End of Season Test?

It's now nearly ten years since we started carrying out athlete physiological tests, or to give them their proper title, Performance Evaluations. 

In that time we've amassed data from over 400 tests and 120 athletes.  We have information from Youth Academy riders right up to Commonwealth Games athletes and everyone else in between.  That'll be me and you then!

It makes fascinating reading to watch the progress of athletes through their cycling careers and to see people push themselves further than they could ever of possibly imagined when they nervously come through the lab door for their first exposure to suffering.  Truly inspirational.

Obviously, not everyone can make it to the flamme rouge Service Corse so at the bottom of the page I'll explain how you can test yourself, or get together with like-minded individuals to test each other. 

It's very different testing yourself alone, than when someone else is present.  When someone's watching (not judging) you always find that extra two percent you didn't know you had.

Who ~ should do one?
It doesn't matter if you're a novice in your first year, a seasoned Vet, a Cat One racer, or an Elite doing cross, road, MTB or TT's.  A structured performance test isn't just something for professionals, it's something for you. 

From the honed roulers and puncheurs on the left, the petite feminine trophy winner in the middle, to the fat sprinter on the end, we can all benefit from getting the numbers out of our legs and on to a page.

A lot of people are spending a lot of money on carbon bikes, wheels and power meters; a lot of time out on the road in all weathers; and a lot of blood sweat and tears banging out heart pounding intervals. 

Wouldn't it be fantastic to be able to put a validated number against your current level of performance fitness?  Something to which you could go back and easily compare against at some future date?  Of course it would, how could it not?

What ~ test should I do?
The most relevant end of season test, in my opinion, is the dreaded six minute suffer-fest that is the wVO2max Test.  This little leg stretcher is used to determine an athlete's minimal wattage at which maximal aerobic capacity is attained. 

It can be used to give an indication of your sustained wattage output at your maximum oxygen consumption, which is indicated by the term, wVO2max.  Basically, it's the start of the Red Zone which, when racing, should be crossed only when absolutely necessary.  It's the pace you use when chasing a break or going up the road to get away.

It's a determinant of your overall fit-for-purpose as a performance cyclist, be it racer, sprinter, climber or endurance fiend.

Just six minutes?  There's a couple of answers to this, first an explanation of who does what.  Pro's carry out a full on one-hour test.  Elite athletes may take a twenty minute test.  Weekend Warriors, in my opinion, should do a six minute test.  Here's why.

We can all suffer for six minutes and ride the aerobic/anaerobic knife edge that marks our fitness parameters.  Pacing for twenty minutes on the ragged edge is more difficult than it seems and brings all sorts of cardiac drift, heat build up and other variables that may skew our results and make like for like comparisons difficult. 

A six minute test, while (obviously) ridden at a higher intensity than a twenty minute test, creates less physiological damage than its longer cousin.  The day after a six minute test you can go training.  The day after a twenty minute one you can ride but not "train".  It might take four or five days to recover form a one hour test.  Which is why it's for pro's only!  Otherwise it's called a 25 mile time trial.

There's also the dreaded Ramp or Conconi Test, but that is used to get different information for different reasons.  It's of no use to us here.

Where ~ should I do it?
There is only one real place you can do these evaluations and that's on your turbo.  The conditions have to be replicable every time you run the test, so to remove all environmental variables (wind, cold, hills, corners, traffic lights etc) it has to be indoors and on a turbo. 

That's almost all you need.  If you have a turbo, a timing mechanism and a bike computer you can run a test.  There's no compelling need for fancy equipment, but if you have a power measuring device on your bike or turbo then you get more data to pore over afterwards!

Why ~ do I need it?
It's a given fact that if you can't measure it you can't manage it and improve it.  A subjective view on your training and fitness isn't a good way to plan a season.  Another of our favoured sayings is, "hope is not a strategy".  You need an objective perspective on your fitness and a structure to your training.  Otherwise, you're just riding your bike.  Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, just not what we want if we're trying to improve as performance cyclists.

How good would it be if you could start next season as fit as when you finished this one?  Surely that should be the minimum goal of us all if we are to continue progressing year on year to maximise our potential.

We all aspire to be our best and we all train for it as best we know how.  But the only way to quantify your progress towards your aspirations is through a structured performance evaluation.  

An objective test will let you know exactly where you are at any given point in your training programme; giving crucial information on exactly how far you've come or how much further you have to go. 

Why would you not want to accurately validate all of those training hours in which you've poured so much time, effort and sweat?  What if those last bout of intervals never worked?  How would you know?

When ~ should it be done?
Part A of the answer to this question is, now!  The answer to part B, the follow on supplementary, is it depends.  Obviously, September is a good time for your "marker" test, because it gives a fitness value to a season long training/racing cycle. 

It might not return the highest figures of the year but (if you've escaped injury and are "race-fit") it gives an initial line in the sand.  If you can't get the motivation to carry out a final six minute push, then you've over raced in the run up to the end of the season.

