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By Coach Yan Busset
Key Tests Every Triathlete Should Know to Boost Performance
You can’t improve what you don’t track, right?
Over the years, I’ve refined essential testing protocols to gather accurate data on my athletes' abilities. These tests help define training zones, set race pacing, track progress, and target specific areas for improvement. Shout out to David Tilbury Davis, whose collaboration as High Performance Manager was key in shaping some of these methods. With these tests, you’ll optimize your training sessions, establish accurate pacing for races, and identify the areas where you can improve the most.
To make things easier, I’ve also included three online calculators in this blog, allowing you to directly calculate your Critical Swim Speed, Critical Power, and Critical Speed. These tools will help you gain precise insights quickly and seamlessly.
Note: To understand the logic behind my testing approach, it's important to know that I assess Zone 2, meaning the aerobic threshold, and the anaerobic threshold separately. Often, when using the anaerobic threshold to estimate the aerobic threshold through percentages, the result is often overestimated. By testing both thresholds separately with different methods, we achieve greater accuracy. These are field tests, not lab tests, allowing them to be done more frequently, affordably, and still with great precision.
Why Are These Tests Important?
Performance testing offers several key benefits:
Establish Training Zones: Pinpoint the intensities that will bring the most benefit to each workout.
Define Race Pacing: Set a realistic and effective pace for each discipline during races.
Track Progress Over Time: See how well your training is working by comparing results.
Identify Your Athletic Profile: Focus on specific areas to strengthen, whether it’s speed, endurance, or power.
By following data-driven approaches, you can train more effectively and become a more complete triathlete, ready to tackle each stage of the race.
The Essential Tests for Each Triathlon Discipline
Each discipline, swimming, cycling, and running, has specific tests that reflect real triathlon conditions to help you apply results directly to training and racing.
1. Swimming: Critical Swim Speed (CSS) Test
The Critical Swim Speed (CSS) test is ideal for assessing your swim pace. This test involves two time trial swims:
400 meters at maximum effort
200 meters at maximum effort
Perform these two swims within the same session, with a five-minute active recovery in between. Using the times from these two swims, you can calculate your CSS, which is essentially your threshold swim pace. Alternatively, you can perform a 1000-meter swim time trial and calculate your average speed per 100 meters as CSS.
Online CSS Calculator
To make it easier to calculate your Critical Swim Speed, try my online CSS calculator here.
2. Cycling: Zone 2 Assessment and Critical Power (CP)
Zone 2 Assessment Test for Cycling
For long-distance triathletes, building a strong aerobic base is essential. The Zone 2 assessment test is specifically designed to determine your aerobic threshold, aligning with the ventilatory threshold 1 (VT1), which is where oxygen demand noticeably increases. Traditional methods that rely solely on anaerobic threshold often overestimate Zone 2, making it less accurate for endurance training purposes. This is why I use this specific test to pinpoint Zone 2 more precisely.
Zone 2 is the “meat and potatoes” for triathletes. To be successful, triathletes need to be extremely efficient in their aerobic energy system. The goal is not only to train within Zone 2 but to improve your power or speed at this specific effort level, enhancing your efficiency over prolonged efforts.
The Zone 2 test consists of two parts: a ramp test to identify the initial threshold and a validation test to confirm it.
Protocol:
Part 1: Nose Breathing Ramp Up Test
Warm-Up: Begin with a 15-minute jog at low intensity (Zone 1) to prepare your body without fatigue.
Test Execution: Start 20watts below what you estimate being your current Z2 limit and have a ramp up increment of 3watts every 3minutes.
Breathing Cue: Focus on breathing only through your nose. When nose breathing becomes difficult to sustain, note this pace (hit the lap button on your watch). Then, ease off slightly to a power where nose breathing is comfortable again, and hold this adjusted power for 10-15 minutes. Record both your power and heart rate.
Alternative Method: If nasal breathing is difficult for any reason, you can use the speech assessment. Try to say a long sentence without stopping. If you find yourself needing to pause or catch your breath midway, you’re likely at or slightly above Zone 2, indicating the VT1 threshold.
Part 2: Validation Test: Validation Test:
After identifying Zone 2 in the ramp test, same week, conduct a 60-minute steady-state ride at the identified Zone 2 power.
Record your heart rate continuously throughout the session.
After the ride, analyze the heart rate data by comparing the average heart rate from the first half of the session to the second half. Ideally, heart rate drift should be within 5 percent. If your heart rate drifts significantly higher than 5 percent, adjust your Zone 2 threshold slightly lower and repeat the test as needed to find a sustainable Zone 2 level.
