Question For The Wolverines

[old] Nikos · Post by **[old] Nikos** » September 26th, 2004, 2:44 pm

I just started the wolverine plan today. I am thinking of doing 5 workouts per week and as Mike Caviston (thanks for the plan) suggests I will go for 1 workout of Level 1, 2 and 3 and two workouts of Level 4. For Level 1 I will do 8 x 500, 4 x 1000, 4000 Pyramid (alternating every week) Level 2: 5 x 1500, 4 x 2000, 3000/2500/2000 (alternating every week) Level3: 12000, 2 x 6000, 15 x 3min (alternating every week) Level4: 40min, 70min, 4 x 10min, 2 x 40min, 60min, 36min (these figures are pretty much from the original wolverine plan) This "three different workouts per level"-structure made me think of adding a three week cycle to my workout, that is one easy week, one medium week and one hard week. The only thing I do not know is which of the workouts is hard, easy and medium. Is for example the 4x1000 harder than 8x500 or the other way round? It would be great if some of the more experienced wolverine users could give their suggestions. Thanks Nikos

[old] KMurphy · Post by **[old] KMurphy** » September 26th, 2004, 9:25 pm

I'd like to hear other peoples opinions on this too. Is there any general rule of thumb to rank workouts within a given level from easiest to hardest given they rate the same volume (total meters?). IE are pyramids harder then straight intervals etc. Also, like mentioned above, is there any benifits to having a three week cycle that goes easy, medium, hard and then add to that either increasing volume over the three weeks or after each three week cycle until the desired max volume is met. ???

[old] DougB · Post by **[old] DougB** » September 26th, 2004, 10:43 pm

I did the Wolverine plan a while back and thought that *all* the workouts were hard: Level 1 because of the fast pace, Level 2 because of the long intervals at a (still) fast pace, Level 3 because of the long distance, and Level 4 because of pulling so hard at those slow rates. Personally, 4 x 1000 and 4 x 2000 were the toughest for me, and I never did any Level 4 workouts past 40 minutes, either (40 minutes was plenty). 8 x 500 wasn't too bad because each interval was over before it got too hard, and it took 4 or 5 of them just to get warmed up. Keep in mind that this is a training plan for a collegiate rowing team, so it's not meant to be easy. It's goal (as far as I can tell) is to work you hard at different paces and metabolic pathways (e.g. aerobic, anaerobic) to achieve an intended conditioning effect. Recovery seems to be more from working a different pathway than having an easy workout. Each workout gets you about 10,000 meters of quality training, which is a fair amount of work to handle. For alternating between easy, medium, and hard (probably a good idea), what I would do is to do the same workouts but fewer meters. So maybe 6 x 500, 3 x 2000, or 3 x 10 min Level 4 on easy days. But then you're not really doing the Wolverine Plan any more - just your variation on it. Doug

[old] Nikos · Post by **[old] Nikos** » September 27th, 2004, 12:08 pm

Thanks for the replies I think I will start with 4*1000, 4*2000, 12000, 2*40', 70' as L1, L2, L3, L4, L4 for the hard week Medium week: pyramid, 3k/2.5k/2k,2*6k, 40', 60' Easy week: 8*500,5*1500,15*3',4*10', 36' I'll post my results if anybody is interested, that would also be a way for me to keep myself motivated!

[old] JimR · Post by **[old] JimR** » September 27th, 2004, 12:41 pm

Nikos - I'm not sure it makes sense to think of any of these workouts as easy or hard compared to the others. Another significant part of the plan is to constantly decrease the pace of each workout over time as well. So while anyone of the workouts might not "feel" hard the first time you do it after speeding the pace a couple time you get to the point where it is as hard as any other. So "easy" might come down to the workout that is most in tune with your strengths, although these get hard too! JimR

[old] Nikos · Post by **[old] Nikos** » October 15th, 2004, 3:24 am

Jim, could very well be that there is no sense in rating the workouts. I'll just give it a try. To add to the cycle structure of my plan I was thinking of trying to improve my times an the medium and hard weeks while giving it a rest on the light weeks. I still am not sure about the structure though. Maybe I should sort the workouts in terms of total meters. That would also go into the direction Doug suggested. I will re-evaluate after I have finished my first cycle which is hard enough.

[old] Nikos · Post by **[old] Nikos** » October 15th, 2004, 3:35 am

I did not have the best start with my new training plan. I was seriously ill in the first week so I had to stop after the first workout. The next week I cought a cold but went rowing nevertheless. Unfortunately I only managed to do three of my five workouts due to other appointments. I hope to make up for the two lost workouts this week by going to the gym every day - for me very tough, but I made it so far (Thursday). I thought I had figured out everything about the wolverine plan but practise showed that this is not true: I did my first 4x10' Level4 workout last week. In the wolverine plan it is said to do this "at a proportionately greater intensity". What does this mean? Do more strokes (i.e. instead of 168/172/168/172 172/176/172/176) or choose a higher pace per stroke rate (i.e. 2k pace -2)? How much should you increase the intensity in the beginning? Any help?

[old] tomhz · Post by **[old] tomhz** » October 15th, 2004, 6:28 am

Nikos My interpration of the "proportionately greater intensity" of WL4: Every WL4 training you do slightly more strokes than the previous WL4 session in the same time (e.g. 4x10'). If I remember well 4-8 strokes more every session (e.g. 172 instead of 168). This leads to higher pace automatically because pace is defined by stroke rate in WL4. Every know and then (8-10 weeks?) you do a 2K test and adjust the stroke rate vs. pace table accordingly. Tom

[old] JimR · Post by **[old] JimR** » October 15th, 2004, 9:45 am

Nikos ... Mike plan actually has two different ideas of "proportionately greater intensity", one for level 1-3 and another for level 4 workouts. > level 1-3 ... each time you do the workout go at a little faster pace than last time. I think this implies a fairly limited set of workouts, otherwise how woould you increase the pace if you do a workout once a month (for example) > level 4 ... Mike is pretty clear in the plan and later clarifications that you don't retest your 2K for long periods (like the entire season). the exception is if your level 4 workouts are REALLY easy and you are new to training and improving drastically. Otherwise just keep working up the levels every week until you get to the top ... then startover. I work with the Wolverine plan and find that skipping a particular combination (going from 176 to 184) or jumping two intervals (say a 176/176/176/176 to a 176/180/180/176) in a week usually gives me all the challenge required. Best of success in your goals! JimR

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