I don’t know if anyone has watched the Charles Ouimet Team EF training camp series on Youtube - it’s quite an interesting watch, I think* - but one thing stood out to me: their baseline fitness test.
Now, I can’t find this published anywhere, but it seems the protocol is this:
- warm up
- 5 minutes max effort
- 10 minute easy ride
- 15 minutes at 70% of the average watts for the 5 minute max effort (should be sweetspot-ish)
- 5 minutes max effort
- cool down
They’re looking, I believe, to measure both the initial 5 min power, and how much it deteriorates when you’re moderately fatigued, with the idea that you look to train both how high you can get that 5 minute number, and how repeatable it is. I believe the logic is that their experience suggests it’s the 3-5 minute efforts, often repeated, that are crucial to race success. I also believe that over time you monitor the HR response to the 15 minute method, but that was in a comment that’s now been deleted (I think EF told Charles he’d given a bit too much away!).
Disregarding the theory about 5 minutes being the crucial time period for successful racing, I wondered what people thought of this as a test, and how effective it is as a physiological test/fitness measure?
*the price for the week is 10k (not sure if that’s £, €, or $, but it’s a lot in any currency!). It does look a hell of an experience, though… One to add to the lottery win list 