Pondering the Beginner Pete Plan

[jrkob]

If you're interested in getting a HR monitor then the Polar H10 is good and I pair that with my Garmin FR255 for more accurate data. It can also be paired to the erg.

Thanks for the suggestion. I used to have a Polar, a very old model but it wouldn't pair with my FR255.
So, a few months ago I bought a Garmin HR-Dual (I think it's called, lazy to check). Normally I use it every time I row, it's a neat piece of equipment !

[iain]

I guess I’ll just jump in and introduce myself...
Anyway, I’m happy to be here, happy to be rowing again. It feels good and I’m determined to get that million meter shirt.

Welcome, glad you are enjoying it. 2:30 pace is no joke after some time off. It would be good to hear your objectives as otherwise suggestions may not be appropriate. I would say that if you need to back off a bit, perhaps start the next SS a little slower so that you can always maintain the pace.

Look forward to watching your progress.

- Iain

[RayOfSunshine]

Hi all.

I guess I’ll just jump in and introduce myself. I am 43F, 5’8” 230lbs, pretty sedentary for the last 15-20years. I bought a C2 on a whim for myself as a birthday present a few weeks ago, thinking back to my time rowing on the crew team during high school. (I was captain!) I had trained on ergs during that time so it felt familiar enough that I thought it would be something I could stick with.

I decided to start the BPP once my machine arrived and as of this morning have completed up through week 4 session 4. I know my fitness level is not great, but even just in the past month I’ve seen lots of improvement which is very motivating. I’m a sucker for data, so I am really enjoying the charts and graphs aspect. Also very motivating.

I’m not sure how you guys are posting the charts without having to type in all the numbers. This is me typing in all the numbers from this morning:

Time distance pace watts cal cal/hr HR s/m
30:49.5 6000m 2:34.1 96 321 629 154 17
6:10.4 1200m 2:34.3 95 64 627 148 17
6:10.2 2400m 2:34.2 95 64 628 151 17
6:11.8 3600m 2:34.9 94 64 623 153 17
6:15.7 4800m 2:36.5 91 64 614 154 17
6:01.4 6000m 2:30.5 103 65 652 167 18

I know these single distance rows are supposed to be steady state but I can’t help pushing myself during the last bit. The penultimate split you can see I had to slow down to keep my HR steady(ish) but then the last split I usually just say to heck with it and go for broke.

Which probably sounds laughable at 2:30.5 and 18s/m.

Anyway, I’m happy to be here, happy to be rowing again. It feels good and I’m determined to get that million meter shirt.

Welcome to the board! I was in a similar state when I bought my c2 and started on BPP.
46M, 5'9", 235, former athlete.
I did all 5 sessions of the BPP and started posting nearly all of them to hold myself accountable.
I joined an indoor rowing club, broke 40' 10k (goal I made half way through BPP), dropped below 165 so I could row as a lightweight in a race (won it), bought a SkiErg, recently went through the BPP with it and got my 1M!. Recently I bought the bikeErg and am trying to do ergathlons.



Here's how I post pics
https://imgur.com/
1) take a picture of sreenshot of whatever you want
2) open up imgur and click on new post
3) choose your photo
4) right click and choose "copy image address"
5) paste address in here
6) highlight address and click the picture icon

[winniewinser]

BPP W8S1....8.5km circa 2:08....warm day and raised HR...no worries though.

36:03.1 8,500m 2:07.2 170 884 20
7:12.6 1,700m 2:07.2 170 884 20
7:12.2 1,700m 2:07.1 170 886 20
7:11.8 1,700m 2:07.0 171 888 20
7:13.0 1,700m 2:07.3 169 883 20
7:13.4 1,700m 2:07.4 169 881 20

[fancyoats]

Welcome to the board! I was in a similar state when I bought my c2 and started on BPP.

Thanks so much to you and to Iain for the welcome!

Today is a rest day for me but for accountability’s sake here is my session from yesterday. (Thanks as well for the photo posting tips) The max HR number is me really pushing it, which I have gathered is kinda the purpose of those longer speed-endurance intervals Pete has. That 181 is actually the max I’ve observed for myself so far. I’ve also gathered that establishing actual max HR is kind of a fuzzy science and I read Winnie say upthread that they are using HR as sort of a barometer for fitness which seems like a reasonable approach.

