my FTP?

I jsut got a powertap, and I'm trying to figure out my FTP. Only problem is that I don't have a download cradle for it yet.

I just completed a 32 mile road race, and when I went into recall mode for the race, my avg power was listed as 319. The race was pretty much a maximal effort road race for me, and it was 1hr 14min long. (short race, I know. kinda like a circuit race) I also uploaded my garmin edge 305 data to wko+, and noted a total time spent not pedaling to be roughly 14 minutes (18.3% specifically). Since the powertap interval's recalled average power included zeros, I went and multiplied that 319 by 1.183, and came up with about 380. Could I use this as a rough estimate for my FTP? I'm 80kg, and have a pretty solid TT, so even though 380 is high, I don't think it's rediculious, but I'm not sure if my method is accurate.

Also, if I'm way off track here, anyone have any idea what you think my FTP would be?

Get the cradle, or go out and do some long steady intervals and see what power you can sustain. You're shooting in the dark and simply stripping zeros out of a road race is a lousy way to estimate FTP.

-Dave

What Dave said.

Where'd you get it from? Did you get it used? It's supposed to come with it.

=( Swampy it's mega used... It's a good old powertap standard from like 2003ish?

I read a post you made a while ago about the old black PT computers not working with USB ports, and so I've been trying to get my serial port to download the data, but I'm not sure if it's gonna go through, and I might need to go any buy a new head unit. (At least the hub seems to be working well).

That's kinda why I was curious about my FTP, cause since I can't download the data right now, but I can still measure my outputted watts while I'm riding, I'd be able to get some training zones and try working with them while I tried to figure out how to download the data.

If you haven't already, learn to use the interval function and last 9 interval memory recall on the PT CPU. That way you can do some specific intervals (e.g. 5 minute, 20 minute, 30 minute) and capture your average and peak power for those intervals. That should give you a pretty good idea about training zones and FTP as opposed to just looking at average power for the entire ride.

-Dave

Thanks for the advice Dave I'll do that.

Sort of off topic, I don't suppose any of you guys happen to have a spare wired CPU that you wouldn't mind parting with? Perhaps you upgraded to wireless and now the old head unit's just collecting dust, eh?

They come up on ebay all the time. I see a few up there right now. You need one of the wired versions, but it could be a wired Pro/SL or even wired 2.4 version.

Good luck,
-Dave

One more thought...

You can do several of Andy's Seven Deadly Sins: http://alex-cycle.blogspot.com/2008/...adly-sins.html with just a PM (interval mode helps for some of these as can an assistant).

- AP for best effort of ~ one hour
- Tracking repeatable AP for long training intervals (repeatable in a session and or over multiple training sessions, not your one time best recorded long interval)
- Monod Testing (capture best effort AP for say 4 and 20 minutes and plug into Monod model)
- MAP test

You can't use NP for a hard one hour race or file inspection methods without uploading the data but there's no shortage of ways to estimate your FTP with just the CPU. And you basically have to field validate any estimates with long training intervals anyway so you still end up with an FTP determined or validated by capturing AP for long Threshold intervals.

-Dave

Worst case solution, they actually do still sell new wired CPUs at Saris. I think they cost $200 US. However, I have bought some of Epay and they were fine, no complaints.