Building a Solid Base

Khafre Pyramid near Cairo, Egypt

You've likely heard it discussed before: it's time to build up a good "base" for the coming season. So what is this base? Why do you need it? When do you start it? How do you get it and how do you know when you have it? I won't pretend to be an expert on training, but I'll offer what I've gleaned from others as well as my own personal experiences with the Base period.

What is Base?

"Periodization" is widely accepted and utilized for training. Periodization is simply breaking down a training year into different periods: usually Base, Build, Transition, Taper, and Peak. The Base period is the first "step" in a training year and is meant to be the aerobic fitness foundation for the rest of the training (and therefore is considered to be the most important component of training). Without a good base, one will likely not reach their full potential and may even experience injury when training at higher intensities later in the year.

When Should I Work on My Base?

Since the Base period is meant to be the beginning of a training year, when it starts depends on what you are training for. If you are training for the Colossal Cave road race in April your Base period will start earlier than if you are training for El Tour de Tucson at the end of November. If you aren't training for a specific event, your Base period will want to coincide with what you would consider your "off-season" (perhaps the winter months when you might ride indoors more often). The Base period requires the most time on the bike compared to the other periods, so ideally you would build your base over the time of year when you are able to devote the most time to training.

What Workouts Should I Do?

According to many training guides, the Base period is mainly about increasing Aerobic Endurance (AE). Simply put, AE workouts are riding for extended periods of time in heart rate zone 2. The minimum ride length is probably 30 minutes, and the maximum depends on the individual. For the first four weeks of Base (Base 1), you'll mostly be doing AE rides -- but it is a good idea to include some Speed workouts too. For weeks 5 through 12 (Base 2 and 3), adding some Force and Muscular Endurance (ME) workouts is recommended. The following general time percent breakdown can be used as a template:

	AE	Speed	Force	ME
Base 1 (weeks 1-4)	90%	10%	--	--
Base 2 (weeks 5-8)	70%	15%	10%	5%
Base 3 (weeks 9-12)	55%	15%	20%	10%

Everyone's heart rate zones are different, so you will need to determine your own zone 2. There are a few ways of doing this. My recommendation is to perform a 30 minute LTHR (lactate threshold heart rate) test. This test is difficult but well worth the time and effort. If you have a power meter the same 30 minute test will give you your LTHR and FTP (functional threshold power). Click here to learn how to perform the 30 minute test.

Once you know your LTHR, you can determine your heart rate zones. They are as follows:

Zone	Percent of LTHR
1 (Active recovery)	< 80
2 (Aerobic threshold)	81 - 89
3 (Tempo)	90 - 93
4 (Lactate threshold)	94 - 99
5a (Super-threshold)	100 - 102
5b (Aerobic capacity)	103 - 106
5c (Anaerobic capacity)	> 106

For example, if you find that your LTHR is 175 bpm, your zone 2 range would be 142 - 155 bpm. Aerobic endurance training will mainly utilize your slow-twitch muscle fibers. These muscle fibers produce most of the power in cycling, with the fast-twitch fibers only utilized during the very high intensity efforts associated with attacking and sprinting. Training in higher zones will be less effective at strengthening your slow-twitch fibers, so during Base training, the more time you can remain in zone 2 the better. With aerobic endurance training, fat is the primary fuel used for exercise (not carbohydrates). Make sure that you fuel your body appropriately.

If you are fairly new to training, the amount of time you should spend riding in zone 2 during the Base period depends on just one thing: how much time you have available. It doesn't matter if you are training for 100-mile road races or 30-minute crits -- the more aerobic endurance miles you can rack up during the Base period, the better. Realize, though, that it is possible to overtrain even when riding at this low intensity. Pay attention to your body and take recovery days to avoid building up too much fatigue. If you have a power meter you can monitor this with your Performance Management Chart (to be discussed in a future blog post).

How Long Should Base Last?

There are a few methods to determining how long your Base period should last. Some training programs simply set it at 8 or 12 weeks. Some individuals I've talked to simply go by weight loss (they have a set racing weight that they shoot for). The methods I'll describe here are not meant to be the rules for ending your Base period -- I provide it because I believe the more information you have about your fitness the better you'll train. So if you want to stick to the 8-week program that is great -- you can still monitor the other techniques described here.

