How are you testing your FTP?
That’s the tricky part. Are you regularly testing lactate to determine when your FTP has changed vs TTE?
I use a long form test similar to the Empirical Cycling ones, generally testing after each block.
No, I don’t use lactate to monitor ftp or tte, I just test ftp and that also gives me my tte.
Lactate has issues, your common handheld monitors have some pretty large error bars on them. Power has plenty of granularity to make using lactate largely unnecessary imo.
I feel like that’s when things can get subjective, though.
Using power and time to determine your FTP will just set it to whatever time you choose.
Do you want to see how much power you can hold for 40 minutes? 50? 60? Which one is your FTP?
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have you seen the Kolie Moore test protocol? you basically get your TTE from the test itself
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That’s why you don’t predetermine the TTE. Leave it open ended and see where it ends up.
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But the power is then predetermined… As I said, it’s tough! 
It’s not? I don’t predetermine anything in these tests, I have a rough idea from how workouts have been going but the whole point of testing is to go in without an exact target.
I don’t know how Kolie does for his testing but at least for me it’s very evident based on recent workouts.
For instance I can use my last couple of blocks as an example.
I recently did a block that had a lot of SST training, ending with 1x90m at 90%. I suspected based on RPE, breathing and HR that my threshold had increased by ~10w so did a long warmup and brought the power up to what I suspected my ftp was. After some time there it still felt controlled so I brought it up a bit more until I was at a place where going a bit harder was unsustainable and then held that power until I popped.
After that I did a block with some work at threshold, pushing that out to 4x20m at ftp. Again based on RPE, breathing and HR I thought my ftp was about the same (but with a much longer tte than I started with) so I went to test it, sure enough trying to hold anything more than about 5w above my ftp quickly tired me out so now I know my ftp has not increased but has gone out.
Next up is a block of some vo2 work and then I’ll test again.
I find that for myself, fellow athletes on my team and people I coach that with very little practice one can pretty quickly identify the feeling of riding at ftp and very quickly notice the decoupling in RPE, breathing etc that comes with going above that. With a little practice you can dial in what your FTP is pretty easily, especially if you are doing occasional work at that level.
Bit curious. I’m set to make no gain during the next phase. I’m aware this is not a sole measure of fitness but it is somewhat disheartening.
My approach is balanced and I’ve updated the check volume which has given me such a plan. High volume, 3 intense. I’m rating workouts accordingly.
I also am a bit perplexed as to why in the next base period (week after next) the workouts in the calendar are a level lower than what it wants me doing in this week. (Geiger +2 pl 6.0 10th Feb, vs Antelope -2 pl 4.4 26th Feb, then monitor + 3 pl 5.4 3rd March).
I have a B event on 22 Feb that is preceded by a rest week. TR community two pence required. I assume this is a slow build back after a biggish event ((10hr audax/ultra ride (200km road, flattish not a race)) but if I lower the difficulty of this weeks workouts then my ftp pred decreases.
The TR AI doesn’t seem to take this so return after I’ve marked a few days of illness in the past (straight into a hard/v hard OU set the day after illness demarcation was ended) so unsure why the sessions are due to be “easier” in future weeks.
Follow your plan as closely as possible, make sure you respect your upcoming rest week, don’t add a ton of extra stress to your already full week, and fuel the work!!!
I think TR AI is recognizing that you’re doing too much and not resting.
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Absolutely standard me 
Doing well well too much and living on the cusp of calorie deficit. (2300-2800kcal per day). I guess nothing will change if nothing changes. Thanks Eddie. You probably deserve overtime either way the amount of Calendar analysis you’ve done on my behalf.
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Set targets by RPE.
Start with a SS/low threshold feeling. Ramp up to what feels just barely sustainable, that’s your target. Hold for a while. Then slowly exceed your target to test how accurate your feeling was.
Pacing takes experience. You learn pacing better by doing more tests over time. The test is designed to give you feedback on how you paced it. IE, If you couldn’t ramp power up at all vs if you could ramp it up a bunch. Its still a valid test either way, so long as you gave a capacitive effort.
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