I just did my first FTP test (warmup, 3*1 min high cadence, 5 min spin, 5 min all out, 10min spin, 20 min TT, cooldown) and I think that the thing I picked up most from this first go around is the crucial role of pacing.
My wattage started high and dropped over the course of the 20 min effort. I’m wondering what other people have experienced and how it relates to getting your best results.
Is it:
better to start hard and try to hold on
even effort through the whole 20 min or
start a little under what you think you can do and then finish strong…
for what its worth this first test I did 5 min on 340watts and 20 min on 290 watts at 74’ish kg (74.5kg probably), but the first 10 minutes of the TT were around 315-320 with a precipitous fade in the second half.
I think its better to build just a bit, especially if you arent sure exactly where you might land. If you were to do it again in the future, i’d say you should start your 20 min TT in the 280-290 range and try to build in the second half
I just did a CP30. In my 20 minute warmup I attempt to get to 90% of max HR. After warming up which includes a couple of minutes of slower easy spinning at the end to bring my HR back down I start the CP30 and quickly drive to 90% of max HR. At the 15 minute mark I raise it closer to 95% and hit max HR with a minute or two to go.
This gives me a negative split so that my last 15 min of power is higher than my first 15.
Pacing is what the test is all about. Once you know your body, you will be able to maintain a solid, even, effort the entire time, increasing your power in the last couple of minutes. At least this is how I do them.
The maximum power you can sustain for 20 minutes will be an even effort. This will be the case for anything longer than 2 minutes, actually.
If you do this correctly, the first couple minutes will seem incredibly easy. At about 5 minutes it will start to get hard, at 10 minutes you’ll wonder if you can actually finish it. At 12 minutes you’ll be pretty sure you can’t… But, you will have to find whatever motivation you can to continue to push yourself… until about 19:45. From there it is easy.
i don’t test often and when I do it’s a Monod CP test (20 & 5 min tests on non-consecutive days). fwiw I spend the first 3-5 minutes of the 20 minute period at current FTP and build from there. similarly, when i race a 40k tt, i start 3-5% below ftp for the initial 3-5 min and then increase power.
weekly 2x20 sessions on short rest keep me informed of ftp.
I think the test is as much a mental one as it is a physical one. So, in general, building power ever so slightly is the approach that typically leaves the athlete most satisfied or provides the biggest mental boost. Having said that, I think it’s also important to occasionally just really go for it and potentially experience the reverse because it helps confirm that you’ve reached your peak.
Too often when doing these tests, we pick a goal number based more off of hope than reality. Nine times out of ten that leads to disappointment. If you have been doing 2x20s or something similar, you should have a pretty good idea of your ftp and should probably start there or perhaps 5-10 watts higher. A 25 watt drop in average means you were likely doing 260s or 270s by the end, if not even a bit lower.
When you do have that 10th time when you go out and feel like Superman it still doesn’t always reflect what you are capable of day to day for training.
This situation happened to me in January. I’ve been bouncing between 260 and 270 or a year or so and had finally done a couple of 2x20s at 275 feeling like it was a solid effort. So towards the end of January I go out thinking I’m going to try 2x20 at 280. I roll it comfortably and then note to my surprise that I had added another 4 watts over the last four or five minutes of the first 20. Then I start rolling the second 20 and the energy just kept on coming so I let it rip until at about 12-14 minutes I was at 300 watts feeling great. Over the next five minutes I started to suffer and then fade a bit to 297ish. My average for the two was like 291 and I figured if I paced it evenly it would have been more like 295, so the next week I tried to do my 2x20 on 285. Well, I did one like that and then completely died and averaged 270 on the second. I should have cut it off when I saw how poorly I had paced it based on how I felt that day, but stupidly ground it out and then ended up sick.
I would have been much better off just adding 5 watts and continuing with consistent training.
Remember too, that it is called an estimate for a reason. For me the 20 minutes test always way-overestimates my FTP. I prefer 2x20 now to really get a closer figure.
Chad
Your last point is well taken.
As I noted in the OP, this was my first FTP test, but I’ve been riding consistently for awhile now and using my long rides and the wattage on those rides combined with how I feel on the transition runs as a more important (to me anyway) gauge of how I should pace a long course race.
i really did the FTP test out of curiosity.
Here is my n=1 results after quite few tests I have done with a 2 X 20’ on 2’ rest approach. It may not work for some, but does for me. All of my best tests where I have exceeded my expectations or seen the best results have been paced with a “negative split” strategy. 1st 20 - stay steady and don’t do anything dumb. I stay as close to my current FTP as possible and do not exceed it during the first 15’ ever. I usually go 95% of current FTP in the first 15’. If I am really feeling great or my last FTT was not a good one, I go a little harder in the last 5’. This of course is dependent on a accurate current FTP and not a good startegy for folks new to power. For the rest I just spin super easy, no reason to try and hold any watts here 2nd 20 - this is where the work is done. Whatever number I think my new FTP should be I now try to hold for the first 10’. This is hard but not horrible, if it is too hard then my expectations were off. I then re-assess at 10’ - if feeling ok I kick it up a little, if I’m already starting to suffer I stay steady. At 15’ I do the same re-assessment again and typically no matter how bad I suffered I can suck it up for the last 5’ and go harder. By about 17’ into the 2nd interval of a good test I’m at the point were I litterally feel like I’m about to blow up any second but somehow I usually can manage to just hold it together. The clock definitely goes backwards here and each second feels like 30. FWIW, I have never had a great test where the 2nd interval was lower than the first. Everytime I went even just a little to hard in the first 20’, I gave back much more in the 2nd.
I stay as close to my current FTP as possible and do not exceed it during the first 15’ ever.
There in lies the original poster (and everyone else starting out). They DON’T HAVE AN FTP. That’s why they’re doing the test.
The original poster said “faded at the end”. How much is “faded”? You don’t get 1W repeatability on these as you’ll find out. A drop of 5-10W at the end wouldn’t be out of reason at around 300W average.