Efficiency Factor

Efficiency Factor (EF) is defined as the average power you produce divided by your average heart rate over the time you spend in zone 2. EF does not apply to time spent outside zone 2, so it is important to maintain a somewhat steady heart rate within your appropriate range. Typical rides require some time to warm-up, so when calculating EF you'll want to make sure you exclude that warm-up time.

EF =	Average Power (watts)
	Average Heart Rate (bpm)

Since EF is dependent on your personal LTHR, comparing your EF with other athletes is of little use. Comparing your own EF from one ride to another, though, is very useful for assessing your aerobic endurance (or generally speaking, fitness). An increase in EF from one ride to another signifies an increase in aerobic endurance. A decrease suggests you have built up significant fatigue and should utilize some recovery. A plateau suggests you have increased your Aerobic Endurance as far as you can with your current training and it may be time for you to move into a Build period.

You will find that your EF for indoor rides will be different from outdoor rides. Typically, due to insufficient body heat management, indoor rides will have lower EF values than outdoor. Additionally, if your indoor rides utilize both rollers and a trainer you will likely find that roller rides have higher EF values than trainer rides. This is because trainers provide constant resistance throughout the pedal stroke while rollers have slightly better "road feel" characteristics.

In the above example, you can see that significant gains in aerobic endurance were achived in the first three weeks. The forth week should have been more of a recovery week to eliminate some of the fatigue that had been built up. By not resting, this example shows a decrease in EF that needed another two weeks to re-gain. With very little change to EF in weeks six through eight, little aerobic endurance was gained during that time and it may have been better to move into the Build period. By monitoring your EF, you can analyze your training to ensure your time is spent wisely.

Decoupling

Another method of determining one's aerobic endurance is by taking a look at Decoupling. When you lack sufficient aerobic endurance, on longer AE rides with steady power output your heart rate will increase over time. Or alternatively, with a steady heart rate your power output will decrease over time. This is referred to as being decoupled, meaning your heart rate is not tracking with your power output. Below are examples of a decoupled ride and a coupled ride.

You can see how the heart rate in the Decoupled ride on the left steadily increases over time even though the power output is held constant. This indicates low aerobic endurance, suggesting additional Base period training in heart rate zone 2 will be beneficial. The Coupled ride on the right indicates good aerobic endurance.

Speed-based Efficiency Factor

If you do not have a power meter, get one. For $700, Stages Cycling has Shimano, SRAM, and FSA offerings. Go order one from Chris at ProBike and tell him Buzz sent you. He'll give you a great deal and reward me with a free valve stem cap for the referral.

If you still don't want to buy a power meter, you can employ an alternative equation for EF to use for your aerobic endurance training. Instead of average power, you can look at asverage speed (and then multiply by 10).

EF =	Average Speed (mph)	* 10
	Average Heart Rate (bpm)

In order to use this method, though, you will need to ensure the following:

• Identical route each time with no stops
• Identical hand position (e.g. on the hoods)
• No wind
• No drafting

Keep in mind that there are still factors that will affect speed-based EF like temperature, tire pressure, position on the bike, clothing, weight, etc. For accurate values you want everything to be as identical as possible. It is almost not worth the trouble and there are so many benefits to training with a power meter I hate to suggest this as an alternative. Seriously, just cancel your cable for six months and go buy a power meter.

A Quick Review

1. The Base period is mainly about increasing your Aerobic Endurance (AE).
2. A generic AE training ride consists of 1-2 hours of steady riding in heart rate zone 2.
3. Determine your personal heart rate zone 2 via the 30-minute LTHR test.
4. Calculate EF for each AE ride to get a feel for your aerobic endurance.
5. If you don't have a power meter, get one.

But I Don’t Care

A depressing chart of my fitness

I could have kissed Matt (my physical therapist) when he told me I was clear to ride the trainer for five minutes last week. I held back though, on account of being married. And being a man. Five minutes hardly seems worth the time to set up the trainer, put on cycling shorts and socks and shoes, and embarrassingly realize the helmet I spent three minutes looking for was unnecessary – but I didn’t care, I was going to be on my bike!

