What to look for in your first ramp test: calculate your zones

Ramp tests are no fun. But they are a great workout! Amazing how it starts and you think, this isn’t so bad. Then it gets challenging. And then suddenly you can’t go anymore! Where did that come from?!?

The ramp is a good test for a couple of reasons. One, it is repeatable. This makes for good data to compare against in the future. Second, it doesn’t take any pacing to do a good ride.

So what is a ramp test. The goal is to go as high on the wattage ramp as possible; it takes time to get to your max. It really forces you to dig deep and is a good challenge of both your aerobic and anaerobic systems. Unlike a time trial it doesn’t involve pacing, and is very easy to reproduce to track your progress. So don't think you just have to do it once and you are done.

There are two metrics we are hoping to get out of this first ramp to help us with calculating our zones, we want to capture your Maximum Heart Rate, and your Maximal Aerobic Power (MAP)

Maximum Heart Rate

First, we want your max heart rate. Given the effort you made in the ramp test you should have come pretty close to hitting your max. This max heart rate will be used in Training Peaks to calculate your heart rate zones.

Using Training Peaks to calculate your heart rate zones

You may have been able to get your heart pumping at a higher rate in a race or outdoors, lets say 5 beats higher, but that doesn’t translate to a noticeable difference in our training zones. We want to be careful and use the most achievable zones so that you don't end up with zones that are too hard causing you to work harder and get fatigued. That's not the Sans Chaine way, we want to best consistent and ride all of the time.

Maximal aerobic power (MAP)

Your MAP will be used to calculate your wattage training zones and overlaid with your HR zones. Your MAP will be the max power attained on the ramp test. The MAP can be either:

1) the wattage of the step that you finished

OR

2) if you managed to push into a step but not finish it the calculation would be: the wattage of the step you finished, plus a percentage of the wattage from the step that you didn't finish. As an example, the rider doing a 25w/step ramp finishes 200w and does 1-minute of the 225w step. The MAP would then be 200w + (25w x 33%) = 208w.

Now that you have your MAP head to the Sans Chaine training zones calculator to get your power zones.

Once you have your wattage zones you will need to input them into Training Peaks.

Updating your zones will make analysis of your workouts better, allowing you to see if you are doing the workouts like you think you are.