I did a 4h30min ride a couple of days ago. It was my longest ride ever and NP worked out to 80% of what I think is my current FTP. Does the ride suggest FTP may be higher, or is this fairly typical?
It’s certainly not typical, but it’s very possible. It would also depend on the route (i.e. a hilly route tends to skew the NP/AP difference, and can sometimes make you seem like you have a higher FTP than you actually do). An 80% of FTP ride would certainly be a hard ride. If it was just sort of cruising along, then yes, your FTP is probably higher. But if it was a ride that tired you out, then yes it is very possible. As a reference, 80% is about the upper limit of what an Ironman athlete can ride if he wants to run a good marathon afterwards. So that should give you an idea - it’s hard, but can’t have totally drained you…
what type of powermeter were you using?
It’s a PT SL.
eganski I have to ask…what does it matter? If his FTP was set using the same PM as the ride (as long as it is torque zeroed), it should not matter? Am I missing something…
as rappstar pointed out there are rides we call “NP busters” these can be rides with lots of surges, or short “punchy” climbs and the difference between AP and NP can be large. What was the AP for the ride?
You say “think” when you talk about your FTP, how close do you “think” it is to being correct?
How do you know his FTP was set using the same PM as the ride? My FTP was set using a computrainer and I ride with an ergomo. Which means i’ve done a few 4 hour rides at 100-110% of my FTP…
thus this part of my response “If his FTP was set using the same PM as the ride (as long as it is torque zeroed), it should not matter? Am I missing something…”
I guess the thing you (and I) should be asking is “was your FTP determined with the same PM as you used for this ride?”
Now your point is clear…and I agree 100% with it:-)
Got it.
I think the key to answering the OP’s question is in this line:
“what I think is my current FTP”
Need more data to answer the question. One ride is just not enough to say one way or the other. Specific to gleaning your FTP from long ride data… A lot depends on your long ride philosophy/approach and the additional training stress surrounding that ride. IOW, do you specifically target equal to or > IM power? Personally, I always shoot for the latter even when I do over-distance rides (eg ~120 miles). And then how much other biking and running are you doing during the week? Of course, it helps to have some higher intensity data points (eg Oly power, 2 x 20 intervals, etc) too.
Thanks, Chris
FTP and the ride are both based on the same PT SL, on the same bike.
I just went out to do an L2 ride, but ended up with NP overall for the ride well into L3. I don’t race IM but am training for Powerman Zofingen (10k/150k/30k duathlon) in about 4 weeks. In terms of background training stress, I did this ride off the back of 3 consecutive 12+ hour ride/run weeks, during my end of year medical school exams. It was the start of this week, which is on track to be my biggest ever at 16-17 hours of ride/run.
FTP estimated at 290W. Ride was 233W NP (80%), 217W AP (75%). There were some hills and some rollers, but I don’t think their impact was excessive on NP.
I would say I was tired after the ride, but I definitely felt I could run. It was my longest ride ever and, to be honest, I was suffering more from sore taint and neck than sore/fatigued legs.
4.5hrs at .8 is doable. If I don’t have a handle on an athlete’s FT I look for subjective descriptions for the ride to help refine it. For example, if you send me a ride file with 5hrs at .95 IF and the notes said “went for a nice ride with Sally, felt great, gumdrops and fairies…” I’d say your FT is way off. 4.5hrs at .8? Doable. If you describe it as an “easy” ride…your FT is off.
It’s very difficult to impossible to reverse engineer an FTP from a single long ride. If you have any doubts about your FT, test or analyze all your files.