Garmin 530 Estimated FTP vs TR Ramp Test

I am using a Garmin 1030 Plus with a Polar Verity. The reason for calling that out is there appears to be some difference between various Garmin computer versions and how they calculate FTP. I am also over 50 which I believe has an impact on my ability to complete a ramp test.

When I do ramp tests I always seem to struggle at the end of them or I don’t enjoy pain and quit early :slight_smile: Today was ramp test day and TR came back and told me I had an FTP of 214W but the Garmin came back with an FTP of 247W.

I use the FTP from the Garmin and have been pretty much completing all the TR workouts through the last two base cycles. With gradual increases in TR levels over the course of the blocks.

One issue I do have is that if I change my FTP manually all TR adaptive training levels get reset to one if I let it. This I find quite frustrating and end up ignoring the Adaptive Training level changes for the first week whilst it adjusts itself back to the levels I had been training at.

Yeah. And I don’t see a consistent drop, this past year I’ve only done workouts to 4 hours. A lot of stuff like this:

unless I went out and got drunk the night before, or life stress impacts workout.

or this one after a couple of blocks that delivered a fitness bump… warmup, 40 min climb at 93%, then short descent, and 18 minute climb at 104%

then kept rolling strong for 3+ hours total. Like I said, for me its mostly trending analysis if I have a week or two with key workouts consistently at +3 to +5 (and no drop off at end).

@soothill - I manually increased my FTP last week by about 7% and my PLs didn’t reset to 1 but all adjusted down to what seems like appropriate levels for the new FTP. I know TR has had some issues in the past with PLs being reset but maybe that is resolved now.

An update:

Edge 530 eFTP Date Workout
267W 16 March 2022 2 hour Wed ‘social’ ride
265W 18 March 2022 3 hour early season kitchen sink ride
258W 21 March 2022 2 hours with 2x15-min at 92% + 20-min at 85%
258W 2 April 2022 1.75 hour with 4x10-min ‘sweet spot w/1-min hard starts’
265W 13 April 2022 2 hour Wed ‘social’ ride
267W 15 April 2022 2 hour with 3x5-min at 103-105% + 30/30s
261W 18 April 2022 1.5 hour with 5x6-min 95-100%

Last night I easily finished 30-min total at 270W average (6-min at 270W, 2-min at 150-200W). Barely touched LTHR at end of last interval. It was essentially a pre-field test pacing effort. Finished with high confidence I could go out and do 45-60 minutes at 270W.

Other estimates:

  • 243W Strava from last 6 weeks
  • 268W Strava for last 90-days (just like WKO)
  • 260W Intervals.icu
  • 248W Xert (after switching from no decay to low decay a month or two ago, and now HIE is ridiculous 30kJ which is causing low FTP estimate)
  • 268W WKO

My 32-min @ 275W pre-field test pacing effort from January 22 will drop out of the 90-day window in 3 days. The 90-day window is used by WKO (and Strava if you setup custom date range).

From posts earlier in this thread, Garmin is using machine learning with HR, HRV, and eVO2max (power-to-HR). I’m going to claim that TR, WKO, Strava, Intervals, and Xert all use some form of max effort power based estimates.

What I find interesting is that my Garmin estimates do not require a max effort, and even shorter threshold intervals will produce good enough estimates (always a bit below what I can do). In addition I see reasonable estimates from tempo workouts.

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Just as a note, you don’t even have to follow Garmins FTP test. It is just a ramp test with longer steps. I made a workout in Intervals.icu and in Garmin Connect with steps similar to TR (for when I am not using TR) and follow that. Garmin will still give a result. That way I am using a similar test method every time I test.

There are a few stepped interval workouts that Garmin also likes to update on. I don’t get updates often with my last being a month ago on my last ramp test.

Which Edge device do you have? I’m somewhat (pleasantly) surprised by the number of auto FTP updates a month on my 530, on a wide variety of workouts (most with few intervals) and group rides.

  1. I don’t do a lot of intensity though. I ride/run 20+ hours a week.
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Yeah, after an off-season I’ll get a couple FTP estimates off pure zone2 rides. And then it happens with some intensity, even if its only 10-20 minutes of tempo thrown into a endurance ride.

My FTP doesn’t change much either. From when I got back into training mode (which followed a car accident), it bumped up fast over the period of about two months. It has only changed a few watts at a time over the past year. I am only looking for marginal gains on my body right now.

Same. Outside of a C19 forced 1 month off-season, my FTP has also been in a relatively narrow range the last two years. But I think there is another 5-10W upside from Wed night hammerfest racing this season.

Bizarrely my un-continuous Z1 group ride on Sunday with 10 mins of solo when I got up to 69% average generated a VO2max of 63 :roll_eyes:

Edit I am actually more impressed with their FTP estimate though it seems to place me down where I think I should be and not the elevated AI FTPD. AIFTPD is coming down towards it though, its probably been corrupted by the dodgy data I feed it #GarbageInGarbageOut :roll_eyes:

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