I used plan builder for the first time this year, and was very impressed at how easy it was. However, I just tested after 6 weeks of SSB1 and 1 week build, and ended with the same FTP of 268. I felt like I had gained, so was surprised at the result. This raised the question for me whether the week of build heading into the test left me more fatigued, since the typical protocol has been to do the test after a recovery week. I hit a new max HR of 189 (42 years old) during the test, and felt like I didn’t leave anything on the table. Like any over-achiever, I set my FTP manually to 4 watts higher, which has been a way to keep progressing in the past. Any advice on this would be great - as a future upgrade, maybe it would be beneficial for plan builder to add the build into the base, ahead of the recovery vs. after the recovery?
Think of all the training benefits you gained from the block you just completed. Not all are measured by FTP.
Adjusting your FTP up manually by 4 watts isn’t overachieving, it’s actually a little bit of ego more than anything. And that’s ok - I’m not judging but I’m simply ensuring the awareness that you’re attributing bigger ftp = success of 1 block of training. Which is a red herring.
Keep it up. 
Awesome! @Oblewis, | like the positive reframing, great way to look at it. I’ve found that when I’ve had plateaus in the past, if I leave the FTP alone, I tend to stay there over multiple cycles. However if I up the FTP a few watts, I don’t fail workouts, and see a subsequent bump.
I’ve always taken the ramp test with a grain of salt, because it’s so short. I’ve raced ultra endurance MTB events for the last 20 years, where 1-2hour races are considered very short. with my A races being 24hr solos (and the odd tag-team). I figure as long as the test follows the same protocol each time, it doesn’t really matter, since the number is only used to scale workouts. I never warm up for a test, because I don’t warm up before TR workouts, but my last 40km TT was 1hr5min @ 25watts above my tested FTP (at the time) of 255.
Thanks for the advice, and watch this space for my epic failure over the next block! 