Spoiler alert. Though I haven’t posted it yet, the bike build is complete, as evidenced by this post about a trainer ride. I hope to publish the build posts soon; it’s just taking longer than I thought it would to organize photos and descriptions.

The high heart rate value aligned with my labored breathing. But the power output did not. I was convinced something was wrong. I must have miss-calibrated, or maybe the power meter came from a bad batch, or the Garmin is incorrectly reporting the value, or...

Or maybe I lost a little fitness. And by “a little” I mean a lot.

Before I was finished with my internal debate on whether my power meter was giving me accurate numbers, the five minutes were up. I frowned and dismounted, then considered deleting the ride. I kept it though -- and even uploaded it to Strava for all to point and laugh at my measly 47 kJ of work. Half an apple later and I had sufficiently replenished the spent calories. Not much of a ride.

But I didn’t care, I was happy. Because it may be small, but it’s a start.

Five minutes after five months

Yesterday after work I was clear to add five more minutes on the trainer. For kicks, I decided to do 30 seconds of near-maximum effort to get my heart rate up. I wasn’t paying attention to power (which was good because again my output was pretty pathetic), but it is somewhat interesting to compare the power with a pre-accident effort.

On August 1 (three weeks before the accident) I was riding up Lemmon and interested in achieving a personal best one-minute power (i.e. I did a Kilo Interval * ). For the first 30 seconds of the one minute interval, my average power was 633 w at an average heart rate of 180 bpm. It isn’t quite a fair comparison since it was a portion of a longer interval, but I don’t want to completely destroy my ego.

30 seconds three weeks before the accident

* A Kilo Interval is one minute of maximum effort. Named “kilo” because at maximum effort for one minute you hope to travel around a kilometer (which would mean averaging a little over 37 mph). The interval can simulate the final kilometer of a race, where one might want to launch an attack for the win. Kilo Intervals hurt. Bad. I highly recommend them.

So, on the trainer for the second time after five months of inactivity, my average power for 30 seconds was 327 w at an average heart rate of 174 bpm. About a 48% decrease. Half the man I used to be. Cue STP’s “Creep”

♫ Take time… with a wounded back… cause it likes to heal

30 seconds five months after the accident

I’ll be honest, it was a little discouraging at first. I knew I’d see low numbers but I didn’t expect them to be that low. My fitness has tanked and it will be a while before I am back to where I was.

But I don’t care, I rode my bike!

Strava Premium

If you are considering spending the $59 for one year of Strava premium membership, here is my personal list of reasons to do so.

Note: I am in no way affiliated with Strava, nor have I received any compensation for my opinions. I do, however (as a Premium member) stand to gain by any additional features that Strava may add via financial gains they derive from members I convince to upgrade.

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No Power Meter

If you do not have a power meter, here are the features that I think a cyclist will enjoy most with Premium membership:

Goals. There are two types of goals available: Weekly and Segment. For Weekly Goals, you can set a weekly distance goal (e.g. 150 miles per week) or a weekly time goal (e.g. 6 hours per week) -- but not both. If you achieve your weekly goal a notice is included on the ride that you achieved the goal on, similar to if you had achieved a PR or KOM. You also see a progress bar on your dashboard displaying how close you are to achieving your weekly goal. For Segment Goals, you select any segment you want (or you can create a new segment) and set a time goal for riding that segment (as well as a due date). When you set a segment goal, it notifies everyone who is following you and they are invited to join your goal (if they are Premium too). If you achieve your goal it is again mentioned on the ride like a PR or KOM. Strava will keep track of all your previous goals (whether accomplished or not).

26-minute Segment Goal for Molino Basin

My opinion. 2 / 5 -- I have the distance goal set but don't really pay much attention to it. I have set a couple segment goals (e.g. top of Mt. Lemmon in 2.5 hours), but it didn't really motivate me to go harder than I would have gone anyway. Obtaining a high ranking on the Leaderboard or achieving a Personal Record is sufficient enough motivation for me.

Suffer Score. If you have a heart rate monitor, you can set custom heart rate zones and obtain a value for how much you suffered on a ride. You can also view a chart dispaying how much time you spent in each of your heart rate zones. Additionally, you can sort all of your rides by their Suffer Score to see which ones you suffered most on. There have been some challenges in the past that awarded special prizes for individuals who had the highest Suffer Score on a ride done during the challenge (e.g. Oktoberfest).

