If you’re on a road bike on a tarmac road climb outside you actually don’t need a power meter to get a fairly accurate estimate of your power. Just plug your weight in and your bikes weight in and Strava will give a pretty decent guess, as there’s fairly simple formulas relating your rate of ascent and your weight to the amount of power needed.
Strava hasn’t got a clue when it comes to mountain biking, as big soft tyres, bouncy suspension, and a hugely varied muddy/rocky terrain gives too many variables to get an accurate estimate. But a rigid road bike on a smooth surface with high-psi tyres at low speeds is fairly reliable.
There is no truth - comparing w/kg between riders is fun, but it’s not backed by reliable numbers…and never will be.
To compare yourself against all the riders on this thread you would need everyone to be using the same environment, kit and meters…and even then the meters have an acceptable variance built in, and the FTP test is only and estimation of your 1hr power. So don’t sweat it.
You’re a decent rider, your race results will tell you how good a racer you are.
So i am a real cykling noob at 47 years old with no training in my life before last year when i started ride on a montainbike.
My first ramptest gave me 153 watt. And after ssb 1 low volume i got it up to 175.
Then i got abit sick for a while and when i restarted ssb 2 low volume i did a new ftp and down to 168.
And now after six weeks of good training with ssb 2 i did a new ftptest today, got only 172. So disappointed at myself. After 6 hours i decided to give it another go and got a ftp of 178.
Abit bettter but the struggle is real! It hurts my brain to be this weak.
Took a break at the end of last season and rode for a bit of fun. Went on a 2 week holiday with next to no training in October out to California and then flew across to New York.
Ramp test in November - 280W FTP (3.7 W/kg 75kg)
Ramp test after SSB HV1 - 303W FTP (4.15 W/kg 73kg)
Ramp test after SSB HV2 - 315W FTP (4.5 W/kg 70kg)
Ramp test during GB MV1 - 323W FTP (4.75 W/kg 68kg)
Hoping to hit 5W/kg mid way through the season or latter part of the season. I’ll try maintain weight as it is. Every other season I’ve dropped to between 63kg - 65kg but have always gotten sick and found it next to impossible to shake illness.
Spent the last year and half focused on running which ultimately lead to nearly 15% drop in FTP down to 218 from 249 in early 2017… Just finished SSBMV2 with only a slight increase to 228… And now two weeks into SPBMV2. I don’t have unrealistic expectations but would be happy to get back to ~250 in the 12-14 weeks of the first two phases.
I know just what you mean. I’m 46, and my numbers are a little lower than yours. Sometimes it gets me down that my numbers suck, but not for long. I just love riding my bikes! I even really like these trainer workouts, for some weird reason
As a demonstration of how much different test protocols can vary with their results, I followed Tuesday’s ramp test (327 watts) with the sufferfest 4DP fitness test on Saturday, which gave an FTP of 340. I know my top end isn’t as good, proportionally, as my sustained / TT power, but I was expecting the results to be much closer (they have been closer in the past). I’ve split the difference for the purpose of trainerroad sessions, and will use 333watts (and see how that feels)
Interesting, thanks for sharing your experience! I’ve learned the ramp test doesn’t suit me because my top end is never as good as my steady power. I haven’t done a 20min effort in forever (unless you count an accidental 20min effort I did up a mountain while I was on vacation this past summer, but it didn’t empty the tank, despite being technically at 104% NP). With my current 285w training FTP, I have a hard time imagining myself doing 300 for 20mins, just because it’s been so long, but that’s probably more mental than physical (also my FTP might somewhere between 290-295 at the moment, so I’d have to put out 310w for 20mins lol). Your splitting the difference sounds like a good approach!
The sufferfest test takes the average result of your 20 minute as your FTP, because you’ve done a 5 minute maximal effort before hand and 2 sprint effort before that. The trainerroad 20 minute test (and most other 20 minute tests) have you do a 5 minute effort before the 20, but not one as hard as the sufferfest version. Given its what apex coaching use with all their pro athletes they must be pretty comfortable that it works out ok. Generally the result I get from the ramp test and sufferfest are pretty similar
Apex is undoubtedly using other biological markers (like blood lactate) in testing, so I’d take it with a grain of salt that its the exact same protocol.
But if you can complete all your workouts with a particular FTP and easily repeat the same results with that protocol consistently, then keep using it if you are seeing results.
I tend to take the result of FTP tests as more of a provisional suggestion than anything set in stone. I’ll do some workouts and use how they feel to adjust it if necessary
I’ve no doubt that threshold interval sessions will be fine at 340, but the anaerobic intervals and VO2max ones in the training plan (I’m moving on to general build) would probably kill me - hence the splitting the difference between the two results.
I’m a 63 year old triathlete among other things. My training and racing activity over the last 24 months has been comprised by two surgeries to reattach my right achilles tendon. It’s been 11 months since the second surgery to repair the damage I did after getting way too active after the first surgery that resulted in pulling two of the anchors out. I purchased my smart trainer and started TrainerRoad in hopes of avoiding more trouble for me as I try to ramp up for triathlons again. Started SSB V1 twelve weeks ago. My first FTP Ramp yielded 192. The second ramp test at the start of SSB V2 yielded FTP of 209. My third ramp test today yielded a FTP of 230 as I start the Sustain Power Build phase. My FTP/kg is 3.35. I still carry concerns about how much power my achilles can absorb on the bike but that’s much better than the challenges I will face on the run. Never give up the fight.
Disappointed in ramp test today. After the second half of General Build, no change in FTP. I basically blew up withing seconds of reaching the break even time. I was hope to add at least 5W
If you think you might have left something on the table with the ramp test, and if you think the workouts felt progressively less taxing as you went along, you might want to consider just upping it 5w anyway and see how it goes with a couple of workouts in specialty, you can always scale back if you think you’re overreaching
my experience last year was that my increases came at base and nothing for build, and from what I’ve read here from coach Chad, most gains come at base. But I’m also hoping to get another 5w out of build (assuming I end up getting settling on 10w increase after this recovery week).
