FTP test

[Andy_G]

I had an email today from sufferfest:
http://www.thesufferfest.com/video-...bber+Glove&utm_campaign=TINT&utm_medium=email
Ive done "The Hunted" before and it was pretty good(apart from blood shot eyes), but is this worth doing if i havent got a power meter. ?

 

[Nosaj]

I hope this helps taken from the blurb:

"Once you're done, further instructions tell you how to calculate your FTP for either heart rate or power depending on which you measured."

 

[Rob3rt]

Functional Threshold POWER, suggests it is only a metric for power. However it may parallel with lactate threshold heart rate? Possibly going to be a case of taking your Average HR from the 20 minute effort and subtracting 5%.

Personally I think it is a waste of money, an FTP test is hardly complicated and if you are doing it right, you won't be able to watch TV, I know I couldn't.

Warm-up for 20 mins, do a few fast cadence efforts (don't worry about power, just smooth cadence), rest for a few mins, 5 minute blowout (go as hard as you can for 5 minutes, this will blow away the cobwebs and also reduce the anaerobic element of the next stage), rest for 10 mins, then 20 minute time trial (all out, leave nothing behind, completely bury yourself, it may need a few goes at testing before you learn how to pace yourself to arrive at the end completely empty, without blowing up prematurely or reaching the end not completely done in), ride easy for 20 mins. All in takes about 75 minutes.

Take norm power for the 20 minute effort and multiply by 0.95 to estimate FTP.

 

[GrasB]

Functional Threshold POWER, suggests it is only a metric for power. However it may parallel with lactate threshold heart rate? Possibly going to be a case of taking your Average HR from the 20 minute effort and subtracting 5%.

Personally I think it is a waste of money, an FTP test is hardly complicated and if you are doing it right, you won't be able to watch TV, I know I couldn't.

Warm-up for 20 mins, do a few fast cadence efforts (don't worry about power, just smooth cadence), rest for a few mins, 5 minute blowout (go as hard as you can for 5 minutes, this will blow away the cobwebs and also reduce the anaerobic element of the next stage), rest for 10 mins, then 20 minute time trial (all out, leave nothing behind, completelly bury yourself), ride easy for 20 mins. All in takes about 75 minutes.

Take norm power for the 20 minute effort and multiply by 0.95 to estimate FTP.

You're better off doing a Monod CP calculation

 

[Rob3rt]

Given that both are estimates of longer duration power, from short duration tests, I don't think it really matters much which method you use. CP calculation gives a value within a couple of W (306.67 vs 309.7 W) of the Coggan and Allen FTP method in my case, the advantage being the Coggan and Allen method can be done in my head while still cooling down!

 

[GrasB]

Given that both are estimates of longer duration power, from short duration tests, I don't think it really matters much which method you use. CP calculation gives a value within a couple of W of the Coggan and Allen FTP method in my case, the advantage being the Coggan and Allen method can be done in my head while still cooling down!

That means you've got a good all-rounder base (when most FTP estimates converge). When I wasn't training for longer durations the C&A method drastically over estimated my FTP where as Monod got it very close to right. Currently the Monod model over estimates compared to my highest recorded 1h constant effort. However, that was done as part of a 90min pacing test (which only dropped 3w for the best 1h).

 

[VamP]

Functional Threshold POWER, suggests it is only a metric for power. However it may parallel with lactate threshold heart rate? Possibly going to be a case of taking your Average HR from the 20 minute effort and subtracting 5%.

Personally I think it is a waste of money, an FTP test is hardly complicated and if you are doing it right, you won't be able to watch TV, I know I couldn't.

Warm-up for 20 mins, do a few fast cadence efforts (don't worry about power, just smooth cadence), rest for a few mins, 5 minute blowout (go as hard as you can for 5 minutes, this will blow away the cobwebs and also reduce the anaerobic element of the next stage), rest for 10 mins, then 20 minute time trial (all out, leave nothing behind, completely bury yourself, it may need a few goes at testing before you learn how to pace yourself to arrive at the end completely empty, without blowing up prematurely or reaching the end not completely done in), ride easy for 20 mins. All in takes about 75 minutes.

Take norm power for the 20 minute effort and multiply by 0.95 to estimate FTP.[/quote]


Hmm. I do two 20 minute intervals and take 95% of AP from the second one. I thought NP was only more faithful for durations of 1h +?

 

[Rob3rt]

Not that I know of, however AP and NP will be pretty much identical if you put in a constant effort(Variability index close to 1) so you could use either.

my understanding is that normalised power is just an estimate of that the physiological cost of your ride, in terms of constant effort. So if your power varies a lot in a ride, AP and NP will not be similar, NP tells you what steady state power you could have achieved for the same cost.

I don't think it is time limited (at least not at the scale you refer to, i.e. an hour).

 

[VamP]

Not that I know of, however AP and NP will be pretty much identical if you put in a constant effort(Variability index close to 1) so you could use either.

my understanding is that normalised power is just an estimate of that the physiological cost of your ride, in terms of constant effort. So if your power varies a lot in a ride, AP and NP will not be similar, NP tells you what steady state power you could have achieved for the same cost.

I don't think it is time limited (at least not at the scale you refer to, i.e. an hour).

I have seen people (A. Coggan and others) refer to that timeframe elsewhere, but TBH didn't pay that much attention. I can't get GC to calculate NP for specific intervals so I just use AP, I figure like you that the difference will not be so significant for constant effort. I also figure that if I am introducing an error, at least it's a constant error, and therefore doesn't really matter.

 

[Rob3rt]

What version? In the latest version you just select any intervals resulting from the lap function on the computer (or highlight a section of the Ride Plot) and it will tell you AP, xP (NP of some sort) and Max P for that selection. You can make multiple selections to compare.

 

[VamP]

2.1
I like the fact it's not buggy, and TBH it does everything I need
I'd try 3.0, but apparently once you install it it's really hard to go back to 2.1...

Maybe I should try it on a different computer, and evaluate on its merits.

 

[Rob3rt]

It isn't particularly buggy at this stage, it is like the 3rd release candidate, but it is also not particularly polished. I am just about used to it now.