If you don’t care about the numbers, why not just load up a free ride and ride by RPE?
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Maybe there’s another factor at play, but he said he caught Covid and it took him completely off the bike for 2-3 months
You say you know it’s not exact, but it sounds like you think it’s close enough. It’s not.
Heart rate would be a great avenue into dialing your Z2 wattage if that’s what you need, or the talk test, or the breathing test. None of them are perfect, but they’re all significantly better than what you’re doing now.
I’m not clear on whether this is a medical problem, or if the “high wattage efforts” are too hard for you. If it’s the former, follow your doctor’s recommendations about exertion and heart rate. If it’s the latter, your FTP is set too high.
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+1 @jlsazart and the one before that… Why can’t you do the harder workouts above tempo?
If they’re too hard then your FTP is set too high. And whilst the endurance and tempo feel fine, perhaps they should be even easier?
If it’s a medical condition then if you want to keep it dialled back, then you have to accept that it’s probably not the right time to be trying to bump up your FTP. And that Trainerroad won’t just give you that number you want out of kindness 
People talk about how good ramp tests are or not, but if you physically can’t complete even a basic 1.0 threshold, 1.0 VO2 etc then that’s way beyond even the potential “inaccuracy” presented by a testing method that doesn’t suit your physiology.
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Right–and if he’s not feeling 100% still from COVID, then by all means, just keep working at zone 2 / tempo by RPE, or take whatever FTP and PL changes TR throws at you and keep trucking until you feel better. But if he’s getting antsy about whether his FTP is correct, and doesn’t indicate he’s still feeling COVIDy at this point, 1-2 months after getting back on the bike, I’m wondering what the “can’t” is based on.
@theflyingduttman the AIFTPD is probably what you could actually hold just now but mentally you might be not be up to it. If you feel the need to drop the intensity a bit until you are ready, don’t be afraid. It’s more likely to keep you consistent than something that doesn’t feel right, and consistency is better IMO.
You asked for help re: your FTP on this thread and a lot of people have given you the same advice - if you can’t sustain a supposed FTP effort for any length of time, that is NOT your FTP.
So in summary, everything you have posted indicates that your FTP is set too high, NOT too low simply because endurance rides feel easy. Endurance rides should feel easy….unless you are doing 4-5 hour rides (which it doesn’t sound like you are doing).
I don’t mean that to sound harsh, but it is the reality based on everything you have posted. There is a lot of good advice that has been posted.
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Why not just do a ramp test and be done with it?
My argument is to do long endurance rides easier than 70% of FTP if 70% seems too hard. But I’m not a coach, so your mileage may vary on that.
TR zones in this chart are kind of weird. How can tempo and sweet spot have the same RPE?
Coggan’s zones
I’ll also add that TR seems to trade duration for intensity as it assumes it’s users have less time to train.
Thanks everyone. You have all opened my eyes to various options.
I’m quite a positive person so I don’t think I’ve got a mental block to doing the efforts… but then again I may have 
Following some of the advice I’m going to let AiFTP do its stuff on Monday. Then maybe try a few sessions at SS and above to see how it feels.
Thanks again everyone!
Happy riding
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Hey there!
We wanted to hop into this thread primarily to highlight that Endurance and Tempo workouts generally shouldn’t feel hard. Just because Endurance or Tempo workouts feel easy does not necessarily mean your FTP is incorrect.
If you aren’t feeling up to all-out efforts right now, then AIFTP Detection is a good tool for you. Keep in mind that exclusively doing Endurance and Tempo workouts probably won’t bump your FTP up very much – but if you’re recovering from COVID, then maintaining what you have may be the best move here.
As you continue to feel better and recover from the illness, we’d advise using Plan Builder to get a longer-term training plan laid out – but for now, prioritize getting back to 100% health!
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Thanks Zachery! Much appreciated.
Slow and steady for a while then boom back on it!
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OP. When the weather is a bit more clement, and assuming you are in a cycling club affiliated to cycling time trials, go pin a number on and ride a 10 mile TT. At the end you will know what your FTP is, or as near as it doesn’t matter.
I’ve always fancied doing a TT
I may give that a go this year
Thanks for all the help guys.
I’ve decided to jump fully back into TR and have set up a training plan and it’s given me a Stretch Threshold for today…
Wish me luck!
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Thanks for everyone’s help. I didn’t workout my training plan suggested and boom… workout completed! I scored it moderate as it was a bit taxing but not significantly so.
Onwards and upwards and thanks for everyone’s suggestions and assistance!
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@theflyingduttman awesome man, congrats! If you did this WO above, and ranked it Moderate, your FTP is pretty much bang-on, as a starting point. Now you’re off to the races, you can keep smashing WOs outta the park, and Adaptive Training and AI FTP Detection will do their thing.
Just do keep in mind that for some riders AI FTP can push too aggressively high.
One of the most important things I learned early on was: Especially before you know what TR’s gonna do to you & your recovery system, your WOs should be Mod - Hard. One VH / wk is OK, but not ideal.
If you class >1 WO in a wk VH, or even one AO, your FTP is too high. [More advanced users may learn their systems can tolerate >1 VH every week, and continue to show up ready to rock the next day.]
Strongly recommend using THE CHART OF DESTINY!!! 
Link below. Makes the delineations dead clear ; “could do max one more interval”, “could not do one more”, etc.
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Brilliant thank you! I’ll take a look