BPP W4S5


I will note that during the top of the second interval the strap from my hrm (it’s a garmin dual) came unclipped and so I stopped to fix it and ended up playing catch-up for the rest of the interval, chasing the pace I had established in the first interval. So that’s a factor to consider.

[fancyoats]

It would be good to hear your objectives as otherwise suggestions may not be appropriate.

Thanks again for the welcome!

As far as objectives go, I suppose a general improvement in CV health/fitness is the main goal. I find that since I turned 40, I've woken up to the idea that this body needs care and maintenance or else it's a long slow slide into decrepitude in the years to come.

Secondary goal would be to lose a little weight, but I'm hoping more to focus on what my body can do rather than what it looks like, if that makes sense. I've got the memo about caloric deficit and not being able to out-row your fork, lol.

Other goals include:
Finishing the BPP plan all 5 sessions/week. (Doing well on this so far)
Like I said, getting that million meter shirt.
Not sure what an appropriate goal for a 10K time would be just yet since I'm not quite there yet in the plan. I guess that will become clearer as I go along.
Also, and this maybe should have a higher place, but I'd like to avoid injuring myself. To this end, I should probably ask for a form check. That probably needs its own thread?

And as long as I'm here daydreaming about what I'd like to achieve, I'd really love to get back OTW at some point. There is a boat club in my area that I've been meaning to get in touch with to see about joining, but I'm just not clear on how I'd fit it into my schedule. At this point, I still have kids to drop at school and really long work days. Maybe next year when my oldest kid starts driving herself (and her brother) to school, I'll be able to do morning rows OTW before work?

[RayOfSunshine]

As far as objectives go, I suppose a general improvement in CV health/fitness is the main goal. I find that since I turned 40, I've woken up to the idea that this body needs care and maintenance or else it's a long slow slide into decrepitude in the years to come.

Secondary goal would be to lose a little weight, but I'm hoping more to focus on what my body can do rather than what it looks like, if that makes sense. I've got the memo about caloric deficit and not being able to out-row your fork, lol.

Other goals include:
Finishing the BPP plan all 5 sessions/week. (Doing well on this so far)
Like I said, getting that million meter shirt.
Not sure what an appropriate goal for a 10K time would be just yet since I'm not quite there yet in the plan. I guess that will become clearer as I go along.
Also, and this maybe should have a higher place, but I'd like to avoid injuring myself. To this end, I should probably ask for a form check. That probably needs its own thread?

And as long as I'm here daydreaming about what I'd like to achieve, I'd really love to get back OTW at some point. There is a boat club in my area that I've been meaning to get in touch with to see about joining, but I'm just not clear on how I'd fit it into my schedule. At this point, I still have kids to drop at school and really long work days. Maybe next year when my oldest kid starts driving herself (and her brother) to school, I'll be able to do morning rows OTW before work?

These are excellent objectives. Completing the BPP (all 5 sessions) without injury will take care of most of the goals. On injury, I'd definitely read the instructions for each session. I too tend to push myself a little (nothing crazy) on the SS sessions. I like to negative split my SS sessions and did it on the BPP starting at the goal pace.

I'm also a numbers junkie and use a HR monitor. I did a 21k this morning and broke the intervals into 1000 (see below). The PM5 allows a maximum of 50 intervals in a single workout. This helps keep me focused on each interval (especially b/c I like to negative split). Also, the HRM only keeps the reading at the end of the interval. So, if it were to briefly disconnect as I went from 999 to 1001, it would take the reading at that time.

I really only use the HRM for a barometer. As my fitness improves/worsens, it definitely follows. It's usually in sync with my RPE as well. My max observed HR is 189 though I haven't seen it in a few years. Based on what I've read on these boards, it's really only probably dropped to 185ish due to age.

[fancyoats]

I'm also a numbers junkie...

Seems like there are a lot of us here
My job as an engineering technician has definitely fostered in me an abiding love of data collection. The more charts and graphs the better.


