In-House Base Builder

The Waite Endurance Testing Protocol

  • October 30, 2017
  • Blog

In a previous post, Testing: Anaerobic vs. Aerobic & Fatigue Resistance, we explained our testing philosophy. Through frequent testing we look to see improvements in power outputs over 6-12 weeks of training between testing. Our testing revolves around THREE different test durations:

  • One longer one at a specific sub-maximal aerobic heart-rate, to identify Aerobic Power.

  • Two shorter maximal efforts to identify ones Anaerobic Power.

We also introduced the concept of identifying your Fatigue Rate. This sheds light on where your aerobic fitness is compared to your top-end anaerobic power. With this data, we can then track improvements in power as well as improvements in fatigue resistance (ie. endurance). Through testing and training we attempt to maximize both ends for peak performance.

The goal with training is two-fold: maximize your power output & fatigue resistance. The tricky part is, improvements in one usually results in the decrease in the other; and what gets tracked, gets trained.

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Testing: Anaerobic vs. Aerobic & Fatigue Resistance

  • October 24, 2017
  • Blog

Before diving into another season of training on the bike, or jumping into serious training for the first time, it helps to know a few things about your current fitness as you get started. Testing on the bike has become common place for structured training. We’ll focus on the specifics of our Waite Endurance Testing Method here; but most testing protocols are intended to answer questions like these…

  • Where is my fitness at right now? Identify a baseline from which you plan to improve.
  • What are the best ways to spend my training time? In order to maximize your improvement.
  • What effort levels should you should be training at? Set your training zones.

There’s More to Power than Just FTP.

For many years, a rider’s FTP (Functional Threshold Power) has been the focal point of where a rider’s fitness. Percentages of FTP is also how many riders set their training zones. FTP works okay. It shines light on one area of fitness and can be re-tested again and again to check for improvement.

By definition, your FTP is the power you could sustain for one hour, full gas. I say could sustain because who’s going to go all-out for an hour to find this value? So it’s become common place to go hard for 20-minutes and subtract 5% from your average power. Pretty much the Gold Standard, and everyone accepts it. Even going all-out for 20 minutes is pretty tough on your own. For this reason, more recent models are doing one or two 8-minute intervals and subtracting 5-10% from those averages to estimate FTP. All said and done, these methods of FTP testing highlight one energy system (Vo2 max). On top of that, they calculate the FTP from a “one size fits all” percent reduction from the test effort. From here, it doesn’t tell you much else. Does it work? I suppose. However, if you’re like me, you would likely prefer more.

What if we said we can offer you another, possibly better, way to test on the bike to gain insight on your fitness, set zones, and track progress?

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