AI FTP Detection works for me and seems to be getting more accurate as time goes on. It has become pretty impressive actually.
You can test FTP in a lab… but your FTP is probably to be different the next day. For most of us AiFTP (or FTP for that matter ) is a training number that gets us “close enough” to training paces and training intensities. Our body is not that precise to differentiate a few percent of FTP.
But as for your suggestion of going off effort… Most well trained athletes can certainly “feel” pace. Probably better than an FTP test.
It seems like this is a continuation of sorts of your last thread TrainerRoad Plan Failure?, which I tried my best to address there.
Of course, it’s up to you as to whether or not you’d like to trust AI FTP Detection, but being beholden to ramp tests, which we regularly state aren’t the best way to estimate FTP, seems like it isn’t working for you.
I’d definitely recommend doing something different during your next season by letting TR do its thing to see if you get a different result.
As always, let me know if I can help in any way!
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Threshold (FT2/VT2) is two dimensional. It has a power component and a time to exhaustion (TTE) component. Power is inversely proportional to TTE. The higher the power the shorter the TTE. If you choose to set a higher FT P then you will have a shorter FT TTE. There will be a lower limit to the progression level you can complete at the elevated FTP. At the Ai FTP you’d be able to hit a higher progression level, push that TTE out.
Maybe if the Ai also gave you a FT TTE, it would better help your choices here? If you dispute the Ai FT TTE you can go test it.
Pretty sure that this was a troll.
For what it’s worth I don’t think your trolling.
I just think that TrainerRoad works best if you use AIFTP.
And I think, as you have found on this thread, plenty of people trust AIFTP.
Unfortunately I don’t think much can be gleaned from your race heart rate…
My personal advice would be to just accept TRs AIFTP this time instead of ignoring it - but you are free to do what you want 
Ya, a 50 min CX race with my perceived exertion, Avg & Max HR is probably redundant. I really wish my cross bike had a way to measure power as I’m thinking that data may be helpful to determine a number.
Regards,
CX race is probably the worst type of event to try to estimate FTP.
Exactly this. If the AIFTP is too low for you, all that will happen is you’ll rate the workouts as “moderate” and AT will ramp the difficulty up. If you complete a 9.0+ workout before your next FTP detection, you’ll get an interim FTP bump.
It may also help to think of the TR FTP as a TR-only thing and keep a separate idea of power and perceived effort for outdoor rides.
Yeah was going to say CX is great for feeling gassed and maybe having a high normalized power but it’s literally full gas, coast/turn, full gas.
CX has given me my highest average hr by far, 20-60m is all from cx racing 
Going off topic here but I’m suspect of the my heart when racing cross. I’m 66 been racing for over 40 years now however I’m slightly suspicious of raising my heart rate to its max for 45 mins.
For me, AI FTP has worked great. It’s shown me what I’m capable of if I can push past the mental barrier, especially at the higher workout levels (6+), where intensity and duration really combine. I’ve seen my AI FTP go up and down over a few months, and so far it feels like it’s been the right level of difficulty.
Note - used ChatGPT to clean up the grammar if it looks like AI generated
Its higher
Having AI ftp available motivates me massively to train.
This ^^^^
I rejoined TR in August and my outside FTP used by my then coach was 285W. TR AI set me at 237W. I went with it and the workouts (indoors) have been spot on. I’ve had 2 small FTP bumps since.
Interestingly, I spoke to a coach recently about the indoor/outdoor FTP difference and they always set two when they set up an athelete for 1 to 1 coaching because they are often so different.
Yet TR doesn’t recognise this as being a worthwhile thing.
Yep, my Coach had different FTP’s set up on WKO (for TrainingPeaks). They were 20-25W different. Intervals.icu also allows separate indoor and outdoor FTPs.
This is my main (maybe only) issue with TrainerRoad and the reason I didn’t join it before.
I have a power meter on my CX bike and I think with all the power spikes, short race duration and high RPE this actually confuses TR. I had AIFTP want to lower my FTP during the season went I was feeling good and completing workouts, this was why I took the 20 minute test.
Other than that I think for training AIFTP is close enough before it got confused by my races.
I do most of my training on the turbo and don’t know how training outside would effect it.