Without doing a lab test, or one of the Fancy INSCYD tests, 1 hour power is probably the best practical measure of MLSS.
Great questions. I think it depends where your constraints are. If your fractional utilization (1 hr power divided by 5 min power) is high Eg 90% (which would be very high), then focus on increasing VO2max (5 min power). If fractional utilization low Eg 75%, then focus on improving 1 hr power eg by long tempo/SS intervals.
This is one of the benefits of the INSCYD profiling (best I can tell) - it removes the guesswork.
Because its not really 1 hour power, and most folks aren’t training for a 40K TT, I think people are better off reading Kolie Moore’s The Physiology of FTP and New Testing Protocols and trying his progressions.
If I look at your stats…assuming your profile weight is correct…
60m 3.78
20m 4.38 Cat 2/3 border
5m 4.93 mid Cat 2
1m 7.16 Cat 4/5
There is a kink in your power curve right at the 20m mark. Most of your workouts are about an hour long. With warm up and cool down actual work time is << than one hour. That’s probably why there is a kink in your curve at about the 20 minute mark. But…consider a few examples…all good workouts but not good enough if you want to target 60 minutes of work as a goal:
Geiger 36min work 13min warmup 5min cool down
Ericsson 32min work 15min warmup 1min cool down
Mount Field 36min work 15min warmup 3min cool down
I think those are all great workouts! But, be honest with yourself, is that the kind time under stress you need to improve your 60min power? That’s the kind of workout structure that got you a pretty solid 20 minute power. If you want a better 60min power you need more work time in your workouts.
I get the intent. Do they “work”? The reason I ask is that I’ve not tried them. For example, what’s a typical 20 min test FTP vs, say, the FTP from the short Kolie Moore protocol?
There are really two questions here that need to be addressed;
What type of power curve do you need for the type of racing you do? ex. longer efforts for flats/TT/climbs, or short punchy efforts for crits/rolling road races
How do you set the optimal “FTP” to use for training purposes
The answer to number 1 will help inform number 2.
As someone who has a large anaerobic engine it skews my TR FTP on a ramp test by a substantial amount that makes long sweet spot efforts actually threshold and therefore unmanageable.
You can figure out the disconnect by doing a ramp test and then the next day do a 20min test and see what the results kick out. Depending then on the type of training you are doing you can simply knock your TR FTP up and down as desired.
ex, a ramp test for me yields 311 but 20min 290. That makes a big difference in workouts. So for threshold and below workout focuses i simply use 290 and then for anaerobic/vo2 work simply turn the workout up to 108%.
At the end of the day as long as the results of both are increasing you are improving.
I strongly suspect those 60m records are not necessarily all out efforts for 60m, but those 5m efforts are. Unless you’re going for an hour power PR, I don’t think your best hour in the last year is necessarily representative of your potential.
But for 5 minutes? If they’re racing there are probably plenty of 5 minute samples that are representative of their 5 minute physical capacity.
Agree, at a ramp test 309, I can handle the vo2 max intervals fine, and yet 450 for five minutes sounds unfathomable. Different people have different strengths, but wow.
I can’t speak for others, but personally I do recall lying in a heap on the ground after setting my 60m power record last year. I would say that was about maximal.
Of course, unless you’re certain it was a maximal effort, that is a really good point to bear in mind when considering the shape of a power curve. Thank you!
so I’m 14 weeks out of surgery now from my leg shattering(tibia in 4 pieces + fragments, fibula in 3 pieces plus fragments) (got an on goal kick to to back of the leg playing soccer) .
15 sec 591W
1 min 477W
5 min 320W
20 min 308 W
I haven’t really tried for 5min I’d guess it’s around 350W if I went for it.
It’s still not healed and I’ve lost all that short term big power. But it’s amazing how fast I’ve been able to bring back the 20 min power. I’ve only been riding on the trainer too, I joke with some friends I’m now going to have the power curve of a triathlete. But I wont be able to run for a long time haha.
Man, that’s a brutal injury. Good on ya for the comeback effort. Yes, I imagine the steady state power would come back with consistent riding and some focused SS and threshold work. It looks like your shorter effort power took quite the hit, but I’m sure you’ll get it back though. You may need to hit the gym if you already haven’t.
Those numbers look almost look like mine! My 5min is around 380w but I’m only 64kg. Things fall apart for me 3min and under.
Kidding, don’t do that.