Dazed and confused by 4DP Full Frontal test results

[mirlord]

Huge thanks to all of you who replied, on or off topic (that historical “lesson” on 4DP vs Andrew Coggan is very much appreciated too, no joking). Many good points, can’t highlight each and every one in particular, so I’ll “mark” this one as the most logical explanation, because it resonates with my perception (cognitive bias in action):

@kevistraining

Looking at these results it looks as though your power profile is biased towards short high-power efforts. This would lead to a higher number “FTP” on a ramp test than it would on a longer steady effort test or protocols that have hard efforts at the start with the aim to deplete the anaerobic contribution.

Here’s something I posted on this forum last year, which I totally forgot about, but now it just clicked that it’s all related:

Whats worse, threshold or VO2?

It makes sense to clarify, that we should be talking about Threshold vs VO2 at about the same progression level. And assuming that’s the case - threshold at 5+ is an absolute torture for me. VO2 feels more like an interval, even when it’s 5min long, and I try to believe that I can do “just a little bit more until it’s over”. While threshold slowly but surely kills my desire to live. As a result my current threshold level is around 3, while VO2 is at 6. Sometimes I must report threshold workouts…

As of the action plan, I’m going to stick to the following:

@Huegelreiter

If you - the OP - are more of a powerful in short durations kind of human and less of a endurance rider, those “results” from Wahoo system (4DP) and Trainerroad (AI/ramp) would co-exist very nicely.

Many others actually suggested to do the exact same thing: keep different values in different systems, and be in peace with that. That’s exactly what I’m going to do for now. Once I decided on that, I suddenly realized there’s one more reason to do exactly that. As I already mentioned I enjoy doing Sufferfest workouts, they are fun and all, but also typically have higher average intensity that what TR normally prescribes. Since they are more for fun, I guess it won’t hurt to dial them down a little bit.

And the last but not the least, great thanks to those (@AJS914) who mentioned Kolie Moore’s test protocols. Remembered seeing a dedicated topic on this forum, binged the whole thing last night (couldn’t do much off the couch anyways, LMAO). That’s definitely something I’ll try later this season. Should be fun.