6/11 in the 30-39 LWT division. 2 did not start and 2 finished ahead of me, but I think did not make weight. But I am calling it 6/11. Winner was 6:25!

Even though it wasn't quite what you wanted, congrats on the PR! Maybe you felt sick afterwards because you realized you hustled me on the 20 second handicap I have to start with?

Did you have a plan for pacing? I'm hoping I can stick with what I laid out in my log a few weeks ago, but we'll see.

Ah, the old reverse hustle. You're definitely going to throw up.

I've always read the even pacing is the most efficient, so that's what I went for. I tried to keep it at 1:49.9 for as long as possible and then speed up if I had anything left. I think playing around for pacing is to help with the mental aspect of it. Perhaps that's what I need to do, after blowing up in the final 500m in my last two attempts. Good luck friend.

I'm definitely concerned after reading your trip report.

Re: pacing, I think I'm going to try this:

Whether I'm able to stick to it is another matter, but I'm definitely one of the people that likes to see the number of strokes on the screen, back calculate pace using how many meters are left, and and other mental trick I can muster to get through my sprints. It's reasonably possible I just forget about it after 250 m, but we'll see I suppose. I still think sub 7:00 is a bit of a reach, but I'll give it the ol' college try.

PP - W11D6c

5x3000m/1:00r
1:09:56.6 15,000m 2:19.8 128 740 21 156

13:59.9 3,000m 2:19.9 128 739 21 150
13:59.6 3,000m 2:19.9 128 739 21 157
13:59.3 3,000m 2:19.8 128 740 21 158
13:58.9 3,000m 2:19.8 128 740 20 158
13:58.8 3,000m 2:19.8 128 740 21 158

Pretty solid session. HR touched 160 a couple of times in the last interval, but didn't go over. Today was meant to be an interval day, but I've done a lot of those in the last week, so steady state it is. Whenever I've had a race in the past in running, I've lost motivation immediately after and switched focus to either lifting or crossfit. This doesn't seem to be happening with rowing, I was eager to start putting in the meters again. Good luck, Monte!

S&S - D7

Single Arm Swings: 16x10x2, 24x2x1
2 armed Swings: 24x10x2, 16x10x6
Turkish Getup: 16x1x2, 24x1x2, 16x1x6

I got this pain in my upper left chest (3cm up and 3cm right of my left nipple) and couldn't do swings on the left side, so I switched to 2 handed which was fine. 16kg is way too light though, so if I cannot do single arm swings, I will just move up to 24kg.

TGUs were okay, I failed the first roll in one of the reps with the 24kg. I was just a bit timid. I practiced that first roll after I finished a few times.

I'm not going to sweat the pain because I didn't even know it was there until now.

PP - W12D1

4x1000m/5:00r
14:59.8 4,000m 1:52.4 246 1146 29 182

3:45.6 1,000m 1:52.8 244 1139 29 175
3:44.8 1,000m 1:52.4 246 1148 29 182
3:44.7 1,000m 1:52.3 247 1149 29 185
3:44.7 1,000m 1:52.3 247 1149 29 187



This was up there in effort. I used a DF of 115 for the first interval and that was just too much for my legs. I lowered it to 109 after that and it was fine. I think I'll save the higher drag factors for time trials, so that it's easier on my body.

I've been thinking about how to continue rowing once I get access to a barbell, which is probably a month away. I'm thinking of adding an extra steady state session and keeping everything else the same. So it goes from S-H-S-H-S-H (steady and hard) to S-S-H-S-S-H-S-S-H. This is probably better in the long run and would lead to more sustainable gains. It also lets me continue doing this plan, which I'm really enjoying due to the repeatable workouts and measuring progress.

