That’s great, thanks @steveneal. Really interesting to see those results so I will definitely keep track and use the test again.
In regards to getting the P/Hr ratio up closer to 2.00, would you suggest more work below LT1, at tempo or threshold, or just a good mix of all of them?
I am currently either doing a TT race or threshold workout once a week anyway with some mixed endurance and an occasional high intensity session or group ride so would be good to know where to focus my efforts.
It doesn’t have to be to failure all the time. I would use the same step duration as the HR step test so 5 minutes.
I would do a separate hard effort of 3 and 6 minutes on different occasions. As your tempo ability improves you will see the peak 1m power of the ERG step test get closer and closer to your short duration time trials.
The step tests are great warm-ups if you are training indoors, an easy way to track progression and not interfere with training.
Could share some material for the breathing at each step? I can use without any software, make my own calculations etc… ? Which soft do you use for this? thanks
For breathing, in and out breath equals 1 - count for 15s at the end of each 5m step, then mutliply by 4 to get breath per minute in each step. A half breath can be recorded. I just keep a notepad beside me to write these down and do math after.
I have my own software which will be available publicly one day, hopefully before the end of 2021 but there are still a number of things I want to add first.
If you can send the data I don’t mind graphing for you and publishing a pic in the forum.
Does your perceived exertion match your power to heart rate improvement?
Can you show me an example week? What I am really wondering is have you been doing Tempo back to back OR three days in a row yet? Or are you still separating these heavier days of work?
Felt that it took a bit of effort to get to each target HR. Like a slow(er) revving engine. Don’t have a good picture of the new state yet, as the step test was the first real workout after feeling very flat during the recovery week.
Well, there was plan vs. reality (friends can be the biggest detriment to a training plan ).
Planned to separate the heavy days:
Tue: Tempo
Wed: short endurance (+ strength training day)
Thu: Endurance (or tempo with less TiZ than Tuesday)
Sat: Tempo
Sun: Long endurance
Monday of the second week was a holiday and the following Sunday went awry, resulting in:
Hey @steveneal - Hope you’re well. Here are two comparison ramp and balance point tests over a 2 month period working specifically on LT1/Balance Point. The second test I used 10 bpm steps in the second part of the test vs the first test which was 5 bpm steps.
You can see due to the using 10 bpm steps on the second test this increases the lactate values overall and required me to push all the way to 254 watts until I saw an increase in lactate again going from 2.1 mmol to 4.3 mmol.
I’m curious what this tells me about the increase in my ability to tolerate higher wattages at a stable lactate and if this second test performed last week is a valid comparison given the difference of 5 bpm vs 10 bpm steps.
It is good to do the 10 beat steps right away on the second phase, but you should have switched to 5 beats from 141 heart rate on to get better results.
These results are still good, but there is a possibility this is inflated by about 5 beats.
With the lactate values at 2.1 and 2.1 at 141 and 151 heart rate, it is possible it went down and then started coming back up during that phase (If you do this 10 beat version again, take a lactate half way through this stage and you will know) If it stays stable, then LBP is the higher value, if it goes down through that stage then back up you would use 145 in this case. Hope that piece makes sense.
The only other piece of this is the maximal lactate on the second test, I feel like it might be an error? If you see something so different than the past, I would take another right away.
+++
Before I complete the tests.
What were the dates?
What do you weigh?
Did you finish the final stage in both tests? or only a portion of the final stage? If not the full stage how many seconds into each one.
Note the reverse deflection at the top, as you know from the past with this test, this means a muscular limitation. So you were either a little tired at the time of the test, or could have used some high torque training at the time.
I would continue for another month of the path you have been on as it is progressing you nicely. It would be good to see if another month or so of the work you have been doing has an effect at the top end.
If not, then it would be time to inject some harder work for 2-3 weeks, or find some racing.