After my September test, I just ride my bike in October and smell the flowers.  I start light training again in the first week of November and undertake a three month endurance block.  My next test is run at the end of that block which is in January.  

The results from the January test give me the in formation to plan the level of work and intensity I have to carry out for the next three month block in the run up to my season start in March.

My objective is to replicate September's numbers in March to get me through the Spring Flandrian sportives with some sort of condition.  In April I build on those figures and aim to progress through the season.

I throw another in for June, so you can see (for me) it's around every three months.  I've been racing for over 25 years so know my body well and can "tell" when the form's coming or going.  Some people do them monthly, which is probably a little too much as it invites un-needed and too frequent pressure.   

It's a bit like weighing yourself every day.  You need to let your body adapt fully to your training sessions.  Otherwise you skew the results and could end up going in the wrong direction and overtraining.

If you're still finding your feet with structured training then maybe every other month might work for you.  If nothing else it'll show you how well your training's working and how all that suffering is bringing results.

How ~ do I do one?
This is a strenuous test to the exhaustion of your physiological capabilities and places a significant strain on your body.  It is vitally important to make sure you:

▼ are fully rested 
▼ are fully hydrated
▼ have had no hard rides for at least two days previous
▼ have not eaten for at least two hours previous
▼ have been of good health for at least four weeks
▼ have good motivation and morale
▼ are mentally prepared for the sustained effort required

You get on the turbo, do a full warm up, then for six minutes you ride the bike like you stole it!  Record the interval then save the numbers.

If you have power, you have an average wattage.  If you don't then you obviously can't record or interpret your wVO2max but you can document the distance you covered, your average speed, heart rate and cadence.  When you repeat your test, you can see if you've improved against previous tests or not.

If average speed and distance have gone up, it's a result.  If they've stayed the same and heart rate has come down, that's a result as well!  Never take a figure in isolation, interpret the results holistically.  You can follow this link, if you want to know how to conduct your own performance evaluation.

A perfect wVO2max profile?
There are many possible strategies available when undertaking a test.  Some people have one, others don't; riding as hard as you can until you blow isn't always the best.  Below are six profiles from athletes who undertook exactly the same test.  How different could they be?

In the following profiles the colour codes used are:  Green ~ Power; Brown ~ Heart Rate;  Pink ~ Cadence;  Blue ~ Speed. 

The profile above shows a measured approach to the test.  This is an indication of a rider that's gone straight to their 6 minute threshold and held it for the duration of the test.  This rider knows their body and capabilities very well.  But did they explore their limits?

This profile shows a structured strategy and continued assessment of what the rider believes is available in the time left to completion.  This is a perfect time trial!  Cadence remained stable with a gear changes every two minutes. This strategy brought the rider an all time high power output.

This rider had the same idea as the rider above but chose a seamless transition across the whole six minutes.  Power variation is due to cadence variation; another perfect test.  As they all are.   Because they all brought valuable training and pacing information to the athlete concerned.

Now for the howlers!

This one was mine!  Nice and measured start, a push at two minutes and a back end collapse.  Went for a big one and blew it.  Not my best work!  It did, however, show me exactly where my ultimate power threshold lies.  We all have a genetic ceiling to our capabilities.  I know exactly where mine is.  It's between the first section and the lump in the middle.  The "peak" is only 10 watts (3%) higher than the starting wattage!  The edge really is that close when you're at your limit. 

This one was undertaken by the same person that provided the perfect time trial output in the second graph above.  Massive early test push, struggle to hold on as lactate strangles progress and pride forcing a kick up at the end.  Sad thing was, this was when they were really on song and at their peak, which led to a little over-confidence at the beginning! 

Still they learnt  from it, test information is never wasted.  Two weeks later they came back with a time trial silver medal from the Island Games, at which, they rode right on their calculated Functional Threshold Power for the duration.

This rider never found their rhythm.  Constant gear changes (pink spikes and troughs) while fighting lactate build up, heat generation and increasing fatigue finally took their toll.  Once more pride kicked in at the end but proved unsustainable. 

Notice the heart rate through all of this.  Massive drop off in power and speed but no change in heart rate.  Again, a valuable lesson learned.

The Message
Performance evaluations allow you to measure your fitness in an objective way.  People say your race results will tell you where you are, but that's a subjective review.  A race performance only compares you to other riders in the same race!  A personalised performance evaluation will give you concrete evidence of your current ability and sustainable trainability.  It also gives you much, much more.

Information from an initial, and subsequent, tests allow you to  structure your next training block on intensities relative to the results of the test.  You can guarantee performance improvements because what you are doing is relative to your current fitness level, not an arbitrary or perceived exertion level.

It will work, but unless you take a test you may never find out.  Click here to read the VO2max factsheet for further info on why this parameter is important to you and your training. 

I can guarantee this is the best cycling investment you'll ever make.  What have you got to lose?  If you don't want to hand over £20 to us for a test, or can't visit, then carry out your own test by following these instructions.  Just don't try it on the road.  It won't work.  Trust me.