August 09, 2004
Field Test 08/09/04 (updated)
Dean & I met over on Cedars Road to preform a field test for estimating AT (anaerobic threshold) on the bicycle. Members of the Frazier Cycling Partners have marked a 3-mile out-and-back course, which they use on most Wednesday evenings, and that's perfect for us to use as a benchmark. The course is almost straight but not flat, gaining over 100 feet in altitude out to the turnaround.
Since speed was not our objective, we rode stock road bikes without any aero equipment (i.e. sans TT bike, aerobars, disc wheel, tri-spoke, skinsuit, prologue helmet, shoe covers, etc). After a good warm up we each did the course solo, as fast as possible, starting from a dead stop with a foot down. Research has shown that the highest sustainable average heart rate for that distance is going to be very close to one's current AT, usually within a couple beats of what a laboratory test would determine.
My results were not unexpected but far from where my fitness level was at this time last year. I did the test twice and each time it took 4 minutes to get up to the turnaround and a little over 3 minutes to get back to the start/finish line. Dean's time was about 00:08:15 but he was delayed by traffic at the turnaround so it might have been about 8-10 seconds faster.
Monday, August 9, 2004 6:30 PM
Distance 3.0 miles
<------ Dan's Data ------>
| TEST 1 - Duration 0:07:09
Average Heart Rate 162 bpm Average Speed 25.17 mph | TEST 2 - Duration 0:07:12
Average Heart Rate 158 bpm Average Speed 25.0 mph |
<------ Dean's Data ------>
| Duration 0:08:15
Average Heart Rate 161 bpm Average Speed 22.0 mph Average Cadence 85 rpm |
Posted by dancoy at August 9, 2004 09:39 PM