I was doing a this workout today.
The workout was 8 mins at ftp then 3 minutes rest 4 times. I felt quite good but even by the second effort my heart rate was at the top of my threshold level.by number 3 I was 5 to 6 beats into vo2.
By the 4th I was out of the saddle for some of it.
Is my ftp set to high,
Should I even be in vo2 heart rate zone at all even by the end of the last set?
What have you based your HR zones off of?
90 to 100% of heart rate max which I have tested quite a few times
LTHR isn’t a consistent percent of max HR between people. Garmin and intervals.icu both do a reasonable job of estimating LTHR - do they agree with the number you’ve been using?
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My max heart rate is 180 and by last block I was around 166 167bpm
Okay, but what’s your lactate threshold heart rate?
Edit: it’s important as HR zones based off max HR aren’t very useful for guiding something like this because max HR is not a precise measurement. Predicted max HR via whatever formula is not accurate enough to be useful to guide your power target for this training. Even measured max HR (done by CPET, basically a ramp test), tends to significantly underestimate true max HR (Discrepancy between training, competition and laboratory measures of maximum heart rate in NCAA division 2 distance runners - PMC).
LTHR is usually a more precise/consistent measurement than max HR, and answering whether your HR was too high during a threshold interval is going to depend on what your actually measured LTHR is.
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Did it feel max (RPE) or was it just the number psychologicaly telling that! A lot of people cover up / hide their HR and go purely of power.
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Is there a question in there?
That’s a tough workout. It’s ok to work hard!
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- A bit messy formatting and buried, but I see two questions:
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Thanks I was just editing it.but yes this
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If you can’t do 4 x 8 min at “FTP” without getting out of the saddle, then yeah, you almost certainly have it set too high.
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Heart rate is a bad indicator of effort because it’s not always coupled to power.
As a recent denier of my FTP NOT being set too high because ramp tests, AI, and Garmin all agreed on the higher number; turns out I’m great at tricking all of those things I guess 
I did a longer test, got a better estimate of FTP and now am training in the proper (hopefully) zones.
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Thanks I recently accepted a new ai FTP detection which put my FTP up.
.this was my first threshold workout,vo2 max and endurance rides seemed good though.
I think I will drop it back down and concentrate on bringing my levels up instead
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AI FTP recently gave me a new FTP that is about 35 watts high
Fwiw I did 4x9 @107% FTP (avg) today, it was hard to very hard but doable, and I might have been able to do another set.
I was outside which for me can make some of these hard workouts a little “easier” than inside. It’s more motivating for me when I can see where I’m going, as opposed to staring at my iPad.
From what you’re saying, (my average Joe opinion) your FTP is definitely either too high or you have a lot of fatigue. Coming from someone that’s never usually good at these super threshold intervals.
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Really simple sense check.
FTP should be sustainable for btwn 35 and 70 mins. Ish.
You struggled to do 32 minutes despite having 9 minutes of recovery sprinkled in.
Unless you’re sick, I don’t think your number is good. Try 200. 
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+1 for this experience. I think AI FTP works for middle of the bell curve well but I definitely lean strongly towards the anaerobic/sprint side and it gives me much more credit than I deserve for FTP. Ramp test does the same. Pretty numbers I have no business with. I’d end up with a VO2 of 7 and threshold of 1 for PLs. My sweetspot/threshhold were just in the wrong zones.
I dropped it down 20% manually and can actually progress in zones outside of VO2.
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Agree. FTP may be set too high, and that’s probably the most likely thing.
But fatigue can also cause the RPE and standing stuff OP was talking about (and they didn’t provide insight into recent life or training fatigue), and the HR they are describing can’t be interpreted without knowing their LTHR.
So OP still needs to provide more info.
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Yeah will do.bit discouraged though after 3 months of trainer road gaining 3 watts 
I will go back to 207 the sets where all good there
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I have just finished the sweet spot base and sweet spot low level training plan.
Now after a recovery week i have started the mid level polarised build.