Testing times

Last night I was in a group of 10 people doing the same bike workout to measure our "functional threshold".  It was a hot and very sweaty session but what was interesting was that everyone was doing the same workout and putting in a similar amount of effort but with differing heart rate results.  Obviously there were differences of gender, age and level of fitness but it doesn't work in an expected pattern.  It is a great measure of your fitness and allows you to work out your heart rate zones which is so important to maximise your training.
To put this another way you can't work flat out all the time and if you do it will cause burn out.  It's about finding how to achieve optimal performance over a long period of time.  Before the session I went for a 30 min nap as the change in season seams to have affected my energy levels - this combined with my increase in exercise.  However this morning I took a long lie (6.45am) as it is a day off training and I feel the best I've felt in a couple of weeks.  Add to that last night my son has got his first job as a life guard starting next week, and there is a lot of positive energy in our household.  Back to training tomorrow.