I’ve been enjoying using Athletica to build up for a 70.3 I have coming up in 3 weeks which is my A-race. When I started I skipped the original test week and instead used power & pace values from some recent best efforts.
Since I have the race coming up I want to have up-to-date values in order to set my target paces & power. I also want to see if I’ve had any improvement from following the Athletica training plan.
Would it be reasonable to add in a 20-minute power test, 5K test, and a critical swim speed test in my upcoming build week to see where I’m at?
Hi, and welcome to the forum!
Your race is in 3 weeks? Have you done 70.3s before? I fully understand wanting to get dialed in.
Honestly, if you were my athlete, we wouldn’t do a test. Athletica has been updating your numbers all along so they should be pretty dialed in. I’d stick to the plan and let your performance for the 70.3 be your guide to improvement. Doing the tests is a lot of stress and may not contribute to your build.
You can also see your performance chart and power profile to see where you should pace yourself.
I know @Marjaana is on vacation, but when she comes back, I’d ask her opinion too!
How’s the training going now?
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Thanks for your reply 
It’s my first 70.3 but I’ve done several Olympic distance tris over the past year along with single discipline races.
The trouble is that I think Athletica’s power curve is quite a bit lower than my actual power potential when looking at only the duration of my training plan. My issue could be because I’ve only been on the plan for 3 weeks and I’ve been doing only the workouts in the plan which tend to only have short intervals. I’m coming from a moderate fitness level and I’ve been using Athletica for a 7 week build for this race. If I extend the window to the past 3 months I think it’s a bit more representative but this is mostly relying on data prior to using Athletica.
For example, I have data from a bike event in June (prior to me starting Athletica) where my observed best 5 minute power was 355w (5.2 w/kg) but using data from the period of my Athletica plan I only have an observed power of 276w (4.05 w/kg). The difference is 77 watts or 28% higher hence why I think the power profile may not be representative when only looking at the duration of the Athletica plan. The running and swimming pace curves are also lower than the observed pace prior to the plan.
What about I do a shorter, all-out bike effort on my next build week to update the power curve? Perhaps a 5 minute effort on the bike. This would be next week as I’m currently on a recovery week.
Training is going well: feeling strong, the workouts aren’t very taxing, and I’m recovering well after the workouts.
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Hey,
Honestly I would trust your intuition and if you feel Athletica is under-estimating your power targets, then you are probably right. That said, I would definitely do the test week after your race to really dial in your zones. I would say trust your gut for the race power target, aim at upper zone 3 for bike and run. 70.3 is a lot longer than Olympic so you’ll need to hold yourself back a little so you don’t “bonk” on the run. Remember you can always give your all the last 5-10k on the run if you’ve under estimated your power. This would be a rare occurance that almost never happens (underestimating your power) …
Definitely important to not skip the test week, but given the race is so close now, you may be better off to focus on the race instead of testing. Did you import your previous training history? You could try to get a ballpark estimate that you can hold for 90k by looking at the bike power duration curve the last 6 months or so.
MJ
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I’d agree and hold off until after the race.
Glad your training is going well, though!
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