Call For Participants (closed)

We are opening a call for subjects to participate in a study we are conducting through the University of Toronto, in partnership with TrainerRoad. This study will investigate the effects of different high intensity interval training (HIIT) protocol on cycling performance.

We are looking for participants between the ages of 18 and 45 to follow a structured 6-week polarized training plan from the comfort of your own home.

This is open to anyone who meets the requirements to start anytime, until at least January, 2021.

All you need is your bike, a heart rate monitor, and a smart trainer with power data. The training plan is managed through the training platform TrainerRoad, which you will have free access to for the duration of the study.

Timeline for Testing and Training

Baseline testing in the first two weeks will include an incremental exercise test and two time-trials. You will then be prescribed two high intensity interval training (HIIT) workouts each week at an individualized power target, which can be done on your own schedule. The interval workouts are simple and shown to be effective at improving performance. The final week will be a re-test of the incremental exercise test and time trial.

Recommended Weekly Exercise Structure

You will be able to perform as much or as little low intensity training as you prefer. However all of your cycling training will need to be performed on the trainer and recorded in your TrainerRoad account. This is necessary for monitoring training load during the study period. Perfect structure for winter (or unfortunately, lockdown) base training.

If you are interested in participating and want more information, please go to http://www.evidencebasedcoaching.ca/training-study.html

More questions are answered in the FAQ at the bottom of the link above

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I’m very excited for the possibilities here. It took a lot of convincing on the academic side for us to be able to use a public platform like TrainerRoad for a formal academic study.

Allowing remote participation will hopefully give us an incredible new data stream to tap into, and capture a more relevant real-world segment of the cycling community.

If this study design works, this may be a game-changer for sport science research. Especially in these COVID days where physiological lab testing is nearly impossible. The information we gather here will help improve best-practice training recommendations in an applied setting that is obviously more relevant to current cycling training trends.

The more subjects, the merrier! Please consider following this study plan as part of your winter base training block. I’m excited to see how this unfolds over the next few months and eventually dig into the data.