Getting my 1st FTP # ? - Page 4

awww man.....do I really have too? Or I can go back and put 195 for my FT again.

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Ouch......my 70 mile group ride on Saturday was recorded as a .75 IF and I certainly felt as if I were taking it easy because of the rain and because I was watching the PM to keep it in the .7 IF range, but an hour after the ride my legs started getting sore, Sunday they were extremely sore and this morning too sore to train legs so I did a few minutes of L1 to warm up and then did some stretching.

That ride ended up feeling like it was a .97 IF. I certainly wasn't expecting to be this sore for such little effort, but my legs were already tight before we started that ride.

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I dug up my old thread cause I didn't want to intrude on the "it's killing me...". A month ago, I did my 1st 20 min FTP test on the trainer, and averaged 200W which is FTP of 190. Since then, I've been training ok, nothing special, just some 2x20's, 5x5's, or just simple 1 hr L3 sessions. Today I did another 20 min test, and came up with 207 average, 196.65 FTP. Nothing much to talk about, but I'm just happy to see that increase.

side note: Sooo importnant to cool down and stretch afterwards. I jumped off the bike 15 seconds into my cool down to get the phone, and fell to the ground with a cramp in my calf.

Thanks,
-Greg

Congrats on your progress Greg.

FWIW, tracking FTP to that kind of accuracy isn't really possible. Take credit for improving your 20 minute power and stick with the solid work that got you there but most folks don't track FTP changes less than 5 watts or so. FTP just isn't that exact a science as it represents potential on an ideal day more than some sort of 'on demand' one hour power.

But still, great work taking your best 20 minute effort from 200 to 207, I suspect you'll see it go quite a bit higher with continued work.

Nice job,
-Dave

Thanks Dave, you're right, tracking my FTP so close isn't to logical for me, I just took a calculator and did that .95 formula. It makes more sense to just keep an eye on the average itself rather than FTP.
Actually I was thinking about just sticking to some TT's on my trainer for a while if that's possible. Make up a set distance, like 15 miles for example, and just test my times on that once in a while, I dunno. I picked up a blank notebook a couple of weeks ago and turned it into my "training diary" just to keep track, nothing major, only date/duration/watts/HR/rpm and gear.