Testing



cpurx

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Sep 20, 2011
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[SIZE= 11pt]I'm planning my training for next year. I've put together a program based on some of my goals and want to include periodic test, which I've never done. I need someone to clear up a bit of confusion I have about testing. [/SIZE]

[SIZE= 11pt]As I understand it, training should include an easy week within the training cycle as well as periodic testing. My question is when do you test, on the easy week? [/SIZE]

  • [SIZE= 11pt]If that's the case, when do you perform the test?[/SIZE] Certainly not at the beginning of the rest week.
  • In the middle so as to have recovery time but you wouldn't be as fresh?
  • [SIZE= 11pt]At the end before you start the program backup. You would be fresh but won't that have a negative effect going into the next cycle?[/SIZE]
  • [SIZE= 11pt]If you do it at the end, the body does go into repair mode, should you do some openers the day before just to remind your legs and lungs that hard work is still at hand?[/SIZE]

[SIZE= 11pt]I might be over thinking this but I need a place to plug the test into and feel confident that it all works together.[/SIZE]

[SIZE= 11pt]Thanks for you help.[/SIZE]
 
Yeah, you're probably over thinking this a bit, here's some thoughts:

- Many folks use a preplanned rest week schedule as in 3 weeks 'on', 1 week 'rest', but many do not. The argument for pre planning rest periods is that it lowers the risk that you'll try to do too much, burn out or get into chronic over training patterns and that some folks come back from the rest week with more energy to devote to training harder, unfortunately IME, many riders do not come back well from their rest weeks and spend the first few days of the following week just getting back to where they left off. The argument against pre planned rest weeks is that they're not necessary, they take away from precious training time, it's hard to pre plan when you'll need extra rest and many times life throws interruptions your way that don't nicely align with your rest week schedule so you end up missing even more training. FWIW, I haven't used a pre planned rest week approach for the past five seasons or more. Sure I take easier weeks when I feel I need them or when life and work obligations get in the way of training which happens often enough but those weeks aren't planned months in advance. But rest weeks or no rest weeks, you can still do testing either as formal tests or as part of your weekly training.

- Certain formal tests like VO2 Max tests or focused 1 minute peak power tests typically require setting aside testing days and in those cases you want to be fresh but not too fresh for testing. IOW, you want to be reasonably rested but most folks produce their best testing results following a day when they rode enough to get their legs moving and their heart's pumping but not so much or so hard that they're struggling to recover in time for the testing. I typically schedule a Tempo day for up to 90 minutes or so of riding the day before formal test days as opposed to testing after complete rest days.

- Many aspects of physiology can be tracked without formal tests but just by tracking your regular training intervals. A lot of us do weekly 2x20 minute or 1x60 minute Threshold intervals. Tracking the power, speed, distance, time for a fixed distance or other metrics for these regular weekly sessions is a very good form of informal testing. IOW, 'testing is training, training is testing'. My best overall indicator of fitness is the power I can sustain for my regular weekly Threshold intervals or my average sustainable power for a set of 5 minute VO2 Max intervals. Sure it's helpful to periodically go out and really kill it on a single effort to try to set new records but the day in, day out numbers are very good ways to track progress and don't cost you normal training days. If you don't train with power then record your time or speed up a long enough climb between fixed points, if your times up the climb drop, your power has increased.

- If I'm going to do a formal Threshold test I'll plan it to follow a Tempo day that usually follows a complete rest day so that I'm sufficiently fresh but my legs are ready to go. If possible I'll test on a venue that lets me assess 60 minute or at least 30 minute sustained power without any traffic interruptions or steep descents that rob power and break up the effort. Sometimes I just test 20 minutes but then I'll recover a bit longer than usual after the maximal test effort and then do one or two more efforts where I target 90% or so of my best effort to finish out the session or at least do an hour or more of Tempo to make it a decent workout.

- IMO, all sprints should be performed maximally, you never want to train yourself to sprint slowly or hold back in sprints. So they're by definition max record attempts each time you do them.

- As mentioned above 1 minute maximal efforts almost always require a dedicated test. It doesn't have to be a complete day dedicated to the test but for best results do full minute max efforts fairly early in the ride, expect to be totally trashed after hitting your best full minute and when you can get going again expect to ride no harder than Tempo for a while. IOW, 1 minute max efforts are totally brutal, make many folks feel like hurling afterwards and usually require quite a few minutes of minimal effort spinning before you'll feel like riding at more than a recovery pace. So don't expect to hit these during general group riding or even in races unless you're willing to get dropped after the max minute.

Anyway, research a bit into the pros and cons of preplanning your winter rest weeks, there are definitely conflicting schools of thought. But either way, it's possible to do informal tracking style 'tests' all the time as part of good training and not that hard to structure formal test days to maximize their training value but realistically you shouldn't need to set aside days for formal testing very often, perhaps once every few months at most.

Good luck,
-Dave
 
[SIZE= 11pt]Thanks Dave,[/SIZE]

[SIZE= 11pt]That's a lot to think about but at first blush, I love the idea of using a scheduled effort as the test, it's perfect! I'll have the data and can compare the efforts. The bulk of my work is on a trainer and I was in fact worried about giving up, as you said, "precious training time". I don't need anything to formal. I just want to track my progress, maintain an even trajectory to my targeted events, and avoid over training.[/SIZE]

[SIZE= 11pt]Really good stuff, thanks again,[/SIZE]
[SIZE= 11pt]Jaime[/SIZE]
 

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