How do people feel about the accuracy of FTP AI detection?

Training
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@JoPage I’d definitely agree with @Power13 and @KonaSS – there are many aspects to cycling fitness, and it still sounds like you are heading in the right direction!

Training consistently is the key to getting faster, and it sounds like you just had a good month of consistent training. As an experienced athlete, I’m sure you know that with consistent training plus time, those fitness gains will continue to come to you. :muscle:

A 2-watt decrease can be disappointing for sure, but it’s also small enough that I’d feel confident to ignore it if you’ve got a good idea of where your FTP is at right now.

If you’re climbing up the walls because you’re really wanting to push the training along, you could try adjusting Adaptive Training’s Training Approach, which will raise the threshold for when you’ll see warnings pop up from Red Light Green Light. Do keep in mind that a more aggressive Training Approach also holds a higher risk of overtraining/burnout, so be extra mindful of how you feel moving through your plan should you choose to make any adjustments there.

Also remember that while RLGL will warn you if it seems like your training stress/volume is ramping up too quickly compared to what your recent riding has looked like, you can ultimately alter your plan/workouts if you feel up to doing more/less. I wouldn’t recommend totally ignoring the warnings you might see from RLGL, but if, for example, you feel 100% up to doing a harder workout on a yellow day instead of turning that harder session into an Endurance ride, you can definitely go for it!

Plus, the longer you train with Adaptive Training, the more it will get to know what you’re capable of, so you’ll get more and more dialed into the right workouts for where your fitness is as you continue training. :dart:

@selfrighteouscyclist AI FTP Detection works off of all of your training data, not just results from a single test/ride. That’s actually a big reason why we love AI FTP Detection so much – it’s quite common to over/underperform on fitness tests. If you’ve recently finished a plan and have been peaking, you’ve probably got some great fitness and legs right now! Peaking, however, isn’t necessarily representative of how our fitness is most of the time, which may explain some of the discrepancies between your AI FTP Detection and your recent power records.

Rest assured that Adaptive Training and AI FTP Detection can still see those records and that they’ll be used for your future AI FTP Detections as you keep training, though! :slight_smile:

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144

Very true. I find I test very well in the ramp test and also do very well in VO2max / Sprint efforts. Using the ramp test numbers, sweet spot feels like threshold.

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That’ll be because it is threshold. :+1:

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I recently dropped my AIFTP by 15 watts and all is right in the world….except my ego.:slightly_smiling_face:

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hehe…clarification, sweet spot 88-90% of my ramp test FTP…feels like threshold.

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Same answer: it is threshold. :slightly_smiling_face:

90% of Ramp Test FTP = 99% of Actual FTP if the ramp test overestimates your actual FTP by 10%.

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[quote=“ZackeryWeimer, post:143, topic:98363, full:true”]
A 2-watt decrease can be disappointing for sure, but it’s also small enough that I’d feel confident to ignore it if you’ve got a good idea of where your FTP is at right now. [/quote]

Thanks for the good advice as always @ZackeryWeimer I’ve re-run plan builder, again, and upped the slider one point. Its added a bit more volume and still allows me a bit of flexibility to add some additional endurance work if I have the time. I now have another rest week in just a fortnight which seems a bit early but actually if I smash out two harder weeks it may be about right. I have so much stuff going on that is out of my control at the moment I am just going to focus on getting in what training I can and if I get fit enough for the event then that will be a big bonus, and if I don’t there is always something else later in the year. Plan builder is useful as it takes out a big bulk of the thinking.

I have literally no idea what my FTP should be right now/feels like - ask me one day and the next it could feel 20 watts higher or lower, such is the joy of perimenopause haha. I’m not worried about the 2 watt decrease, tbh I haven’t bothered accepting it, but I am super interested as to why AIFTP felt it necessary to drop the FTP. If the system doesn’t take into account heart rate (i.e. my heart rate was high for power because perhaps I wasn’t recovering), then is it from me messing up sessions getting used to pressing lap buttons when doing ‘outside’ workouts so the system thinks I have skipped intervals because I can’t cope when in fact I’m just a bit technologically inept.

It would just be nice to know.

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If (it’s a big 'if), you could validate that core temp was in a “normal” range, and feed that data to a system, along with your HR data and your power data, would you then have what you needed to better identify thresholds or all sorts?

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My SS session last night was moderately easy. So, I’m going to guess my FTP is about 10 or so watts lower than it should be. I know how SS should feel and where my heartrate should be during it. But, I’ll trust the process as they say and see what happens in 21 more days with AI ftp detection.

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Glad those changes seemed like they were helpful and that Plan Builder is laying out a plan you’re finding more appropriate!

AI FTP Detection does take into account your HR, but it weighs power much more heavily. Pressing lap buttons incorrectly on accident shouldn’t throw things off (especially if you’re still completing the workouts on the whole).

