Good coverage of the 3 options.
- If nothing else mattered, with time efficient use of time is the priority, just test on the new gear and move forward with your training.
- Presumably you want to quantify what, if any, change you have made over the prior period of training. That feeling of gains (if present) may be motivating.
- Counterpoint, we see a surprising number of people report no gains, or even losses, from testing after some phases. These can be demotivating and lead to many questions (for good and bad).
- The Ramp test isn’t terribly demanding in the grand scheme (despite really hurting for those final 3-5 minutes. You could test maybe two days apart with an easy spin between.
- You point to good questions and variables and there is no real benefit to comparing one VP test to the other.
- The only goals in testing twice should be to:
a. establish the change from the prior test with the old setup
b. establish your new starting point with the new setup - The negative here is largely scheduling since you devote two days to testing rather than training. That can be mitigated a bit if you add some shorter and easier work after each test, but must be done with an eye towards the next step in your schedule.