My Suffer Score for a ride down to Sonoita

My Opinion. 3 / 5 -- If you don't have a power meter I could see how the Suffer Score could be used to assist in training in lieu of the appropriate value from a power meter: the Total Stress Score (TSS). Additionally, it does feel satisfying to return from a super hard ride and see a nice high Suffer Score with the word "Epic" displayed above it. I suppose one would be motivated to suffer more knowing that it will result in a higher score -- you just need to remember that rest days are important too.

Training Videos. The latest addition to Strava -- the ability to watch Sufferfest videos while training indoors. Currently there are three videos available, but only if you use a smart phone (Android or iPhone). Strava says that it will soon be available on the website, and more videos will be added. The videos that are currently available are:

1. Fight Club -- 58 min, Time Trial
2. Revolver -- 45 min, Speed
3. Rubber Glove -- 58 min, Fitness Test

Strava Sufferfest Training Videos

My Opinion. 2 / 5 -- I haven't used this yet, but will probably try it out. Essentially, you are getting some of the Sufferfest videos for free, but you will have to watch them on your phone (or, in the future, computer). I usually watch recorded stages from professional races or just listen to music when training indoors -- and the majority of my indoor training is Base training, so the Sufferfest videos will likely be completely worthless to me. If you train indoors often, or at least some during a Build period you may find them more useful. I suppose the Fitness Test may be nice, but I would put more stock in a test performed outdoors (like the 30 minute test) than one done indoors on a trainer.

Personal Heatmap. Originally provided by a third-party before Strava closed their API, the personal heatmap provides a map view of your rides with color representing quantity of rides on all the routes you've ridden. Blue indicates a route that you've ridden a couple times and red indicates routes ridden the most. Here is my heatmap from Strava Premium:

Personal Heatmap from Strava (with Premium membership)

My Opinion. 1 / 5 -- This was better before Strava took it over. You had the ability of changing line width, color, and transparency as well as date ranges, activity type, and map display (satellite or map with or without terrain). You can still access this (without Premium membership) with the Strava Multiple Ride Mapper. You'll need to click on "Connect with Strava." It is worth checking out and playing around with, but since it's free the heatmap is not a reason to upgrade to Premium. For comparison, here is my heatmap from the Strava Multiple Ride Mapper:

Strava Multiple Ride Mapper (free)

Filtered Leaderboards. Premium memberships provides the ability to filter leaderboards by age group or weight class. There are six age groups (<24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-54, 55-64, 65+) and six weight classes (<124, 125-149, 150-164, 165-179, 180-199, 200+). You can view any group or class, but if you are not in it, your placing will not be displayed. Obviously, in order to be useful, you must enter your age and weight under your profile settings. The weight class is rider weight and does not include the bicycle weight.

Yes, I selfishly chose a KOM Segment to use for a screenshot

My Opinion. 1 / 5 -- For me, this is completely worthless. When looking at leaderboards I usually only care to see how much power others produced to obtain certain times. By the way, I only consider power values obtained via power meters (not from Strava's power equations, which rely on user-entered rider and bike weights). I suppose if you really want to see how you stack up against others in your age group and/or weight class, this feature is useful -- but I never use it. If Strava added a Race Category sort option, I would probably use that, but only out of curiosity and I wouldn't put much stock in the results. If you really want to know how you compare with other riders, pin a number on your jersey and line up at the start line. It's much more fun than sorting a leaderboard.

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With Power Meter

If you do have a power meter, here are the additional power-related features that I think a cyclist will enjoy most with Premium membership:

Goals. In addition to the Weekly and Segment goals, if you have a power meter you can also set a Power goal. You specify your goal in watts, the time interval for the goal, and a due date. the intervals available are 5, 10, and 30 seconds; 1, 3, 5, 10, 20, and 30 minutes; and 1 hour. Estimated power values calculated by Strava (if you don't have a power meter) do not apply.

