20 watts...ish

I'm safe with t-15w for road to tri for sprint to 70.3 distance. Interval stuff is much wider but racing delta is right around t-15w.

20w in the off season but narrowing the gap as I do more specific TT work in Spring.

Question about this....as it seems to happen to more than just myself. I test upright, on my tri bike. Sounds like I am not alone. If you test upright to get a number, but race aero.....prescribing a % of FTP to race at (in aero)....would be inaccurate, wouldn't it? I am sure I would be depressed if I did a FTP test in aero...perhaps I will try that....but I would think an aero FTP test would be more applicable to racing. Is this true?

Mike...That was my thought exactly so I did a 20-minute FTP test to use as a baseline for my upcoming workouts. Based on that test I will likely ride aero 2-3x/week using my aero FTP (8% drop) and 1-2x/week on my road bike based on 100% FTP.

I started this post to see what kind of drop others have experienced going from upright to aero

Yes you should test your FTP in the aero position to get an accurate FTP in your aero position. I've seen some people only test in the upright position then come race time they set their goal watts and end up blowing up on the run.

This is opposite to what I do and I'll have to disagree with you all here. Training is about seeing the largest gains you can in the amount of time you have. For most of us that means we can GAIN more riding our road bikes on a regular basis and bring our FTP up faster and faster. TT bikes aren't made for sprinting intervals and over unders but rather steady state efforts. Train on the road bike and once you've got it up and you're through your first two phases of training (Base/Build), then you start working on the TT position. It's not difficult to narrow the gap in the last portion of your training (Specificity) over those 3-4 weeks. If you ride the TT bike 50% of your sessions in this final phase you'll come out with nearly no gap in the FTP from position to position.

Last year when I did this I had a Road Bike FTP of 272 and a TT Bike FTP of 265 which was barely noticeable, especially at HIM/IM pace of 85-90% of that. Both ways will work I'm sure but I've found this method more effective in practice.

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"Train so you have no regrets @ the finish line"

I agree with most everything you said, but in my case I have to be careful spending too much time on my road bike for too long. My curve gets really steep on the shorter end (under 60 minutes) as I build and it does not always translate for me in a linear way at the 70.3 distance (2:15 power). I'm pretty forward and really low so the hip flexors need some work now and then on the TT to keep my legs honest. I'll do 45-ish minutes of heavy TT work every 2-3 weeks to keep the balance in check. I agree with your assessment on the road bike and watts.

If you ride the TT bike 50% of your sessions in this final phase you'll come out with nearly no gap in the FTP from position to position.

It depends a lot on your position. If your goal is to go as fast as possible, you may trade power for a lower CdA.

I might be more than 20 watts...which means I need to practice more! Less work...more riding :)

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I generally test upright on the trainer. When I ride outdoors in aero my power may drop due to position but it is somewhat offset by being able to ride higher numbers outdoors vs the trainer. So the numbers seem to even themselves out for outdoor training / race days.

My bigger issue is that I seem to have an aero ceiling at ~200W on the trainer. Anything above that and I'm upright. My FTP is only 240 but as I bump it up I'm hoping that ceiling moves with it.

This is spot on. When you do an FTP test, you should look to get the biggest number possible, and then race to a percentage of what you can sustain of that number in aero for the given duration of your race.

I see about a 5-10w difference between road and TT bike. As far as testing i testing on trainer with 20 min test on TT, i spend 14 min in aero and 6 min out of aero. I agree for most accurate numbers i should be in aero the full 20 min. But over last 3 yrs i have done the exact same protocol, i have leaned how my FTP number works in racing. My personal conclusion is: same test protocol every time is the most important factor as long as you learn how to correlate those numbers to your races.

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