Training is Testing and Testing is Training

Testing is a great way to track your progress, learn a bit more about your ability to push hard and get an excellent high intensity training work out in.

"Training is Testing and Testing is Training"....I can’t find who first said this...an extensive Google search (page one) revealed nothing but I know for sure that it wasn’t me and I won’t claim it as such, but what a great quote.  My athletes hear me say it a lot, because it is a very good way to view test sets and Time Trials.

Sure a Test or Time Trial may be a horrible thing to have to do, and no one really wants to push themselves so deep, especially when the ‘A category race’ may be many months away,  but you do actually have to do them fairly regularly so you can track changes in fitness and the training can be adjusted accordingly.  Without doing this you will never really know how well you are progressing and if the training you are doing is actually working for you.

Don’t view a test set as a waste of a session.  It is in fact a great use of your time, as you are going to push yourself to your limits, which will give you a great training effect.  Just don’t stuff it up!  Too often test sets are performed incorrectly as the athlete either goes too hard or not hard enough.  There is nothing more frustrating for the Coach and Athlete when a test session has to be called off early due to the onset of fatigue.  Seeing a rapid increase in effort in the closing stages of a test is also frustrating.  In both cases it is a clear sign that the athlete’s pacing was not managed correctly, and the data may as well be rendered useless.  I like to see an even power or pace graph coupled with a gradual increase of heart rate through the duration of the set.

Following are a few guidelines on what I feel will help you get the most out of your test sessions and what to do with the data after you’ve done it.  I will also outline the type of tests I like to use for various sports.

• Regularity:

There is no point doing the same test session week in week out as the athlete is at risk of becoming stagnant from the lack of variation.  Conversely there is no point in doing one test session 2 weeks out from your A race as any weaknesses identified can’t be addressed as the race is just around the corner.  I like to schedule them anywhere between every 4- 8 weeks, and I usually don’t give the athlete much of a warning that one is coming up.

• Time of the day:

This is quite a significant thing.  The best time for a Time Trial or test set is actually later in the day as you tend to be a bit more alert and able to lift your effort higher.  This is less likely if you have had a busy and tiring day, so for most age group athletes first thing in the morning is really the only option.  It is important to be consistent here, so make sure any following tests are done at the same time.

• Reliable equipment:

You certainly don’t want a data failure in the middle of a test.  Make sure you devices are all charged up properly and if you are doing a bike test, that your power meter is calibrated and your bicycle is working well.  If you have a failure of equipment during a test you may as well stop the test and let your coach know what happened so a retest can be scheduled.

• Consistent course and weather conditions:

Try to test yourself in as similar an environment and course as you can.  If you are doing a bike test then an indoor trainer is a great option, but make sure the temperature and humidity is the same.  If you are doing a bike test on the road then make sure you can do it where traffic won’t be an issue.  Running and cycling sessions should be on flat courses, with as little descending as possible.  A bike power test can be done on a climb, but only if there is enough road to complete the test without having to go downhill again.  If you are doing a swim test then make sure you are swimming it in the same pool, or at least the same length pool.

• Tapered

It is important to get your best effort out of a test, and this is done by reducing the volume and intensity of the training as you approach it. 

• Motivated

Don’t be scared or depressed by seeing a test set on your plan.  Make this an opportunity to pretend you are in you favourite race and get yourself fired up by it.  Visualise yourself winning Olympic Gold.

• Warmed up

Don’t start your test fresh out of the blocks.  You don’t do this on race day, so why do it in training.  Make sure you have a sufficient warm-up so that you have elevated your heart rate, have a bit of a sweat on have pushed yourself to the intensity you expect to be reaching in the test, for about 3-5 minutes.

• Analysis

This is an important part of the test.  This is where you will be able to determine if you have improved, stayed the same or gone backward.  There are various online tools to help you analyse your test data and make assumptions on your progress.  Some of these are listed below

 Swimming

• Swimming tests are fairly straight forward.  A good indicator of your all out speed is a 50m or 100m max effort sprint.
• A CSS test is a very popular way to test for your threshold pace and to determine where strengths and weaknesses may be in your swimming.  Are you fast over a short distance but lack the endurance over a longer distance, or are you a diesel engine and lack short distance speed but can hold a good pace for longer distances.
• Your CSS pace equates to approximately your 1500m pace, so a Time Trial of that distance is worth doing to see how your endurance at threshold pace is.
• Visit this link here to help calculate your CSS pace. 

Cycling

• If you don’t use a Power Meter or a Heart Rate monitor then just a straight Time Trial is your best bet for testing.  Find a distance that suits the event you are targeting.  If you are doing a short triathlon then a 16km TT is sufficient.  If you are training for an Ironman and a long way through the training then you would be better off doing a 100km TT.
• If you are using a Heart Rate monitor and want to calculate your Lactate Threshold then perform a 30 minute ‘Best Effort’ and take the average Heart Rate from the 10-30 minute mark.  This is approximately your Lactate Threshold.  Your Training Peaks account has an inbuilt calculator to determine your training zones.  But you should have a read of this article here.
• If you train with a Power Meter then you are really hitting the heights of technology.  Your best option is to perform a 20min max effort TT, and to take 5% off your average power for the 20mins to determine your Functional Threshold Power (FTP).  Your Training Peaks account has an inbuilt calculator to determine your training zones.  But you should have a read of this article here.

Running

• An easy way to test yourself for running is to do a race.  This is going to get you pretty close to your best effort.  Take the time for the distance and enter it into this VDOT calculator to determine your correct training pace zones.  This also helps to predict your times for other races of varying distances.
  
• If you are using a Heart Rate monitor and want to calculate your Lactate Threshold then perform a 30 minute ‘Best Effort’ and take the average Heart Rate from the 10-30 minute mark.  This is approximately your Lactate Threshold.  Your Training Peaks account has an inbuilt calculator to determine your training zones.  But you should have a read of this article here.

Kayaking

• Probably the easiest way to test yourself in Kayaking is to perform a 6km TT, which for most proficient paddlers will have them close to 30mins.  It’s important to do this on the same course, and to use the same tide or river flow as previous tests – this could change the result quite significantly.  You can use the Training Peaks calculator to determine your zones, or use the same manual method as you would with cycling in this article here.  Cycling and Kayaking Heart Rate zones are very similar.

As mentioned a Time Trial or Test Set is a highly effective method of measuring your progress.  It need not be something feared, and neither is it a waste of a session.  It is a perfect opportunity to find out how far you can push yourself and see the gains from all the quality training you have been doing.  Just remember, Training Is Testing and Testing Is Training