Setting a Power Goal

My Opinion. 3 / 5 -- Used in conjunction with the Power Curve (described below), setting Power Goals can be somewhat useful. Of course you can set these goals for yourself without purchasing Premium, but you may work harder to achieve the goals if your Strava page displays it. I have set power goals for 5 seconds, 1 minute, and 1 hour and it did add a little bit of extra motivation when I was doing 1-minute Kilo Intervals.

Power Curve. The power curve displays your maximum power output over a duration of time. You can display power as either watts or watts per kilogram (of body weight). You can have 1 or 2 curves displayed with different time spans. For time spans you can select last 6 weeks, a specific year, or a custom date range. I usually have 2 curves displayed, one showing the current year and one showing the previous year. You can click on the curve at any point to view the values as well as click on a link taking you to the ride that it is associated with. If you have set any Power Goals (described above), they will be indicated with red circles on your curve. You also have the ability to show your estimated FTP (though not necessarily as accurate as the FTP test).

My Opinion. 4 / 5 -- The power curve is a great way to analyze the type of rider you are (sprinter, time trialist, etc.). It is also a great way to determine what areas you should work on. You are able to easily gauge progress over time and the graph assists with both race analysis and race preparation. There are free options available to view your Power Curve (like Golden Cheetah), but the one offered by Strava is quickly accessed and easy to use. It would be nice if they added zone shading, but that isn't a huge deal.

Fitness & Freshness. Also known as the Performance Management Chart (PMC). This chart displays your Fitness (or Chronic Training Load, CTL), Fatigue (or Acute Training Load, ATL), and Form (or Training Stress Balance, TSB) over time. Strava refers to Form as Freshness. I will likely discuss (at length) the PMC in a future blog post. In Strava, the PMC can be displayed for the last 6 months, last year, or all-time. The graph will also display Fitness, with Fatigue and Form display being optional. At the bottom, each days Total Stress Score (TSS) is displayed in bar-graph form with links to the associated rides.

My Opinion. 4 / 5 -- The PMC is one of the better analysis tools to use in training (some may argue it's the best). It gives you the ability to taper and peak for races and helps tremendously by providing a visual representation of how high intensity workouts and rest function together to make you a stronger rider. The graph is easy to use and it is helpful having links to rides in the TSS bar graph portion. The major fault of the Strava PMC is the inability to set date-dependant FTP values. During training, your FTP will increase (hopefully). When you change the value of your FTP it should apply to all future rides in your PMC, but with Strava, it applies to all past rides too. This is incorrect and many have asked Strava to fix it. Their response has been that the fix is in the works but it has already been over 7 months since they added the PMC and they've yet to fix it. Again, there are free alternatives for the PMC (Golden Cheetah), but Strava's version is easier to use (but less customizable). It would be nice if they had a custom date range capability. For advanced Tapering and Peaking methods, the use of an Excel spreadsheet proves very useful -- I'll provide more information on that in a future post.

Conclusion

In my opinion, the only feature worth Premium membership if you don't have a power meter is the Suffer Score and I would say it's a pretty weak feature. If you do have a power meter, the main features you'd benefit from are the Power Curve and Performance Management Chart. Those features, however, are available elsewhere for free so they are pretty weak as well.

But....

I consider Strava the best community-based training website available. Others, like Garmin Connect, Map My Ride, and Ride With GPS fall short. There are many areas of Strava that could be significantly improved -- a club page with the ability to display group ride calendars with meeting times for example -- and from what I've seen, Strava is very much willing to roll out new features and updates, showing that they care about what their users request. By purchasing a Premium membership, you are helping support their efforts and will likely benefit from future added features and updates. It would be a shame if Strava became stagnant due to insufficient revenue.

At just about $1 per week, Premium membership isn't much of a financial burden. If you have a power meter, I would definitely recommend at least trying Premium for a year -- if nothing more than to get a feel for how the Power Curve and Performance Management Chart work. If you don't have a power meter, I would say stick with the Free version unless you simply want to support the website's endeavours. To read more about the features and updates that Strava has come out with, visit their Blog. As always, your thoughts regarding Strava and Premium membership are welcome in the comments below.

Resources

Most of the content you'll find on my blog comes from personal experience, but a lot of the advice I offer is based on information I've gleaned from books, magazines, and websites. I've created a page to list the resources that I've used over the years and highly recommend if you are looking to learn more about the sport. I receive no compensation for promoting these materials and welcome your suggestions for addition resources to add to my library. If you have a favorite training book, magazine, or blog that you'd like to share please feel free to leave a link in the comments section on that page. If you have your own blog that is cycling-related feel free to promote it there too.

