This is Part 2 of the ICA Field Test Master Class. Part 1 provides the audio on why field testing is important.
This profile contains powerful cues to help you coach your students through this grueling but very important assessment. Also, this contains tips on what kind of music to use, as well as a suggested list of over 60 additional songs to use in your field tests.
Dana,
excellent question. Thanks for asking it; it’s a question I get a lot and I think Ill turn it into an Ask the Expert question for those who don’t see this answer.
I think for most people, especially the typical indoor cycling student, once a month is a bit too much for a 20-minute field test, especially if you did them once per month for 12 months. For elite cyclists at certain times of the year, however, it would be too little. So the answer for something like this is always “it depends”!
I woud recommend a 20-minute field test at this intensity once every 6-8 weeks to measure progress.
Doesn’t mean you can’t do threshold efforts within that time period however. You can do any combination of threshold efforts in intervals of at least 5 minutes if threshold improvement is your goal. For example 6X5, 5X5, 5X6, 4X7, 3X8, 3X9, 3X10, 2X8, 2X12, 2X15, etc. Always keep the fitness level of your riders in mind. The sessions with the higher total volume of 30 minutes at threshold (e.g. 3X10 or 2X15) are for more advanced riders.
Would this be too much to do once a month?
I like “my personal butterfly” by Lemon chill
Thank you for this! I am planning on testing myself very soon 🙂
Yes Melissa, I always thought this photo looked like you were coaching them to do something that was really challenging, giving them the information and the motivation they needed, like for a field test!
Everyone, Melissa Spredemann owns a studio in Wisconsin called Velocity Cycling Studio. She was one of our finalists in the ICA Facebook photo contests.
Hey that’s me!! lol