Late to cycling and associated training. Love riding bikes. Low Volume plan seems ideal as it allows me to do other rides. A couple of things I have noticed. If just doing the low volume plan workouts and nothing else, the workouts are pretty easy. Combined with other rides, the workouts are pretty hard but never maximal. I’ve not been rested for my Ramp tests and the FTP results coincide with what WKO5 says my FTP is (208w). Garmin, however, estimates my FTP to be 228w (based on the same data). Now if I were only doing the low volume plan I could probably complete the workouts at the higher FTP. What should I be doing? My long term goal is to be able to do 300w for 30min (to get up a particular climb without walking)
I also see that Garmin (and other software) have my Lactate Threshold HR bouncing between 156 and 162 (max HR I am willing to go at my age is 174). Is this normal? I assume TR TP’s only care about FTP so does this actually matter?
I would get garmin estimate with a huge grain of salt.
It has never given me a close enough estimate
Are you in a base plan? It should be relatively easy. Just remember that more is not always better. A bit harder isn’t always better. And you shouldn’t be wrecked by every workout.
Don’t worry, it will get harder. 
Aren’t you supposed to do your ramp test at the end of your rest week?
300 for 30 minutes is an ambitious goal!
I record all workouts, inside and outside, with my Garmin 530 using the same power meter and same chest strap.
The FTP estimates on 530 align closely with WKO and Xert and longer 20-50 minute field tests (I don’t do ramp testing anymore).
The 530 estimates for lactate threshold bounce around same as yours with HRmax being +1bpm higher than yours.
Pretty normal on both my previous Garmin 520 and current Garmin 530.
My Garmin’s LTHR estimate happens to be exactly what I think it should be. LTHR has been incredibly useful for me when pacing threshold/sweetspot efforts. i.e., I aim to ensure my SS efforts are below ~5-10 bpm lower than LTHR and threshold efforts are around LTHR.
Its FTP estimate is off, I don’t know why. I can do a 60min sweetspot effort at a higher wattage than Garmin’s FTP and Garmin won’t care one iota.
Garmin is 15w under.
Xert is 15w under.
Intervals.icu is 3w over.
TR is 6w over.
Good goal; I suspect that holding 300w for 30 minutes will mean a genuine, TTE FTP of c.290. Purely personally, I know that I’d need a ramp test score of 300 for that, but ymmv. Good luck!
No, Climbing Race Plan. Sweetspot and Threshoild intervals.
I think it depends on what efforts you do. When I do a Kolie Moore FTP test my Garmin will detect a new FTP based on the effort. I don’t think it will try and adjust FTP based on short efforts or, at least, I haven’t noticed it in the past.
Looks like it based on effort level and HRV: Firstbeat Analytics I guess if you pedal at > FTP for >40mins then Garmin won’t care if it doesn’t like your HRV.
where do you see/ find LTHR on your garmin?
I have a 520,
Thanks
Well I did Taylor -2 yesterday and the first 2 blocks were a bit of a doddle. HR didn’t even get to within 10 beats of threshold so I decided to up the last block by 10% and only then managed to hit threshold HR. I have a feeling that my rested FTP is around 230 while my ‘fatigued’ FTP is around 210. Should I be aiming at 230 for all workouts and ‘killing’ myself when fatigued?
Garmin - 228
Intervals - 213
TR Ramp - 208
WKO5 - 208
Strava - 215
Xert - 221
I have to take that back. I did a 5 minute VO2max effort today and the Garmin wanted to bump my FTP by 2 watts.
This is your indoor FTP. Use it for your TR indoor workouts. You will get a chance to retest at the beginning of each block so I wouldn’t worry about it unless you were failing workouts.
That’s because Taylor -2 isn’t a full-blown VO2Max workout, more of an introduction. Everyone thinks it is easy, so don’t use it as a gauge for your abilitites.
Something seems fishy… 2 weeks ago I had 2 rest days before my usual 3 hr Sunday group ride and rode a 20min power 20w above previous best. Today, after my first COVID vaccination on Wednesday and rest days for the remainder of the week I did my usual 3 hr Sunday group ride and rode 20 min power 40w above my the previous Sundays effort. Effectively my FTP increased 60w from 208w to 266w (this is after 8mths of continuous indoor training and outdoor riding). Is this really possible or has the COVID Astrazeneca vaccine got so gogo juice in it?