June summary:
Row - 204km
Run - 18km
Weights - 14 sessions (3 upper, 2 lower, 1 crossfit, 7 S&S, 1 SSfDT) + maybe one later today or maybe not




I made this neat little tracker for all ranking distances. In July, I'd like to tick off sub 20 5k, sub 42 10k, and one other distance. These should be fairly easy to hit right now. 230k meters would also be nice. I need to lift more as well besides S&S because I'm losing weight rapidly.

I remember a while ago writing that there was this entire pace range where I was doing no work (and thus HR range as well). That still applies now, my slowest interval session is 2:02 and my fastest steady state is 2:17. I read the Wolverine Plan (what Pete's Plan is based off) a little more in depth and read a few posts on the forum and I've realized that I'm doing the hard distance days completely wrong. They are not meant to be 95% days like I'm doing. 2k pace (in seconds) * 1.156 is the pace that's recommended, which is around 2:08 for me and is right in the middle of that neglected range.

There are 3 styles of workouts he says to do on these days
1 - continuous distance (example 8k, and add 500m each week)
2 - break up the distance (2x6k with 7 minutes rest)
3 - shorter intervals with 3:1 work to rest ratio (15x3 min, 1 min off)

I still really want a sub 20 5k, so I will do that this week. But starting the week after that, I'm going to switch to these.

Edit - In the actual Wolverine Plan, level 3 workouts are 85-90% of 2k pace, which would be 2:03 to 2:10 for me, which basically covers all entire pace range I was missing. Doh

PP - W12D2

5x3000m/1:00r
1:09:40.5 15,000m 2:19.3 129 745 20 158

14:00.3 3,000m 2:20.0 127 738 20 150
13:55.7 3,000m 2:19.2 130 745 19 154
13:56.8 3,000m 2:19.4 129 744 20 160
13:56.9 3,000m 2:19.4 129 743 20 162
13:50.8 3,000m 2:18.4 132 753 20 163

I tried to start out slower (did the first 1000m at 2:22) and reduce my stroke rate. It is actually 19.7, and it's been around 20.5 recently. So my power per stroke has gone up since pace is the same.

My back was bothering me a little, it always tends to happen when I drop my stroke rate. I figured something out in the middle of the 4th interval though - to keep my eyes on the monitor during the drive. I was glancing up and opening my back too early. Keeping my eyes on the monitor made me push with my legs more, and my back niggle went away! I sped up quite a bit in the 5th interval and HR didn't really go up.

Lower spm, no back pain, technique gains, good session!

That's pretty sweet that you've figured out your back issue; I'm not really sure what level of lower back fatigue is "appropriate", but increasing the drag factor a bit definitely has me feeling like I'm using my legs more, which is likely a good thing. I've been steady state-ing at 100-105, but I'm going to try to inch that up a little bit to around 110 and see if I can get to 120+ for endurance intervals and 130+ for speed intervals. Thoughts?

Just watched another Travis Gardner video, and apparently what I was doing was accidentally close to reasonable:



Cliffs: 7:00 2k should be around 115-120 drag factor depending on height, with steady state 20-30 below that and then stepping up gradually for the work in between. I raced at around 115 and have been doing my steady state at around 100-105, so mission kind of accomplished?

SSfDT - D2

Warm up - 2 rounds of S&S warm up, and 1 round of movement specific warm up

7 Giant Sets:
Pistol Squats: 2 x(4,5,9), 4
Strict HSPU: 2 x (2,4,6), 2
Pull ups: 2 x(4,5,9), 4

Time: 41m (9m wu + 32m working sets)

I'm going to do 2-3 of these a week, slowly building volume and reps. It felt good today. Pistol squats were wobbly and there were a lot of iffy reps, so I'm going to move my RM from 13 to 11. I don't want to ingrain bad form. Handstand pushups were really easy, I'm increasing it from 9 to 10. Pull ups were the real surprise. It was the first time doing unweighted after a month or so of weighted pullups, and they were really really easy. The second set of 9 was no problem at all. I think my WR of 15 might be smashed if I were to test it. I'm leaving my RM at 14 though because I'm doing them when I want a break from weighted pullups.

