Every Day is NOT a Test

Performance testing is a critical component to continued improvement. However, one of the most important things to remember when training is that each ride is NOT about doing "better" than your previous ride. You must not go out each day and test yourself. Let's talk about testing, training given test values and retesting.

Do Some Testing

You should test yourself occasionally to determine your current training zones. A test session should be done after a period of recovery. For endurance athletes a typical test session will include a measure of what pedaling output you can sustain. To that end you can perform a 20 minute test using a power meter and measure the power you can sustain. An alternative is to perform a blood lactate test where you measure accumulation of lactate and preferably also the power output where lactate product and lactate clearing is "balanced". These are two methods to determine your current fitness.

Note: Heart Rate (HR) and Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) are not good metrics to observe without power or blood lactate as they should always be high when you are doing a test. HR and RPE are more of a measure of how your body is responding to stress than how much stress you can place on your body and they should be recorded along with Power and Blood Lactate.

Do Some Training

Train at in your current training zones. Workouts are designed to be doable. You should be able to complete a workout as described. Sometimes it will be a challenge, but you should be able to do it. For example, a "cruise interval" workout is done at 100% of your 60 minute power, but the work intervals are usually 20 minutes or less (often 6-8 minutes). So, you should be able to do them. Realize that as a training block progresses you will get fatigued and you will not be able to go faster or at a higher power output than when you weren't fatigued. This is what can make those 6 minute efforts still feel quite hard. You are getting tired.

If you feel "good" on a particular day you need to resist the temptation to push yourself when that isn't the plan. Don't do 110% when it shoudl be 100%, instead enjoy that 100% feels easier than it used to. Even more important is to not go 85% when you were supposed to go 65%. This short changes your recovery and makes it so you won't be able to go as hard on days when you are supposed to. There will be plenty of time to ride at higher zones. Wait until a real test tells you that you are ready.

After some training you will need some recovery. We have discussed this before. Only with recovery from the training will you see improvement in fitness.

Do Follow Up Testing

You need to retest since training (or lack of) will cause your fitness to change. After a recovery period it is common to retest. This can be another structured test or a race. It is important to do the retesting to insure that you are continuing to stress your body which will result in further adaptations to the stress and even more improvement. If you use a power meter in your regular training you can keep track of the stress you are putting on your body even in the context of changing training zone numbers, and you can "plan" when you are going to be best prepared to have a top performance.

When you integrate performance testing into your training you can continuously build your fitness and apply a specific amount of training stress. Remember that not every day is a test. Stick to the plan and when the next test day comes around be prepared to reset those zones.

Example Test Protocol

• Warm up at endurance pace 50-65% for 15-20 minutes.
• In an easy gear spin at ~20RPM higher than normal cadence for 1 minute. Repeat 3x with 1 minute easy pedalling in between.
• Ride at an easy pace for 5 minutes
• Perform a 5 minute all out effort. (be steady, it will get harder after 1.5-2.5 minutes as you exhaust anaerobic capacity, finish strong the final minute and really give your all the last 10-15 seconds)
• Pedal easy for 5 minutes
• Perform a 20 minute test effort. This is the "real" test. If you have done a previous test you could start at that output. If not you can start at a slightly elevated pace and let the effort build to comfortably hard. The last few minutes you can pull out all of the stops and finish feeling spent.
• Cool down at active recovery pace <50%

The 5 minute all out portion serves 2 purposes. First, it exposes your body to elevated pace and switches on the systmes in the body to deal with those conditions. Second, it burns off some of the top end capacity so that the 20 minute test is closer to steady state.

The 20 minute test will generally overestimate what you can do for 60 minutes by about 5%. So, subtract 5% from your 20 minute test result and that is the value you should use for 100% in your training.

This training tip also to be featured on: www.CenturionCycling.com/training