Pete Plan Thread

[Street]

Hi all I've not posted here for a while as I fell off the Pete Plan and have been doing workouts from the The Erg Book, some of which are tough! Anyway I did another 2k test today and managed to reduce my time from 7:31 to 7:26. It wasn't pleasant as we are having a heatwave in the UK so my garage was like a sauna.

Good work, that's a nice increase! I feel your pain with the heat, I'm suffering in my garage too.

[RayOfSunshine]

I did another 2k test today and managed to reduce my time from 7:31 to 7:26.

@Robert that's huge! Thanks for checking in!!

[m06w41]

@ Tracy - no, I wish I was retiring! But the wife and I are looking at some of those 55 and over "active adult" communities. Pickleball, here we come! We've spent so much time with kids/dogs, we only have a few close friends and a few family here (and no parents) so there's real appeal of those communities and the built in network of friends as you age. We don't plan on slowing down anytime soon. Haven't done much golfing in years, would like to take that up again. I haven't golfed much since college but I was around a bogey golfer ages ago (with those old school clubs that didn't help you like these new ones do).

Stick with the work and the pace will slowly come. Ray's flying now and he didn't start out nearly as fast when he began. Now he's pushing my paces and I've been at it for four years! Just look for small improvements and hopefully you'll feel stronger and healthier. That's the real goal, right?

That makes complete sense! Nice move and pickleball to boot! Many in my family are snowbirds from MN and Arizona is the place to be. Sounds like you've got a great plan lined up and don't rush retirement, it will creep up on you before you know it I imagine.

Thanks for the feedback. It is a struggle to not "feel" slow but to finish the rows, that's what I've needed to do. Still not confident in my understanding of heart rates but the longer warm ups mean I'm working in my target range for the entire row now, instead of just the last 2/3rds. I'll catch up with your pace soon

I've updated my form given yours and Ray's feedback about stroke length but I'm sure there's room for improvement.

One row at a time.

[mdpfirrman]

@ Robert - that's a great improvement! Nice work! Don't be a stranger!

@ Tracy - just keep plugging along Tracy. I've seen people start out way too fast on the plan and peter out toward the middle. Just relax, finish each one and do your best.

[bob.haffner]

@Robert Good work! Congrats, man!

[Street]

Not a good session for me on the 4x2000m today. It was far too hot in my garage, the thermometer was reading 26C and there was no breeze coming through with the door open. I had to stop for a drink and a towel off mid way through the second one so I bailed after that and just did a couple slower reps to finish up. Bit disappointing as I was feeling fairly solid up until the point when I couldn't see through the sweat, it almost made me miss the air-conditioned gym with rickety C2s!

15:18.1 - 4,000m - 1:54.7 - 25
7:26.5 - 2,000m - 1:51.6 - 26
7:51.6 - 2,000m - 1:57.9 - 24

15:55.4 - 4,000m - 1:59.4 - 25
8:06.8 - 2,000m - 2:01.7 - 24
7:48.6 - 2,000m - 1:57.1 - 25

[bob.haffner]

it almost made me miss the air-conditioned gym with rickety C2s!

Haha, too bad these things are so bulky


The 5 x 1500 was on today's schedule for me. Last/first time was a debacle. Happy to report that this session went much better

My prescribed target was 1:56, but I decided to aim for 1:55

/500m Time.1
01:55.4 | 05:46.4
01:54.8 | 05:44.4
01:55.4 | 05:46.3
01:55.3 | 05:45.9
01:52.7 | 05:38.1

01:54.7

[m06w41]

Hiked yesterday, Week 2 Row 2 (interval) was Tuesday evening and below. Working on stretching stroke length out following feedback here and feedback in the uploaded video. Stroke length is most often 1.18-1.24m now. Tried staying at a pace that is consistent with last weeks work and still working on consistency. SPM averaged 21.

[mitchel674]

Hiked yesterday, Week 2 Row 2 (interval) was Tuesday evening and below. Working on stretching stroke length out following feedback here and feedback in the uploaded video. Stroke length is most often 1.18-1.24m now. Tried staying at a pace that is consistent with last weeks work and still working on consistency. SPM averaged 21.

Tracey, it's great that you're sticking with the PP and focusing on your technique. One comment I would make is your pace on your intervals is too slow. I say that only because it's the same pace you kept for your 5500m row that same week. The idea behind the intervals is to push yourself and then recover a bit in the rest time between intervals. Your pace on the 750m intervals should be significantly faster than your pace on the 5500m steady state piece of the same week. I bet you could have done these at 2:20 or faster.

[m06w41]

Thanks for the feedback. Felt like I could have gone faster but thr PP document made clear to be tempted yet.

"Look back at your average pace from the 6 x 500m session last week, and try to row each interval at exactly that pace. Don’t go faster, no matter how tempted you feel!"

I looked forward to later intervals in the plan and it seems like the instructions start off slowly but pick up the pace later. Week 3 seems to be when he suggests to start picking up the interval pace. The focus seems to be on technique at the moment but I could be missing something here. Still new to all this.

Week 2 Row 3 tonight. Was hot and the hike yesterday was tough. I felt challenged to finish today. Stroke length is easily 1.18-1.24m consistently. Thanks for the guidance on that too. Still working on improving my diet. Been tracking everything, and at a slight calorie reduction but it still feels like I'm behind the curve on understanding how to balance it all out. I'm lower on carbohydrates overall but anyone have any good places they would recommend on diet improvement?


