I actually want to show live FTP value :). Other employees think it will limit you.
I think if you see that if you could just hold on another X seconds then your FTP goes up one watt, then of course you can do it for another X seconds!
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Mixed feelings about this, in the terms of personal believe and general application for a product/service.
I think an option to enable or disable it should be there but I am not sure if it should enabled or disabled by default.
I believe that the more seasoned TR users or number focused cyclist know what works for themselves, in terms of mental motivation.
Although everybody should keep an open mind and should keep on learning.
But as a business, how do you capture or test something like that of your user base and come to a decision whether or not itās on or off by default.
I would like to suggest that for the first ramp test there wouldnāt be a live score, I think for the first one you are already differently motivated than your second, third or even 10th ramp test.
That you are more willing to accept am outcome of your first ramptest (especially when you are new to this type of training) than you be will at an 8th time in case of having disappointing results.
After that the option of either having a live score or not could be prompted when you select the ramptest. I for instance didnāt care about the time elapsed (prior to reading the 19:30 remark) so I wouldnāt mind switching that field for live ftp score.
But it should allow you to swap out any field you want.
My preference would be to not have live FTP updating. Or at a minimum, have the choice to enable or disable it.
See, this is hard! In my opinion when it could go 50/50 and itās hard to test what is bestā¦the best answer is to do what ever takes the least amount of work which is leave it like it isā¦for now.
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Live FTP could be valuable in showing just how important each additional second of effort is. It is soooo easy to lose sight of this when your only reward for gutting it out is to face another jump in target power.
Iād be willing to bet if you analyzed the time at which people stop the ramp test, there would a huge group that bails shortly after the start of a new step. (OK maybe itās just me.) Itās almost like ācomplete this stepā was the big goal and as soon as itās met, everything unravels, because there is no way to last another full minute. Live FTP could provide a micro-goal to keep pushing one extra second, and another, and another.
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I think I like the idea of Live FTP, one way would be to have two Ramp Tests available as workouts.
- Ramp Test as is.
- Ramp Test with Live FTP.
Donāt need a disable function then. You can choose which one you want to do.
When it pops up in your calendar in a plan use the swap/variation function to substitute Ramp test with live FTP.
Perhaps we need a pole. 
5 Likes
I too would love a live FTP. And I really agree about the previously mentioned lines that Iāve āsurpassed coach Chadās ability to ensureā kills my motivationā¦
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I agree with Nate. I clearly hadnāt thought it through when I posted. There are much better features to prioritise ahead of this.
I have a power target each and every time I do ramp test.
I always check the previous testās higher power and where I got dropped. For example, I had to drop the test at 368Watts last time, so above this value is a live update for me.
If I can push 382 then I know my FTP is 286 and one more minute then I am at 400Watts which then 300watts FTP.
This is the beauty of Ramp test. At every step you know the value. So I donāt think having live FTP will make a huge difference.
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Definitely +1 for live update option
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Trainer road could introduce this feature to a random subset of users and determine what makes us faster: with or without live update. This might be more complexe to implement however.
I would prefer to have it there. It would be more motivating for me.
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I agree,
I think seeing the number ticking up would be more motivating to me to push just that little bit more when the time comes.
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I still think it would be confusing to see two numbers.
This would probably also encourage an attempt to produce a last minute surge and think it gives undue prominence to the number rather than focusing on the effort. But if it is motivating having it as an option wouldnāt hurt me.
I totally agree with you. The psychology of a competitive athlete would try to mentally and physically reach past their target. Not seeing the āfinish lineā is kind of lame to me. I think, Nate, you should just veto and tell your people to show live FTP on the ramp test. :-)
And any user that disagrees can simply place a piece of masking tape over the live FTP so they canāt see it.
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Live FTP updates will further differentiate TrainerRoad from your competitors! Worth the investment Nate!
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ā¦ or join them, as Zwift already includes live FTP data during their 20-minute FTP testing protocol.
Oh, I didnāt know that. I only experimented with Zwift once and was frustrated the s/w because it always defaults to the audio volume turned up full blast when starting the app on Apple TV. Did Zwift ever fix that stupid bug?
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They just added the ability to disable the start music, thank goodness 
I would like live FTP definitely - it would keep me on the bike longer rather than getting off when I think Iām done.