That’s false. He even italicized it.
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Already noted above
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Just to be clear, and this may be what you meant, the average is not including the warmup. Just the test interval and assuming you complete at least 25 minutes (for the base protocol.)
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i’m going to give the test a try this weekend.
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any tips for outdoors? I found a long stretch of road…there’s a small chance I’ll need to turn around and one “stop” sign that I can hopefully make it through. the entire elevation gain is very low but there are some rolling sections.
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I’ve read a few people say they could feel FTP. can you explain what you actually felt and how long it took to feel?
thank you!!
don’t overthink it…
Use 30-sec averaging to more clearly see if power is steady or slowly rising/falling.
Like this one:
or this 20+ minute shorter field test with a stop for a left turn and and a stop light:
or this longer one:
with a short stop for a hard right onto county highway, and a turn around.
Just go with it and don’t overthink it.
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Agree with WW. Don’t worry about it. If you feel like you spent too long turning around or stopping, you can always add a watt or two to the final result. I usually do it on a road that’s about 10 mins long and have to u-turn.
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ok cool tyty
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If it’s hot where you live, try to do the test early in the morning. Doing long ftp intervals or SS right now are damn near impossible in 90°+ 80+% humidity. Definitely agree with Windwarrior, don’t overthink it.
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This right here, this heat is killer on long hard efforts.
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It doesn’t take me long, not even 5 minutes. It’s hard to explain, but it’s an effort that feels hard but manageable for a decent period of time.
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Like sweetspot…
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For me it’s heavy breathing and a burn in the legs, but I know when I’ve gone past when I take a ‘gulping’ breath rather than a controlled deep breath. I have done this and recovered it by backing off by as little as 5w.
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@genefish first off I believe you need to be in touch with your breathing and heart rate. Feeling your breathing rate is a learned skill, while HR can be seen on your bike computer.
Here is what I do:
- go out and ride about 10 minutes at perceived threshold, in order to allow HR to stabilize
- for myself, that puts HR around 158-162bpm depending on temps and what not
- if HR and breathing are stable, increase power by about +20W
- breathing & HR should start increasing, remember it takes about 30-sec for HR to respond so be patient
- after a couple of minutes if both are still increasing, I’ve gone too high
- bring it back a little under perceived threshold to regain control of HR and breathing
- next time try increasing power by about +10W and repeat
This is what some call “surfing around threshold” and if you tune into your body, it becomes easier and easier to feel out the tipping point.
Well paced 20 minute test example, without surfing:
Narrow red zone is threshold HR +/- 3bpm
Narrow orange zone is 91-106% FTP and dotted line at estimated threshold power
Did this one with a hard start to bring HR up quicker.
Visually you can see my HR climbing steadily toward HRmax (about 175bpm for myself). If I had kept pushing my HR would keep increasing and by then breathing was pretty ragged and getting closer to blowing up.
This is my oldest test, from 2015 in the gym and without power. Heart rate only:
“Surfing” for 50 minutes after 10 minute warmup. Back then I wasn’t looking at HR during the efforts, it was purely by feel. However threshold HR aligns with all the power based tests I’ve done since.
In the middle you can clearly see where it appears (no power) that I went way over, HR jumps, breathing jumped, and had to back off. Then about 3/4 I really backed off to recover and push again.
Experiment and “surf” over and under, experiment and see if you can feel out when breathing keeps accelerating and confirm by looking down at HR graph on your bike computer (if you have one with real-time HR and power graphs).
Hope that helps, thats what worked for me.
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With a coach, I started doing 2x10-min (5-min off) pacing efforts that were prescribed “at your perceived 20-30 minute TT pace”
Overcooked the first one (power is RED, all above 106% ftp), abandoned the second one, and learned again what it feels like to go out too hard:
IMHO the term “fail” is toxic…
On that one I learned what it felt like to
- go out too hard
- mentally push for a result
- shut down my “RPE meter”
- not use RPE to reduce power
Great lessons learned.
3 weeks later:
Much better paced, mostly ORANGE power = surfing right at the top of z4 (106% ftp). Field test was 3 weeks after that.
Those 2x10-min pacing efforts really help me dial-in feelings ahead of a long 30-70 minute test, 10 mile TT, or 20 min test.
Hope that helps someone.
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awesome thank you!
this is my main focus for the next little while - learning to feel my power. so that is all super helpful. I’ll keep it in mind and re-read a few times.
I also added 30 second power to my Garmin…previously only had 3 seconds. it’s much smoother to look at for sure.
gonna give the FTP test a try tomorrow and see how it goes. it’s gonna be 88 degrees or so and last week was a big week for me…so i might not be fully ready. who knows though. i’m mostly wanting to get the mechanics down so it’s not a chore and i’ll give it a go again next week if I think the number is way off. it’s my day for a hard workout anyway so i’m not stressing it if something doesn’t go right.
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did the Baseline protocol. kinda bummed - I didn’t make it through. not sure if I was having a bad day, or it was due to heat (>>90 degrees), or my FTP just is lower than winter.
my aim was 307 watts
first 10 min averaged 284
next 15 min averaged 302
then only lasted 3 min avg 297
so I’m setting my FTP for 295 for now. I’ll try the test again at 295 watts in a few weeks and see what happens
basically the entire 15 min interval I was holding on…I kept trying to get my output up to 307-310 and I could for a few seconds and then back down
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It could be the heat and the way I see it. Use that number because you know it’s accurate during the summer. You should have a better feeling of what FTP feels like and adjust if you need. Play the long game.
I always have the most “gains” in the fall and winter. I live in Florida where I’m able to ride year round.
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My bet is the heat. I’m amazed how much of a difference it can make. Back at the beginning of June I tried a 2x20 workout in very hot conditions. I was hanging on for dear life to hold 271 for the first 20 and then only was able to manage 249 for the second 20. Less than a week later in much milder conditions, I held 291 for just over 28 minutes.
yeah i’m thinking i’ll just re-test in early september unless I feel a drastic bump up.
most of my riding is smack in the middle of the day and it’s been super hot
my volume was a bit less in spring - most of it outdoor vs a lot of indoor (way more pedal strokes / no stops per hour). so maybe i’m detrained a little.
anyway, it was def a less stressful test for me than perfectly pacing a 20 min effort. I also did an aerotune test that involved a few sprints, a short distance, and a longer one. they measure critical power…only problem with that is there was a good bit of back and forth between my coach and the owner there. they have different ways of smoothing the data. I felt like that left a lot of room for interpretation. I dunno. that may be fine for someone more experienced than me. but my one result was like 334 Critical Power then after some back and forth it was 312.
I feel like Kolie’s test is a little more black and white.
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personally I tap out on long testing at 80F and its a dry heat. At or slightly above 80F, I’ve done one 20 minute test (into a 12mph headwind, gusting 22mph), and one garage ramp test (my best ramp test).
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