Pondering the Beginner Pete Plan

[Rowan McSheen]

BPP Wk2 so far

...

Day 2 - 4x750....pushed myself for the last 250m on final interval

Time Meters Pace Watts Cal/Hr S/M
12:55.7 3,000m 2:09.2 162 857 21
3:24.3 750m 2:16.2 139 776 19
3:12.9 750m 2:08.6 165 866 20
3:18.3 750m 2:12.2 151 821 21
3:00.2 750m 2:00.1 202 994 25

Quite a jump on that last one, plenty left in the tank for the future.

Week 1/4

Instrux are to take it a little slower than the distance pieces and focus on technique. I took Week 1/1 as the baseline. Always amused to read "Whether your 5000m sessions have been taking you more or less than 20mins ..." Yeah, right

Went well enough, pleased with the consistency. Didn't bother with hrm.

[Jimmies]

That's a nice little set of splits there Rowan, nice and consistent

I've been setting the pace boat at 2min20/500 and I seem to be able to get ahead of that on my longer pieces on the BPP....but I wonder if I'm pushing it a bit too much....I put my H/R tracker on today ( BPP Wk2 Day3) and it was into HR range 4(140-158bpm) for 67% of it.....not sure what the BPP calls for??


BPP Wk2 Day3

Time Meters Pace WattsCal/HrS/M HR
24:47.4 5,500m 2:15.2 142 787 20 145
2:19.6 500m 2:19.6 129 742 21 124
2:17.1 1,000m 2:17.1 136 767 20 132
2:16.2 1,500m 2:16.2 139 776 21 138
2:15.7 2,000m 2:15.7 140 782 20 143
2:16.3 2,500m 2:16.3 138 775 24 144
2:17.2 3,000m 2:17.2 136 766 20 145
2:15.9 3,500m 2:15.9 139 779 19 147
2:15.8 4,000m 2:15.8 140 780 19 151
2:14.6 4,500m 2:14.6 144 793 19 154
2:14.3 5,000m 2:14.3 144 797 20 156
2:04.7 5,500m 2:04.7 180 921 23 166

[winniewinser]

That's a nice little set of splits there Rowan, nice and consistent

I've been setting the pace boat at 2min20/500 and I seem to be able to get ahead of that on my longer pieces on the BPP....but I wonder if I'm pushing it a bit too much....I put my H/R tracker on today ( BPP Wk2 Day3) and it was into HR range 4(140-158bpm) for 67% of it.....not sure what the BPP calls for??


BPP Wk2 Day3

Time Meters Pace WattsCal/HrS/M HR
24:47.4 5,500m 2:15.2 142 787 20 145
2:19.6 500m 2:19.6 129 742 21 124
2:17.1 1,000m 2:17.1 136 767 20 132
2:16.2 1,500m 2:16.2 139 776 21 138
2:15.7 2,000m 2:15.7 140 782 20 143
2:16.3 2,500m 2:16.3 138 775 24 144
2:17.2 3,000m 2:17.2 136 766 20 145
2:15.9 3,500m 2:15.9 139 779 19 147
2:15.8 4,000m 2:15.8 140 780 19 151
2:14.6 4,500m 2:14.6 144 793 19 154
2:14.3 5,000m 2:14.3 144 797 20 156
2:04.7 5,500m 2:04.7 180 921 23 166

I've been doing these at zone 3 into 4 but they should never feel like you couldn't continue and do more metres at the same pace. The longer sessions are mainly about technique, relaxation, and efficiency. Save the effort for the interval pieces where you can build pace, up the rates and challenge your breathing.

[Rowan McSheen]

I've been setting the pace boat at 2min20/500 and I seem to be able to get ahead of that on my longer pieces on the BPP....but I wonder if I'm pushing it a bit too much....I put my H/R tracker on today ( BPP Wk2 Day3) and it was into HR range 4(140-158bpm) for 67% of it.....not sure what the BPP calls for??
...

