The FTP Challenge

Today is 06mar19.

Guess which workout Chris21 did today?

:thinking:

Gray.

Guess which workout Chris21 did yesterday?

:thinking:

Gray.

Guess which workout Chris21 did day before yesterday?

:thinking:

Gray.

Of course on the third Chris21 held ~307W for an hour.

2 Likes

It’s interesting that firstbeat apparently thinks the threshold workout needs a lot of recovery. That workout was 50 minutes on the bike and really only 30 minutes of work. Not a lot of ‘time under tension’. After the workout firstbeat tells me 54 hours of recovery.

Saturday I raced gravel. Got a late start so I had to ride though stragglers, catch the field, bridge to a break of 3 which had attacked each other, and catch at the end of the penultimate lap to win. That was 3 hours of work but firstbeat only thought I needed a little extra time to recover…58 hours vs 54 hours for the Hour of Power attempt.

So, to anybody out there who is regularly doing these long FTP intervals…or who cranks out FTP for an hour…my hat is off to you! As Floyd once said, ‘You don’t have enough training to be able to handle your training.’

But I will be making this attempt again. Oh, yes. For sure, I can do better than that.

Nice work!

That’s a big effort. Just may have to put a trip “up” that climb on my calendar.

Nice work!

Although there have been some impressive numbers posted on this thread…if I’m not mistaken, so far, no one else has joined me in this challenge.

To make it a little easier I created an Hour of Power FTP Challenge team. There is a custom Hour of Power workout in the Hour of Power FTP Challenge Team library. Only FTP tests (ramp, 8-minute, 20-minute) and Hour of Power workouts will show up in the Teams ride feed.

https://www.trainerroad.com/teams/10133-hour-of-power-ftp-challenge

That makes it easier to keep track.

And I’m thinking about other incentives that might increase participation…

2 Likes

joined. Yesterday’s ramp test of 233W isn’t showing up because the team was just created. A handful or two of vo2max workouts this past month fixed my ramp test issue (Jan 28 test gave 195W ftp but was doing threshold intervals at 230W :rofl: ).

I’m planning to do outside hour effort - does that count?

It’s fine with me. My primary motivation for the team page was (an attempt) to give folks who wanted to keep their data private a better way to share selected rides.

I’m not sure it will work! Ha! Just trying to make it easier.

Was also hoping my previous rides would show up. You never know until you try, I guess.

Private is private everywhere. You won’t see team members rides unless they are set as Public in their settings. No middle ground, even if you use teams.

So I under-perform on my ramp test. How about I just do the hour of power at current ftp (which I have manually increased over the past 4 weeks) then slowly raise it a percent or two? Do I still get to say I did the ftp challenge?! :thinking::thinking:

…If i had to guess the probability of a successful hour power goes down if using the new ramp test number say if hour power is next day or the next after that… the test would be at a new threshold which hasn’t yet been adapted to be sustained

Since we’re really just screwing around, I’d say do the thing that feels most in the spirit of the original idea - basically looking for your personal upper limit on a sustained effort within a few watts of FTP.

I’m going to defer by a week to better fit in with what I need to do this week.

Have to say I’m interested in this as a bit of semi-scientific research into how well the ramp test estimates FTP. We need to keep to the rules of doing a ramp test (20 or 8 minute tests are good too, if that’s how you normally test) and then see how long we can ride at the resulting FTP for. That could be anywhere from 10 minutes to 2 hours, depending on how well the test reflects your real FTP.

For me it’s important not to use your adjusted FTP based on performance, but an actual test result.

Mike

3 Likes

Mike - you might find my recent estimates interesting Is the Ramp Test right for VO2 Max constrained cyclists on sustained power plans? - #38 by bbarrera

Not complete without a long 30-70 minute ride, but still interesting.

Brian

Cool. I had been keeping an eye on that thread but I’ll go back and read it again when I get the chance.

Out of interest, how long do you think you could have riden at 195 Watts? 83% of FTP!

Mike

Long endurance rides are in my wheelhouse, so probably two hours or more if I was watching average power during a ride. Or just about the time I would need to stop and refill my two 24oz water bottles that provide me with hydration and liquid carbs (Gu Roctane). Looking at my “2019 season” starting Sept 24 2018, in Nov did two hours Wright Peak -2 at 181W and in December did Sunday Coffee Ride of 2.25 hours with average power ~195W for the two halfs (we stopped 20 minutes for coffee but I could have easily kept going without the stop).

Two years ago in prep for double century, had three 100 mile rides (~5.5 hours) and a 70 mile ride (3.75 hours) between 0.86 and 0.88 IF. While that is normalized power and not actual duration at .86% ftp, it does suggest that endurance rides are in my wheelhouse.

1 Like

I have a ramp test on Tuesday so I’m tentatively planning this in to replace the following Saturday workout.

Are we doing the original hour power workout or the modified one?

1 Like

Please, use whichever! I want to ENcourage riders to give it a try…not restrict ppl from trying.

And for athletes that think they struggle with the ramp test, I hope you’ll consider using the ramp test anyhow…but any test will do! (Without ‘asking a leading question’ too much, consider the possibility that folks who struggle with the ramp test might excel at an Hour of Power)

2 Likes

I can likely hold my under-scored ramp test for quite a while :joy:

2 Likes

@themagicspanner I think you are probably onto something with that sentiment. MAP tests inevitably favor a certain physiology! That doesn’t necessarily invalidate a MAP test as a tool to set workout intensity…

Anyhow, if you talked to ppl who regularly administer INSCYD tests they might tell you that 75% of a MAP test and the power you can maintain for an hour are really two different things. Hour Power is usually << 75% of MAP. Although I won’t deny that there may be some six sigma athletes for whom those numbers are the same.

But anyhow, let’s not get too geeky about it. Let’s just try it a bunch of times and see what we find out.

yes, they are for various reasons. Assume the ramp test does a good job of estimating vo2max power, which is roughly 5-min power…

Observation 1: It is difficult for me to ride 5-min at vo2max power without a very high level of motivation and determination.

Observation 2: It is difficult for me to ride 60-min at ftp power without a very high level of motivation and determination.

Observation 3: My current 5-min power PRs for 2018 and 2019 are the ramp test (my first was March 2018), and I’ll claim those 5 minutes in ramp test are easier than holding that power for 5 minutes!

At least for me, its very hard to do 5 minutes @ 283W, and its very hard to do 60 minutes at 233W. Both of those targets are from my ramp test on Tuesday.

hmm, I see a vo2max challenge in the future :sob: