Pondering the Beginner Pete Plan

[fancyoats]

W10S3 8000m



Another 8k. Same same.

92% RH Dripping sweat from everywhere, including my glasses.

[fancyoats]

W10S4 8000m (again)



Didn't feel like pushing super hard at the end today, so slightly slower overall. But still fine. Tomorrow is 7x500/2min and I'm going to try to rate up as much as I can. Then next week is the first 10k!
92% RH

[Rowan McSheen]

Still a decent acceleration at the finish, esp at only 2 spm quicker rating. Plenty of juice left in that tank.

W2 S1 of the "BPP reimagined": 5500 metres steady, done at UT2 (110-120 bpm). Pace 2:18.7 vs 2:19.8 for W1's 5000 and was able to pick up the pace a little towards the end without hr drift or increasing spm so pleased with that.

I'm often surprised by other folks' heart rates. The highest I ever got mine, in a proper "collapse and puke" hill running session, is 175 bpm and that was over 20 years ago (when I was in my early 40s). From recent runs I figure it's currently about 160 give or take a couple and from past experience I deduct 10 for my rowing max. Resting hr is about 40. My numbers are so much lower than everyone else's. Maybe I have a slow ticker, or maybe I'm not working hard enough ... or just plain weird

[fancyoats]

I'm often surprised by other folks' heart rates…

I think your low heart rate is likely a sign of your excellent fitness and CV health. My high heart rate is probably just because I am in terrible shape! I’m hoping to see it gradually come down lower as I get better and put in the miles. My lowest resting heart rate for me is somewhere between 55 and 60. I don’t wear a hrm watch I just measure with one of those apps where you put your fingertip against the camera, so I don’t have continuous monitoring, just whenever I think to measure it. I do have a Garmin chest strap but only wear that when on the erg.

[Dangerscouse]

I'm often surprised by other folks' heart rates…

I think your low heart rate is likely a sign of your excellent fitness and CV health. My high heart rate is probably just because I am in terrible shape! I’m hoping to see it gradually come down lower as I get better and put in the miles. My lowest resting heart rate for me is somewhere between 55 and 60. I don’t wear a hrm watch I just measure with one of those apps where you put your fingertip against the camera, so I don’t have continuous monitoring, just whenever I think to measure it. I do have a Garmin chest strap but only wear that when on the erg.

HR is very subjective. I've seen a very good rower (probably sub 6 2ker), and his HR has reached almost 200, so there is not always a clear link to high or low HR.

Resting HR is probably a better way of gauging fitness.

[jamesg]

I've seen recently, and quite obviously, that my belt/PM/Watch see electric impulses, not heartbeats. Maybe my fibrillation or whatever. Occasionaly I can get the watch to lock on 240; but in twenty years I've never seen a real max higher than 160. One doc I talked to said better not go over 120, which is the number I think says I've done a warmup, and twice my rest rate.

Anyway HR is simple to control while also getting a good training effect: pull hard and adjust the interval and rest times.

[fancyoats]

W10S5 7x500/2min

The last time I did this session was week 7, and my average was 2:13.1. But based on a suggestion a little while ago about doing a 500m at 25s/m I figured I'd focus mostly on rating up as best as I could, and let the pace be whatever it was going to be. Not super consistent from one interval to the next, and I was definitely flagging in the 6th rep but I pulled it back a little in the last one. Oof.



Other news is that the gigantic powerful fan I ordered arrived yesterday and now I am rowing in a wind tunnel

only 79% RH!

[Dangerscouse]

W10S5 7x500/2min

The last time I did this session was week 7, and my average was 2:13.1. But based on a suggestion a little while ago about doing a 500m at 25s/m I figured I'd focus mostly on rating up as best as I could, and let the pace be whatever it was going to be. Not super consistent from one interval to the next, and I was definitely flagging in the 6th rep but I pulled it back a little in the last one. Oof.



Other news is that the gigantic powerful fan I ordered arrived yesterday and now I am rowing in a wind tunnel

only 79% RH!

The lack of consistency really doesn't matter when you're improving that much, and maintaining a notably higher stroke rate.

I guess the lower RH will be helping to hide some of your recent improvements, so this is a great time to keep building whilst in a sub-optimal environment for when the cooler temperatures come back around

[Rowan McSheen]

Other news is that the gigantic powerful fan I ordered arrived yesterday and now I am rowing in a wind tunnel

only 79% RH!

