Turns out it’s a lot easier and way cheaper to develop effective training programs for cyclists than was previously thought. A news release from the University of New Hampshire reports on the efforts UNH graduate student Jay Francis, who used two tools that most competitive cyclists already own — a power meter and a stationary bicycle trainer. Francis used a three-minute all-out cycling test – “you just push and push and push and never let up†– which had previously shown to yield, in the last 30 seconds of the test, a power level that a cyclist can sustain for 20 to 30 minutes. He replaced expensive and problematic laboratory equipment used in an original three-minute test with the his own bicycle, fitted with a power meter and used with a stationary trainer. He then tested 16 competitive cyclists, comparing their exercise intensity from the power meter test with classic laboratory-produced exercise intensity measures: blood lactate concentration and oxygen consumption. The power-meter and laboratory-based results correlated beautifully.
UNH quotes Francis’ thesis advisor Dain LaRoche, who used to work with speed skaters and Nordic skiers for the U.S. Olympic Committee. “You can go out with your own power meter and, for free, in just three minutes, you can do what would cost you $250 and take over an hour in the lab.” With this data, says LaRoche, a cyclist can develop a range of individualized training zones that a coach will use to prescribe a particular workout. “You can’t use heart rate, because everyone’s is different, but you can say, ‘we’re doing a zone three workout today.”