Performance markers

How does an athlete measure fitness levels throughout the season? That’s kind of a loaded question. There are various tools that one can use to monitor their progress over the course of a season. You have heard me discuss the great impact that a power meter or GPS watch have on training, but I’m going to put those on the back burner for now, and talk about field testing.

Most of my athletes will do several rounds of field tests throughout the season. A field test is a workout done at near threshold pace in each of the three disciplines. Ideally, the field test will take place on the same course, under similar conditions, and will be repeated throughout training, and is specific to the distance the athlete is training for. For example, a bike field test would be to warm up then ride for 30 minutes at near maximal effort. Then we take the data from the most recent test and compare it to prior tests. Again, the use of a power meter or GPS watch will make this process much easier, but these tests are still valuable in the absence of this technology. Recently, I had an athlete improve their on their run test by 20 seconds per mile!!!

I believe that field testing gives the coach and athlete markers to use throughout the season. As a coach, if I can show the athlete improvements in their fitness, motivation to train becomes much easier. All for now.

SJI