Home› OutSeason (January ‘10)

question re test results/zones

rah2774rah2774
in OutSeason (January ‘10)

Hi!

Before I ask the coaches (don't want to pester them if I don't hace to), thought I'd ask the seasoned team members... I just finished the test (yay!) and plugged my numbers into the data tool to get my bike zones (I don't have a power meter so I had to use my avg HR).

I did a bike VO2 max test maybe 2 months ago and the EN zones are much lower than the VO2 max zones.  I'm not complaining, (when I started the OS on my own before I joined the team I used my VO2 max zones and it would take me most of the cycle to get my HR where it needed to be) but I wondered if this is normal.  I don't think I was holding back for the test. - there really is something to the accountability piece, knowing I had to fess up online...

Thanks for your thoughts...looking forward to training with you!  Fingers crossed I can run on Wed!

 

Comments

  • Nemo BrauchNemo Brauch
    Rebecca- I wouldn't try to compare the EN Testing zones to another set of zones based on a different testing/training protocol. It's like mixing apples and oranges. If you gave a real honest effort on your test- then go with those results and whatever the EN Data Tool gives you for your new EN Zones.
  • Linda PatchLinda Patch

    Hi Rebecca,

    VO2max zone work comes in week 9. You are at FT zone work right now, which is equivalent to your one hour TT results--not VO2max efforts. I would let go of what you did before--as Nemo said it's not what we do here. You'll see how this training is no joke over time, and you will be tested soundly. image  The HRs for the test, as you gave an honest effort, is where to sit. And remember, it takes 60-90" for HR to catch up with effort, so you'll see it rise in the course of the workout. If it's a bit lower than you think it "should" be, remember the lag--the work is still piling up in your system. Welcome to the OS!

     

  • rah2774rah2774
    thanks! I'll try to relax and trust the system!
  • Al TruscottAl Truscott

    Additional thought: a basic concept of this training program is to improve you from where you are, not where you were or where you want to be. Also, part of the issue may be the almost universal use of "Zone" terminology, without a standard definition of just what those zones are. how they are derived, or what they represent in the"real world" of training and racing. E.G, last three years, I used a different system, which provided cycling heart rate zones based on a test to failure giving a "threshold" of 143 bpm. With EN, my "threshold" is 137. In the old system, I could not get my HR up to that level for 8-15 minute intervals on the bike; with the EN zones, I am finishing up my intervals (100% of "threshold") at an HR of 135. So I get feedback from my workouts that I am indeed working to target, both in watts and HR, something I didn't get in the other program. And, I see the progression of taking longer and longer to get to that HR, 6 minutes in the first week and now, at the start of the 4th week, it takes 12-14 minutes.

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