I seem to always fail the ramp test at almost an inertial time. Which thankfully thus far has been log enough/ hard enough to correlate with an increase in ftp. My though what if I increased the intensity to 110% ? If I make it to the same time I will be a a much higher ftp. I realize in the current format of the ramp time and % of ftp are corralled just wondering. May also throw the algorithm off and get garbage data cheers Jim
I wouldn’t try to “game” the ramp test, it has a specific order and percentage for a reason. Trust me, you DO NOT want an inflated FTP, it will only derail your training and have a negative affect.
19:45 from start to die time (i think)
Once you reach 19:30, that is your current/previous FTP point. Every second after that you are achieving a new/higher FTP.
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Good to know
Or not, for some people it can lead to them quitting before their theoretical maximum. Some of us see good results by hiding all data apart from cadence and focussing on the simplicity of the task, which is to ride until you can’t
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Pretty sure you can’t change the intensity on the ramp test workout. Probably for a good reason! I imagine the ramp rate is pretty critical
You can change the intensity (starting power and step size) of the ramp test but only by manually changing your FTP beforehand.
If you think you’ve made a big improvement in your FTP since the last test it can go on for two or three steps further than the optimal 19:30, meaning you’ll do a little bit more work than intended, which may lead to an underestimate of your FTP. Sometimes it may be worth doing two tests: one to find out roughly what your increase is, and another at your new FTP to fine tune the result.
Making the power and ramp size higher will shorten the test and reduce the amount of work done at failure, so could overestimate your FTP.
Mike
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I’ve never heard anywhere or by anyone from TR that 19:30 is the “optimal” goal. Furthermore, I’ve never seen it suggested to do 2 Ramp Tests to “fine tune the result”.
I think were’re over complicating the issue. Do the ramp test and get an FTP. If the first week of workouts feel too high/low, adjust accordingly. It’s really that simple.
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Do the maths: your highest 1 minute of power, equal to FTP/0.75 is gained between 18:30 and 19:30 if you get the same FTP as you had previously. That is well documented on this forum.
The advice to do two tests is mine and only if you’re seeing a very large increase.
Mike
19:30 is not “optimal”. It just happens to be the point in the test where your prior 1-minute power (assuming that you match the power target) ends up giving you the same FTP as the FTP at the test start.
Agreed, TR has not suggested double testing. They commented that they tested with starting FTP at over and under the known FTP of users, and got similar results, despite having longer/shorter tests with different wattage jumps between steps.
I don’t think you will see much difference in tests outside of extreme examples where the set FTP is significantly higher (double?) of the rider’s actual FTP. It would be an interesting test, but probably not relevant to most first time testers.
They setup the on-boarding to apply a 2.0w/kg FTP for the first Ramp test. As we saw in the other test, that may well end up with loooong ramps, but I think the results are likely close.
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I’m aware of the math, but that has nothing to do with the ramp test’s “intentions” or somehow represents an “optimization”.
The amount of work done will be different if you do a longer or shorter test - this may have an effect on the test at the extremes which is why I think there may be merit in doing two tests in the case where the result was quite far from the initial FTP. That’s just my opinion.
There’s a thread somewhere on here with a guy who did a 32 minute FTP test - in that case it would be worth re-testing to hopefully get something a little more accurate.
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