Slyvain Garde's LBP test 30-09-08

[Robh]

[img]http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t209/sbc205/Image1-1.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t209/sbc205/Image2-1.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t209/sbc205/Image3-1.jpg[/img]

[Robh]

Had real diffculty getting a 02 sat figure. Gave up in the end as I couldn't get anything decent. Was getting figures of 73%. His hand were really cold and initially it was hard to get a drop of blood.

Following below is what I sent to the Sylvain & Huw :-

"As you saw last night I had to stop using the o2 sat monitor (small yellow device) because I could not get a proper reading from your finger . I think this is due to your hands/fingers being cold therefore reducing circulation. I had the same problem with Scott and both of you were hard to get blood from your finger at the start of the test but it got easier as you warmed up. I tried the 02 sat monitor again this morning and I was able to get a reading so HR on 02 sat matched the HR on the Polar HR monitor.

So with the absence of o2 sat it makes it harder for me to be confident in finding the start of your FTF zone. The level 2 tests uses resp rate & o2 sat to find it. If this was a level I test which doesn't record resp rate & o2 sat I would take 20 beats off your LBP but I 've looked at your respiratory data alone and see that up to HR 140 your respiratory rate is pretty consistent. So I have used this figure of 140bpm for the start of your FTF zone.

The green line on the graph is your recovery line and the more STF fibres you have the better you body is able to clear lactate. On the 2nd part of the test you have a big drop in performance around 43 watts at the start and as the tests carries on your watts start to get closer to the watts in the first part of the test. Pushing your to the max which I didn't do yesterday can drastically effect your recovery line.

The aim is to get this recovery line as close as possible to the blue line. The green line from an Elite athlete would look parallel to the blue line. This is achieved by years & years of riding below your LBP.

Your breathing is pretty consistent and it's not until your riding well above your balance point it starts to rise but there's still some form of control as there's no real huge jumps like I've seen on one test when it jumped from 32 to 50."

[Robh]

Comments on Sylv's test from Andrew Sellars :-

I would make a prediction that this guy has done a ton of high end work, with the result being he has destroyed his oxygen dependent system, which is indicated by the very poor STF results (180 watts at the top end), despite being able to push 300 watts during the step test.

Remember, how he develops this sytem, MIGHT take years of work below his LBP, but he may develop faster...if he has a good coach, and has been riding for quite some time, and just needs to reawaken this system, but I suspect you are more right than wrong in your assessment.

I would ppoint out to him his limitations...low LBP, low wattage at STF compared to 300 watts at high end, and point out these are structural limitations. Yes, he can probably push 350 watts for a few minutes, but I bet he can even hold 260 for much longer than 10 minutes.

[Robh]

Andrew Sellars forwarded to me a graph of one of his clients. If we look at his recovery line you willsee it's very close to his blueperformance line. This client has been has been spending the last 18 months doing 90% of his training under LBP and recently added little extra functional work in the form of one race per week over the past 6 weeks.

Please note the power figures are not from a Tacx Flow.

[img]http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t209/sbc205/Image10.jpg[/img]

[Robh]

From Andrew Sellars :-

It is always fun looking at results...and even more fun trying to think of how we might address training for the different people. Remember, the key to Level II is to use the data to find the weaknesses, and help the athlete recognize that addressing these weaknesses is the key to long term success. Some problems (cardiovascular neurological) might take YEARS to adapt, while others (musculo-skeletal breathing) might react very quickly. So, with each test, I will try to point out the weakness...then the coach needs to find a way to address it. I always come back to structural and functional training, with our goal of 90% structural work (not necessarily SLOW...but focused on building the body to be better on the bike).

One of our team mates set a new bike course record, and was top five out of the water. He has been using our ideas for 18 months, and felt very flat before we added a little extra functional work in the form of one race per week over the past 6 weeks...NO high intensity work in training, but still the fastest bike ride of the day. It requires a shift in thinking, and a faith in approaching things with a 3-5 YEAR plan, rather than a single season. This will be easier with people who are patient, or have nothing to lose...good luck.

[Sylv]

Thanks to Rob for the opportunity to take this test. As Michelle wrote it was somewhat enjoyable, sitting on my bike trying to stick to a given Wattage, HR or cadence, with one person prodding me around at the fingers, another wiping the sweat off my head and assisting with the monitoring, and a third one watching in silence taking mental notes for his upcoming test! But it was all done in a very competent manner and all I had to worry about was pedalling smoothly and sticking to a given figure.

I must say the data and analysis is now only starting to slowly make sense to me.

As Rob suggested here is some thoughts and comments post-test. Further to Andrew's comment I acknowledged that I hardly, if ever ride at a slower tempo, even on my own like when commuting. Something that's obviously not been doing me any good, now shown black on white. So no Sean, it's not all good!

As I understand it, there is a significant drop in the wattage after the ramp test to the level 8 of 10 of perceived exhaustion, ie during the following gradual increase in heart rate (recovery period, starting at 135bpm then up to 150 the determined LBP), first 27% decrease, then 20%, all the way to over 10% at LBP. If you look at Mike's test, the decrease is only 6.7% at that point (300w to 280w), and the value almost 100w higher.

Also Rob has corrected the values of RPE as I initially was overstating them, moving up one figure with every 20w increase, so that by the time I was at 260w it was getting to 8, whereas the effort wasn't all that hard - I should have realised I could have incremented in halves, say 6 to 6.5 to 7 etc - we corrected it on the go so that I was able to get to 300w for a RPE of 8 - so worth keeping in mind for future testees. But on the other hand be careful not to understate it as you will have to keep the final wattage for about 4 minutes whilst keeping a controlled cadence and respiratory rate.

I was not paying attention to my breathing in the early stages, which rate was about twice as fast as Rob's at that point. This is something you have to do consciously. Diaphragm breathing would helps there wouldn't it.


So in this early stage I will start by getting myself a HRM. And most likely will follow with supervised training which would involve a lot of riding below LBP. Also need to lose the 3kg I have put up in the last few months (thanks to cooked lunch being served at work ...) to increase my watt/kg ratio.

[Sylv]

Also the 192bpm max HR I gave to Rob was from a few years ago when I was using a HRM (2004 maybe), and even then it might have been determined with the 220-age formula - I can't quite remember honestly. It is possibly my max might be 185 or below.

[Stu Merckx Man]

it was quite good fun to watch sylv go through all that.

i was dead impressed with the way rob conducted the tests, it was really professionally done.

robs garage is like a mini sports science lab, it was fantastic

i cant wait to get mine done!

[Robh]

My poor car....It's slowly loosing it's home!

[Robh]

Stu watched so he could see what the test was all about....It's not the norm to have spectators.

[Sylv]

I might come with Stu for his test and ask you to rev the engine for me!

(we have the same car except Rob's got about twice (?)as much the power)

[Robh]

Here's a snap shot image of the Bioharness when Sylvain was on his last 3min interval :-

[img]http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t209/sbc205/Sylvain.jpg[/img]

[Robh]

Here's a snap shot image of the Bioharness when Sylvain was halfway through the test :-

[img]http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t209/sbc205/Sylvain2.jpg[/img]

[Robh]

Here's a snap shot image of the Bioharness when Sylvain was starting the test :-

[img]http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t209/sbc205/Sylvain1.jpg[/img]

[Robh]

Looking at all three bioharness images you can see when Slyvain is @ 174bpm and his resp rate is 44 the waveform of his breathing is not regular. To the left of that line you can see that his breathing is regular as that was start of slowing down his heart rate for the 2nd part of the LBP test.