To view the resources I currently have listed (including my thoughts on each book, magazine, and website) you'll find a menu link to the page in the upper right corner, or you can click here.

Testing for FTP and LTHR

You're going to like the way you feel... I guarantee it.

If you are serious about training, it is imperative that you know your lactate threshold heart rate (LTHR). If you do not have a power meter and don't have $1,000 to spend on one, consider putting $50 in a jar every week for ~3 months. Stages power meters range from $700 (Shimano 105 or SRAM Rival) to $900 (Shimano Dura Ace 9000) and can be ordered for you by Chris at ProBike (tell him Buzz sent you). If you have a power meter you'll want to know your functional threshold power (FTP). The test procedure described here will provide you with both your LTHR and, if you have a power meter, your FTP.

In theory, your LTHR doesn't change. So if you don't have a power meter you can run this test once (or twice for verification) and be done with it. FTP, however, does change -- well, hopefully it changes, as that is the whole point of training. So if you train with a power meter you will need to test multiple times during the year to obtain your updated FTP values. There are many significant advantages to training with a power meter, which I will likely expound on in a future post. They include:

1. Properly tapering and peaking for a race (this is a huge advantage, taking the guesswork out of preparing for your important events).
2. Knowing exactly how intense, and how long, training rides should be.
3. Recognizing the issues caused by heart rate fluctuations from being sick, not getting enough sleep, being fatigued, etc.
4. Successfully performing training workouts, especially short duration intervals, without the hassle caused by the heart rate being heavily dampened (slow to respond to efforts).

There are a few methods for determining one's LTHR and FTP. The one described below is also known as the Critical Power 30 (CP-30) test and is considered to be the most accurate test you can do for LTHR and FTP. I recommend performing this test at least twice a year. You may decide to do more testing during the year to check for updated FTP values, but those tests can be shorter duration (read: easier) and I'll likely discuss the methods for those in future posts.

The Short Version

1. Rest for a couple days.
2. Warm-up for 20 minutes.
3. Ride as hard as you can for 30 minutes.
4. Cool-down.
5. Your average heart rate for the last 20 minutes is your LTHR.
6. The average power for the full 30 minutes is your FTP.
7. Repeat at least twice a year.

The Long Version

Preparation. You don't want to complete this when you have fatigue in your legs; you want to be somewhat fresh to get accurate results. Keep in mind that your values for LTHR and FTP coincide with the best effort you can sustain for 30 minutes. In order to provide your best effort, you need to be fresh. You don't want to rest for too long though, because you will lose fitness and may experience "dead legs" on test day. I've found that two to three days of rest works well, structured like this:

• Day 1: No riding.
• Day 2: No riding.
• Day 3: 45 minutes of easy spinning with three 30-second hard-effort bursts.
• Day 4: Test day.

During these rest days you will also want to stay well hydrated, eat appropriately, and get some solid sleep. Take some time to set your computer up for the test. I recommend that you have it display Lap Time and Cadence. You don't want to try to maintain some set power value or heart rate -- you only want to focus on putting out your best effort. Of course, you will need to see Lap Time so you know when to stop, and it is beneficial to maintain a steady Cadence.

Other factors. It is important that you try to keep the outside conditions as constant as possible for each test. So if you tested in the morning after two rest days last time, don't test mid-day with no rest days this time. Cool weather is ideal for this test so I recommend testing in the morning. Find a good route and use it for every test. Ride the bike that you will use for the majority of your LTHR- or FTP-based training. Since you likely train while riding on the hoods (not the tops or drops), perform this test riding on the hoods. This test is meant to be done solo (no training partners). Having someone else to pace, chase, or escape from will give you bogus data. You want to be all alone, suffering solo for the duration.

Route. The ideal route for this test would be a 15-mile stretch of perfect pavement with no stops, no rollers, a steady 1-2% uphill grade, and no traffic. The most important aspects of your route are that it have no stops and minimal rollers. Grades in excess of 4% will give you slightly skewed numbers, so Mt. Lemmon is not an ideal option. The route that I have come to prefer for this test is south on Mission from Valencia. If you've done the Saturday Shootout you are familiar with this stretch of road (it is approximately 30 minutes from Valencia to the bridge).

