Pete Plan Thread

[RayOfSunshine]

I've never really played with it after I found a setting that seemed comfortable. Looking back through my log it seems that I settled around 103 naturally. I probably should spend a bit of time trying different ones again as I've not really tried any others since I started! I'm fairly lightweight and when I tried higher settings it felt like I was having to pull too much if that makes sense..

It makes a ton of sense to me. I would get really, really tired on longer SS rows. Once I reduced the DF just a bit, I didn't get nearly as tired overall from the week. Yours isn't terribly high now but perhaps just a small change lower. Maybe do a few SS sessions where you try to keep a higher SPM or an intermediate session where your goal is more to keep a higher SPM rate versus time. In order to do that comfortably, it's likely you need to move DF down just a bit. Obviously, it's also a factor of your endurance as well (and yours is better than mine). If you're finding its not happening even with a slightly lower drag, perhaps it's habits. I know when I was averaging 25 SPM for my 2Ks, I had gotten into some really bad habits with pausing either at the catch or at the drive finish with slow hands. My DF was too high for me so I was slowing my SPM by artificially stopping. Was hard to get out of that habit but even moving the DF down slightly might help with that too if that's your problem. It forces you to be more non-stop and really pay attention to continuous movement.

I don't like lower drags on sprints. Only 2K or higher distances. I move the DF up slightly for sprints, especially 500m or under. I did the 4 X 1000m the other day with a lower DF. My failure on that one was more about my cardio/AT.

Today was BPP 20.3, 30' SS.
I wanted to get to 10k total for the day, so I did a 2k wu then a 1k cd after. During the cd, I played with the DF. I have been using 115. I'm thinking about dropping it a bit. I am definitely not as smooth as I'd like to be. I notice how some of the people who have rowed for a long time are OCD and aim for exactly the same pace/spm throughout a SS. I envy them. I can't do it. I attribute a lot to my cardio/aerobic capacity, but I'm thinking the DF might help a bit. It can't hurt to play around. .

[mdpfirrman]

I'm not sure mixing up the DF isn't a bad idea either. I went a lot of last year around a 115 and a very low SPM rate average for half the year. Perhaps that made for a stronger stroke when I finally did learn to go faster. I'm not sure that going slower SPM wise once a week or so is a bad idea. But I do think it's bad to do nothing but that if you're using too high of a DF all the time. I think they train different things. I think (and I could be wrong) that using a higher DF trains more lactate tolerance where lower DF with a higher SPM works cardio more (both necessary). That's why low SPM with powerful strokes is so painful.

[m06w41]

Thanks all. Updated profile with more info. Name, and all that.

And yes, the target is at least 4 rows each week and I hope to log them here. Tomorrow is the first interval row so probably a good idea to take some technique video and find out what bad habits I've developed and need to work on.

There is a lot to get to terms with but my wife and I seem to be doing okay. DF is set about 115 for me, she lowers it to 110 for her. While we both tend to target low 20SPM these days, I'm not certain I'm convinced when or if I should change it up. That being said, it's still early days and other than over-thinking it, I'm trying to not over-think it

I want to be able to go faster but trying to stay below a 2:30 pace makes me really gassed. One of the reasons I lurked so long is that it was nice to see that other people are in my boat. Middle age crept up on me. I've been using a heart monitor as well and trying to keep my pace so that my heart rate is between 130 - 140.

[mdpfirrman]

@ Tracy - I started with the Pete Plan four days a week too. Just do what your body is capable of and no more. Constantly be a student of form. That's the one piece of advice I can give. We're all still learning. Really good to have you in the group again!

This was the type of day where this thread honestly pushed me to finish. I probably wouldn't have other than knowing I had to report in. I did wonder, "would anyone notice if I'm not on schedule??". Then I said no, what the hell and did the workout. I normally workout at lunch and really like that time of day. I had to run some errands today before lunch and then looked at the weather. Cincinnati has God awful weather. Rains around 15 to 20 days out of the month this time of year. We've had rain nearly every day for a week and my grass was around 12 inches. I'm allergic to grass so you could imagine how much I hate cutting 1/3 of an acre by hand! Did that for my lunch today. Good thing, it dumped about 1 1/2 inches right after lunch!

Anyway, fast forward to tonight. I'm already tired going into the row. W3/D3 - Intermediate Intervals (Waterfall). Of the endurance intervals, the one I hate the least anyway!

