Success Tip VIII - Physical Awareness

When you think about your performance, whether it is purely in the athletic or fitness arena, or in any area of your life, there the first step for making progress is to become aware of whether there’s a problem we need to address or if we are on the right track and making progress. These include our Physical and Mental Fitness. However, due to the length of this particular topic, I will only address the physical piece of this ‘Success Tip’ this time, and the mental the next. Take note or simply compare what you’re already doing to this list and see if there are any suggestions that might be beneficial additions to your arsenal or if you are right on target with your approach.

That being said, what things come to mind as ways of checking in to see if you are truly progressing towards your goals? If you said race results, you’re not alone. However, while doing well in races is typically commensurate with increases in our physical fitness, unfortunately race results alone are probably the worst predictors of whether or not we are actually improving in our overall performance. If we rely on race results to tell us if we’re doing better, then if we come in anything but better than out last placing, then we are likely to be disappointed and erroneously judge our performance as lacking. Some of our greatest awareness and improvements can come from the mistakes we make and from our less than stellar race performances, so here are some other suggestions instead.

Physiologic Testing

There’s no better way to know if you are improving than periodic physiologic testing. Whether it’s in the lab or in the field, determining a baseline and comparing yourself against your own performance is one of the only true ways to know if you are really making progress. Below I have listed a number of ways to go about doing this on the quick and cheap, and on the more specific and costly.

The old fashioned Field Test
For years, this has been a widely used method of many pros and coaches alike, for testing fitness each year by simply going against the clock on a favorite loop, climb or other route that timed all out efforts can be repeated from time to time. The benefits to this are that it’s the cheapest and easiest and can be done literally anywhere at any time. The cons are that it’s not always accurate as time can and is quite often effected by the wind, the motivation level of the athlete and other circumstances that can’t be controlled.

To do this test, simply pick your route and after doing the same warm-up you do every time in the aim of consistency, and under the same weather and wind conditions to the sake of reliability, simply time the effort over the course you have laid out and see if you have improved by setting a faster time. A faster time will indicate either a reduction in body weight, increased power or both. Just make sure that you know what energy system you are testing by knowing what distance and duration corresponds to which and make sure the improvement it’s not due to a favorable tail wind!

***Please see below for resources for both implementing and interpreting the results from both Field Tests mentioned above.

Laboratory Testing
The last method of find out your strengths and limiters would be to get tested in the laboratory setting. In this approach, all of the variables are constant, so it is repeatable and the most accurate of the three. However it is also the most expensive. You will receive a complete report of your results that will show you what they mean and how to integrate them into your training along with your HR and Power Training Zones, Power Profile. This test is performed over the course of about 45 minutes where a simple finger stick is taken every 4 minutes to determine how much lactate you are producing at each graduated workload until we see a significant spike in your lactate thus evidencing your lactate threshold. For these who wish to push themselves to their maximum, we can do this as well to see if your toal work capacity and ability to ride above your LT is improving over time as well.

Summary
So there you have it, the quick and dirty when it comes to the various means of testing your fitness in order to maintain an awareness as to whether you are actually achieving your fitness goals or not. Without this objective measure, it is difficult, at best, to truly know whether or not you are improving. By simply performing some form of periodic fitness testing we can avoid thinking that we aren’t cutting it simply because we haven’t performed as well as we would have liked to so far in races this season. For more information on this subject be sure to check out the article, New Paradigm Performance Enhancement that discusses this very phenomenon.

Be sure to tune in next time to find out how to address this issue of Awareness when it comes to enhancing our performance from the mental training perspective. I look forward to seeing you next time.

***You can find out how to set up your power profile and training zones by CLICKING HERE and using my free test data interpretation tools to do so.

***For sample test protocols either check out my comprehensive Training with Power e-Books or purchase my all-inclusive Do-It-Yourself Field Test Package online today to learn how to test yourself and determine the results on the road without any expensive equipment or coaching. Simply use the code, ENDSTCEVG4AA2, to receive 20% off the retail price of these products or a lactate threshold test right here in the Endurofit lab for simply being a list member.

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