Threshold tests: bike, run, swim

A threshold is the effort above which fatigue builds up very fast. Zones and the load of every session are calculated from it. You can find your threshold with a field test: a short hard effort on the bike, on the run or in the pool. Below are the three tests TriCoo puts in the plan, step by step.

You do not need a test to start. Without thresholds the plan goes by feel, and a test appears once there is a base for it.

Bike: 20 minutes#

1. Warm up for 15 minutes easy. At the end, three one-minute efforts at a cadence of 100 or more, with a minute easy between them.
2. Opener: 5 minutes hard, but not all out. About 8 out of 10.
3. 5 minutes easy. At the end, press the lap button on your watch.
4. Main set: 20 minutes as even as you can, seated, without stopping. Effort 9 out of 10.
5. Cool down for 15 minutes easy.

Where: a trainer or a flat road without traffic lights or turns. Use the same power meter as in your usual sessions.

Result: FTP is 95% of your average power over the 20 minutes. Without a power meter this test cannot give you an FTP. It also gives your bike heart rate threshold: the average heart rate over the last 15 minutes of the main set, if the heart rate recording is usable.

Run: 30 minutes#

1. Warm up for 14 minutes easy. At the end, three 20-second strides.
2. Catch your breath for about a minute. Press the lap button.
3. Main set: 30 minutes as even as you can. Do not rush the start: the first minutes should be no faster than the last.
4. Cool down for 10 minutes easy.

Where: a flat loop or a track. Run on your own, not in a race and not behind a partner: someone else's pace pushes you, and the result is not yours.

Result: threshold pace. Divide 1800 seconds by the kilometres you ran to get seconds per kilometre. Ran 6 km, so the pace is 300 seconds, which is 5:00 per kilometre. Run heart rate threshold: the average heart rate over the last 20 minutes of the main set.

Swim: 400 and 200 metres#

1. Warm up for 10 minutes easy. At the end, four 25 m efforts with rest at the wall.
2. Press the lap button and swim 400 m from a push-off without stopping, as even as you can.
3. Rest at the wall for 3 to 15 minutes, the plan says 5. Press the lap button.
4. 200 m faster than your average pace for the 400 m.
5. Cool down for 10 minutes easy.

Where: a normal pool of the same length as in training. No racing the people in your lane. You can and should swim with someone watching: no racing does not mean alone.

Result: CSS, your threshold swim pace. Subtract the 200 m time from the 400 m time and divide by two. Swam 400 m in 8:00 and 200 m in 3:50. The difference is 250 seconds, half of it is 125, so CSS is 2:05 per 100 m.

When TriCoo schedules a test#

TriCoo offers a test if in the last 28 days you did at least 2 hard sessions in that sport. This is a TriCoo rule, not a medical clearance: the body needs to remember how to work hard, otherwise the test shows a lack of readiness, not a threshold.

A test is not scheduled in the first weeks of a plan, after a break, in a recovery week, in a taper or in race week. A test is a hard session. It replaces a session in the plan and is not added on top.

Sometimes there is no result. The pace was uneven, the recording broke off, the button was not pressed. Then the threshold does not change, and you can repeat the test later.

What tests cannot do#

A field test gives a good estimate, not an exact lab threshold. 95% of 20 minutes suits many people, but not everyone. A 30-minute run pace is close to critical velocity, but it is not the same thing. So TriCoo checks a test result against your training and does not treat it as a final verdict. How field tests compare to the lab is discussed, for example, by Sørensen and colleagues and McGehee and colleagues.

A test does not check your health and does not replace a doctor. One more thing: there is no need to go beyond your limits for accuracy. An even effort matters more than a desperate sprint at the end.