And if so, what’s your threshold for accepting an AI FTP change?
I have no good reason for this, but when AI FTP detection has me increasing or decreasing by a couple watts, I decline the adaptation. For decreases, I have a “meh, probably doesn’t make a difference” feeling, and for increases, I have a weird feeling that if it’s just a watt or so, I haven’t “earned” actually seeing a higher number for my FTP.
For reference, currently at 197 watts, 61 kgs. AI FTP detection just suggested 200 watts, and I declined it, with the thought going through my mind being something like “that’s not enough of an increase to act like I’ve really made an FTP improvement.” Now I’m wondering what AI suggestion would have me feeling like I “deserve” to reset my FTP - 205? 210?
At any rate, what do you think is a statistically significant increase (or decrease?) Do you always accept the suggestions, or wait until it’s a “big enough” change?
Meanwhile, as I poo poo my suggested FTP increases, I’m always excited to execute a workout at a higher progression level, and to see those inching up over time.
What does accepting/rejecting AI FTP affect? Plan adaptations? It will somewhat affect progression levels, but IDK how that affects actual planned workouts. For my purposes so far (started back with TR last Nov after being on other training platforms), I just accept it all as I figure that’s what I’m paying for.
Sometimes if it was 1-3 watts I would just leave it as is since I didn’t think it would really make a difference it my training or targets. That said, in your example I would have accepted it since it would have made math a lot faster/easier when calculating zones
I’m not sure if it would affect adaptations (I think that’s more down to the success/failure and RPE on workouts), but it would affect the workout interval target wattage, albeit by only a small amount.
For me, the minimum increment / decrement is 5 watts.
And further, I won’t increase FTP by more than 5 watts at a time. So if theoretically AIFTP gave me a 10 watt increase, I would bump my FTP 5 watts, do at least 2 weeks of workouts at the new FTP, and then decide if I’m going to bump FTP again.
I’ve learned to be cautious of bumping FTP to quickly. I end up doing better in the long term if my FTP is a bit low than if it’s a bit high
I ride almost everything to RPE but use power as a rough guide.
Only update ftp occasionally and only when proven to be different than what I am currently using. Do t really bother updating it unless it’s at least 10w higher/lower.
Writing this post made me realize that when I go up in progression levels, my reaction is “yay, I’m getting stronger!” but when my AI FTP goes up, my reaction is “nah, probably a fluke, I’m not really getting stronger…”
Which is… I don’t know how my brain decided that makes sense.
I take them all these days (well I have taken the last six and I will take the one that comes on Friday).
I primarily regard the number as something TR wants to use to set my training zones for workouts on the platform. If it thinks adjusting it matters, then I am OK to go along with that.
I don’t think it is healthy to think of “deserving” FTP changes. I would just accept any FTP change as long as you are confident the answer is not wrong. Small gains are the name of the game when you are looking at it long-term.
In my experience, AI FTP works extremely well during a training plan. After a long time off (after training breaks or due to illness), I usually like to test.
I accepted a 1w increase after this morning’s workout - a 0.3% increase
Just another 2% to go to the goal I set myself, but at this rate it will take a long time.
Worth considering that depending on your starting FTP a small increase might still mean a reasonable percentage and vice-versa.
E.g. If you gain 3 watts in a 4-week block from a starting point of 200w that’s 1.5% which is pretty good (in my opinion).
When extrapolated forward over a year that type of steady consistent progress would lead to you being a much stronger rider in 12 months time.
Using the above hypothetical example, if you weighed 70kg and that didn’t change, then assuming a steady 3w every 4 weeks for a year (so not even assuming continuous 1.5% gains, just a simple 3w) you’d go from 2.86w/kg to 3.41w/kg which is a massive improvement!
I can’t think of a good reason to turn down FTP gains outside of a Specialty phase.
Small gains add up over time, and waiting around for big ones might leave you somewhat stagnant for a while. It’s not super realistic to expect only 5%+ gains every time, but two 2.5% gains will get you there all the same.
I don’t see any benefit to waiting for a specific number before making a change. Each FTP Detection typically uses a month’s worth of new data that it didn’t have at the time of the last one, so it’s likely going to be a pretty good guess.
I know 1 or 2 watts might seem negligible at the time, and really, it is, but why not accept it? You worked for it, and especially as we grow more fit, it takes small steps forward to make progress.
