.9 224 1071 28

1/9/17 10000M Strapless SS - basically what I was supposed to do the day before
Time Meters Pace Watts Cal/Hr S/M
44:57.5 10,000m 2:14.8 143 790 20

2/9/17 BPP 19.5 4x2000M / 4'r - wanted to do the long interval on a day I did not do a morning workout. Much better than the 2:02.7 avg about 4 weeks ago

Time Meters Pace Watts Cal/Hr S/M
31:18.5 8,000m 1:57.4 216 1043 28
7:54.8 2,000m 1:58.7 209 1019 28
7:51.9 2,000m 1:57.9 213 1033 27
7:48.5 2,000m 1:57.1 218 1049 27
7:43.3 2,000m 1:55.8 225 1074 28

[-marius-]

@JerekKruger - Sounds like a good idea to take some time off the erg. Get well soon, the erg is waiting for you
@nhopkins - Nice efforts on a low rate
@calalli - Very good sessions, especially the dreaded 4x2000m and the 30' PB

W3.4 Waterfall today. 16 seconds better than last time.

Time Meters Pace Watts Cal/Hr S/M
25:16.6 7,500m 1:41.1 339 1464 30
10:14.2 3,000m 1:42.3 326 1421 28
r: 5:00 484m
8:27.0 2,500m 1:41.4 336 1454 30
r: 5:00 370m
6:35.3 2,000m 1:38.8 363 1546 33

[JerekKruger]

My plan today was to row 3x20min/45s if steady state. The problem is I find it hard to make the changes my coach suggested and keep my pace down (not sure why, but I just seem to go faster when I row correctly). This would be fine, except it took me well out of steady state pace so I only completed the first of my three 20mins.

20mins 5014m 1:59.6
?mins 2048m

I also used ErgData for the first time, and messed up syncing my logbook which resulting in the above workout being deleted (hence ?mins). I had a crack at beating my 500m PB to check whether I could make ErgData work correctly.

500m 1:28.7 40SPM

I paced this horribly with my splits being faster than 1:28 until around the 1min mark, then dropping off drastically at the end. Still, ErgData now seems to work and I have some fancy graphs to look at. I'm still convinced that if I paced the 500m better I could beat my PB.

Anyway, I think I'm going to have to take some time working on technique, which means I'll probably be doing short and relatively easy pieces on the erg. I'll throw in some cycling and some kettlebell stuff to work on my aerobic base and higher intensity side, but my erging will be pretty exclusively technical for a while. Given I really won't be doing the Pete Plan I won't post my workouts here, but I'll keep an eye on the thread and pipe up every now and again. I'll definitely be returning to the Pete Plan once I'm used to my new technique.

[nhopkins]

Started week 2 of BPP today. I took the weekend off to recover after a hard couple of weeks on the ERG. Today was 5500m at last weeks pace (2:07) Every thing was going great today until i got a cramp in my glutes that wouldn't let up for about 1500m i guess i didn't warm up quite enough after being off for a couple days. lesson learned....

23:41.3 5,500m 2:09.2 162 858 20
2:07.4 500m 2:07.4 169 882 22
2:06.7 1,000m 2:06.7 172 891 21
2:07.5 1,500m 2:07.5 169 880 21
2:07.1 2,000m 2:07.1 170 886 21
2:07.1 2,500m 2:07.1 170 886 20
2:07.0 3,000m 2:07.0 171 887 20
2:11.0 3,500m 2:11.0 156 835 19
2:09.6 4,000m 2:09.6 161 853 19
2:23.1 4,500m 2:23.1 119 710 20
2:09.3 5,000m 2:09.3 162 856 21
2:05.5 5,500m 2:05.5 177 909 20

[nhopkins]

Day 2 BPP 4X 750m 2r

todays goal was 2:02, I found it quite easy to keep pace today, things are progressing nicely. felt like i could do a couple more intervals.

12:10.3 3,000m 2:01.7 194 967 20
3:02.5 750m 2:01.6 194 968 22
3:02.1 750m 2:01.4 196 972 21
3:02.9 750m 2:01.9 193 964 20
3:02.8 750m 2:01.8 193 965 19

At least no cramps today!

[derico]

@nhopkins I find my sit bones ache after around 5k unless I deploy my seat cushion which is just a few layers of bubble wrap taped together with parcel tape. 1M metres so far on this season's current model, bubbles long popped in the pressured areas so now giving imaginary comfort!

[nhopkins]

@derico Thanks for the tip! I'll give that a try when I have some bubble wrap come in.

[-marius-]

@nhopkins - Nice low rate workouts

Finishing off Pete's plan with a 5K since the 6K CTC went so well I just had to do the long outstanding 5K now while I'm in a good flow.
Old PB beaten by 16.8 seconds.

Time Meters Pace Watts Cal/Hr S/M
16:45.5 5,000m 1:40.5 344 1483 31
3:24.2 1,000m 1:42.1 329 1430 30
3:22.6 2,000m 1:41.3 337 1457 31
3:22.4 3,000m 1:41.2 338 1461 31
3:22.4 4,000m 1:41.2 338 1461 32
3:14.0 5,000m 1:37.0 383 1618 34

Not sure if I'm going to start a new cycle of PP for now. I will do some shorter rows for a week and then decide.

[jans]

@nhopkins: wow, good start! How fit where you when you started? I'm struggling more to get some decent results

BPP 2.1: 5.500 m

Time Meters Pace Watts Cal S/M HR
23:42.4 5,500m 2:09.3 162 856 18 169
4:40.9 1,100m 2:07.6 168 878 17 155
4:45.7 2,200m 2:09.8 160 849 17 166
4:46.7 3,300m 2:10.3 158 843 18 168
4:46.0 4,400m 2:10.0 159 847 18 173
4:43.2 5,500m 2:08.7 164 864 20 183

Still struggling to connect with legs. Feels like I can't put the power through (= low Watts), even after watching a 1000 of Dark Horse videos

[hjs]

@nhopkins: wow, good start! How fit where you when you started? I'm struggling more to get some decent results

BPP 2.1: 5.500 m

Time Meters Pace Watts Cal S/M HR
23:42.4 5,500m 2:09.3 162 856 18 169
4:40.9 1,100m 2:07.6 168 878 17 155
4:45.7 2,200m 2:09.8 160 849 17 166
4:46.7 3,300m 2:10.3 158 843 18 168
4:46.0 4,400m 2:10.0 159 847 18 173
4:43.2 5,500m 2:08.7 164 864 20 183

Still struggling to connect with legs. Feels like I can't put the power through (= low Watts), even after watching a 1000 of Dark Horse videos

You can watch all you want, but rowing is mostly hard work and patience. Not your technique is holding you down, but your current fitness/strenght is.
Don,t know your hf numbers, but those look very high for a session like this. Which brings you back to point 1.

[derico]

@jans I note the improvement in your pace from 2:11.5 to 2:9.5 from last week to this, this is improvement! Also your SPM < 20 suggests there must be some semblance of efficiency here, so legs must be working! Make sure to experiment with drag factor - lowering it might challenge and in turn improve your timing!