# Did I do the Carmichael field test wrong?



## nyvram (Apr 11, 2002)

I was on a hard training ride yesterday with a race team (emb..i'll never forgive you ;-) ) and i have my 'laps' set at 5 mile increments just to make the splits easier to study later.

what i noticed was there were 2 different 5 mi. splits where i was OVER my field test results (which i did 7 weeks ago) for 12-15 minutes each.

my HR was 2-3 bpm above my field test #s (which I did 4 of) and 6 watts over my FTP. 

is this normal for those numbers to creep up after 7 weeks of training? or was i just lazy and didn't truly go all out when i did the field test?

fwiw, each of those '8 minute' intervals i did for the field test originally had identical HR #s..didn't even vary by a single BPM..over the 2 days i did these tests. my avg wattage actually increased the second day (after discovering a rubbing brake pad) but that didn't affect HR numbers.

i feel like maybe i haven't been training properly if my numbers are actually higher than i thought.

..and how close to 'lactate threshold' are these HR #s anyway? i kinda thought that was the HR # this test would generate..maybe its not that accurate.


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## Rugergundog (Apr 2, 2011)

I think what you are seeing is normal. The HR that my field tests was at i can regularly hold for extended periods over what i could do 4 weeks ago.


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## JustTooBig (Aug 11, 2005)

nothing abnormal going on. You're also trying to impose some kind of expected consistency that's just not feasible. Heck, 6W is something like 2-2.3% of FTP power. That's negligible in the big scheme of things. What you're looking for is trends in data, and not getting too wrapped up in single instances or data readings that may be essentially outliers. 

Your experience also illustrates why testing is done repeatedly and periodically -- it allows adjustment of a training program based on observable improvements. But you're always going to have days when your numbers are higher or lower than expected. Remember that one day's data doesn't mean much. Weeks/months/years of accumulated data ..... that's a different story.


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