Pondering the Beginner Pete Plan

[Rowan McSheen]

W9 S1 9000m



UT2 as usual. Slight fade in final 500m to keep within hr band (100-120 bpm in this case). Brain in neutral, Pink Floyd in the headphones, back and forth, back and forth ...

Well done to FO for a shiny new pb, and after covid as well! They say that what doesn't kill us makes us stronger

[Rowan McSheen]

A question for those who understand the innards of the PM5.

Is there a method behind its selection of default splits on the distance pieces? I did 9000m this morning and it went for 1800m splits, which makes no sense to me. I've noticed something similar on other distances as well. Surely 1000m would be logical?

Another oddity is that it only records hrm values at the end of a split so the average at the end of a piece reflects those and not the overall hr (although the difference may be marginal esp if you choose shorter splits I guess). Peak hr value from a piece would be useful too.

Anyone know why this is so?

[fancyoats]

I think it just divides your distance into 5 splits, no matter what the distance is or what makes sense. I like 1000m splits for most distances too, so I input them that way.

[fancyoats]

W19S3 3x10:00/2:00
Instructions just say to treat these long intervals as though they were all together -like one long distance, just interrupted with a bit of rest. I figured If I was going to do a 30 minute piece, I'd want to hit at least 6km so I aimed for hitting 2km in each 10 minute interval. Not trying to go crazy on a Tuesday morning.



RH 98%

[Dom82]

W1 S2 - 6x500m - 2' rest

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Time	Meters	Pace	Watts	Cal/Hr	S/M	
12:29.9	3,000m	2:04.9	179	916	22	174
2:04.9	500m	2:04.9	180	918	22	167
2:04.9	500m	2:04.9	180	918	22	172
2:05.0	500m	2:05.0	179	916	22	174
2:05.0	500m	2:05.0	179	916	23	176
2:05.0	500m	2:05.0	179	916	23	178
2:05.0	500m	2:05.0	179	916	24	179

Felt ok. Had to rate up in the last intervals to keep up with the target pace.

[Rowan McSheen]

W9 S2 4 x 800m 2 mins rest



Instrux are to try for 1 sec quicker than last time (2:03.7 in W5). I thought that a little aggressive and instead went for the usual method of maintaining the pace up to the penultimate rep and then pedal to the metal in the final one. It went well enough, maybe I could have worked harder on the first three reps but I wanted to finish strongly rather than crash and burn. Especially as the 800/1000 intervals are the ones I like least. And I was a little creaky after a quite tough run yesterday. So all in all a good session. Onwards and upwards.

[Dom82]

W1 S3 - 5000m

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Time	Meters	Pace	Watts	Cal/Hr	S/M	
24:59.5	5,000m	2:29.9	104	657	16	145
4:57.0	1,000m	2:28.5	107	667	16	135
4:59.9	2,000m	2:29.9	104	657	16	144
5:01.0	3,000m	2:30.5	103	653	16	149
5:00.9	4,000m	2:30.4	103	653	16	149
5:00.7	5,000m	2:30.3	103	654	17	149

For some reason, it felt slightly worse than same session 2 days ago, despite cooler weather.

[fancyoats]

W19S4 30:00 row
No target - Pete says not to worry about split time at all, just focus on technique relaxation and efficiency. So I covered the monitor. Was pleased to see at the end when I took a look that I had done a nice negative split just by feel.



RH 92%

[Rowan McSheen]

W9 S3 8000m



UT1, as usual for the second distance piece. This seems to be settling on 2:14-2:15 for the longer ones. Was pleased today to actually pick it up a little in the final 1000m with headroom to spare hr-wise (UT1 for me is 120-130 bpm). Finished on 2:14.4 vs 2:14.8 last time, cooler conditions helped.

The PM5 says average spm was 23 although most of the splits were 24. Another small puzzle I guess, alongside the defaults for split length and hr rate sampling.

Nice going FO! I've never tried covering the PM. Not sure how I would cope, I like to fixate on one of the values during a workout. Might try it someday.

[fancyoats]

Nice going FO! I've never tried covering the PM. Not sure how I would cope, I like to fixate on one of the values during a workout. Might try it someday.

I have a piece of paper taped over *most* of the monitor - but I do leave the top fields uncovered - which in my preferred display mode show the time (or meters) remaining and the strokes per minute. So I do my share of fixating, just not on the pace!

[fancyoats]

W19S5 4 x 2000/4:00

Target was 2:17.1, which I just barely scraped in. That last interval was...not easy.



RH 82%

[flabby100]

W3S2: 2 x 2K / 4:00r / 2:11.8 / 21spm

Thought I may have overlooked it in the first lap, but was able to maintain pace in the second.

https://imgur.com/a/yyTXi3R

W6S2: 3 x 2k / 4:00r / 2:11.7 / 25spm

Instructions were to match pace from W3S2 2x2k. Wanted to practice a higher stroke rate.

https://imgur.com/a/FbGSC9C

[Rowan McSheen]

W9 S4 8000m



UT2 to halfway then UT1 to end. Reference paces are 2:20 and 2:15 respectively so I aimed to finish on 2:17.5 while keeping within stroke and heart rate boundaries. A pleasant workout.

Running in a half marathon tomorrow so we'll see if my legs fancy the next session on Monday.

[Dom82]

W1 S4 - 20min SS
Instructions said to aim to a lower pace than previous SS and focus on stroke efficiency. So I decided to slow by 3 seconds to 2.33, but reduce rating so that SPI would increase from 6.4 to around 7.

Code: Select all

Time	Meters	Pace	Watts	Cal/Hr	S/M	
20:00.0	3,929m	2:32.7	98	638	14	147
5:00.0	984m	2:32.4	99	640	14	141
10:00.0	979m	2:33.2	97	634	14	144
15:00.0	979m	2:33.2	97	634	14	150
20:00.0	987m	2:31.9	100	643	14	154

As I expected, it was tougher than previous SS. It confirms that, at least for me, rating affects the difficulty of a workout more than pace.

[fancyoats]

W20S1 12000
The pacing instructions made it seem like I was trying to equal my 10k pb pace? Maybe I'm misunderstanding but I wasn't feeling like that was a realistic target this morning. This is my furthest distance so far! I was just happy to finish and maintain a negative split the whole way.



RH 99%