Testing Pt.4: Re-Test
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Thursday 20th August
It’s 6 am. Much like it did 12 weeks ago, the coffee grinder burrs to life, its fresh aromas providing my first connection to the waking world.
What started as a lockdown pastime has turned into a passion: I’m now a self-confessed and fully-fledged coffee snob. Thankfully, much like in any other walk of life, time, effort, attention to detail and the opportunity of reward means I’m performing at peak. In this case, that means a mug is brewed and washed down in no time at all before I quickly find my legs creaking to life.
On the other hand, the 12 weeks of bike training has been far more demanding.
Twice weekly, high-intensity workouts, balanced with high volume to complement, along with just enough swim and run training, has led to this moment of re-test.
This time there was a slight added pressure from you, the reader. I was quite blasé in displaying my confidence in this testing protocol and in the training stimulus to target following the results. Not only did I have to prove to myself that the training was worthwhile, but now I had to prove it to you, too.
6 weeks earlier
Weeks 6 & 7 saw the highly anticipated return of weekday time trials.
Whilst I’m not normally much of a racer (I generally see more merit in training), in a year where the opportunities to pin on a number have been few and far between, I had to sign up. There’s always an opportunity to learn or practice at these events and, for me, it was a chance to practice putting power out in the TT position and to learn to pace efficiently to maximise speed.
The races went well. I was rusty to begin with, sometimes putting out 20 watts more over the second half of the course (which is certainly not conducive of the fastest 10 mile TT), but generally I saw all-time ‘outdoor’ peak powers each week which was a decent indicator of some improvement.
Week 8 consisted of a cold wet weather camp on the east and west coasts of Scotland. Family visits in the east provided the opportunity to tackle some brutal climbs, assisted by support feed zones, before heading west to a region of Scotland I’d not yet visited. Fort William was the base for more cycling, running and as little else possible. The weather made a truly biblical day hard work, including a lap of Skye where the visibility rarely extended more than 10 meters ahead. Specific training this was not, but I racked up some considerable mental fortitude on those rides.
Week 9 was fairly light to allow for some recovery from the higher volumes and travelling of the week prior. The biggest change was time trials being demoted back to B races. Outlaw X was going ahead and I had entered.
I had eight weeks to transform bike fitness into triathlon fitness. This would require some changes in the plan to allow, in particular, for the increased running load. The new plan would consist of one HIIT bike workout per week, the other replaced with a race-specific brick workout.
But first, there was one last TT to be had.
Last time I had a 20-watt difference between the first and second half of the course. My only goal this week was to improve on that, which would mean going out hard.
The 20-minute power PB would tell you I had a good ride but, in reality, I lacked discipline in pacing (for the conditions and course), struggled to remain aero for a few drags and was not up to speed overall. I ended up a lot lower down the rankings than I’d expected.
I remembered a response to an interview question from Taylor Phinney, a retired professional cyclist who placed fourth in both the 2012 Olympic road race & time trial, amongst other accolades. His mantra was to, “be a slave to speed, not power”. And so I accepted another opportunity to learn: be smart; use the conditions and the road to your advantage.
That marked the end of my time trial exploits for a while and, with the training wheels back on, it was time to work.
The rest of Week 10 saw the return of run intervals at just over race pace, along with that race-specific brick workout. It also included the fabled 4x8 minutes, the completion of which, until now, felt like it was determined by the toss of a coin. In the end, my best performance came after my fourth attempt at trying. I finally completed the workout at the top end of the power zone, at the correct cadence and a suitable heart rate. I was thrilled.
Week 11 followed suit and led me here, to week 12.
The re-test.
I had mixed feelings about testing. There was the relative excitement about seeing potential improvements, versus the overwhelming sense of, “how the f*#k am I going to hold this power for that long?”.
Thursday 20th August
Espresso down, five minutes easy before the ramp begins. Nerves turn to excitement.
A slight tweak to the test design to ensure I reach failure means it will be harder but, looking on the bright side, I should be done earlier.
