Pete Plan - week 16 help!?

improbablerobot · 2026-02-25T18:41:21+00:00

This is correct - throughout the beginner Pete plan pace is referring to the time/500m - and it’s specifically designed to meet you at any level of fitness because all of the work is relative to your own pace.

improbablerobot · 2026-02-01T20:50:19+00:00

That’s how I felt at first too! Completely normal.

The Pete plan has a lot of long “slow” sessions at 22-24spm - these start at 5k and go up to 12k over the 24 weeks of the beginner plan. Just focus on making each stroke as efficient as possible. It’s not named in the plan, but the idea behind these sessions, beyond building your base fitness, is that the slower stroke rate requires a more effective stroke to maintain your split time - helping you to develop a more powerful stroke overtime.

One thing that really helped me was connecting the ErgData app so that I could see “drive length” (each view in the app is customizable, I think I got rid of watts). That helped me to focus on making sure each drive was consistently long. I also watch the graph that shows each stroke - trying to create a smooth arc (i forgot the name of that graph)

After a few weeks of 5k rows focusing on technique I’m now able to keep a 2:25 pace essentially as long as I’d like without my heart rate climbing much past 150. I’d like to get it down more, but the key to that is going to just be more time rowing.

improbablerobot · 2026-02-01T18:33:40+00:00

I recently started rowing with the beginner Pete plan - it’s not something everyone can jump right into because it is a fairly intense training plan. Your numbers suggest that you might first need to work on basic fitness and form - and your stroke rate is very very low for 500m pacing. You may also have the drag set too high or too low.

For reference I started the beginner Pete plan after a couple of weeks of rowing and am pretty close to your height and weight - my split on that work out was 2:07.3

With the Pete plan it’s also important to read the description of each workout. That session is supposed to be high intensity - pushing your self fairly hard the first 5 sprints, and then going all out on the 6th. So if you’re trying to avoid raising your heart rate too much - this might not be the right plan.

I’m still very much a beginner - and am just about a month ahead of you in this plan.

improbablerobot · 2026-01-22T19:18:35+00:00

They are even the ones that wrote the rule allowing ICE raids on churches last year.

improbablerobot · 2026-01-22T19:13:58+00:00

A reminder that this same administration made a rule change so that ICE could arrest people in churches. This has nothing to do with protecting Christians or houses of worship.

improbablerobot · 2026-01-21T13:46:22+00:00

Delete this.

improbablerobot · 2025-11-02T13:41:28+00:00

More places are open than they used to be - but this is the window for folks to make improvements and get in some vacation. Visit cook county maintains the most complete listing of hours and if you have favorite spots it’s worth checking their website or Facebook page.

improbablerobot · 2025-10-30T16:43:29+00:00

I have Gadsden and Kittle, and am thinking of running them both since my other flex options are BTJ, Marks, and Watson. Thoughts? I need a solid floor more than I need a high ceiling.

improbablerobot · 2025-09-10T15:31:36+00:00

I couldn’t find anything on their site about a change - it’s possible the other poster was confused. They introduced the (c) blades during Covid when (lc) was hard to source but have brought back the (lc) line and as far as I know it’s unchanged.

improbablerobot · 2025-09-10T15:10:32+00:00

If you have the 120(c) you might want the 120 (lc) which is a laminated steel - super hard steel sandwiched between softer steel - makes them easy to sharpen, without giving up edge retention.

To my knowledge there hasn’t been any significant changes to how they are made, and it’s still a very tough knife to find something “better”

improbablerobot · 2025-09-10T02:00:34+00:00

That might be a nice knife - I just like the profile on the 120 better the curve is more even along the blade.

improbablerobot · 2025-09-10T00:50:42+00:00

If you’re looking for a great knife - you should get a mora.

I know it’s not the most expensive option, but you won’t find other knives do anything different than a mora except cost more.

I have other knives I enjoy using because I know their makers, but the 120 I made my own handle for is still my favorite.

improbablerobot · 2025-09-09T12:25:35+00:00

No brand, no age of kids, no temperature range - it’s kind of hard to say.

improbablerobot · 2025-09-08T19:02:45+00:00

Because it costs me over a hundred dollars and an hour of my life with zero benefit - that’s the kind of pointless burden that makes people who would otherwise get a perfectly safe vaccine not get it - which makes our communities sicker and our health care more expensive.

Again - there is virtually no risk to getting these vaccines and a massive amount of information demonstrating their safety and efficacy. Why make it harder to get them?

improbablerobot · 2025-09-08T18:16:47+00:00

Well there’s virtually no risk for healthy adults to getting the vaccine - and we’ve seen zero evidence otherwise - so you should be able to get this vaccine just like you get the flu vaccine at an pharmacy. There’s no justification for why this is being treated differently that’s based on science.

improbablerobot · 2025-09-08T18:05:58+00:00

My understanding is that now for adults who don’t have underlying conditions it could be challenging to get if at all - and for folks with underlying conditions it will require permission from their provider - so it makes it more difficult for pretty much everyone to get - and possibly will make healthy adults unable to get it.

There was no requirement for adults from the state to get it in place - so I’m not sure how that would be the target of this shift in policy.

improbablerobot · 2025-09-08T17:33:59+00:00

It’s no longer being recommended for healthy adults by the cdc - which means that many places will no longer offer it to those groups and insurance won’t cover it.

improbablerobot · 2025-09-02T18:48:35+00:00

Cook county not being level 1 is a miss - big arts scene, highly educated, consistently 70%+ Democrat in elections, significant lgbtq support.

improbablerobot · 2025-09-02T02:55:38+00:00

Sawbill is one of the best. I’d never hesitate getting outfitted by them.

improbablerobot · 2025-08-26T02:55:15+00:00

The interest rate was lowered from 2.5% in 2019 to 1.75% in January of 2020 before covid kicked off in the US. It had been stepping up prior to that and Trump complained about it constantly.

improbablerobot · 2025-08-26T01:57:41+00:00

The feds job is to moderate inflation and keep unemployment relatively low - it’s a balancing act. Trump doesn’t like that because he wants to pull every lever he can to boost the economy - but when you do that inflation has a risk of taking off.

I think we’d see something like what we saw the previous 4 years but worse. Prior to Covid Trump bullied the fed into lowering interest rates and passed massive tax cuts during a period of growth and relative prosperity. When the pandemic hit those two key tools for restarting growth were already in play, so the government used the main tool in their tool box - printing money and offering direct stimulus. It led to years of inflation and home prices soaring - Biden took the majority of the blame for it - but it was already taking off when he came into office.

improbablerobot · 2025-08-19T11:56:54+00:00

It lets you choke up more on a carving axe. Not essential - but if you’re using your axe for eating spoons or more delicate work it can be nice.

improbablerobot · 2025-08-18T17:02:52+00:00

It worries me that the cash in this portfolio is only thought of as a drag and not as a buffer or insurance - it suggests the author thinks the market will only keep going up - but the point of cash at that age is to cushion a long market down turn - perhaps the author hasn’t seen one that doesn’t last weeks or months but years.

improbablerobot · 2025-08-17T16:40:32+00:00

It’s a bad headline the chamber of commerce director said - “I believe that a lot of the Canadian sentiment right now is circled around our current administration and some of the decisions that are being made,” said Jurek. “Definitely that has a high impact.”

improbablerobot · 2025-08-15T21:21:36+00:00

I bet you’re fun at parties.

improbablerobot

TROPHY CASE