Similar to what TrainerRoad posts and @grwoolf posted above, I like this explanation.
the amount of power that can be put out at maximal lactate steady state (MLSS). While in this state, an athlete will fatigue in between 30 and 70 minutes (known as time to exhaustion, or TTE)1 rather than the traditionally defined 60 minutes.
Heard discussed on a podcast that Coggan said at one point something along the lines that FTP was intended to be the training power or power output benchmark for MLSS. Might have been the one @FrankTuna posted above?
Mattias Reck pro trainer on Trek Segafredo said in a swedish podcast Sloppy translated: - in the beginning of your “career” its good to use ftp to get to now about your training zones. then it’s really good. and you need to do the test in a regular basis.
then there are some saying that a 20 min FTP test isnt correct you need to ride for one hour. for the first, who gives a sh*t if you dont hit the exact number. like if you take your 20 min number and then you test it and only last 50 minutes. that does not matter at all!
Later he talked about finding the right power for your intervals, like 2 min max for 30-30 or 40-20 intervalls.
And here in this forum we have people diwcussion for years, and the pros like.nope, who gives a sh*t. Not Mads Pedersens trainer and he seems to do fine.
Some people can hold their FTP for an hour or even more. Some people can’t hold it for more than 30-40 minutes. But if you’re holding it for 90 minutes and not like 60-70, I’ve even heard 80, then your FTP has probably gone up and is set too low.
Remember, it’s a training and pacing benchmark, and isn’t static. You might be able to hold it for an hour one day, and not come close on another.
For me, I benchmark it in well rested, well fueled state, and some days you just have to adjust your training or pacing down because you can’t express as high a percentage of your FTP on that given day.
Definitely not useless. If you come into a workout well rested, recovered, and well fueled, it should be relatively constant workout to workout allowing you to benchmark your workouts against each other and progress over time. The Trainerroad PL’s are a perfect example for this if you’re sticking to a plan and rating workouts appropriately.
But, if you crush yourself with extra volume and extra intensity and then come out and try to do an a** kicker of an over-under workout at your FTP, you’ll find out pretty quickly you don’t have it on that given day…
Not at all useless. You’re not going out and doing all-out race efforts (pace and duration) during training and fluctuating all over the place randomly. But yes, judgement day-to-day is 100% needed.
You do over under intervals, threshold intervals, sweet spot intervals. All based off of your FTP with a consistent training fatigue. It’s also why you limit intervals and intensity to a 2-3 per week (for most of us) and layer in endurance rides. So you can recover and actually train based off of your FTP.
FTP allows you to benchmark an appropriate training load day to day, and progress it up over time. Then you taper, rest, recover, and crush it on race day.
And that sums up my morning today. By 5:15am, I was in over my head. Rough VO2 work yesterday, and I stupidly thought today I was going to be superman.
I find it hard to believe there was no argument in January…. . The internet forum vitriole regarding FTP has achieved a quasi-steady state - it will fluctuate, depending on the inputs and responses.
Without popcorn and memes, argument fatigue will accelerate exponentially leading ultimately to thread closure.
It’s pretty much the same thing as the TR explanation. The point below which you can maintain a relatively steady state effort for a longer duration, and above which you’re burning a match much faster. Think over-unders. Just above and you can feel the burn increasing. Just under, and you’re slowly recovering…
Alas a few studies have confirmed that FTP can be quite different to the power at Maximum Lactate Steady State.
This is likely part of the problem. Whilst one person may have an FTP below MLSS, another may have an FTP above MLSS. You can bet that the former has a much higher TTE at their FTP.
I feel like this quote is somehow appropriate here
”Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before. He is full of murderous resentment of people who are ignorant without having come by their ignorance the hard way.”
. The internet forum vitriole regarding FTP has achieved a quasi-steady state - it will fluctuate, depending on the inputs and responses.