It gets hard, fast. Much faster. My legs don’t seem to have the same buzz about them as they did last time. When we did this last time I flew through the first four or five stages, yet here I am, 15 minutes in, conscious of the sweat pouring and my heart rate which is growing almost exponentially.
I hit the second-to-last stage. 390w for three minutes.
This is the point I’d decided would be the last stage I would need to complete to maintain a similar result, knowing full well that the next stage would last a few pedal strokes whatever state I was in. Only…I don’t make it. About 80 seconds in, on the 10th set of “just 10 more seconds”, I ran out of seconds.
I was bitterly aware of the likely result from this test: that my power at VO2Max had decreased marginally. I chose to ignore it momentarily to not let it affect the second part of the test, due to take place in two days.
Saturday 22nd August
Same routine and I’m on the bike. 15 minute warm-up, 3 minutes all out. 15 minutes easy, 15 minutes warm-up. 12 minutes all out and then warm down.
Easy, right?
The 3-minute test commences and, despite being gifted with the knowledge of how the last test went in terms of pacing, I’m cruising towards 500w for the first minute.
75 seconds in and I’m aware of how badly I got this wrong. The last 105 draw on.
Seeing your average rep power decrease as the interval extends is pretty sickening. I clicked up gears, then back down; high cadence, low cadence; eyes shut, eyes open, but nothing would keep the power up. The lap button hit and I was cooked. How have I got this so wrong? Nevertheless, I regained some composure to focus on recovery and preparation for the 12-minute block. Let’s at least make one good test out of three.
And there it was. Those 12 minutes were about as perfect as I could get. A short burst in the tank was saved for the last two minutes, but it was nothing compared to the first time doing the test and, in all honesty, it felt pretty damn good.
Job done. It was time to see what the damage was and whether the last 12 weeks of gruelling training had been worth it.
Let’s get the bad one out of the way first: I dropped my PVO2max by 7 watts. Should I be disappointed? No. And here’s why.
It was established that my efficiency was very low, potentially because I was doing too much training to boost my PVO2max. When comparing the hierarchy of needs for long-distance triathlon, a high PVO2max is a lot less critical compared to a high CP and sub max efficiency. Hence all my training was tailored to this.
I did zero sessions that went near my PVO2max.
That said, I did say it was unlikely that anyone would see a significant decrease here due to not targeting it in training. So why did I decrease by 2%?
I largely put this down to two things:
Fatigue – I simply came into this round of testing a lot more fatigued and under a lot more stress than last time. Both are important considerations when planning tests.
Test design – Remember the last time where I sailed through the test and highlighted how the test requires failure? Maybe, perhaps slightly sadistically, I adapted it to try and induce that failure and designed it in the wrong way. I do not doubt that if I’d repeated the same test I’d have gotten to the same stage or, had I changed it differently, I might have marginally eclipsed it.
Aside from that, the rest of the results paint a promising picture: 3% increases across the board in my three- and 12-minute efforts. Yes, even the 3-minute effort. I thought I’d blown it horrifically, but the post-test average reading showed an improvement.
A 3% total increase over my critical power may not seem drastic consideration should be given to the fact that I’m a well-conditioned athlete and that this test series happened at a time where I was fit and established into the season.
Horses for courses
So, what are the true outcomes?
The most critical concept that this has enlightened to me is the requirement of targeting your physiological demands.
Why, when one of the most basic components of physiology is that we are all built so differently, do we train so indifferently?
We may all follow a similar training schedule in preparation for, potentially, the same race calendar, but does that mean we must follow the same training routine?
Maybe not. We each have different routes to take in meeting our physiological demands which allow us to perform at our best on race day.
There are various options to take when training and, whilst one certainty is that no way is the only ‘right’ way, this process has confirmed that individuality is absolutely essential. At RÁS, we already ensure that training is tailored to our athletes’ personal situations, but now we’re able to tailor training to athlete’s individual composition, too.
Regardless of the result in Outlaw, I’ve learnt a lot over the past 12 weeks. I can’t wait to build on these results over winter and break new barriers next year.
*Thanks to Chris at Pure Performance Coaching for conducting the testing & administering the feedback*
