MX Endurance has partnered with Today's Plan to provide our members with a state-of-the-art training platform.

Every MX Endurance plan and session is now built to provide a completely personalised experience for each of our members.

In order to ensure you get the most accurate and beneficial sessions on Today's Plan there are three key values you need to know. These are FTP, CSS and threshold pace. There are so many different ways in which some of these values can be worked out but we have picked three of the main sessions you can do to work out your values and input the correct data into Today's Plan.

SWIM CSS

CSS is an acronym for critical swim speed and is an approximation of your threshold pace when you swim.

From Today's Plan:

This threshold test protocol involves a maximal effort of 400 and 200. With these results and a little math, you're able to calculate your threshold swim pace which is used to determine your training zones.

To calculate your threshold pace:

Threshold speed = 200 / (Time for 400 in seconds - Time for 200 in seconds)

As an example - lets assume I completed the 400 effort in 6min and the 200 effort in 2m:50s.

Threshold speed = 200 / (360 seconds - 170 seconds)

Threshold speed = 200 / 190

Threshold speed = 1.05 metres or yards per second.

Then you need to convert this into a Threshold Pace (Time/100m or 100yd).

Threshold pace = 100 / Threshold Speed

Threshold pace = 100 / 1.05

Threshold pace = 95sec/100 or 1m:35s/100

Input this value as your threshold pace via your Account > Thresholds/Zones page

To complete your own Swim CSS test use the following protocol:

400m warm up.

4x50 25 fast/ 25 easy, 25 easy/ 25 fast, build, recovery.

100m easy.

400m best possible effort.

400m easy recovery.

200m best possible effort.

200m cool down.

Make sure you record your 400 and 200 times to establish your CSS and input it into your Today's Plan account.

BIKE FTP

FTP is an acronym for functional threshold power and is an approximation of your average power you can hold for an hour. As mentioned, there are many different ways you can calculate FTP but one of the most common is a 20 min test. This test is a 20 minute all out effort. At the completion of the 20 minutes you take 95% of your average power and voila! You have your FTP.

To complete your FTP test use the following protocol (or select FTP short on Zwift)

15 minute warm up.

5 min activation effort.

5 minute recovery.

20 minute test. DO NOT GO OUT TOO HARD!

15 minute cooldown.

If you are doing this test on Zwift make sure you don't have erg mode on or just use the FTP (Short) protocol on Zwift. Once you have your Today's Plan account linked to your bike computer or Zwift it will automatically detect when you have increased your FTP and adjust it accordingly.

RUN THRESHOLD

Threshold run pace is an approximation of your lactate threshold run pace or the  intensity at which your blood concentration of lactic acid begins to exponentially rise.

To measure this pace we use a 45 min threshold pace (or you can go for the whole hour if you like.) At the end of the test, the pace you held for the 45 min is your threshold pace.

To complete your run threshold test use the following protocol:

10 minute warm up.

4x1 min fast with 1 min recovery jog in between.

3 minute recovery.

45 min best possible effort.

10 minute cool down.

Like with the bike, once you have your watch connected to Today's Plan, it will detect when your threshold pace has improved.

The run and bike tests will also let you know your threshold heart rate which you can also input into your Today's Plan account to set your HR zones for bike and run.

If you have any questions or concerns about how to perform these tests or want to find out other ways you can test them feel free to ask our members in our private Facebook group.