I Recently completed a Ramp test and was a bit disappointed by the result since prior test. It had been 4+ months from my prior ramp test and I have been doing lots of trainer road workouts and outdoor rides and races and I know my FTP has increased. When I preformed test I only saw a 1% increase from 302w to 307w. I did have a bit of fatigue at the time and the environment was alot hotter then the last test. But felt I would of had a ftp closer to 330w as I recently completed a 2:54hr race with 256AVG Power and 293NP. I have also been able to have alot of TSS with an 6 week average TSS of around 800TSS. My highest 60min power recorded was 285w.
My question: would my FTP be higher doing a 20min / 8min test as the power I would have to hold would be lower as I popped on the ramp test at 429w and the high power was too hard to hold?
You will have a bit of fatigue when you’re training with your new FTP as well, so being a bit fatigued going into a FTP ramp test is not all bad. Now if you felt you were overly fatigued and it was much hotter than your last test, then maybe you just under performed. That being said, if you will be training in a hotter environment going forward maybe it’s about right. If you feel like you’re stronger than 307 then there’s no harm in raising your FTP a few watts and see how the workouts go the first week. I wouldn’t get crazy, but maybe an additional 1-2% at max, and then evaluate the upcoming workouts.
This is probably your answer. Cooling is a huge limiter in indoor training. The fact you got a slight improvement in a hotter environment indicates your FTP probably would have been quite a bit higher than what it was in your first test if you’d done them in the same conditions.
