 So welcome to the second edition of the RCA Training Tips show where I'm going to be your host, a road-cycling coach with the RCA, Kamnikov. Now if you're new to the channel, every Wednesday moving forward I'm going to be sharing a road-cycling training tip and sometimes as well on a Wednesday I'll also be doing some gear reviews. So next Wednesday I'm finally comparing the giant TCR to the BMC team machine so if all that sounds up your alley don't forget to subscribe below and also you can check out my email newsletter list where once a week over email I share similar training topics. Now last week I got a question from a member of the Road Cycling Academy's up-level road-cycling course. Now for those of you who are not aware, the up-level road-cycling course is an online course designed for intermediate road-cyclists who have plateaued in their training but are keen to learn how to take their performance to the next level. The course includes a one-on-one phone call with me followed by 14 step-by-step video tutorials, a podcast, downloadable worksheets and a private Facebook group. I open the course to 10 members every single month and I actually have four spots still available for March. For anyone out there interested, in fact those who register in March get a free bottle of the MODX Performance Enhancing Supplement. Links below but essentially every day there are members in the private Facebook group sharing their journey and also asking questions. Once a month I answer all questions in a Facebook live in this private group but with this particular question I thought I would try answering a question I get from the RCA members here on YouTube so we can all learn. So the question came from an RCA member, his name's Tim Berry or we like to call him Timbo and the question goes like this. The question came for your next live video, no doubt many would also benefit from this question. How do you measure your success from your training? Is it the FTP test or the local bunch ride or even your last race? Because every scenario is different. What we're trying to do when we're measuring the success or improvements in our training is remove that variability that Tim talked about. We want a consistent number or a consistent measurement. While ultimately winning a race and or beating a target time in an event is the ultimate success for many amateur cyclists out there and should really be the pinnacle of measurements. There is a lot of variability under race and event conditions and let's face it most amateur cyclists out there aren't doing them consistently enough to have a consistent benchmark or measurement for improvements in training. So what I'm going to do with you in this video is provide five examples that you can use in your own training week to week or month to month to measure how you've improved your fitness gains without having to go into a lab and get poked and prodded. As I share these five examples with you I will also give you some insights on how you could implement these into your training regime. So number one, the benchmark hill climb in your local area. Find a climb in your local area that you can get to consistently without any logistical challenges. Ideally the climb at a minimum is longer than three minutes in length so we've got something reasonable to play with although I'd say somewhere between five to twenty minutes in length is ideal. Warm up before you get to the benchmark climb for at least thirty minutes. Once you get to the climb I'd actually ride it at a lower intensity with a few small ramping efforts so we're tapping into the upper end zones preparing them for an all out effort. Roll down the hill and then unleash to the top. What time did you get? Now use Strava or some type of software as your diary marker so you can actually see how you're progressing over time with the benchmark climb. I recommend doing the benchmark climb in an easier week so you're feeling fresh and perhaps every six to eight weeks depending on your training block and just ensure you're doing it on a day that is consistent environmental conditions to the day that you first did it. You don't want to do it one day with a headwind and then another day with a tailwind because clearly that's going to have a huge impact on your result. Number two, improvements in your power numbers. So we'll get back to some heart rate examples shortly. But this example here is perhaps one of the most compelling reasons why training with power in my opinion, Trump's training with heart rate any day of the week although training with both is ultimate. You see heart rate while still a very important measurement is only a response to the physical output or duress it's currently under. After several weeks of good structured training you can be outputting more power on the bike with the same heart rate you had only weeks prior. But there is no way for you to know because without power there is no tangible output measurement on your computer screen. With power we can start to look and measure improvements across different segments. If I go into a training software which I've just started to use called today's plan which is also used by members of the Road Cycling Academy's up level road cycling course. You can see we have today's ride versus all time peak power analysis. We can go from 1 second to 5 second to 30 second all the way out to 3 hours. We can thus start to understand how we're improving output wise, power wise across different segments. 