Monte, I watched that video a while back and mentioned wanting to polarise drag factor (higher DF for higher stroke rates and speed) and have been trying it out. From everything I've read, drag factor is very individual. You have to tinker with it and see what feels right. I've been recording my drag factor along with notes (too low/right/too high) and have settled on the following for now:

Steady state: 105
Pete Plan intervals: 110 to 115 (3k to 500m)
2k race: I did 125 but that was too high, so maybe 115-120

I suspect that if I were to maximise my score during training, I can increase them all by 3-5 but it feels worse and I can feel the strain on my body. So I'll just save that bump for a race.

Yeah I just checked my log and my 2k drag factor was 121, today's interval was 112, and much of my steady state is in the 100-105 range. I hadn't really changed drag factors before the last week or so, but having something that feels a bit heavier for the higher stroke rates feels fine enough. We'll see how I hold up.

PP - W12D3

3k, 2.5k, 2k / 5min rest
30:14.8 7,500m 2:00.9 198 980 26

12:09.9 3,000m 2:01.6 194 969 26
10:05.5 2,500m 2:01.1 197 978 26
07:59.4 2,000m 1:59.8 203 999 27



That was a really, really, hard effort. It was almost too hard. I wanted to keep it below 2:02, first interval was tough, but fine. The second interval, I sped up and tried to get it close to 2:01. The third interval, I wanted to go sub 8 because I've never done that in a workout (PR before lockdown was 7:51). HR kept dropping in and out, but if I had to estimate, my ending HRs were 182, 186, and 189. 182 was definite, HR was 183 6 minutes into the 2nd interval, and HR was 187 5:30 into the 3rd interval.

I need to stop racing these sessions. Going at between 2:01.5 and 2:02.0 like I intended to would have still been hard, but not lying on the ground collapsed hard. It was exactly 1 cycle ago that my paces suddenly jumped, most likely due to technique gains. So I think the days of these huge gains are over. I might try and go just 1 second faster for the next cycle.

I hope this is my last ever interval session above 2:00!

7.2 seconds slower than Monte. Damn. I would have thought it would be closer to 5.

After reading the WP a bit more and crunching the numbers on L1/2/3/4, it seems like he designed this plan for a university rower rowing 100k a week in 8 sessions. This is based on the % of total meters he recommends for each of the different levels. The 8 sessions consist of 1 L1, 1 L2, 2 L3, and 4 L4.

I'm rowing around 100k in 8 sessions, but over the course of 10-11 days. I'm currently deciding between 2 options going forward:

Option 1:
Keep it as it is. The sessions will go 1-4-2-4-3-4. This is Pete's Plan. But, the drawback is that there is too much L1 and L2, and too little L3. This would mean it is a more demanding plan.

Option 2:
Stretch out the week further and go 1-4-3-4-2-4-3-4. This is exactly what he recommends, but I will do it over 10-11 days. It should be fine, because on some of the sample 4 or 5 day a week plans, the ratios of different intervals ends up being the same. This is a less demanding plan, and also gives me more L3 workouts which I have completely skipped until now. This also gives me the option of using one of the L3 days for a hard ranking piece, which I really like doing. I'm leaning towards this.

Yeah, I've been thinking about this too.

Travis Gardner's recommendation for aerobic base building (ignoring the time-based part of his recommendations over the simplified distance based PP) is, per macrocycle, 8 UT2, 2 UT1, 1 AT, and 1 AR. (That he recommends more frequent rest so it ends up being an 18 day cycle is something I'm going to ignore, because I like to row). Normalizing that to my current six day schedule and melding it with the PP basically yields 4 UT2, 1 UT1 (what we've been ignoring), and then alternating AT and AR sessions weekly.