This is an issue with the BPP, the lack of pacing advice. The beginners in mind here are (imho) conditioned athletes who are new to the erg -- hence the references to 5,000 or 5,500 metres taking less than 20 minutes. I suspect that the effort level Pete has in mind for the distance pieces is somewhat higher than would suit true beginners. The only guidance I can see is to not go over 24 spm.

The distance pieces progress to 12,000m and are all about technique and a steady sustainable effort so no point in going too hard too soon. I use my hrm on these to make sure I don't go mad and defeat the object. Which means usually that as the distance increases the pace drops as the hr drifts.

[Rowan McSheen]

Week 1/5

2 x 10 mins 2 min rest. Instrux are first interval at same pace as this week's 20 minute session then second slightly faster. I took the second 5,000m piece as baseline, so the target was 2:11.4.



Week 1 done. Onwards and upwards.

[iain]

I think the trouble is the mix of ways this is used. For a true newbie but with fitness / determination to do 5k, paces will increase rapidly as they improve their technique and their body adapts. Also very big difference between doing 3 sessions a week so plenty of recovery time and doing 5 sessions a week possibly with other cross training. Distance periods are a focus at the beginning for the first group and so can be quite hard (as any >20min row is likely to be with a reasonable stroke), but as the intervals get more serious, they need to be done at a pace that will allow full recovery by the next session.

[Jimmies]

Took a day off today as I'm already ahead on my wk2 of BPP and I felt a little tired on the 6k yesterday, I plan to do a slow 10k if possible and a short interval session on Saturday and Sunday.

22/08/24 6,020m 28:55.6
21/08/24 5,500m 24:47.4
20/08/24 3,000m 12:55.7
19/08/24 5,500m 25:14.9

Feeling good about this as I've done over 65k since I started just over two weeks ago

[Rowan McSheen]

Week 2/1

5,500m: first distance piece of the week, capping hr at 120.



Slight drift in the final 1,000 or so to lose a little pace against last week's 2:16.6 but happy enough with this.

[Rowan McSheen]

Week 2/3 - 5,500m at UT1 (hr 120-130).



Some hr drift in the final 1,000m but still fractionally quicker than last week's UT1 5,000m piece at the same hr so I'll take it. Done out of sequence because legs a little weary from a long run yesterday. The 750m intervals of week 2/2 are up next.

[Jimmies]

Wk 3 Day 1

Was feeling tired at the start of this 6k, so I decided to just do a 2.20 to 2.30 pace while watching some standup comedy on Netflix. As I was getting to 6k I felt ok to keep going so I went onto 10k at a pretty slow pace but I'm happy

48:42.5 10,022m 2:25.8 113 688 19 127
5:00.0 917m 2:43.5 80 575 18 105
10:00.0 999m 2:30.1 103 655 17 111
15:00.0 1,022m 2:26.7 111 680 18 120
20:00.0 1,030m 2:25.6 113 690 17 122
25:00.0 1,050m 2:22.8 120 713 18 126
30:00.0 1,032m 2:25.3 114 692 19 127
35:00.0 1,054m 2:22.3 121 717 20 134
40:00.0 1,042m 2:23.9 117 703 20 137
45:00.0 1,052m 2:22.5 121 715 23 138
48:42.5 824m 2:15.0 142 789 23 154


Also sold the wife's Peloton today ( while it was still worth something ) as she hasn't touched it in 2 years but we've kept on paying the £40 a month subs and the bike has plummeted on value.......we will be getting a bikeerg and I'll add a session of this into my weekly routine

[Rowan McSheen]

£40 a month ... blimey, nearly a grand a year. That'll pay for the Bikeerg. Money worth saving!

Week 2/2 -- 4 x 750m 2 mins rest. The 750 to 1,000 metre intervals are my least favourite, not a fan of the shorter faster eyeballs-out stuff. But no wimping out.