5 minutes, 3 minutes, 10 minutes, etc. In fact the training software that I use today's plan will send you an email alert when you're PB at time so you don't even need to go in there looking for it. So these power numbers are a very tangible way for you to understand how you're improving over the course of a training block. It's just like going to the gym. Being able to lift heavier weights is a prime example that you're improving in your training and you're getting stronger. Now if you've got a power meter and you use a training software these types of measurements just happen week to week. As you ride your bikes you'll be alerted to when you're PBing specific power numbers. Number 3 is the FTP power test. So FTP stands for Functional Threshold Power and is essentially the power number that you should be able to hold on a bike for roughly 1 hour. Now there are multiple variations of the FTP test which include, there's the all out 20 minute effort, there's the 2x 8 minute effort test, the Sufferfest and that that I personally use and all members of the up level road cycling course get free access to. It has something very thorough in it called the 4DP full frontal test and I'm sure there are many others out there. What I personally like to do though because it's a consistent environment and it's easily accessible that's the ramp test. Now for the ramp test you need an indoor smart trainer. If you don't have one perhaps you can borrow one off a friend. Go to Swift, sign up to a free trial, select ramp test and off you go. Essentially what this test does is after a very easy warm up at 100 watts the trainer ramps up 20 watts every single minute until you can pedal no more. My wife Alice and I completed this test together a number of months back now so if you're up for a laugh I'll link to that video at the end of this one. While the ramp test is designed to give you your functional threshold power number which is a good measurement in itself. It's also a good measure of fitness and strength to see how far you can actually get in this test. I would complete this test similar to the benchmark climb every six to eight weeks. Now what you could do depending on your block is every three or every four weeks you could alternate for variation between the ramp test and also the benchmark climb. So you're getting some variability across your measurements. Number four is monitoring heart rate on a benchmark climb. So this is another option out there for people who don't have a power meter but even if you do have a power meter I would recommend using this tool. For this section I spoke with Luke Mikleroy from Mets Performance Consulting in Melbourne who is an expert in sports physiology and sports science. You see when it comes to measuring heart rate in isolation it does become quite challenging and technical. For example with your max heart rate your max heart rate doesn't really change. If anything it will drop maybe one or two beats as you become fitter because your heart muscle is becoming larger and more efficient. Even with lactate threshold heart rate which is essentially the heart rate you should be able to maintain for an hour isn't a good measurement for fitness gains. In fact your lactate threshold heart rate may increase as you lose fitness because your heart muscle becomes smaller and less efficient needing to work harder for the same or even less output. So there are too many variables at play when it comes to measuring heart rate in isolation for fitness gains. However speaking with Luke from Mets Performance Consulting a good scenario for you to look at with heart rate would be your benchmark climb. Let's always measure and monitor your average heart rate for the benchmark climb you do. Let's say you do the benchmark climb for a second time six weeks after the first attempt. You get a slightly better time on your second attempt while you're a bit disappointed you haven't smashed your time. Let's assess what your average heart rate was for this benchmark climb and compare it to the first attempt. If your heart rate average is also two to three beats lower with a slightly better time then that is a great sign of fitness gains assuming the weather conditions haven't been a factor or you haven't dropped a significant amount of body weight. So if your heart rate average is lower for the same or slightly better output that is a good signal of fitness gains. Number five the ability to recover quickly and go again. So this is the least tangible of them all in terms of numbers but perhaps one of the most compelling in terms of fitness gains and what is actually happening internally in your own physiology. How this one goes is head to your local bunt right or smash fest with friends. Today you're going to rip it but in a controlled manner. No silly turns that put you in the red you just want to see how many turns you can do. What you want to note in this ride is how you feel after each turn. Are you supercharged to go again or are you out of breath struggling to roll through for a second or third turn. If you have this incredible feeling where the bunch ride and the turns feel a lot easier and you can keep pulling turns. Guess what that is a great measure of fitness gains. Perhaps you could do this bunch ride once every couple of weeks and measure and monitor how many turns that you do across each of these bunt rides. Sure the bunt ride conditions will change with the environment and riders etc. But you will know in yourself your ability to recover and go again. Is it improving is it stagnant or is it getting worse. So they are my top five examples of how you can measure your improvements in fitness performance through training. I'm not saying they're the only five would be keen to get any of your thoughts below and I'll catch you all in the next video.