https://www.triathlete.com/...reshold-power_110885

Or search for ramp test

Download a trial version of The Sufferfest and ride Full Frontal. If you do it right you will comprehensively destroy yourself, and in the process figure out max-power averages over a couple different time intervals.

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Less is more.

Xert is a great tool that will continuously analyze your rides and essentially give you pretty much a daily FTP if you include the right type of riding.

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I've never heard of xert before - does that mean I am living under a rock? Do you have to tell it which segments of your rides are maximal efforts?

Also - when can I get you to try on the fit samples? :-P

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Ed O'Malley
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Better yet... Install the xert app for Garmin (if you have a compatible unit that supports Garmin IQ apps). The app will give you an estimated FTP for the current interval in real time. Install it and go do a maximal 5 min effort.

https://www.dcrainmaker.com/...-garmin-devices.html

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What's your CdA?

- Warm up as long as you'd like.
- Do a few leg openers
- 30 min as hard as you can

Take that 30 min average and call it your FTP. Work from there.

If you're gonna do 30 why not do 45? or 60? Or do a correlation from 30?

Guys, thanks for all this. Just to say it, I’m aware of the 5 min plus 20 min protocol, but I think that overestimates my number, hence why I wanted to try something longer. Appreciate the responses here, it’s helpful stuff

It’s Joe Friels test. Mentally 30 min all out alone is hard. Hard to go beyond that mentally. I’ve been using it for years and it matches up pretty well for me.

I would highly recommend building up to the point where you can go out for an hour and push yourself to the limit. The best predictor of performance is past performance.

Take it for what it is, but I never can understand how someone can get to the point of riding at 300w for that duration and not know about this already.

The ability versus knowledge level is a bit at odds.

Search for the deadly sins topic by Andy Coggan.

One of the sins is using a workout or random ride to get at ftp. The sins are ranked also.

You should be able to estimate your FTP pretty well based on the workout you described. After the 20 minutes @ 310, were you ready to blow (heart rate crawling up) or could you have kept it up for another half hour or so? You said you couldn't ramp up from there, so that's a good indication your FTP isn't any higher than 310. If you were on the limit at the end of the 20 minutes, a good estimate would be 295ish. If you were feeling decent and could have gone a bit longer, FTP might be a bit over 300. Good enough range if you are just setting training zones.

I like to do an "official" test every once in a while to confirm what I already know, but I feel like you really need to know your FTP before doing a test to complete it successfully (at least the 20m+ tests). I have not tried any of the tools that estimate based on garmin data, would be interesting to check those out.

ha, okay fair. But come on, how many people do you know who are successful despite their training rather than because of it? Case in point, rowing in college we had coaches telling us to do 200 leg sleds (because 200 strokes was about what you'd do for a 2k), and this was 15 years ago but they still shoulda known better.

And, I do know a lot of this, was just looking to see if there was any protocol more accurate than the 20 min test but less emotionally brutal than the 1 hour one. . . .

WKO4 will also do that - "mFTP"

Ability and experience are not always correlated. When I was running in college I knew nothing about cycling, but had an ftp around 360 in lab trials. I know a lot more now; enough to be sure that I don't want to put in the work to get back there.

I tried the 30-min test once, but it still overestimated my FTP. Nowadays I prefer to do a 40-min test which I can break down into four quarters of 10 minutes each.

Hi.....if this is of interest we have an app that will find your FTP and power zones from a number of single workouts and protocols (eg 3min, 20min). Its free to use: http://goo.gl/2mYXaL. Regarding cyclingapps.net

Just want to second this. Xert is a tremendous tool for tracking fitness.

I use it to test FTP in real with their free app called “What’s my FTP?” on my Garmin. Go on Zwift (or can use outside) and climb one of the hills as hard as I possibly can until I can’t turn the pedals anymore. 5-6 minutes hard gets me very close to my traditional 95% of 20 min result and where I’d think I’d be from other workouts.

I can suffer for 5 minutes much more often than the traditional 20 min test.

FWIW - I mainly pay attention to "the power that you can routinely generate during long intervals done in training" per...

https://wattmatters.blog/home/2008/05/the-seven-deadly-sins.html

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I actually believe "FTP" to be a relatively worthless concept for modeling your workouts if you are an experienced endurance athlete. Basing your workouts on strictly FTP alone will potentially cook you when you are tired, or hold you back when you feel good. Blood lactate, feel and heart rate are much better metrics. And yes, I know heart rate has a lag, but high level athletes have a very good barometer for effort as it correlates to heart rate. Your heart rate in turn, should correlate well with your blood lactate levels on an individual basis. I think its safe to say that the only workout you can truly "base" your ftp off of is a continuous steady effort at least 40-45 minutes in duration. 20 minute power and 5 minute power give you increasingly worthless estimates, especially if you have a intrinsically high VO2max and anaerobic capacity.

Heretical, expect a visit from the Inquisition.

Indeed, and the „disadvantage“ is you do not need a PM.