Time Meters Pace Watts Cal/Hr S/M
28:45.7 5,500m 2:36.8 91 612 21
2:36.5 500m 2:36.5 91 614 21
2:37.1 1,000m 2:37.1 90 610 21
2:36.6 1,500m 2:36.6 91 613 21
2:37.8 2,000m 2:37.8 89 606 22
2:36.4 2,500m 2:36.4 91 614 22
2:36.5 3,000m 2:36.5 91 614 21
2:36.8 3,500m 2:36.8 91 612 21
2:39.0 4,000m 2:39.0 87 599 20
2:36.8 4,500m 2:36.8 91 612 20
2:37.4 5,000m 2:37.4 90 608 21
2:34.8 5,500m 2:34.8 94 624 21

[Street]

"Look back at your average pace from the 6 x 500m session last week, and try to row each interval at exactly that pace. Don’t go faster, no matter how tempted you feel!"

I looked forward to later intervals in the plan and it seems like the instructions start off slowly but pick up the pace later. Week 3 seems to be when he suggests to start picking up the interval pace. The focus seems to be on technique at the moment but I could be missing something here. Still new to all this.

The pace tends to ramp up a fair bit in the coming weeks as you push on the last rep then do the next session of that type at the new average. If you push too hard too early you could end up burning out, the BPP is a tough plan when the distances and paces pick up. That's a good increase on your stroke length too, hopefully you'll find it better being a bit more efficient on each stroke.

[mdpfirrman]

@ Tracy - I lost 70 lbs around 5/6 years ago and have kept it off. I used Loseit. Another website is MyFitnessPal. Both are CICO journals. They have phone apps that you can load where you scan food for nutritional information with your phone and then track all your calories in as well as calories burned. I found it very helpful. Mainly, it's a personal educational process -- things that you're eating now that are not worth the calories. Once you get the hang of it (and most of your favorites loaded), it only takes seconds to track. Also, they have ways to integrate Strava/Fitbit and the like to the site.

I leaned I loved PB&Js way too much! Probably all my weight came from them. Other than those, I ate pretty well! Darn they are so good though! I'm back to enjoying PB all the time right out of the jar if I have cravings but I skip the jelly/bread now. I've maintained for five years and went from mid 40s in Body Fat percentage to high teens and gained 10 lbs of muscle over four/five years too, so a complete revamp of the body that my wife is a huge fan of!

What took me a while to understand was how to match diet and hard workouts. I find that I can skip breakfast before a SS row but I need to eat something (like a banana or oatmeal) before a lifting/interval session. I find that eating most of my calories "back" around my rowing/lifting workouts along with drinking lots of water with electrolytes seems to curb the hunger to reasonable levels while working out. When I started working out hard overweight I just ate more. As you get more and more adjusted to it, that ravenous appetite gets easier to control especially if you're eating whole foods as opposed to processed food.

That was the last piece for us (my wife and I). We plan our meals, snacks and even lunches and buy it in one trip to the store weekly. When you don't have your favorite junk around, it's not hard to lose weight but you have to stick to the plan weekly. I work from home so that's easier a bit for me. Also, the wife developed Fibromyalgia and the doc recommended going gluten/dairy free, which actually helps us avoid nearly all processed foods. She went from being nearly bed bound to nearly full remission and back to work in a year. It was amazing to see the turnaround.

Long answer but I'm pretty passionate about weight loss and healthier lifestyle too, nearly as much as rowing!

[m06w41]

What took me a while to understand was how to match diet and hard workouts. I find that I can skip breakfast before a SS row but I need to eat something (like a banana or oatmeal) before a lifting/interval session. I find that eating most of my calories "back" around my rowing/lifting workouts along with drinking lots of water with electrolytes seems to curb the hunger to reasonable levels while working out. When I started working out hard overweight I just ate more. As you get more and more adjusted to it, that ravenous appetite gets easier to control especially if you're eating whole foods as opposed to processed food.

Long answer but I'm pretty passionate about weight loss and healthier lifestyle too, nearly as much as rowing!

Hope it's not too off topic for asking here, but thanks for the response. The challenge I've faced is exactly that what you describe here. I'm not sure yet when to go light or what to eat at those times. I've been using MyFitnessPal and trying to track everything focusing on limited carb intake and higher protein. PB&J...heck yes. And on fresh baked bread. I'll tell ya though, sweets craving is my downfall...and boredom. Damn if I don't go opening the fridge looking for something without even thinking about it!

[mitchel674]

Tracey, if you do your long steady state rows in the morning, you may want to consider not eating prior to your row. There is some good evidence that this type of workout in a fasted state burns more fat and can actually increase insulin sensitivity. Both good things for your weight loss efforts.

Probably best to eat what Mike suggested (banana and/or oatmeal) prior to weight training or tougher interval sessions on the erg.

[JerekKruger]

Tracey, if you do your long steady state rows in the morning, you may want to consider not eating prior to your row. There is some good evidence that this type of workout in a fasted state burns more fat and can actually increase insulin sensitivity. Both good things for your weight loss efforts.

Whilst there's certainly nothing wrong with fasted cardio, newer research seems to suggest that whilst it does increase fat metabolism during the exercise your body "makes up for this" by burning more carbs than it otherwise would for several hours afterwards. Basically, roughly speaking you'll burn approximately the same proportion of fat and carbs in a day for a given work load regardless of when you eat.

That said, assuming there isn't a similar balancing factor for the improved insulin sensitivity that's still a bonus for fasted cardio. Moreover I think the discipline factor of doing your cardio first thing, early in the morning before eating has its own intangible benefit.