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Maybe just pick something, stick with it, and use it as intended.
I mean, if it’s just a personal preference….I like the color purple better than the color orange. That’s real. But I don’t think TR needs to know about it. 
But there can be very real reasons to prefer a 20 minute test as a metric to track improvement vs other methods. Just curious to know the reasoning in this case. BUT! ‘I like the higher number’ is just as legit as any other. Maybe not as effective but you can still have fun on the bike that way.
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AI FTP Detection works for me and seems to be getting more accurate as time goes on. It has become pretty impressive actually.
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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.
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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.
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Pretty sure that this was a troll.
Raced CX this past weekend.
Wish my bike had a power meter. For now I can only provide this information based on the 45+minutes.
Perceived Exertion - 9.5/10
Average HR - 167
Max HR - 175
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 
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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.
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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.
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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.
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CX has given me my highest average hr by far, 20-60m is all from cx racing 
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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
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Its higher
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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.