Yay! Although I draw a kind of neanderthal pleasure from sitting in a puddle of my own sweat after a decent session. Maybe it's a man thing.

Anyhoo ... W2 S2, 4 x 750m at same pace as 500m reps of W1 and no faster (says Pete). Done at 2:04.6 vs 2:04.7, so I get a black mark for that 0.1 second. Stroke rate 27-28. Hard but not a killer, mindful that the pace is expected to improve as the plan progresses.

Disappointed to see the logbook calculate the calories at just 190. It felt like it was worth more than barely one pint of beer

[iain]

I'm often surprised by other folks' heart rates. The highest I ever got mine, in a proper "collapse and puke" hill running session, is 175 bpm and that was over 20 years ago (when I was in my early 40s). From recent runs I figure it's currently about 160 give or take a couple and from past experience I deduct 10 for my rowing max. Resting hr is about 40. My numbers are so much lower than everyone else's. Maybe I have a slow ticker, or maybe I'm not working hard enough ... or just plain weird

As I understand it the variation in max HR with training is a rounding difference compared with the variation of HRmax between people. Basically if you have a larger left ventricle then your HR will be lower. So Olympic rowers have had HRmax in low 160s and >200. That is why HR stats are only meaningful when compared to previous sessions by the same person or their HRmax & RHR.

Cal on PM fairly meaningless. It includes the cals that you would have burned resting, makes no adjustment for rating (the higher the rating the higher the cals burned), makes no adjustment for weight (only significant at higher ratings), is based on an average so doesn't account for the efficiency of the rower and doesn't account for the calories expended by your body post workout (after a hard session this can continue for >36 hours). That said, exercise for most of us will never shift a lot of weight and can leave people hungry so more inclined to eat more!

[fancyoats]

W11S1 10000m



I dunno whether I built it up in my head (because 10k feels a bit like a milestone), or whether I was just kind of dehydrated or what, but this felt like a struggle. Had a hard time getting out of bed, had a hard time keeping the pace, had a hard time speeding up, and my HR seemed higher than it had been. Maybe because its back to 95% RH.

But I did it. Happy Monday. Onward and upward.

[Rowan McSheen]

W11S1 10000m



I dunno whether I built it up in my head (because 10k feels a bit like a milestone), or whether I was just kind of dehydrated or what, but this felt like a struggle. Had a hard time getting out of bed, had a hard time keeping the pace, had a hard time speeding up, and my HR seemed higher than it had been. Maybe because its back to 95% RH.

But I did it. Happy Monday. Onward and upward.

That's 50 minutes of solid effort with another acceleration at the end while maintaining the low stroke rate. Sometimes it flies by and sometimes we have to grind it out, but it's all good. It's all metres rowed and calories burned.

"BPP reimagined" W2 S3: 5500m steady, at UT1 (120-130 bpm for me). Pace 2:13.2 at 23 spm and av hr 118 (vs 2:14.8 at 22 spm and av hr 121 for the previous 5000m UT1). No idea why the leap in performance, the legs certainly felt they were working hard even if the lungs didn't. I had to push to get the hr up into the band before easing slightly in the final 1000m to stay below 130 bpm. Anomalous but I'll take it anyway, thankyou.

[fancyoats]

W11S2 8x500/2min



Same approach as the 7x500 from Saturday, but slightly less good results. The last 4 intervals weren't my favorite. There's nothing quite like thinking "faster faster faster" while proceeding to go slower and slower and slower.

[Rowan McSheen]

Last workout was Monday, on Tuesday I had a tough 10k race mostly on soft sandy surfaces, and yesterday (Wednesday) was a rest day. So, back at it today with W2 S4: 20 minutes, instrux are to maintain same pace as 5500 rows of this week. I took the first 10 minutes at UT2 (2:19-ish at 20 spm) and the second 10 minutes at UT1 (2:14-ish at 22 spm), since that's how I did the two 5500s. Made it marginally more interesting than just plugging away.

Apropos low heart rate. During that 10k run I was pretty much whacked in a few places, particularly the tops of a couple of steep sand dunes, but was able to carry on albeit slowly on jelly legs. Heart rate peaked at 155 so I guess a max of 160 give or take a couple is about right. Some folks' hearts are free-revving Hondas, some are lazy slow Harley Davidson hogs.

[fancyoats]

W11S3 8000m



8k feels like a bit of a sweet spot for me at the moment.

89%RH