As with the week 1 500s I pitched for 30 spm and let the pace find itself, came in at 2:01.5 vs 2:00.8. Instrux say to not go faster than the 500s no matter how tempted .... yeah, right you are mate

[Jimmies]

Well this is me done for the week as we are going to glamourous Whitby for 5 days tomorrow...but at least I got the BPP min work in and just over 5k on the bikeerg so not a bad week overall

Date Distance Time Pace Type Weight
28/08/24 3,052m 7:59.9 2:37.2 BikeErg
28/08/24 6,000m 28:48.3 2:24.0 RowErg Hwt BPP Wk3 Day 3
28/08/24 2,059m 5:12.6 2:31.8 BikeErg
27/08/24 4,000m 18:25.1 2:18.1 RowErg Hwt BPP Wk3 Day2
27/08/24 1,036m 2:40.3 2:34.7 BikeErg
26/08/24 10,022m 48:42.5 2:25.8 RowErg Hwt BPP Wk3 Day1

@Rowan....what do you do to add your workout data pics, are the images hosted somewhere else and then linked to this thread?

[Rowan McSheen]

@Rowan....what do you do to add your workout data pics, are the images hosted somewhere else and then linked to this thread?

Unfortunately this board can't host pictures so you need to upload them to a hosting site and link to them. I use Imgur and the BBcode link (second from bottom in the panel to the right of the image). It's a bit clunky but it works.

[Jimmies]

Cheers...I'll take a look at that

[AndyH]

This seems a great accountability thread.

After a month of beginner workouts focusing on form and starting to row on the water with a local club, I jumped into the BPP this week.

56 y/o new to rowing, 5'10 190 lbs (recently down from 210). My plan is to do the SS workouts at UT2 (137 HR for me) and ignore HR for the speed intervals.

Any thoughts or suggestions appreciated!

Andy

First 3 workouts:

1.1

Code: Select all

Time	Meters	Pace	Watts	Cal/Hr	S/M     HR	
24:47.9	5,000m	2:28.7	106	665	19	133
4:48.8	1,000m	2:24.4	116	700	20	126
4:53.3	2,000m	2:26.6	111	681	20	134
4:59.9	3,000m	2:29.9	104	657	19	135
5:02.2	4,000m	2:31.1	101	649	19	136
5:03.8	5,000m	2:31.9	100	643	18	138

1.2

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Time	Meters	Pace	Watts	Cal/Hr	S/M     HR	
15:39.1	3,666m	2:08.0	167	873	25	155
4:00.0	666m	3:00.1	60	505	17	106
r: 0:01	0m						
1:53.9	500m	1:53.9	237	1115	32	152
r: 2:01	294m						
1:51.4	500m	1:51.4	253	1171	29	162
r: 2:01	238m						
1:56.2	500m	1:56.2	223	1067	27	164
r: 2:00	226m						
1:56.9	500m	1:56.9	219	1054	27	166
r: 2:03	209m						
2:00.2	500m	2:00.2	202	993	26	167

I made 2 mistakes in this workout: 1 - I added in a warmup interval which threw off all of the numbers - will separate warmup from the workout going forwards. Averaging the 6 actual interval sessions gives an average of 1:55.7, which brings me to my second mistake: I overdid these a bit. About a minute into interval 1 I thought this feels pretty good. That changed quickly! Will try to hold 1:56 for next set of intervals and see how it goes. May need to back off a couple of seconds.

1.3

Code: Select all

Time	Meters	Pace	Watts	Cal/Hr	S/M	HR
24:39.7	5,000m	2:27.9	108	671	19	135
4:55.6	1,000m	2:27.8	108	673	20	120
4:56.0	2,000m	2:28.0	108	671	20	134
4:56.2	3,000m	2:28.1	108	670	19	137
4:56.0	4,000m	2:28.0	108	671	19	141
4:55.9	5,000m	2:27.9	108	671	19	146

Current plan is to do the 2 optional workouts as long as I'm still feeling good next few days.