I do see that your Progression Levels are continuing to bump up as you continue training, which is good reassurance that you’re getting faster! If you keep on completing Productive workouts, I think you’ll start to see your FTP increase alongside your PLs – especially now that you’ve been back on a plan for a bit. Remember that consistency plus time is the key!

Regarding the 2-watt decrease, I’d recommend not worrying too much about AI FTP Detection right now – by which I mean to say, don’t read into it too much! You can correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems to me like you’re interpreting your recent AI FTP Detection as TR/AT telling you that you’re getting slower (which I don’t think is the case!).

As other athletes have also pointed out, it takes time to increase your FTP, and in the grand scheme of cycling training, one month isn’t a tremendous amount of time. Consider also your overall fitness – if you’re feeling stronger and your PLs have gone up, then that seems like a good sign to me (and is often a precursor to a future increase in FTP :muscle: ).

While I read above that you said your FTP could feel 20 watts higher or lower depending on the day, how does it generally seem to feel as you’re doing your workouts? With your previous training history, I bet you have a pretty good idea of how each zone is supposed to feel as you’re doing your workouts. Are your Sweet Spot and Threshold sessions, for example, feeling appropriately challenging? If so, that could be a sign that your FTP is set at an accurate value for you at the moment. I know we can get very focused on seeing our FTP number increase, but it’s also important to consider if it feels correct for where we are right now.

Overall, though, I want to reassure you that it looks like your training is on track from what I can tell. I can totally understand some frustration/confusion when your FTP doesn’t go up (I’ve been there many times myself!), but I think you’re heading in the right direction. If you stick with the plan, I think your fitness will keep trending to where you want it to be. :slight_smile:

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153

Last year I took (3) 20 minute ftp tests and then started relying on AIFTP. I generally felt confident in the numbers. I had a crash November 17th and took it easy (not totally off, but less volume and intervals) and my FTP dropped from 271 to 261. Ok, fair enough. The last month I have hit it hard, putting in more volume than ever and generally doing two interval sessions per week.

In addition, last week I did a 100% effort in an outdoor ride and I hit PR’s in power at 1 hr and 3 hrs. I last did an identical effort early last September and my 3 hr power was 18 watts less.

While I’m not doing a TR training plan now, my weeks are structured very similarly to the polarized plans I have done before.

I was optimistic to an AIFTP today at least rising back to what it was last November, but was surprised that it came in completely unchanged, still at 261 watts. I may do a ramp test in the next week or two. This week is a cutback week with no intensity.

@ZackeryWeimer any input on this?

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Short question: Why?

Long question: Why?

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Someone else said this and I don’t want to put their name out there unless they don’t care. Everytime I read threads like this; I think about this comment.

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Anyone else noticing the trend lately on here of “threshold feeling impossible/ too hard/ cAnT complete threshold sessions”?

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That and “I’ve nailed all my workouts, why hasn’t my FTP gone up?” seem to be where it’s at so far in 2025.

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I would take a test designed to measure my FTP to determine my FTP…

Just as a follow up post mentioned the surprise that people dive into all the details, yet never actually test their FTP…

I took 3 FTP tests last year and found them accurate. Since then, I’ve just leaned on AIFTP. I am currently questioning the accuracy of the AIFTP, so it seems the most logical thing to do is take a test specifically designed for testing it…

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I’ll take a stab - I think it’s becuase the TR team has been telling everyone that the beauty of AIFTP, is that you never have to take a test ever again!

I don’t subscribe to this, but I imagine lots of folks do.

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Ramp tests don’t accurately test ftp*

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Would you consider them more or less accurate than AIFTP?

Where I live, I generally don’t find it the most conducive to taking a 1 hour FTP test outside to replicate what I could do on the trainer.

My trainer sits on ERG mode since the 13 speed cassette I would need is $600, and I already have two of them on two wheel sets. I don’t know that I can take a 20 minute FTP test in ERG mode.

For reference, the 3 FTP tests I took last year were all on my previous bike, on the trainer, not in ERG mode, and they seemed accurate. They were all 20 minute tests. I’ve never actually taken a ramp test or know enough about it to argue its validity (or not). I thought it was somewhat widely accepted, but maybe not.

Open to other options, of course.

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You might be able to do it in a slope/resistance mode without shifting but that would also require a bit of manually adjusting resistance or cadence. Probably not too bad as it’s mostly steady state.

There are a few other threads on this forum regarding the ramp test and testing in general but this is a good article to give a read.

There is this thread talking about above article

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Any idea if I can just do a ‘free ride’ on trainer road? I am wondering if I connect both my Garmin head unit and Trainer Road to my Wahoo V6, I may be able to turn ERG off on Trainer Road, and use the Garmin head unit to adjust the resistance. May need to try it out, just not sure what workout to select or how to work that in Trainer Road for an “open” workout.

Alternatively, I might be able to just do the workout entirely in the Garmin head unit and then upload it to Trainer Road. Not sure how it will auto detect the new FTP, or how that works.