Good stuff in here! Not sure when/if I'll get back into semi-serious erg training, but for now I'll live vicariously through you while I build back up on the weights.

Strong 5k bro. That's my 5k pr also, 18:08.

Wow, fun coincidence!

Are you close to PR shape? I’d like to get sub 18 in the next month. Need to make the most of Winter

welcome back!

The magic will still be there when you’re ready but the decision to embrace the pain is the challenge IMO. I did mainly steady state and a few hard distance type pieces over our Summer and then apart from a short break focusing on sprinting for the world 1k, my post covid months from Mar to June we’re SS again. Training my mind to keep pushing hard through the discomfort has been surprisingly difficult. I actually think one of the less obvious advantages of Pete’s Plan is that your mind gets used to pushing hard more often

50 min steady state.

first time wearing HRM in a while so...in light of our conversations, it was interesting seeing it stay within the UT2 zone, although the reading went a little wonky early on

Time Meters Pace Watts Cal/Hr S/M HR
50:00.9 11,669m 2:08.5 165 866 17 131

5:00.0 1,156m 2:09.7 160 851 18 120
5:00.0 1,171m 2:08.0 167 873 18 105
5:00.0 1,186m 2:06.4 173 895 18 119
5:00.0 1,188m 2:06.2 174 898 18 137
5:00.0 1,170m 2:08.2 166 871 18 133
5:00.0 1,168m 2:08.4 165 868 18 140
5:00.0 1,162m 2:09.0 163 859 17 140
5:00.0 1,146m 2:10.8 156 837 17 141
5:00.0 1,159m 2:09.4 161 855 17 142
5:00.9 1,164m 2:09.2 162 857 17 139

Agreed.

One thing about HR in general that TG always preached was that the various stock percentages for HR zones were just a guideline - learning what UT2 or UT1 or whatever "feels like" and observing what your HR is at those times is more useful than just hammering what the percentages say your HR "should" be. My HR was always higher than it was supposed to be per the formula, and once I stopped worrying about the number (I even taped over that part of the PM), things seemed to go a little smoother.

How to be really good at rowing? Be really ****ing tall and long

This is a picture of (my sub 7 ‘teammate’) Isaiah Harrison who holds almost every world record at every distance at every junior age group. (From 100m to marathon).

He was 12 at the time of this photo and 6-5 and is now 6-9 at 19 and in the world under 23 single sculls final tonight. He’s only been rowing on the water for 2 years but I’d guess there’s a good chance he goes to the next Olympics if he can pick up the technique well enough

That picture is a 12 year old? Holy

I believe so.

Fri

had 4 hours to kill after dropping my daughters at a Tyler the Creator concert 90 mins from my home so visited a new gym. Not a great one tbh and not having lifting platforms or even flat floors wasn't ideal for o lifting

5x2 power clean - 85
3x4 deadlift - 130
3x8 bent over row 80
3x4 Press 55
3x5 push press 65


Sat

11k steady state was all I was good for at 10am after a very late night. not very consistent but still, felt ok and got something done

Time Meters Pace Watts Cal/Hr S/M HR
47:01.2 11,047m 2:07.6 168 878 17 138

5:00.0 1,193m 2:05.7 176 906 18 132
5:00.0 1,189m 2:06.1 174 899 18 132
5:00.0 1,181m 2:07.0 171 887 18 137
5:00.0 1,183m 2:06.7 172 890 18 141
5:00.0 1,179m 2:07.2 170 884 17 142
5:00.0 1,170m 2:08.2 166 871 17 141
5:00.0 1,175m 2:07.6 168 878 18 143
5:00.0 1,160m 2:09.3 162 857 18 138
5:00.0 1,157m 2:09.6 161 852 18 140
2:01.2 460m 2:11.7 153 826 17 142

Sun

a little annoyed with myself for this. It was 8x500 3.30r day and...despite having not really done any speed/speed endurance work for several months, I went for a PR on this event. Probably also not helped by having done the lower body lifting 36 hours earlier, by the end of the 5th interval I knew my legs didn't have it in them and my system was really struggling, so I shut it down.

Too much ego really and the best impact of this session for me will be to learn to dial back expectations a little on the interval sessions - I think I'll get far more training benefit at consistently completing the sequences a tiny bit slower than my 'all out potential' than by constantly chasing times that I can only do on my best day.

Time Meters Pace Watts Cal/Hr S/M
8:01.3 2,500m 1:36.2 392 1650 35 164

1:36.2 500m 1:36.2 393 1653 35 159
1:36.1 500m 1:36.1 394 1657 35 164
1:35.9 500m 1:35.9 397 1665 36 166
1:36.1 500m 1:36.1 394 1657 35 167
1:37.0 500m 1:37.0 383 1619 36 167

As someone with a lot of experience with nerve related groin pain caused by L3/L4 disc issues, I would not be surprised if your groin and back issues are directly related.

yes, I'd say it's very likely that you're correct. I've done some back mobility work the past two weeks because that has been tight too and my groin issues have faded away

3k, 2.5k, 2k 5r

7,500m 27:23.6 1:49.5/500 ave

1.49.5/500 sr 26 hr 171
1.49.6/500 sr 27 hr 173
1.49.5/500 sr 29 hr 171

distance intervals day and a successful first hit out for my new plan of following the Pete's Plan pacing intervals, rather than pace it too aggressively and to be honest, the pacing was exactly right. not a max effort, but not far off.

annoyingly the new erg data failed to upload it properly.

