Dear Diary, -It’s been a while. But this isn’t a diary, though it has been a while.
This Pete Plan session was supposed to have been done on Nov 16th. But it wasn’t done until in the evening of Nov 18th, after sunset. That’s the explanation for the missing days in the otherwise usually daily blog posts.
This session was done so late in the day on Nov 18th, that there wasn’t time to make a blog entry for it that day. But, thanks to a none too rare episode of insomnia, there is now time to make the overdue blog entry.
The session was a plain and simple 8K done at an average power level of about 130 watts, which was about 54% of my recent 2K TT. Straps loose, DF 135.
Today’s training session was endurance intervals, of a type frequently referred to as a “waterfall”. The previous instance of this particular session was done at an average pace of 1:59.8 so that was the pace target for the first 2 of today’s 3 intervals. The last one, a 2K, was done only slightly faster, at a pace of about 1:55 for the first 1,500 meters and then faster for the last 500 meters, by which time I was feeling a bit tired. The “bit tired” might have been due to the fact that time was at a premium this morning.
I got up more than two hours before dawn and had to do the rowing first thing, before having any breakfast, coffee or even re-hydrating after having slept all night. Did the rowing to get it “out of the way” and then took our car to the mechanic’s shop, to be there when they opened, so they could begin work on replacing it’s worn out clutch. Finally got a first cup of coffee from the coffee machine, at the mechanic’s shop and then I felt like rowing some more but chatted instead since that mechanic’s shop is a typical one and has no erg for waiting customers to use.
The resulting average pace for today’s intervals was 1:58.5, which will be the target pace for the first two intervals of this session in the next cycle of Pete Plan training.
There was no warm up. DF was 135. Straps were loose. 15 minute warm down.
Today’s session was another 8K recovery identical to the previous except that the pace target was made 1/2 second faster, at 2:19.5. The result was a slight increase in ending heart rate of 2 BPM higher than the previous recovery session which had been done at a pace target of 2:20.0. No straps, DF 135.
Today’s Pete Plan training was a set of four intervals, 1,000 meters each, with 5 minutes active rest after each 1K. No warm up. 15 minute warm down. Strapless. DF 135.
Today’s recovery session was another 8K. But it was done at a very slightly higher pace, 1/2 second per 500 meters faster than the 8K recovery session done two days ago.
I increased the pace just slightly, because I thought that I’d try to raise the effort and the resulting average HR just a little because I thought that I’d been rowing just a little too easy on the previous recovery session. The reason I thought so was due to some discussions that happened in a rowing forum.
But rowing 1/2 second per 500m faster for 8K only added a total of one single calorie to the entire rowing session. It reduced the total time of the 8K by 7.5 seconds. It increased the power level by 12.5 watts, according to a comparison of the two session reports. But ending HR was 2 BPM lower, instead of being the same or higher. Interesting, that it made no difference to HR. Maybe next time, I’ll increase pace by another half second and so on from one recovery session to the next, to see where the “tipping point” is, to increase HR. Of course, it might depend on other factors, since life is so very complicated.
Today is the day I’ve been looking forward to for the past seven days. It was another chance to aim for improvement in the 10K, on the Pete Plan “Hard Distance” day.
The session was scheduled online and three others joined in. One of them was in the US, another was in Germany and the third was in England. The guy in the US wanted to help encourage me by pacing alongside.
It was a very easy pace for him though it was a nice hard pace for me at that distance. The other two could have rowed the 10K a lot faster also, but they decided to have an easy day also and they too rowed right alongside for the whole distance. It was a mental boost, to have them there and another reason to keep going, so they wouldn’t be disappointed to see a HD.
I knew I’d have company so I went with the most conservative plan that I could think of for the 10K. The goal was to finish with an average pace faster than 1:59.3, so the plan was: Row the first 9,500 meters at a constant average pace of 1:59.3 and then go faster during the final 500 meters. And – if I felt okay when the remaining distance counted down to 1,000 meters, to slightly pick up the pace, from 1:59.3, to about 1:59 with 1,000 meters to go.
The plan worked well and I was breathing easy until the last 500 meters when I had to start breathing faster. There was still enough energy left that I was able to sprint the very last 100 meters, to finish breathing very hard during the last 5 or 10 strokes.
Immediately afterwards, I had to get off the rower and use the bathroom, due to the influence of having drank perhaps a little too much coffee before the 10K. So I typed, “be right back” instead of joining in the afterwards chat right away. When I returned, I saw that they were speculating if I left to “make a bathroom check” so I typed, “Yes, I had to make a bathroom check.” One of them then typed, “I hope you didn’t have to vomit.” To which I replied, “No, I had to deal with an excess of coffee. 🙂 ”
To repeat myself: It was really nice, to have their company.
Before the 10K there was a 15 minute warmup and a 10 minute warm down afterwards. Straps were loose for most of the session but near the end of the 10K I reached down and pulled each of the footstraps to cinch them up snug for the final sprint. DF was 135.
warm up finish screenwarm up reportwarm up charts10K session report. There was no screen shot made of the final screen view.10K chartswarm down finish screenwarm down reportwarm down charts
Today’s session was one of the fun times: 4x2K R5:00. The pace target for the first three intervals was 1:59.5, which had been the overall average for this session in the previous cycle. The final interval was done at a pace of 1:55 for the first 1,500 meters and then faster for the last 500. Overall resulting average pace was 1:58.1/500m and that will be the target pace for the first three intervals next cycle.
There was no warmup, DF was 135, straps were loose and there was a 10 minute warm down.
Yesterday (Nov 5) was the training plan rest day and there was neither rowing done nor a blog post made yesterday.
Today’s training plan session is probably the weirdest of all the Pete Plan sessions, the “Speed Pyramid.” It is a set of seven intervals done in this order: 250, 500, 750, 1000, 750, 500 and 250. The rest in between each interval is supposed to be a time equal to 90 seconds for each 250 meters of the preceding interval. So the rest after the first 250 meters was 1:30. After the second interval of 500 meters, the rest time was 3:00. Etc. The rest periods were active rest with slow rowing.
The first 3 intervals were each to be done at a pace equal to the average pace of all the intervals of the previous instance of this particular session in the previous cycle.
So the target pace for today’s first three intervals was 1:54.6. The 1,000 meter interval and the three intervals following it are supposed to be done at a “faster pace, if possible.” So I set target paces for each of them, with a target pace of 1:50 or better for the 1K, 1:49 or better for the 750m, 1:45 or better for the 500m and 1:40 or better for the final 250m.
The targets chosen for the last four intervals were based on what I thought was reasonable based on past experience.
Target pace was achieved for each of the last 4 intervals, with the exception of the 1K, due to an interruption at the beginning of the 1K which delayed starting it promptly.
The resulting average pace for all 7 intervals was 1:50.1 and that will be the target pace for the first three intervals of this session in the next cycle.
