Testing

I changed up my plan a little bit this week. With my first Base phase coming up next week, I decided that I should start doing my tests. This year, I'm planning to do the full battery of tests from the Friel book now (at the start of the Base phase) and at the end of the Base phase. I will also do a few critical ones in between.

So far, I've completed the Sprint Power test, Critical Power tests at 12seconds, 1 minute and 30 minutes, and the Lactate Threshold Field test (which is the only test I did last year). I still need to do the Graded Exercise test and the Critical Power tests at 6 and 12 minutes.

I did the LT field test tonight; I had forgotten how hard it is. My heart rate was consistent with the tests I did last year, which is not too surprising I guess. My average power was 217W, which was a little disappointing, I had hoped to be in the 220's (no particular rationale behind it though). That being said, I also tested at 217W last April, after I had gone through three months of Base training! So the test today also suggests that I'll see a nice year-to-year improvement over last year.

The other interesting thing about the LT test today was how consistent my effort was. In past tests, I've usually had a little left in the tank for a hard push over the last minute or so. I usually see this reflected in my max power number. This max power number has been steadily dropping every time I do the test though. The first time I did it, my max power was 250W more than my average power . Today, it was 54W over my average. I'm just getting better at gaging my effort over the 30 minutes.

I expect to have trouble with the 6 and 12 minute critical power tests. Not because they will be hard (they will!), but because I will have trouble gaging my effort. For the shorter tests, I could pretty much just go all out (although I almost didn't make it on the 1 minute test!). As I've said, I have some experience with the 30 minute test. But how hard to go for 6 or 12 minutes? I'm really not sure, they are kind of strange time intervals. I expect that I'll have to do these a couple times each to get a good number.

Tomorrow is a break from testing though. I'm planning on doing my "long ride". I was originally thinking I'd do it outside with the Rhinos, but it's pretty cold here. They're predicting it will be about 10F tomorrow morning, but will feel like -5F with the wind. Ahhh... I think I'll stay instead.