So as part of my training plan today was marked in for fitness testing, or sweating like a pig on cycle machine whilst someone stuck needles in me.

I decided that I’d like to know my baseline fitness levels partly to confirm which heart rate zones I should be training in, and partly so I can conduct the test again in a few months and know for sure if my training plan is working.

And the cunning bit is that I can claim the cost of the test back against my yearly “sports” allowance from my company.

Anyway I cycled away happily at 80 watts and every 180 seconds the machine increased the load by 40 watts, and after 23 odd minutes I died a death and gave up.

Amongst the many things I found out was the following, my aerobic threshold is 162bpm at 250 watts or more interestingly 3.35 watts/kg of body weight. Somewhat off from the 5.8 to 6.2 range of Tour riders. With a peak at 350 watts and a max pulse of 179.

I now need to adjust my training zones as before I was using 174 as my max pulse.

Train hard and according to plan and wait 3 months and test again.

To be continued….

a max pulse of 179.

I now need to adjust my training zones as before I was using 174 as my max pulse.

Sarcasm?

Actually in all seriousness although I can see how easy it would be to think the opposite 😯

Very similar to mine i had done in december

I came out at 3.32 watts per kg. Was 75kg then.. now 73

So did they say what your base fitness was like?

EDIT: Oops.. Sorry it was 3.2watts per kg

My 3.2 watts/kg figure is based on functional threshold which is less than actual threshold

179 vs 174, how much does that shift your training zones by exactly?

179 vs 174, how much does that shift your training zones by exactly?

Quite a bit as it turns out 😮
Max 174 179
95% 165 170
91% 158 163
84% 146 150
82% 143 147
75% 131 134
72% 125 129
65% 113 116

Where did you get it done and how much was it?

I live in Sweden so maybe not that much use to you, but quite a few places in the UK provide the same service. I paid just under a hundred quid for that test, and some other blood tests. Overall it took 90 minutes including consultation time.

Well worth it in my books.

hmmm maybe i can ask the sports science bods if they want a guinea pig then see how 3 months of tri (not) training affects my figures

I got mine done in Bristol

http://www.truezone.co.uk/Home.html

What came out of mine is I need my percentage of energy from fat at aerobic base point to be bigger and to increase my functional threshold power to over 4 watts per kg