One hour on indoor trainer, what's my FTP?

[PaulMD]

Yesterday I did one hour timetrial on my indoor trainer. I started to slow and at the end I was really pushing at my limits. My first thoutht was that I underestimate my FTP with this full hour effort. But now it makes me thing I overestimate my FTP because my anaerobic capacity is the reason that my average power on the one hour ride reach 276 watt.

Here are the stats of the ride and an image:
First 16 minutes at 266 watt.
In the middle 38 minutes at 275 watt.
The last 6 minutes at 300 watt.


When you see my ride data. What do you think my FTP is?

 

[NomadVW]

The last 6 minutes at 300 watt.


When you see my ride data. What do you think my FTP is?

I don't think at the end of a 1 HR TT I have 6 minutes of time at 110% FTP available.
My guess is you could have maintained an overall higher average without the last 10 minutes of increasing wattage. I've found one of the hardest parts of testing is pacing.

 

[fastcat]

Yesterday I did one hour timetrial on my indoor trainer. I started to slow and at the end I was really pushing at my limits. My first thoutht was that I underestimate my FTP with this full hour effort. But now it makes me thing I overestimate my FTP because my anaerobic capacity is the reason that my average power on the one hour ride reach 276 watt.

Here are the stats of the ride and an image:
First 16 minutes at 266 watt.
In the middle 38 minutes at 275 watt.
The last 6 minutes at 300 watt.


When you see my ride data. What do you think my FTP is?

FTP is highest power sustainable in a quasi-steady state for an hour. I guess the bit your are questioning is whether your ride counts as a 'quasi steady state' or whether the burst of 300 at the end shouldn't 'count'?

The average of the ride is 275, which you also sustained for the bulk of the ride. My guess would be that your FTP is at least 275, assuming you were reasonably spent after the ride.

Note that if you hadn't done the burst of 300 at the end but carried on with 275, your average would have been 273, so it has only made a relatively small difference to the outcome.

 

[bushido5]

First off, I agree that your pacing was probably a little low. On the other hand, you did 1-hr at FTP on the trainer. That is an accomplishment by itself. I have trouble with 20min intervals let alone an hour. I would not be suprised if your on the road FTP is even higher.

 

[rmur17]

Yesterday I did one hour timetrial on my indoor trainer. I started to slow and at the end I was really pushing at my limits. My first thoutht was that I underestimate my FTP with this full hour effort. But now it makes me thing I overestimate my FTP because my anaerobic capacity is the reason that my average power on the one hour ride reach 276 watt.

Here are the stats of the ride and an image:
First 16 minutes at 266 watt.
In the middle 38 minutes at 275 watt.
The last 6 minutes at 300 watt.


When you see my ride data. What do you think my FTP is?

I'd stick to the result - doesn't really matter how you got there as long as you felt the entire hour was a 100% effort. Set your training zones from there and let training results guide you higher or lower.

If I had to guess, I'd probaby guess a little higher than 276 - maybe 280W but there's nothing to indicate a lower FTP than the AP you achieved. You are allowed to use all your AWC during the test if you can.

I've become a fan of the complete 1-hr (40k CT TT in my case) tests. Outdoors I always hope I can deliver a little more but that always remains to be proven and not counted on.

 

[frenchyge]

The average of the ride is 275, which you also sustained for the bulk of the ride. My guess would be that your FTP is at least 275, assuming you were reasonably spent after the ride.

Yep, 275-280w. Nice job!

 

[Alex Simmons]

Yep, 275-280w. Nice job!

Ditto

 

[Roadie_scum]

When you see my ride data. What do you think my FTP is?

More than 275. Probably a good idea to test again, and try to stay at ~280W at the start.

 

[PaulMD]

Thanks, I will use 276 watt as FTP. I won't do a retest soon. My legs still hurts and it wasn't much fun . I will try to train in blocks of 4 weeks. So over 4 weeks I will retest again.

 

[Roadie_scum]

Thanks, I will use 276 watt as FTP. I won't do a retest soon. My legs still hurts and it wasn't much fun . I will try to train in blocks of 4 weeks. So over 4 weeks I will retest again.

Fair enough - to be honest, I never do these kind of tests. Indoors? No way... I just keep an eye on what I'm putting out at what PE and that seems to keep it pretty close to a real FTP.

 

[doctorSpoc]

More than 275. Probably a good idea to test again, and try to stay at ~280W at the start.

you know it's hard to say.. i find that my ave power is always higher if i start slow and build... long middle section constant... build at the end... than if i try to maintain a contstant power... pretty much the same profile PaulMD presented here..

 

[Steve_B]

you know it's hard to say.. i find that my ave power is always higher if i start slow and build... long middle section constant... build at the end... than if i try to maintain a contstant power... pretty much the same profile PaulMD presented here..

I find the same thing in general.

Also I can't hold a constant power (+/- 2-3W) that is > or = 0.9 IF for more than a few minutes on a trainer. I just can't do it. So I vary the power a bit (+/- 10W) to keep my sanity and this lets me do longer intervals before I can't stand it anymore. I figure it happens out of necessity outdoors on my threshold work anyway so it might as well happen indoors too.

 

[Krazyderek]

I overestimate my FTP because my anaerobic capacity is the reason that my average power on the one hour ride reach 276 watt.

ummm, i don't think that's possible, anaerobic capacity is used up after 5 or 7 minutes.

I always add a couple watts to the average if i have enough energy to ramp it up at the end.

280w

You can do a shorter retest by seeing if you can hold 295-300w for 20 mins, but try and follow protocol. 15min warm up(easy spin), 5 mins hard (probaby 280), 5-10mins easy recover, then do your 20mins at 295w, and use the 5% rule, 295*0.95 = 280w Cool down for 15 mins.

Doing a full hour indoor TT really is the ideal way, all be it, the most painfull and time consuming.

 

[rmur17]

ummm, i don't think that's possible, anaerobic capacity is used up after 5 or 7 minutes.

I always add a couple watts to the average if i have enough energy to ramp it up at the end.
....

AWC is not used up if you don't go over CP. Depends on how you pace the effort.

 

[PaulMD]

You can do a shorter retest by seeing if you can hold 295-300w for 20 mins

Saturday 24 february I will do a retest. Then it's exactly four weeks later.
Today I did 2 x 22 minutes at L4. The first interval @ 293 watts and the second @ 300 watts. I hope to do the 60 minute timetrial @ 295 watts on Saturday!!

 

[mydbrx2]

Sorry to sound ignorant, whats FTP?

 

[PaulMD]

Sorry to sound ignorant, whats FTP?

Functional Threshold Power

By definition it is the highest average power you can sustain for 60 minutes.

 

[Bullseye_blam]

Functional Threshold Power

By definition it is the highest average power you can sustain for 60 minutes.

Sometimes I think we need a sticky thread of all the acronyms we rely on.

-Eric

 

[perryr]

Sometimes I think we need a sticky thread of all the acronyms we rely on.

Ya, that would be great for us newbies. I am constantly searching for the meanings.. which has been good learning, kinda time consuming though.