Login required to started new threads

Login required to post replies

Re: should I bother with FTP testing anymore? [AndrewL]
AndrewL wrote:
Can you elaborate your thoughts?

I had a longer response but started cutting out the boring obvious bits and got down to that. You really want the boring obvious part?

Jasoninhallifax wrote: "after 4 months of training with a power meter and incorporating a variety of efforts (from all out sprints, to easy rides, to Zwift races and TTs) that I have a fairly fleshed out power curve. If I'm doing a couple of Zwift races per month, is there any point to doing a standalone FTP test?"

So that means he's already got a fairly good idea of power over the durations he's interested in. He's been training, so he knows whether he can complete his workouts (he didn't say his workouts are based on FTP but most training plans are, so that's a reasonably safe assumption). So, what's the marginal benefit to doing a specific test for FTP?

FTP was originally proposed as a "functional" test as opposed to the traditional metabolic tests that involved gas exchange and sometimes blood samples, so you'd have to do that in a lab. But FTP is a point estimate that summarizes an entire power duration relationship, much like per capita income summarizes the entire income distribution. Within that income distribution, there's a big range between low income and high income people, and you might want to know not only what that range is but also the proportion of people in each income group. In some sense, if you have the entire income distribution your marginal benefit for knowing the per capita income is quite a bit less; it may not be zero, but in that situation it's not really "actionable." You have much more detailed information available. That's the situation here: if JasoninHallifax has a reasonable idea of his power duration relationship over the range he's interested in, then the marginal benefit of doing a specific FTP test is quite a bit less.

So after I cut out the boring pedantic off-putting bits, I got down to "No."
Last edited by: RChung: Mar 5, 21 9:57

Edit Log:

  • Post edited by RChung (Dawson Saddle) on Mar 5, 21 9:57