Having all that data is one thing but understanding what it means and how to make use of it is another, the output from the assessment was a personalised 13 page report, which took a few days to prepare, that combined my results with my sporting aims (endurance as opposed to sprint) but briefly here are some points that came form the report …
| ZONE | HR | GUIDELINES |
| 1 | to 112bpm | Used for recovery purposes. Early winter training, or as a training zone if you build up extensive miles (6 hours/day) |
| 2 | 114bpm -147bpm | Foundation of endurance training. Develops lactate removal capabilities and extensive overload on the mechanisms of aerobic respiration. The level where training induces performance improvements. |
| 3 | 148bpm -162bpm | This is intensive training. This will bring your form forward to a peak. It is probably easier to do this type of training in an interval format, as it is simply difficult to maintain this intensity for long periods without the ‘racing’ motivation. The level three training sessions will be quite short. |
| 4 | 162bpm + | Intensive intervals to top your form off. Monitoring of heart rate is usually not needed. Can be developed to enhance sprinting and time trialling. |
Next my weight, as can be seen I an quite a bit heavier than the elite or age grouper (although taller) so I could do with dropping some weight, this will not improve my cycling but will help improve my power to weight ratio (currently 3.06W/kg) my aim is to drop about 6kg which by itself will help me realise a .25W/kg improvement and help with my climbing (which has always a problem)
Improving maximum power and oxygen consumption (and helping push up my VO2max) will be a case of training mid to longer training sessions in Zone 2 with mid (upper mid) zone having the most benefit and save most of the Zone 3+ work until after base training. To ensure control over this factor the use of turbo / spinning bike will be adopted in the off season
My strength is not very good (283w max power) so that is another area I need to work on during the off season and this needs to be both cycling specific and generic. The cycling specific work will be taking the form of hill reps and be complicated with some off season gym work focusing on strength endurance this will help me push up my wattage and therefore improve my cycling weight to strength ratio.
So that is what my plan is based on at the moment and I will be going back to get retested in the new year to see what effect my training is having and this will co-inside with me commencing a specific Ironman training program.
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