HR Zones: 220-Age - the TRUTH! (Page 18)

Without question the 30 minute test. How many 3 mile bike races are you going to do? Anyone can go all out for 10 minutes. But what happens after 15, 20, 25 minutes? You get a better sense of the bigger picture.

I beg to disagree; if for instance, the athlete is using a power meter any maximal effort lasting 3 to 30 min can be very useful to estimate critical power (a measure of metabolic fitness) and cardiovascular fitness (VO2 max) hence the usefulness of Monod's Critical Power model.

Nevertheless it seems Kendra is using a HR monitor for which she still can do a 5-30 min test as the result will only provide a figure which will be used to guesstimate her "LTHR" or more precisely the maximal effort she could sustain for around ~60 min. For instance, the duration one can sustain below a 20 min max effort usually increase with declining intensity and this correlation is rather linear, OTOH intensities above 20 min max efforts can’t be sustained for too long; for those the correlation becomes curvilinear IOW, the duration drops exponentially as power demands increase past this mark.

With tha in mind, a 20 min max effort can be a perfectly effective filed test protocol. In addition a 5-10 min test usually correlates to most athletes’ cardiovascular ability (VO2max), hence in this case Kendra could do a maximal 3 mile maximal effort (which could be around ~10min) and use the result to define training levels of that. She could instead do a 20-30 min test and use the avg HR to guesstimate her HR avg for a 60 min maximal effort. Indeed we might not race many 3 TT but that doesn't mean we should disregard the information we can obtain from such efforts. In fact by testing an athlete at different durations one can develop an athlete's performance profile and identify limters, define training levels, plan training and even predict performance.

The same applies for running, an athlete can do a test as short as 3-4 min and rather accurately predict what sort of pace he/she should be able to sustain up to a 60 min maximal effort. Any field test format we do are just a way to define some sort of 'threshold' and determine training levels which are man made as an attempt to allow us training a bit more efficiently. The point is that as long as we understand how an ‘x’ duration maximal effort correlates to physiological markers (i.e. VO2max, LT, MLSS, etc) then we use the information to guesstimate training levels.

Hi Kendra,

Just use the 'quote' button to include other people's quotes.

For the test - if you are going to run outside, then test outside. If you do the majority of your training on a treadmill, then use the treadmill. You may find different HRs for inside and outside.

There is no reason to leave BT to calculate your HR Zones, as there is a HR Zone Calculator on your training log page.

Good luck.

Hi Jorge,

Good information as always, but keep in mind, we are dealing with beginners here. We just want them to follow the testing protocol that is easiest and most accurate for them. We could have everyone test every length test - but for most, getting a sense of where there LT is from fairly accurate 30' test is enough to start out with.

Please tell me you just didn't use that formula. You have the read the thread yes? Your punishment for using that formula will be to read the entire thread over. There will be a quiz tomorrow Baowolf. ;-)

This thread is STILL around?

yes, that's perfect.

Buck,

A few easy days before the test should be enough. Treat it like a race day for sure b/c you want best effort.

Mike Ricci
Coach of the University of CO
2010 National Champions!