Rowing workout W4R2: 3 x 1000 M with 3 minutes rest between intervals at target 2:15.0 splits. Did the first interval the fastest, 4:28.4 (PR), but all were just slightly a second faster than 2:15.0 splits.
500 M: Not tested
1000 M: 4:28.4
2000 M: 09:18.1 (10:58, 10:01)
5000 M: 24:57.1 (26:41)
10000 M: Not tested
Hard day today. Headed for work at 4:15 AM because I had some deadline work that I couldn’t bring myself to complete over the weekend. Got home at 5 PM and cooked/ate dinner then did some meal planning and prep for the next couple of days. Then my rowing workout and now pretty much wiped out. I almost punted on my rowing workout, but said fuck that and sucked it up.
Just wanted to wish you luck - I’ve recently pivoted from pure strength based work and started Pete’s Program myself, so I’m interested to see how our progress tracks. Routinely rowing 10000 m in a few months seems daunting, but I’m sure we’ll get there.
Do you have a C2 at home? I’m trying to convince the wife to “let” me get one, but given my gym is a block away from my house, it seems a bit unnecessary.
As an aside, a brief perusal of the last few weeks shows you’re doing great - nice work! Feel free to PM me if you need recipe ideas or want to talk rowing (I’m still very much a noob, though).
Hey thanks for the well wishes. I do have have a C2 at home, and a Water Rower in the corporate gym at work. I prefer the C2 but probably because I use it much more frequently and I’m used to the settings and the monitor.
Feel free to PM or to just share recipes and rowing talk inline in this log. It would probably make it more useful and/or interesting for others.
The tricky part about starting the Pete’s beginners program imo is the splits you aim for on the two long weekly rows which form the backbone of the program. I think it needs to be challenging enough to force adaption and improvement, while not being so difficult that you can’t keep up with the steady weekly increase in distance. Also strive to keep your stroke rate on the long rows between roughly 20 and 24 SPM and concentrate on efficiency and technique. (Your SPM will be higher during the interval sessions.) Dark Horse Rowing has a bunch of good technique videos on YouTube.
Pretty much the difference is in taking responsibility for what I’m eating in all circumstances (and planning ahead of time) rather than just kind of going with whatever happens and eating/drinking whatever I feel like knowing damn well it’s too much but not giving a fuck. And doing that for too long. (I assume everybody does that at least sometimes, but for thinner people it must be less often and for shorter periods.)
What I find interesting is that this seems to be getting easier as time goes on. I have not really had excessive cravings nor felt hungry more than a handful of times so far and not at all recently. I just ripped off two really solid weeks without hardly trying, except maybe fighting with myself to get my rowing done when I was lazy a few times.
Re: rowing, I’m not a total noob - got into it a few years back and managed to row a sub 40 minute 10k; I was more alluding to the fact that the finer points of technique beyond the Concept2 introductory videos and of training beyond the C2 WODs kind of eluded me (to say nothing of heart rate tracking or anything along those lines).
I’m still trying to figure out how to integrate (light) lower body training with rowing; the current plan is to squat and deadlift once each per eight day cycle with minimal assistance work, and spread the rowing/upper body stuff throughout. Given I’m old and shit, an eight day split seems to make more sense, using a push/pull/legs/off split for lifting with rowing on pull days and off days. Whether I can keep up the lower body work as the meters start to increase is an open question. My log is in H&F on [redacted] if you’re ever interested in checking it out; I just did W1D3 yesterday and managed a consistently paced 19:52 5k, which was my first sub 2 minute pace since I’ve come back to the erg.
That’s solid. That split time (2:00.0) is what I’m aiming at eventually for my 2k, never mind 10k. First I need to manage 2:15.0 splits for 2k which I think I’ll be able to hit soon.
Are you going to try to manage sub 2 splits on all your long rows as they increase in distance? (It’s not clear to me if you are following the Pete’s beginners or the regular Pete’s plan. I’m doing the beginners right now and haven’t read through the regular plan.)
I’ve followed your log off and on back on the other site, but not for a while now. I remember at one point several years back there were some rowers in H&F, but I don’t recall if you were one of the regulars. I only just started myself - except for a brief time last year as a complete noob and I only lasted a month or so.
I’m probably sticking with 3 rowing sessions per week, and eventually working in kettlebell swings and get-ups. Throw in some hiking here and there and in January I should be light enough to start hitting the climbing gym again. Plan to ski this winter and start climbing outside next spring after 5 or 6 years off from climbing.
A little higher than I wanted today on the calories but no big deal. My daughter begged to go to Olive Garden, and I couldn’t resist a bread stick. I also think the calories for the shrimp scampi meal I had were higher than reported. The menu and online both said 570 calories, but I doubt that was accurate for the portion I was served.
I’m going to make this soup for some of my meals next week:
I’m going to use beef Chorizo from a local farm, sub out chicken stock for vegetable stock, and use all fresh vegetables from the farmers market. Probably also going to use smoked paprika instead of sweet paprika.
Completed in 34:29.7 (2:27.8 splits). I might try aiming for sub 2:27 splits on my long rows and see what happens. If it’s reasonable then sub 2:25. I rowed the last 1400 M of this row sub 2:25 (2:24.3) and felt ok, but not confident I could handle the full 7k at that pace while maintaining good form.
Had a really busy day meal prepping for this week and packaging stuff for the next several weeks since I have a busy schedule coming up. Started at 8 AM and finished at 6 PM with a break to pay some bills and fuck around with a little maintenance on my swimming pool.
Going to write it all down to impress my future self at some point when I need motivation:
Headed to farmers market for vegetables, cheese, yogurt, meats, and seafood
Then hit local farmstand for bread, eggs, and more vegetables
Got a full beef tenderloin at Sams Club and cut it into steaks and a couple of pounds of shaved steak and packaged and froze
Ground up everything trimmed from the tenderloin (except the silverskin) with a top round roast and packaged and froze burgers and ground beef
Trimmed 4 pork tenderloins and packaged and froze
Trimmed 10 pounds of chicken breast and packaged and froze
Repackaged a giant pack of Canadian bacon into smaller packs and froze
Made white bean, kale, and chorizo soup for meals this week
Made my daughter sweet potato chili for meals this week (she’s been vegetarian for about a month now)
Made homemade crab cakes for dinner
Made avocado ranch dressing for my wife and daughter
Made a frittata for breakfasts this week
I’m going to attempt a 16 mile hike tomorrow. It should be doable because it’s mostly cross-country with not too much climbing, and it will be good to get a 5 or 6 hour stretch of exercise.
Legs are fine for rowing but I’m fried. Left for work at 4:30 AM and got home at ~ 8:00 PM. Dinner and off to bed, basically. Next two days are going to be similar issue.
I’ll have time to row tomorrow and Saturday so I can sort of catch back up on the Pete’s plan. I’m still working on week 5 workouts but I think I’m at least 6 weeks into the plan in real time.
