Poll: What's your Functional Threshold power?

Ollli

Hi !

FTP:250 (done after Treshold Test provided by the Book "Training and Racing ...)
Age:39
best Result: 290 on my Indoor Trainer
years cycling: my first year
weight: 86 Kilo
height: 184 cm

Regards, Oliver

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http://powercycling.blogspot.com

Fastguppy

I know sometime in my future I will be hitting over 400 watts as this is my first year as a junior and my lactate threshold is 330, which is at 70% of my VO2 max. I recently hit 6.1 watts per kilo and my VO2 max is 76 right now and for some reason it is increasing with me.

I also had a lot of back problems which lead me to decrease watts.

tonyzackery

Update:
Had always noticed that my stationary trainer/power meter (RealAxiom VR by Elite) speed readings were consistently 1mph slower than my VDO cyclometer (on rear wheel). So I conducted an unscientific test and discovered the displayed power reading, at the same speed as to the VDO, was down by ~32 watts!! I know the VDO is relatively accurate as its speed readings correlate favorably (within 1%) with the Polar 725x unit I have taking speed readings from the front wheel.

If my figures are relatively accurate, and I believe they are very close, my FTP is actually (being conservative) 380 watts!! Talk about someone who can't wait for racing season to begin!!!

rmur17

get thee a real power meter and there'll be no doubt

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rmur

ric_stern/RST

My Elite Axiom was so wildly optimistic that at very submaximal levels (e.g. zone 3) it would overestimate power by almost 20%. Can't recall how inaccurate it was at TTpower.

As Rmur suggests you really need a proper power meter.

Ric

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http://www.cyclecoach.com

tonyzackery

I would like to get an on-the-bike power meter, but for my level of involvement in cycling it's not practical - other priorities come before dropping $1000 of discretionary income on a training tool. If I was at an elite level or pro it make more sense, but racing in local crits and road races does not justify the expense.

Anyway, I highly doubt that my ergometer is as "wildly optimistic" as yours was/is - probably an older model?? Elite's engineers are not that sloppy and you know Elite manufacturers probably more stationary trainers than any other company in the world. Nonetheless, I'll take the power figures I get for what their worth. When I get results in my local crits and road races, I'll know my efforts on my less than adequate power meter/ergometer were not in vain...and that's all that really matters.

tomdavis80

26 years old
20 minute TT test: 174 watts
Est. FTP: 165
Weight: 55 kg
W/Kg: 3.0

Steve_B

What's your evidence of that?

Doesn't mean very much. General Motors used to be the largest car manufacturer in the world. Now look at them.

There is only so much that is within the control of the engineers to make it a stable measurement system and there's only so much that the engineers can do to meet the price point that the marketeers tell them to meet. Anything beyond what the engineers can control will be a source of error. Off the top of my head: roller pressure, tire choice, temperature of whatever they use to measure torque/power in the trainer.

tonyzackery

1.) Do you have evidence to prove that it is as "wildly optimistic" as the previous poster claimed? No you don't, so we both don't know and because I have my other cyclometer to reference I can make the claim that I don't believe it to be "wildly optimistic".

2.) Because GM has fallen off their perch, what does this have to do with the Elite company?? Poor analogy, IMO...

Rather than entertain a tit for tat with you, I will just agree to disagree...

Squint

Anger
Denial
Bargaining
Acceptance

DesFlurane

Burnt

tonyzackery

LOL, nice to be an anonymous sniper, isn't it?

rmur17

Again, get thee a real power meter and there'll be no doubt

If you only train with power indoors, believe me it will be a real loss without that ability outdoors. I got my CT in fall 2002 - trained on it all winter but figured I could get by outdoors as I planned on doing key workouts once a week indoors. But when good weather arrived, I couldn't be bothered riding in the basement.

As it turned out, my power levels pretty much stagnated (slightly declined) all that summer but I didn't pick that up until Sept. when I got back on the CT again. My TT times improved as I was working on my position etc. but that wasn't as a result of higher power output.

An indoor AND outdoor proper PM are highly recommended.

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rmur

tonyzackery

Sorry to hear about YOUR negative experience, but due to the fact I'm an amateur seeking only glory, there is no reasonable justification for spending $1000 on an on-the-bike power meter. My $500 indoor trainer with power functions is serving me quite well, thank you. I will be fitter and faster come my 2nd racing season thanks to my lowly indoor trainer...

It's all relative, but not all of it's relevant...