How to approach FTP after 1.5 weeks No Training

My second kickr crapped the bed right before my taper week from SSB2 mid volume. By the time my new unit arrives I will have missed about a week and half of workouts. Should I do anything differently before my ramp test for short power mid volume or just take the test as soon as I can?

After being off the bike for a 10ish days your legs will likely be a little flat.

During those 10 days, if spinning outside is a a possibility, then I would try to fit a couple rides in whenever possible to keep your legs moving. then, you’ll just take the Ramp test as soon as you can.

If that is not a possibility, then a ride like Truuli the day before the Ramp Test can serve to “wake your legs back up” and get you in the mode to dig deep :muscle:.

Cheers!

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I recently returned from a vacation with 9 days off the bike. Went straight into a ramp test and was an alarming 15w down on what I expected. I used Truuli and Carson -3 along with my low intensity commutes to ease my body back into riding before attempting a retest 4 days later. That seemed to work for me.

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I’d suggest at least one ride before testing if you’ve had a decent stretch of time off the bike. I have no scientific evidence to back this up, but I often find the first hour or so on the bike really hard work, even with just 5days off.

Once I’ve got an hour in the bag and a couple short efforts opening up the legs, the next day I’m good to go again.

If it’s much longer than a week off, I will be noticeably slower and normally it takes a shift to get my self back to where I was.

The idea of a FTP test straight after time away from the bike seems like a strange one, why do you need to test? As @Bryce suggests, get something in to open the legs up first otherwise the test will provide a false result which will be too low within a couple weeks.

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I’m testing because I’m coming off SSBII mid volume and moving into short power build

when coming off of a layoff like that I’ve found it’s still best (for me) to do a couple of easy workouts before doing something a little bit harder, for about a week until I can try to go back to normal. Last time I did this though I went back to using the same FTP setting, not increasing it. I would get a good 3-4 rides in your legs before attempting a ramp as it won’t be accurate right off the bat. Worst case, start short power after the 1 week and see how it goes (without upping FTP). If it is too easy, you’ve just done a good primer to retest in a day or two.