45 min steady state.

felt terrible all day after a bad night's sleep but the row felt easy and relaxed

Time Meters Pace Watts Cal/Hr S/M
45:01.1 10,691m 2:06.3 174 897 18

5:00.0 1,189m 2:06.1 174 899 17
5:00.0 1,199m 2:05.1 179 915 18
5:00.0 1,195m 2:05.5 177 909 18
5:00.0 1,195m 2:05.5 177 909 19
5:00.0 1,185m 2:06.5 173 893 18
5:00.0 1,185m 2:06.5 173 893 18
5:00.0 1,189m 2:06.1 174 899 18
5:00.0 1,174m 2:07.7 168 877 18
5:01.1 1,179m 2:07.6 168 878 18

4x2 power clean 92.5
3x5 deadlift 130
3x7 Bent over Row 80
3x5 Press 55
3x5 Push Press 65

really in a rut with my weights. once a week isn't enough to achieve anything apart from narrowly hang on to what little I've got...and I'm not even getting through everything that I want to get through

but I want to row 5x a week to keep building my conditioning. I could maybe add a double day after my final row session of the week (which...in my default plan is a sprint session and quite short so it might work), knowing that I've got a rest day the next day to recover but IDK - I'm wary of overtraining too.

2x5k r20 3r.

Time Meters Pace Watts Cal/Hr S/M
20:00.9 5,005m 1:59.9 203 997 20


Time Meters Pace Watts Cal/Hr S/M
20:00.0 5,000m 2:00.0 203 997 20

Forgot to wear the HRM but UT1 ish I'd think. Had drag lower than usual. First interval at 105 and then bumped it to 115 for second interval as the beginning of some experiments into seeing if I can improve the 'cleanness' of my stroke...not sure if the terminology is right.

What's your training split for rowing look like? UT2 x2, UT1 x1, then Pete Plan intervals x2? Feels like lifting on your UT2 days with an off day after is probably doable, at least from a recovery standpoint, assuming you titrate intensity slowly.

Pretty much.

Right now I’m in the middle of a mini peak as I want to try to hit some confidence building PRs before I have a 3 week family trip to Europe in mid Sept. I have a more detailed 20 week plan from early Oct when I’m back with an aim of indoor world 2k in late Feb if I feel capable of hitting a big PR

So the plan for now is to have 6 row sessions planned for the week and to do 5 of them depending on how my body feels on the day

The 2 sprint and distance intervals, two steady states of between 45 and 60 mins, then a hard distance (which might either be a UT1 Type effort like today or something a lot harder like last week when I did a 38.50 10k) and then a shorter sprint one which might be 8x250 or 15x100 or sth.

The sprint session would most often be the last one of the week and I’ll probably be choosing between that and a second steady state …and it’ll happen on a Sunday as Mon is my rest day so it’s probably the best day to do my second/supplementary weights

Sounds like a plan. I think it's probably doable, but considering I only got into rowing when I could no longer lift, I don't really have any great personal experience to share.

body was tired today so a 45 min steady state was all I was good for. feel a little cheated...haven't had a drink in two weeks but I still can't seem to sleep more than 6 hours

Time Meters Pace Watts Cal/Hr S/M HR
45:00.7 10,553m 2:07.9 167 874 17 132

5:00.0 1,174m 2:07.7 168 877 17 126
5:00.0 1,172m 2:07.9 167 874 17 129
5:00.0 1,182m 2:06.9 171 889 18 134
5:00.0 1,172m 2:07.9 167 874 18 134
5:00.0 1,179m 2:07.2 170 884 18 127
5:00.0 1,180m 2:07.1 170 886 18 137
5:00.0 1,162m 2:09.0 163 859 18 131
5:00.0 1,166m 2:08.6 164 865 18 136
5:00.7 1,167m 2:08.8 164 863 17 136

6x1min/1r, ascending pace

6th day in a row for me and I didn't quite have the heart for the planned Power Pyramid, so finished the week with something fun. I've done very little work for the past 5 months at anything around my target 1k speed, so it was good to open things up a little.

Time Meters Pace Watts Cal/Hr S/M HR
6:00.0 1,921m 1:33.7 425 1764 36 140

1:00.0 314m 1:35.5 401 1681 33 149
1:00.0 319m 1:34.0 421 1748 35 159
1:00.0 321m 1:33.4 429 1775 36 161
1:00.0 321m 1:33.4 429 1775 37 156
1:00.0 322m 1:33.1 433 1789 38 156
1:00.0 325m 1:32.3 445 1831 38 159

Nice work - looks brutal though.

yep, the last one was particularly unpleasant and I was on my back for 5 mins afterwards. But it's less psychologically intimidating than one of the PP intervals and for the final day of the week, it was all I had.

Power Pyramid.

After an HD the last time I tried to do this too gung ho, today my plan was to do a very hard but not full out Power Pyramid, but I ended up with an equal PR. My plan was a 97.5% type effort to ensure I got through the entire interval but without going full out. I thought I planned my splits to average 1.39.9. I was then aware I was beating the splits by a tiny amount each time and went full out on the last 250, but I must have got the maths wrong!

Still, it's a nice confidence booster but because I did have something left and it's the more enjoyable way to row this one


Time Meters Pace Watts Cal/Hr S/M
13:05.4 4,000m 1:38.1 370 1572 34

0:46.3 250m 1:32.6 441 1817 36
r: 1:30 27m
1:36.2 500m 1:36.2 393 1653 34
r: 3:00 25m
2:29.5 750m 1:39.6 354 1516 33
r: 4:30 24m
3:22.6 1,000m 1:41.3 337 1458 31
r: 6:00 27m
2:29.9 750m 1:39.9 351 1506 32
r: 4:30 26m
1:36.3 500m 1:36.3 392 1648 36
r: 3:00 29m
0:44.8 250m 1:29.6 487 1974 39