mathematics wrote:
A workout where you 'see if you can hold FTP for longer than 30min' fundamentally means your FTP is set too high. Maybe you can't hold it for 60 min everyday, but 45min at FTP should be challenging but doable any day of the week.
Ride a lot, ride harder, do the work and stop looking for shortcuts.
let me clarify, the average watts during that ride is near ftp power, but NP based. the ride has a lot of big watt sprints to not get dropped, which fry me more than a steady effort. some how there is a 50-60 year old lady that can hang with this group (average ~27mph) and it drives me nuts as to what I am doing wrong