Unless you live close to a good stretch of road for performing this test, you will want to drive to the testing location. You may find it helpful to bring some things with you; I usually take water bottles, recovery drink mix, a towel, and jeans & a t-shirt. This test, when done correctly, is brutal. Put in the extra effort preparing for it and you will get good results. You don't want to go through all this suffering and end up with questionable numbers.

Warm-up. For what equates to a 30-minute threshold workout I like to warm-up for 15 minutes. Mid-warm-up I do three 30-second hard effort bursts and then three 1-minute medium effort intervals with 30 seconds of rest between them. Your warm-up may need to be different -- you want to stress your body enough to prepare it for what will be a very difficult 30 minutes, but you don't want to stress it to the point where fatigue becomes a factor. When you start the test you want to already be sweating, but you don't want to feel tired.

Begin test. In the span of about one minute, steadily get up to cruising speed and a cadence of 90-100 rpm, then press your Lap button to start the test. You will be riding as hard as you can for 30 minutes, so maintain some control at the beginning to avoid running out of gas too early. You want to try to maintain the same power for the duration of the test. Maintaining steady maximum power output comes with experience so if it's your first time you will likely find that you either decrease power during the test and/or have some left in the tank at the end.

Cadence. My ideal cadence is in the 90 rpm range, but this is a personal preference. There have been studies done, however, with results suggesting that a cadence in the 90-100 rpm range is ideal for power production. If you feel uncomfortable at a cadence of 100 rpm you should include speed skills in your training sessions, but for this test you need to be smooth -- so if that means your cadence is 80 rpm, that will be fine -- just consider working on your cadence in future workouts so you are smooth at higher rpm.

Steady power. To help maintain constant power, every couple minutes I like to ask myself if I am pushing as hard as I can. If my answer is "no," I steadily increase my power output a little. I also like to ask myself if I can continue to maintain my current power output for another few minutes. If my answer is "yes," I steadily increase the power a little; if my answer is "no," I steadily decrease it a little; if my answer is "I don't know," I maintain that output and check again in few minutes. Any change in power output should be steady, over the span of around a minute -- you want your power graph at the end to be flat or rolling hills, not jagged mountains.

10-minute mark. You will likely be checking your Lap Time often to see how much longer you have to endure the suffering. If you do not have a power meter and are only testing for LTHR, at the 10-minute mark press the Lap button again. This is not imperative so if you miss it don't worry about -- it just makes post-test analysis of LTHR a bit easier. If you do have a power meter, do not press the Lap button here as it makes analysis of FTP a bit more difficult.

Suffering. You will be hurting -- don't give up. This test is incredibly difficult and you will want to quit. Expect the pain to be overwhelming but focus on pushing through it. This test is a great mental check for time trials. Use the suffering as a way to train your mind to continue to fight instead of giving up. Before the test, read Grimacing, or anything else that will motivate you to suffer greatly without backing off. Be prepared for this and endure it -- you will be rewarded.

Final minute. When your Lap Time shows 29:00 (or 19:00 if you pressed the Lap button at the 10-minute mark), you have just 1 minute left. During that minute, steadily increase your pace to your absolute maximum -- everything you have left -- completely emptying yourself. If you held the appropriate power output during the test, you won't be able to increase it here. If you are able to increase your power output by any measurable amount, you didn't push yourself hard enough during the test -- next time you do this test you need to suffer more so that at the end you have absolutely nothing left. It isn't easy to pour everything you have into 30 minutes, but it's what you are shooting for. You will never be so happy to see 30:00 (or 20:00) on your computer. Press the Lap button again to identify the end of the test.

Cool-down. Most likely your route is an out-and-back, so you will need to turn around to return to your car. Steadily decrease your pace, get control of your breathing, and make a safe turn. It will take you around 20 minutes to get back to your car. For the first five minutes of the return trip I recommend very light zone 1 spinning for recovery. For the remainder of the return trip I will usually do an aerobic endurance pace (heart rate zone 2). If this is your first test you won't know your zones yet, so just return at a pace that you could carry on a conversation during.

