First workout, cracked in fifth interval. Couple of questions

Training
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Hello! Today I finished my first workout for SSB1. Yesterday I did the ramp test, but effectively messed it up achieving an estimated FTP of 249. I realized that you could change the estimated FTP before the test only after i finished so it took 25 minutes just to get to 115% of my current mFTP (295, WKO5). So this morning i did Antelope at 295, and it those last two intervals really hurt! I was close to cracking on #4 and had to take off erg mode on #5 because I had entered the erg mode spiral. So my question is, is my set FTP way to high, or should antelope be pretty difficult> I haven’t ever done any longer intervals so this reaction to Antelope doesn’t completely surprise me. Should I retest or just decrease my FTP by 5%? My first 3 were hard but doable but It all started falling apart in interval 4.

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Antelope has an IF of .80, which IMO is relatively low. It’s one of the first workouts in the plan and the plan is designed to get progressively harder, so I think the answer to your question is no, Antelope is not unusually difficult. Regardless of difficulty, the workouts are designed that you can complete them all at your correct FTP, so I would suggest that you retest as soon as you can, but you can lower the next workout by 3-5% during the workout if you need a little extra help getting through it.

The fact is, all of these workouts are hard, so part of the process is getting use to the overall effort require, which involves more than just your FTP. That’s one of the reasons you start with base training.

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Antelope should feel challenging but you should not break during that workout

I’d suggest you split the difference between your WKO5 FTP and your ramp test FTP and go from there

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Will do. Thanks, I kinda assumed my mFTP was a vanity threshold to some extent.

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I think Antelope was my first failed workout. I passed it on second try. I think the TR advice is to lower intensity by 5% before quitting or skipping intervals. I took the view that I prefer to pass at 100% on second or even third try than to pass at 95%.

That said I think my ramp tests overestimate my FTP so I have been suffering a lot doing IF .8 workouts. Maybe TR is a good way of reaching nirvana through suffering.