3000 / 1:58.0 / 26 SPM
2500 / 1:59.5 / 26 SPM
2000 / 2:02/4 / 26 SPM

1:59.7 Avg / 26 SPM

DF, by the way, was at 102 for this row throughout. I was just trying to survive that last rep. I slowed down to a pace I wouldn't HD and that's all I could manage. A bit off what Marston says is a "good pace" based on my PB 5K time but actually not bad based off my more recent 5K time of 20:00, which was pretty sorry for me. So, based on Marston's thoughts, I'm at around a 1:58.7 pace for a current 5K.


All this really shows is that I sorely need more AT work. Glad that's over. Last of the harder intervals on this round. We'll see how hard I push the TT this week.

[m06w41]

Thanks for the warm welcome all. Would have posted a technique video today but I row at 5am and the place where the erg is doesn't have good lighting. Working on keeping the "bell shaped" curve in the graph on the pm5 and trying to understand my pull length. I'm think the length of my pull was 1.00m today so maybe that's too short? I tried not to roll forward with my back and recover when shins are vertical, but there's likely some improvement I can do here. Will post a video asap.

Cincinnati has God awful weather. Rains around 15 to 20 days out of the month this time of year. We've had rain nearly every day for a week and my grass was around 12 inches. .

Send the rain our direction! We're dry as a bone again this year.

Week 1 Row 2 - Intervals and while the PP says to stay consistent with your 5000m average time, i felt like pushing a little more, not excessively but just to keep the average pace down a little bit. I did start a bit to aggressively though and should have stuck with a 2:34 pace, but it's tough when you feel like you can and want to go faster but by the last 2 intervals I realized I had pushed a bit too much. Heart rate on the final 4 intervals hovered around 140 much of the time, but I wasn't gassed. Phone was on battery saver and I think that affects the heartrate that got recorded. I'm tired now.

Anyway, tomorrow is row 3.

Time Meters Pace Wt Cal/Hr S/M
15:18.1 3,000m 2:33.0 98 636 22
2:31.9 500m 2:31.9 100 643 22
2:32.9 500m 2:32.9 98 637 22
2:32.3 500m 2:32.3 99 640 22
2:32.7 500m 2:32.7 98 638 22
2:34.4 500m 2:34.4 95 627 22
2:34.0 500m 2:34.0 96 629 21

[Dangerscouse]

Welcome to the forum Tracy.

If you're right about the stroke length 1.00 Is too short, depending on your height.

I'm 6'4" and my shortest stroke is 1.39 going up to 1.51. If you're smaller I assume your stroke will be less as you won't have as long legs and arms as me, but I've no idea of what this should be for different heights, but 1.00 sounds too short regardless.

Keep thinking about technique and I'm sure that it will get longer, especially as you get more used to rowing and get more.confident and fitter.

Best of luck

[mdpfirrman]

@ Tracy - I would probably agree with Stu. I tried to pay more attention to my stroke length today (I did a 7K SS, more or less a recovery type of row @ 2:11). My stroke length was around 1.31 most of the time and I'm just slightly taller than you (around 5' 9"/5' 10"). I certainly have short legs/arms too. Could just be flexibility (and that will come) and it could be your not extending far back enough into your finish. It's good you're not overcompensating, though, by overextending beyond your knees. Some helpful things (to me) when I was new was breaking down the stroke into parts. The one C2 video with the girl on the dock is very good. Practice each part separately. I've found some of the videos on YouTube also solid (Darkhorse Rowing and Decent Rowing I personally thought were helpful, though I've seen some people not like DarkHorse that I respect as very solid rowers).

Anyway, SS day for me today. It was one of those times that I call it working up to a comfortable pace. Started out at around 2:13 pace and gradually ended up at around 2:11 over 7K but didn't push too hard throughout. Around 22 SPM.

Finished with 23 minutes on the AirDyne Pro. I've been extending my rowing time slightly and today extended my working time to 53 minutes (not 52 as usual, crazy right!! I'm a nut!). Took it really pretty easy on the AirDyne. Felt I was really tired yesterday. Needed a bit of a recovery day.

@Tracy - it's dumping rain again right now. We're selling next year and moving to AZ. I'd love to send some of this stuff to the dry states hit by drought. I think for every drought year they have, we get more rain. Enough of all this rain/grass cutting stuff. I think we'll end up with around 55 to 60 inches of rain this year! At least it's not 74 inches yet like we had 6 or 7 years ago!