I think I'm going to give that a shot after my vacation, so something like (AT or AR/UT2/UT2/UT1/UT2/UT2) with 3 of the 4 UT2 sessions being 60:00 and trying to stretch the fourth out to 90:00 (maybe the one after UT1) and stick to 10ks at the UT1 pace for the most part with, as you suggest, mixing in a harder effort ranked piece attempt on days I feel good. Including warmup meters, that looks like a total weekly load of ~90k, which is about what I've been doing - it just shifts a lot if the work to a lower intensity band, which given my age is probably better anyway.

Negative splitting what is in competition for the most painful and shittiest endurance interval piece is pretty sweet, regardless, and I'm fairly certain my mechanical advantages make up most of the difference. Getting under 2:00 for all of those pieces is pretty awesome!

S&S - D8

2 Handed Swings: 24x10x10
Turkish Getup: 16x2, 24x2, 16x4, 24x2

I tried a couple of single handed swings, but there was still a slight pain in my left side (20% compared to last time). I was sensible and did 2 handed - I think I should be fine to do single arm next time. TGUs felt really really good after I went back to 16 after the 2 at 24. I really concentrated on keeping my arm in a strong position and it felt good. I couldn't resist the temptation of using the 24 for my last 2.

Thanks for mentioning the Gardner video, I just watched it. Most people seem to be recommending 2:1 easy to hard ratio for base building and that fits with his video (8 easy and 4 hard per cycle). That definitely seems sustainable and you can switch up the ratios a bit before a 2k time trial to peak. For now, I think I'll stick to what I said earlier (4,2,1,1) because UT1 seems like half a hard session and I should recover better without lifting. Once gyms are open, I'll likely switch to 8,2,1,1 like you.

Haha, I wasn't whining about the 7 seconds, but the 5+2 seconds, if that makes sense! It's fun chasing you.

I wasn't trying to influence your decision, just noting what the last few weeks of discussion have gotten me thinking about.

Maybe something like a three week cycle with twelve UT2 sessions, two UT1, two AT, and two AR per cycle - I'll play it by ear. I do enjoy the interval stuff, I just don't want to burn out. Anyway, given I'm in USA, the gym isn't going to be in my future for a while, so I'm a bit less concerned with recovery given I'm going to be a calisthenics bro for a while longer.

I know you weren't. I love programming talk, so keep it coming!

Btw, in WP, he mentions 3 L3 workouts, exactly like how he does for L1 and L2. They are a continuous 12k, 2x6k (7-8' rest), and 15x3' (1' rest). It's weird that Pete took his template for L1 and L2 and dismissed it for L3. I think I will just rotate through his L3 workouts like I do with the others. The rest for the 2x6k depends on your speed, he wants a 3:1 work:rest ratio.

PP - W12D4

5x3000m/1:00r
1:08:53.5 15,000m 2:17.7 134 760 20 159

13:52.2 3,000m 2:18.7 131 751 20 154
13:51.1 3,000m 2:18.5 132 753 20 157
13:45.1 3,000m 2:17.5 135 763 20 160
13:44.0 3,000m 2:17.3 135 765 20 161
13:41.2 3,000m 2:16.8 137 769 20 161

Best steady state row ever! I did this exact pace a month ago, but at 2-3 beats higher HR and a higher stroke rate. I didn't have much of a plan regarding pace and just did what felt good today. My HR wouldn't really go above 161, which is amazing since I used to struggle to keep it below 160 a while ago.

I changed the foot strap from 5 to 4, this helped a LOT with not overcompressing in the catch. I focussed on looking at the screen during the drive and hinge forward/arms straight at the catch. Not even a hint of back pain.

I did some more thinking about this last night, and I think I might go with your Option 2 and insert those UT1 rows as you described.

One or two off days per cycle is probably what I'll end up doing, but even with two days off per cycle, some quick back of the envelope math gives between 95 and 100k "work" meters, ~12k in warmups, and probably about that much again in light rowing between intervals - around 360k meters per 30 days. Seems like plenty.