queerpunk

really, the answer is "collect a few years' worth of data."

i remember the first time i borrowed a power meter, collected data from a crit, and sent it to a power guy and said, "tell me what this says about me please." and he basically told me nothing, because one file says nearly nothing.

the more data, the better - because you can draw conclusions about change over time. a test of a relatively untrained or inexperienced person can tell you very little. it can tell you your baseline, but your baseline doesn't say much about what will develop fast based on stimulus. it doesn't say if your aerobic engine or your sprint will improve by leaps and bounds with some training. and unless you're one of the very few gifted people, your baseline will be really low, all around - just like the rest of us.

so if you spend a few years trying to get better in a few different areas, and then you test and see where you really improved (and you reflect on what you really focused on) then testing will say a lot more.