[Street]

This was the type of day where this thread honestly pushed me to finish. I probably wouldn't have other than knowing I had to report in. I did wonder, "would anyone notice if I'm not on schedule??". Then I said no, what the hell and did the workout. I normally workout at lunch and really like that time of day. I had to run some errands today before lunch and then looked at the weather. Cincinnati has God awful weather. Rains around 15 to 20 days out of the month this time of year. We've had rain nearly every day for a week and my grass was around 12 inches. I'm allergic to grass so you could imagine how much I hate cutting 1/3 of an acre by hand! Did that for my lunch today. Good thing, it dumped about 1 1/2 inches right after lunch!

This thread really is great for motivation. It's nice to have a little extra driving force pushing you to do the session. I could do with you sending some of that rain this way. My garden is brown and the pond is half empty as it hasn't rained for so long. We're in the middle of a mini heat wave too so my garage thermometer was showing a nice toasty 26C for me to row in today, I am enjoying the evenings after work being able to climb on warm rock though!

Sounds like you already had a pretty good workout doing the grass so hardly surprising you faded on the last rep, good work for powering on through though!

Week 1 Row 2

Nice times! The intervals are sneaky as you feel good during the first ones and the rest feels like forever, but by the time you hit the end you're just about holding it together and the rest is over in a flash. You're a fairly similar height to me and my strokes all seem to be about 1.35m, so could be a bit short.

PP 1.3 5x1500m. Target 1:53.9
27:56.3 - 7,500m - 1:51.7 - 26
5:35.5 - 1,500m - 1:51.8 - 26
5:35.5 - 1,500m - 1:51.8 - 26
5:35.5 - 1,500m - 1:51.8 - 26
5:35.3 - 1,500m - 1:51.7 - 26
5:34.5 - 1,500m - 1:51.5 - 27

That was tough with the heat.. These are by far the worst intervals. Looking forward to an easy row tomorrow morning and an evening off watching the match.

[RayOfSunshine]

PP 1.3 5x1500m. Target 1:53.9
27:56.3 - 7,500m - 1:51.7 - 26
That was tough with the heat.. These are by far the worst intervals. Looking forward to an easy row tomorrow morning and an evening off watching the match.

@Andy - wow. You crushed the target. Well done. 5x1500 is the one I dread the most.

[mdpfirrman]

PP 1.3 5x1500m. Target 1:53.9
27:56.3 - 7,500m - 1:51.7 - 26
That was tough with the heat.. These are by far the worst intervals. Looking forward to an easy row tomorrow morning and an evening off watching the match.

@Andy - wow. You crushed the target. Well done. 5x1500 is the one I dread the most.

Agreed - Andy, that was impressive!! Nice work. That wasn't far off your 4 X 1000 was it? Really strong.

[Street]

Cheers! It was actually faster than my 4x1000.. I definitely need to try harder on that one next time round.

[JerekKruger]

Cheers! It was actually faster than my 4x1000.. I definitely need to try harder on that one next time round.

Very nice session Andy. I don't know how old your 2k is, but I'd be very surprised if you can't go a fair bit sub-7 now.

[mdpfirrman]

Cheers! It was actually faster than my 4x1000.. I definitely need to try harder on that one next time round.

Very nice session Andy. I don't know how old your 2k is, but I'd be very surprised if you can't go a fair bit sub-7 now.

For whatever it's worth, I agree Tom. Your 2K just barely matches all your other rows. At this point, I think for you Andy, it's going to be getting used to pain and mentally preparing for it. The PP is great for that. I think you're more capable than you think you are.

[Street]

My 2k is quite an old time now, just over a year. However after doing it I got hit with a few injuries which set me back. I definitely feel faster than I did when I last did the test though. This cycle finishes a week before I go on holiday, so before I go I'm going to use the week to try a new 2km and 5km test. I think I've just been putting it off as I know how much the last one hurt!

[RayOfSunshine]

My 2k is quite an old time now, just over a year. I think I've just been putting it off as I know how much the last one hurt!

@Andy, suck it up buttercup!!!

You're going to go sub-7!!! No doubt!

BPP 20.4 10k restricted today

44:59.0 (was trying to hit 45 even at the end), 19 SPM
This was my first decent session all month!! I think it's because I was relaxed and wasn't focused on pace. I also used a lower DF.