Many cyclists think that once they have a training programme they can follow it and they will automatically get towards their goal race and perform a personal best time on their chosen day. This would be great if it were true in every case. Unfortunately it is not and these riders are falling foul of one of the most commonly over looked areas of training programmes.
 
This cyclist expects their training programme which they follow religiously to get them towards the goal but they neglect to realise the training programme is only as good as the assessment or test ride and the result that this produces. If they are not getting the improved results that their coach and they would like, then the training programme should be modified to achieve these positive changes.
 
If you think of your training programme as one big experiment you will not be too far off the truth. The experiment is to see if you can perform in a certain way on a certain day in some cases long into the future. This is a fine goal but if we wait months or years to assess this, then we would be making a huge mistake. You should think of your peak race as the end experiment and here's the important bit: we should also have some smaller experiments along the way. These smaller experiments will give us the all important hints to see if we are on the right track and if we are moving towards your overall race goal.  These smaller experiments are our training blocks: three weeks of training to one weeks rest and the test in that rest week. At these tests if we are on track you should see an improvement in your speed, distance or power output in comparison to the last test.
 
If we see an improvement then great, but is it enough? If we see no improvement or a decrease in your fitness, then why? If there is no improvement or a decrease in fitness then we need to change the programme. We need to research why this is the case and modify our next small experiment (the next training block) to ensure we get a better result next time. This should continue until we get the consistent increase in your fitness over a period of time, which leads us to your overall goal race.
 
Even if we do get a consistent increase in your fitness level over the weeks, is it enough, can we improve on this change and get some results faster or is this the best speed to get your body to adapt to the stresses of training?
 
Unfortunately, there is no set method of training to improve fitness and the amount of variables in your life are many so we must manage all these variables, your body and your training programme the best we can to get towards the result we would like on your goal race. To maintain a hoped improvement in your fitness you should be aiming to minimise all the different variables that exist, which may affect your training and the result of our experiment. If we can manage these variables and assess the affects of your training programme on your body and change the programme at these times then we will be more likely to get towards your great performance on race day.
 
Those athletes who follow a training programme blindly assuming the programme will provide the success on race day that they are expecting, will have random chance of success. The training programmes as laid out will not necessarily get you to a best ever performance, in fact nothing could be further from the truth. Your training programme must be assessed often to see if we are on the right track. If not we need to change it at the intervals dependent upon your plan.
 
Ways to assess your training is to carry out the required tests as your plan dictates and send the results to your coach for analysis. You should also be recording every training ride and the variables laid-out in the article on 'The Importance of Monitoring your Programme' to see how your experiment is going over the training block and training year.
 
Everyone adapts differently to the programmes, so it's a matter of regular assessment, contact with your coach and modification of your programme at the set intervals to make it as specific as possible to your own body, the adaptations required and lifestyle, which is why you are your own experiment.
 
Bibliography:
 
Noakes, T. (2003) The Lore of Running, 4th edition, Human Kinetics, Leeds