Testing with Testa

After not riding my bike since Dec. 9th, I decided to visit Dr. Max Testa in order to do a lactate threshold test and develop my training zones for the next few weeks. He moved from California to SLC not too long ago, and he is working for the TOSH now. When I entered the "human performance lab", I saw him talking to Dave Zabriskie about his training plan etc. It was kind of cool to see

a) Dave Zabriskie with a full Santa Claus style beard and
b) being tested by the guy who has been working with such great cyclists over the last 20 years

The test starts out at 100 watts and kicks up by 40 watts each 3 min. It doesn't feel like much at first, but it doesn't take long before you start breathing hard. I stopped after completing the 380 watt stage, with 9.6 mMol/L of lactate. The last stage was certainly hard and over my threshold, but it actually felt good to get in a hard effort on the bike after not doing much the last 3 weeks.

It was great to talk about the test results and training zones etc. with Dr Testa. You can tell right away that this man knows a LOT about cycling and training. So now I have my next few weeks of training in front of me, can't wait to get back in shape and ready for a new season.