If Spencer +2 and Leconte were very hard should I skip the next ramp test?

Hi! I assume this question has been discussed somewhere but i’m not certain how/where to find it.

I am in the last week of LVBase II. I just completed Spencer +2 which was the hardest workout i’ve completed so far, and Leconte which was easier but still a leg burner. I feel a bit discouraged about performing a ramp test next for the build phase as I kind of feel like if these workouts were really hard, then my FTP is likely still at the right level and I haven’t increased it yet?

Is my thinking correct? Or do the workouts adjust for assumed FTP increases throughout the phases and I should do another ramp test?

Thanks for the help

I think that both of those workouts are challenging for most people.

Think back to the start of the plan, after your last ftp, do you think would have done as well in them as you just have?

I would suggest retesting ftp when you start your next block.

RH

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It’s easy for me to shut off my brain here - just do the ramp test when it comes up in your training plan. FTP is just a number. You might surprise yourself.

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Take the rest week, that’s when you’ll adapt fully.

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Some folks say threshold workouts should be very doable if your FTP is set correctly. That’s probably accurate.

But the Ramp Test doesn’t test for your FTP. It finds your MAP and then approximates your FTP at 75% for training purposes (as opposed to finding your FTP to pace a 40K TT, for example).

IMO if you survived those threshold workouts in the last week of SSB LV or MV, then there’s a good possibility your MAP went up.

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I’d say test just because I’m a rule follower. However, my experience is if I complete those workouts ftp is going up. If I fail both, ftp is flat. This last test, I failed Spencer pretty badly but completed leconte. Got a 1 watt boost on the test.

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Those two workouts are meant to be hard - look at the IF’s, 0.92 and 0.90 I think? Take the recovery week and re-test.

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Thanks for the feedback everyone. I will take some rest and then to the ramp test. Also thank you for pointing out the IF, I didn’t know what that meant, so it’s good to know moving forward if it makes sense for a workout to be very hard or not!

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and what you’ll notice now is those IF’s increase as you go through a training plan. The plan is designed to intentionally progress you further than where you started in the block. You also may notice that when you start the next block, you get a week or two of lower IF before you are doing workouts where you finished here. Partly to adjust to the new FTP and partly to ease of the gas a little.

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