Measure Your Performance Gains with the 10 Minute Progress Test

You’ve completed your three minute test, set your training zones, and made a start on a structured training plan. That’s great, but what should you do next?

To ensure you stay motivated and achieve those all important performance gains it’s important to continually measure the effectiveness of your training plan. A great way to do this is by completing a 10 minute progress test.

What is the 10 Minute Progress Test?

The 10 minute progress test does exactly what it says, it measures your progress. Specifically, the test measures aerobic capacity using the result of your three minute test. Improvement is indicated by a progressively reducing heart rate for the same cadence/ power output.

Why Ride a 10 Minute Progress Test?

Rather than constantly pushing yourself to your limits by completing the three minute or any other maximal test, the 10 minute test is designed to be less fatiguing with a shorter recovery time. This makes it the perfect test to complete mid training plan on your as it allows you to measure progress whilst not impacting on your future smart bike sessions.

How to Conduct a 10 Minute Progress Test

The 10 minute test is a sub-maximal test based on average power from the three minute test. Follow the simple steps below for setup, but don’t forget, you will need a heart rate monitor to complete the test.

1. In Setup select Heart Rate (HR) and press ENTER, follow the instructions on the display to set up your HR monitor
2. Once connected press ESC until the display returns to the Main menu
3. In the Main menu select Recall and the Set split. Set the split intervals for 1 minute
4. Press ESC until the display returns to the Main menu
5. Warm up for 5 minutes at 50% of the average power achieved in your 3 minute test
6. From the Main menu select Workout (down button), press ENTER. Select New workout (down button) and set up a New workout for a time of 10 minutes
7. From Custom workout (Main menu - Workout - Custom) select the 10 minute workout. Select the Watts display screen
8. Set the air resistance lever to the setting used during your 3 minute test
9. From a static starting position pedal at an even cadence keeping the power at 70% of the power achieved in your 3 minute test
10. Record the average HR at the end of each 1 minute (use the Recall Summary split information to get this information, once the test has been completed) for comparison against future progress checks.

How to Use Your Progress Test Results

We recommend re-taking the 10 minute progress test on a monthly basis, recording your heart rate results each time and comparing back to the previous test. You should see a reduction in heart rate with each re-test, showing your aerobic capacity is steadily improving.