Analysis. When you've uploaded your data there are six things you are looking for: the values for LTHR and FTP, how well you held constant power, if you pushed too hard at the beginning, if you need to suffer more next time, and whether you need additional aerobic endurance training,

LTHR & FTP. To obtain your LTHR, simply determine your average heart rate for the last 20 minutes of the test. If you pressed the Lap button at the 10-minute mark this is easy to find. If you didn't, you will need to select the appropriate time span and obtain the average heart rate for that range. To obtain your FTP, simply determine the average power for the entire 30 minutes of the test. If you've previously performed this test you can compare your LTHR values to see if they match (they should). If they don't, it could be due to temperature, fatigue, being sick, etc. Determine which test you believe reflects you at your "best" and use the LTHR value from that test.

Steady power. Now take a look at your power graph. Does it stay somewhat constant or do you see fluctuations? For a proper test, your power (not necessarily speed) should remain steady. If you see much fluctuation, you would likely benefit from some pacing-specific workouts. A general workout would be to do three sets of riding for 10 minutes at your FTP and then 3 minutes recovering in zone 1, trying to maintain constant power during the 10 minute interval. Doing these intervals on rollers will help you learn how to change gears to deal with grade changes while keeping your power constant. Learning how to control your power is a huge help in both training and racing.

Aerobic fitness. Finally, you can get a pretty good indication of how "fit" you are by looking at your heart rate graph. Generally speaking, if your heart rate slowly increases over the duration of the test, your aerobic fitness is low and you would benefit from additional aerobic endurance workouts. This is referred to as "decoupling," meaning that your heart rate is decoupled from your power. You may find that this is the case at the beginning of the season, and therefore the reason for the Base period. If your heart rate remains constant for the entire test you have high aerobic endurance and likely should move out of the Base period and into your Build period (if you aren't there already).

Below are some of the FTP tests I've performed, with problem areas identified. The graphs show speed (top, blue), power (purple), heart rate (red) and cadence (bottom, pink).

FTP Test: Trainer

This test was performed on a trainer at the beginning of a Base period. You can see that (1) I started out with a power output that was too high, that I was unable to maintain and needed to back off. You can also see that (2) my heart rate steadily increased over the duration of the test, indicating a low level of aerobic fitness. Finally, you can see that (3) at the end of the test I was able to push harder and increase my power output, indicating that I had something left in the tank and could have pushed harder during the test.

FTP Test: Old Spanish Trail

This test was performed on Old Spanish Trail during a Pistol Hill ride towards the end of a Base period. You can see that (1) again I started out with a power output that was too high. You can also see that (2) performing the test on a rolling course can be problematic when tasked with maintaining a constant power output. Again, you can see that (3) at the end of the test I was able to increase my power output. Finally, you can see that (4) the route chosen was quite long and likely meant that the values I obtained during the test portion were low. A shorter route with no rollers would be preferred.

FTP Test: Mission

This test was performed on Mission, south of Valencia. This route is my preferred and almost exclusive stretch of road for FTP testing. Although this route is almost perfect for the test, you can see that (1) I still started too hard and (2) I still didn't go hard enough for the duration. There's always room for improvement, especially when it comes to suffering for 30 minutes.

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If you don' have a power meter, you should perform this test at least twice in the first year. If you obtain different LTHR values from the two tests you may want to do a third test to really lock down your LTHR. Once you have it locked down, you may want to continue to re-check once a year. You should also consider purchasing a power meter.

If you train with a power meter you will want to keep a fairly close eye on your FTP. Your FTP will increase with training, so if you train consistently throughout the year you'll want to check your FTP every few months. If, however, your training calendar is March-May and September-November, you probably just need to check it twice (in March and September). Don't perform this test too close to an event that you want to be fresh for, as it will put a fair amount of fatigue in your legs.

I welcome any thoughts, suggestions, or questions you may have about this test, or any test to obtain LTHR or FTP. If you've performed this test and would like a second set of eyes to analyze your data I'm happy to help. If you'd like you are welcome to post a link to your Strava or Garmin ride in the comments area below.

Enjoy the smile -- for though your mind will tell you otherwise, it will not last long; it will fade.