(and wow 21k at those numbers - kind of in awe at that)

[RayOfSunshine]

I'm also a numbers junkie...

Seems like there are a lot of us here
My job as an engineering technician has definitely fostered in me an abiding love of data collection. The more charts and graphs the better.


(and wow 21k at those numbers - kind of in awe at that)

I'm an actuary, LOL.

[fancyoats]

W5S1 7000m


You can pretty clearly see that I wasn't trying to stay in any sort of HR zone - I did kick up the pace in the second half which resulted in higher HR numbers. Maybe that's ill-advised? You guys will probably tell me to slow down, and I'm sure you're right. I definitely was working hard at the end, not the easy breezy steady state I hear people describe where they could row for hours.

I guess I'm having trouble understanding how steady state fits together with what I've read about progressive overload and adaptive effect. Any thoughts?

[Sakly]

W5S1 7000m


You can pretty clearly see that I wasn't trying to stay in any sort of HR zone - I did kick up the pace in the second half which resulted in higher HR numbers. Maybe that's ill-advised? You guys will probably tell me to slow down, and I'm sure you're right. I definitely was working hard at the end, not the easy breezy steady state I hear people describe where they could row for hours.

I guess I'm having trouble understanding how steady state fits together with what I've read about progressive overload and adaptive effect. Any thoughts?

The overload part is done in hard distances and intervals. Steady states are meant to be more on the easy side and should have comparatively high volume. Exactly because of that they need to be less taxing, as you cannot recover properly otherwise and your hard distances and intervals will suffer -> less progress.

[fancyoats]

The overload part is done in hard distances and intervals. Steady states are meant to be more on the easy side and should have comparatively high volume. Exactly because of that they need to be less taxing, as you cannot recover properly otherwise and your hard distances and intervals will suffer -> less progress.

That's a very clear and succinct explanation. Thank you.

[Sakly]

The overload part is done in hard distances and intervals. Steady states are meant to be more on the easy side and should have comparatively high volume. Exactly because of that they need to be less taxing, as you cannot recover properly otherwise and your hard distances and intervals will suffer -> less progress.

That's a very clear and succinct explanation. Thank you.

We also have to factor in how much overall volume we do and as well how good we can recover from a session, as it is highly individual.
If only 3-4 sessions done in a week, for me all sessions could be high intensity, as it would give me enough time to recover. But as soon as you get more time on the rower or do other sports/activities in parallel, you have to plan and think about recovery. For me 3 intense gym sessions do not leave much room for high intensity on the rower very often, so I do intervals and hard distances only from time to time, but mostly steady states as they give me the benefit of cv base development.
Probably for you it could also work to go harder on the steady states, but keep in mind that the intervals should be done really hard (at least, when you are going further next weeks in the PP).

[iain]

Probably for you it could also work to go harder on the steady states, but keep in mind that the intervals should be done really hard (at least, when you are going further next weeks in the PP).

Very difficult to assess this. As you haven't been training again for long and doing 5 sessions a week, I would err on the side of caution and not go too hard on SS. What you can recover from also depends on quality of diet, sleep, other stresses and other activities, sounds as if you may have a busy life. You should come off the rower feeling you have done some work and breathing hard, but knowing that you could have done a few thousand more. THat said, no issue with a short acceleration at the end for interest and to demonstrate that you still had plenty left.

I agree that the goals seem sensible and the BPP a good starting point.

[Dangerscouse]

Very difficult to assess this. As you haven't been training again for long and doing 5 sessions a week, I would err on the side of caution and not go too hard on SS. What you can recover from also depends on quality of diet, sleep, other stresses and other activities, sounds as if you may have a busy life. You should come off the rower feeling you have done some work and breathing hard, but knowing that you could have done a few thousand more. THat said, no issue with a short acceleration at the end for interest and to demonstrate that you still had plenty left.

I agree that the goals seem sensible and the BPP a good starting point.

Agreed. In the early months of training you need to make sure that you adapt properly to the effort and stress otherwise it can be counter productive. There's plenty of time to test yourself when you've built a strong foundation.

Always constantly assess and adjust with how you feel and what you're doing, as you need to be able to discern the difference between enough and too much / laziness and fatigue.