I am pretty new to TR, 4 weeks into sustained build mixed with some big saturday rides. My first ramp test was 286 and I felt like I didn’t execute it too well and probably understated by FTP by 5-10 watts. I was able to add a little intensity to my intervals the last few weeks, but they were all very challenging running target wattage 7-10 watts high on the FTP and V02 work. Had a rest week this week and did my second ramp test today. Executed much better and was surprised by a 305 watt result. Happy with the number, but not sure it really reflects my FTP and concerned about my ability to hit intervals now that the targets will be ~20 watts higher. I plan to give it a shot and see what happens.
A couple things/tips I did different with this ramp test compared to first that I think helped:
I did a 25 minute warm up prior to starting the ramp test with a couple 1 minute threshold and v02 intervals. During my first ramp test (without the pre-warmup), I didn’t feel like there was a proper warmup as part of the ramp test and I never do well with the first interval of a hard set. I know this doesn’t make a fair comparison to the first test, but I’m planning to make the warm up part of my protocol going forward.
I was also a lot more careful about keeping my power near target once I got near threshold. On my first ramp test, I was significantly over target on some of the first few hard intervals which made me more fatigued for the last couple ramps.