Critical Power (CP) Test:
Critical Power represents the your threshold of the highest sustainable power output without fatigue or "Maximum Lactate Steady State" MLSS.
To determine your CP, perform:
4 minutes of all-out power for short-duration strength
15 minutes of all-out power to evaluate endurance
These two tests allow you to calculate both your CP and W’ (anaerobic capacity), representing the power you can generate above CP for sprints or climbs.
I prefer this test rather than the classic FTP test because two data point entry will give more accuracy and with that we can also compare your short effort performance vs longer steady one.
Online Critical Power Calculator
To quickly calculate your Critical Power and anaerobic capacity (W’), use our online CP calculator here.
3. Running: Critical Speed (CS) Test and Zone 2
Zone 2 Assessment Test for Running
The Zone 2 test for running follows the same principles as for cycling, focusing on identifying the aerobic threshold (VT1) where breathing shifts from nasal to mouth breathing. However, in running, the protocol is adapted to use pace instead of watts.
Protocol:
Part 1: Ramp Test
Begin with a 10 to 15-minute warm-up at an easy pace.
Start the test at a pace approximately 4 km/h below your estimated high Zone 2 limit.
Increase your pace in 3-minute increments, with each increment adding 0.5 Km/h .
Pay attention to your breathing as you progress. You’ve likely reached Zone 2 when nasal breathing becomes insufficient, and you need to switch to mouth breathing. If nasal breathing is difficult, you can use the speech assessment: try to speak a long phrase without pausing. If you need to stop to catch your breath, you’re likely at or slightly above the Zone 2 threshold.
Part 2: Validation Test
After identifying the Zone 2 threshold during the ramp test, confirm it with a 60min steady-state run at the identified Zone 2 pace or heart rate.
Record your heart rate continuously throughout the session.
After the run, analyze heart rate data by comparing the average heart rate from the first half of the session to the second half. Heart rate drift should ideally remain within 5 percent. If the drift is greater, adjust your Zone 2 threshold slightly lower and repeat the validation test to confirm it is sustainable.
Critical Speed (CS) Test
Once you have define Z2 we can define the anaerobic threshold with the Critical Speed test, it is the running equivalent of the bike CP, measuring sustainable speed without excessive fatigue. For an accurate CS:
1 km for a short, intense effort
4 km for a longer, steady effort
The difference between the two allows you to calculate CS and D’ (anaerobic capacity), quantifying additional work you can do above CS. This helps in planning pace and structuring effective workouts.
Online Critical Speed Calculator
To determine your Critical Speed and anaerobic capacity (D’), try our online CS calculator here.
Runner Type Definitions:
Diesel: High endurance with a need to boost short-distance speed; ideal focus is anaerobic capacity or VO2 max.
Well-Balanced: A mix of endurance and speed, adaptable based on goals.
Petrolhead: Excellent short-distance speed but needs endurance building.
Tips for Maximizing Test Results
To get the most from these tests:
Test Regularly: Aim for at least 2-3 times per season; Zone 2 assessments can be done more frequently as they’re less taxing.
Use Specific Conditions: Perform cycling tests on the bike you’ll use in races. For example, you won’t be able to push as high watts in an aero position as you would on a road bike, so test in the position and on the equipment you plan to race or train with. Also, expect results to be about 10% higher outdoors compared to indoor trainers. Keep in mind that running technique also differs between a track and a treadmill. Remember to be consistent in the way you perform the test to ensure you’re comparing apples to apples; otherwise, it will be difficult to draw accurate conclusions.
Analyze the Data: Use results to adjust training zones and refine your workout plans.
For more on using test results to determine training zones, check out my blog article on training zones.
Conclusion
With all of this, I hope you now have the tools to truly take your training to the next level. If you’ve never tried these tests before, give them a go, you’ll find they’re practical, easy to implement, and have a huge advantage over lab-based tests. They can be done in real-life conditions, on your own bike, or outdoors rather than on a treadmill. They’re also affordable and can be repeated regularly to track progress, all while being just as reliable as lab tests. If you’ve never tested yourself this way before, you’ll see it’s a game changer for your training and for pacing your races.
Thank you for reading, and as always, if you have ideas for future blog posts, feel free to send me a DM; I really value your feedback. As always, stay strong, fast, and furious, train hard, and see you next time!
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