Huge thanks to all of you who replied, on or off topic (that historical “lesson” on 4DP vs Andrew Coggan is very much appreciated too, no joking). Many good points, can’t highlight each and every one in particular, so I’ll “mark” this one as the most logical explanation, because it resonates with my perception (cognitive bias in action):
Here’s something I posted on this forum last year, which I totally forgot about, but now it just clicked that it’s all related:
As of the action plan, I’m going to stick to the following:
Many others actually suggested to do the exact same thing: keep different values in different systems, and be in peace with that. That’s exactly what I’m going to do for now. Once I decided on that, I suddenly realized there’s one more reason to do exactly that. As I already mentioned I enjoy doing Sufferfest workouts, they are fun and all, but also typically have higher average intensity that what TR normally prescribes. Since they are more for fun, I guess it won’t hurt to dial them down a little bit.
And the last but not the least, great thanks to those (@AJS914) who mentioned Kolie Moore’s test protocols. Remembered seeing a dedicated topic on this forum, binged the whole thing last night (couldn’t do much off the couch anyways, LMAO). That’s definitely something I’ll try later this season. Should be fun.
I used a too strong language here, I shouldn’t have done that. So, let me clarify where that statement comes from. After I’ve completed the test, SYSTM sent me an email with updated numbers and some “comments”. Apparently, my MAP came out at 142.5% of my FTP. And SYSTM adjusted that down to what they deem to be a maximum - 142%. Not a huge adjustment, obviously. But what it tells me is that these two numbers are right at the edge of being abnormal, but not there yet.
Just a funny discovery, that I’ve made this morning. My 8 min peak power (my all time best according to TR) was during a 5 min all-out effort plus 3 preceding minutes of super-easy(!!) pedaling. And the exact number here is 281W. If I take that number and simply pretend I was doing an 8 min FTP test, then 281W*0.90=253W gives me higher FTP number than my 20 min avg of 242W.
Morale? Dude, accept the fact that a test is not a vernier caliper, shut up and just go ride your bike
In fairness a fatigued 20 is probably more accurate for most people than a ramp test, and certainly more accurate than 90% of a fresh 20.
Neither are more accurate than the nFTP test (patent pending, N for Neuromancer). It’s so easy; you don’t even have to get on your bike.
nFTP Test Protocol
Pick an imaginary FTP you think is about right or the result of your last test.
Imagine a 2*20 workout at this power (100%)
Rate how confident you feel about doing this workout
If you feel slightly queasy about the idea of this workout, reduce power by 10w
Repeat until the emotion you get is “Eh, yeah, ok, I guess so, as long as I’m well fuelled” (aka a 95% CI of completion)
This is your FTP
My coach has me doing an “ftp” test different than anything ive ever done and it seems more fitting than any other test for accurately providing the correct zoning for Workouts.
10 min Warm-up
30 sec max power effort
3min rest
30 sec max power effort
5 min rest
5min max effort
5min rest
30min @80% of 5min average (was told this is ONLY to determine accurate threshold HR ranges AND to waste muscle glycogen, it is NOT a 30 min “as hard as you can go” effort.
5min rest
5 min max effort.
My “ftp” (he tells me he uses the term FTP, but it is just the number used to guide training zones based on power/HR collectively, and also a good indicator of capabilities of a rider because it gives a decent power profile, and an indicator of what you can do in a race power wise when you’re tired) is 85% of the average power between the (2) 5 min all-out efforts.
I will note that the 30 sec max power intervals and the 5 min max effort intervals are told to me to be performed so that when the interval is over you “damn near fall off the bike from the effort”.
It is absolutely brutal, long, and mentally challenging, but aligns very well to performing training intervals in the zones that are needed.
Yup…I did this after I doubted my Ramp Test a few years ago. Did AdZ as part of the Tour de Zwift so it was a race and pretty much an all-out effort. (it ended up lining up almost perfectly with my ramp test, as it turns out.)
