I normally ride my bike as hard as I can for 60 or 20 minutes.

jaretj

What do you mean by 'should be'??

What it should be on average is higher than what the norm is!

If you look at the chart posted above... most age groupers will fall either below or at cat 5 level. Better age groupers will start getting closer to cat 4... and strong triathletes are at 4.0 w/kg +

A good goal to shoot for is that 4.0 w/kg.

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COROS Sports Science

IMO Why have a power meter if you are not going to test your FTP? If you use an estimation 99.9% of the time your power is going to be higher or lower than the estimated FTP and your training is either going to be either too hard or too easy. Takes away the point of having a precision device to develop and change a training/racing plan.

Just do an FTP test.

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"Just don’t abandon everything you’ve ever learned because of something someone said on the internet." - Eric McGinnis

For the average triathlete, the procedure is simple:

1. Do a 20 minute all out effort and record your average.
2. Add ~20W to that number
3. Brag about your new FTP on social media!

(pink optional)

If you think a 20min "ALL OUT" effort +20 watts is your FTP then you are delusional.

Because you don't have to test your FTP formally to know what it is +/- 5 watts

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

So that chart is from Allen/Coggan and shows lots of info. DDalzell's info on being in the Cat 4-5 range is more or less the kind of info I was looking for. The info Friel had in his "estimating" where you "should" be takes age into consideration as well as male/female. From that value he says if your below it you have work and if your above it your doing great.
My FTP is way below Friel's "should be" value but yet I ride typically in the top 3 within my age group in IM distance. I'm at 3.22 w/kg which is higher end of Cat 4. I'm asking all this as I always have people asking where they should be so want to have some kind of a good answer for them.

My friend just did a FTP and got 131 watts as her FTP, which is 2.21 w/kg. Friel's estimate would have here at 220 watts for her FTP and that would correlate to a Cat 1 at 3.72 w/kg.

The question as you pose it is not coherent. What are the knowns in this formula? If all you know is gender then FTP is like +/- 300 watts.
If you know height then you could peg it down to +/- 200 watts

If you knew some good measure of training load too then you could narrow it down to +/- 150 watts or so

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

From my experience, I totally agree with. Within a few rides I knew what the test was going to show.

Here are a few options:

Field Tests: (all after a significant warm-up)
20min @ Max sustainable effort minus 5-10% (I like 8)
2 x 20min Max sustainable effort w/ 2min recovery minus (2-5%)
1hr Max sustainable for what it's worth (not advised)

or:

Lactate Threshold Test

In my experiences when I do a 20min MAX I usually can hold 300W

When I get an LT Test I end up with about 285 (or -5%)

You are not going to do a test that is +/- 5watts, there are too many variables. Maybe +/- 5%

Get the LT test you won't regret it.

And that's how I ended up breaking Golden Cheetah's W'-bal algorithm. I ended up with -5000kJ on a 35min interval, and that's with the FTP estimated according to results from that interval!

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ZONE3 - We Last Longer

In terms of where average talent falls it can be better to think of power/height, because it is the genetics for height that also scale the size of your aerobic system. In other words that w/kg chart above is mostly all skinny people.

If you are 20/lbs above cyclist race weight (which isn't necessarily noticeably fat!) then your w/kg number will be very low even if your watts are huge. Which can make it seem like you are lacking in aerobic talent when you aren't.

Real life example:

Person A: ~290 watt FTP
PErson B ~250 watt FTP

Same height.
Person B has way better w/kg, yet nether person is overweight.

Person A is more talented, way more talented. But will lose to person B on uphills until they get skinnier. On flat roads of course person A will murder person B.

So where should someone be in terms of watts, in other words, is related to their height more than their weight. But there is still such massive variance that the question is unfair. You could be at the low end of the cat 5 scale and be at your genetic limit. Or you could be at the high end of the cat 1 scale with barely any training.

Where you should be is is N+1

Where N is whatever watts you have today=)

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

I like my 'eyeball the power duration curve' model better than the CP model =)

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

Yup, Copyrighted, too.

I think the OP is looking for something more like:
W/kg for:
local oly distance pro male and female
Olympic championship male and female
Top AG 30-39 Kona athletes male and female

W/kg is pretty irrelevant for most of triathlon though, you would want W/Cda or some other aerodynamic metric. I seriously need a glossary for all those damn acronyms.

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Pactimo brand ambassador, ask me about promo codes

I don't fully understand the point of knowing where an athlete 'should' be in terms of FTP. If you have done races, look at the results and see if you are falling behind in the swim, bike or run and make a plan to improve that area.

At 3.2w/kg for your FTP, it seems unlikely you are top 3 in IM races unless you are in an older age category. What does Friel suggest you should be at for your FTP?

I dunno, w/kg would be a good proxy for the running part after.

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

Fixed

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Pactimo brand ambassador, ask me about promo codes

I put "pink optional" as a hint that it was sarcasm. I guess I'll have to add a winky emoticon next time...

I hate how inflection doesn't come across online. That is pretty funny though.

I think it is the method Bobridge was using lately

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

Take your current estimated FTP (eFTP haha I just made up an acronym!) add 5% to it. That's what you are targeting.

eFTP + 5% = target.

But since the target can never be reached bc you always have to add that 5% more.

IOW your FTP is never what is should be bc there is no matter what your FTP you should not be happy with it, you should always be trying to add more to it.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
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