I was thinking the same, but I can see your point: instead of keeping you between 7 and 9 with tiny FTP increases, it could bump you more and put you around 5.
For training it makes no difference (the workouts would have similar wattages), but it changes the “measured” FTP. And if you use that for race pacing, it’s not good for it to be off.
Why not do a ramp test though.
A thought for how to improve the AI FTP Detection:
I think it would be worth modifying the feature so that the user can set the AI to automatically recalculate their FTP every day and then automatically update it for the user. I know that this would result in minute daily changes but it means that a user wouldn’t be cycling with a potentially out of date FTP, either too high or too low. The user would always be training in the right zones and there would be no settling in period after an FTP test etc. Curious what others think.
Not a good idea, IMO. The day to day variation we see in FTP is “noise” in the truest sense of data analysis and is influenced by all the typical factors we know.
Unless something drastic like a sickness, injury or other reason leading to a lower FTP happens (that TR already gives at least some level of user control via related Annotations), there is minimal chance the AI FTP will give a big difference from one day to another. Any variation people have from one day to the next is unlikely to be large enough to shift training zones in an impactful way.
The lines drawn between zones may appear sharp and it’s generally necessary to do so for a system like this, but the the reality is that our physiology is not nearly so discrete or influenced to such a minor degree when flirting with those boarders.
Most notably, there are two things TR has said (largely via Nate in podcasts and the forum) that counter this idea to a large degree:
Nate has mentioned issues with people looking at AIFTPD too often. They feel that leads to issues and have made restrictions to how often and when people can access the tool.
Somewhat counter to that, but more aimed at the future, Nate also said that their long term goal is to have AIFTPD be largely automatic in a way that it alerts users to a notable FTP change if/when that happens. This would apply to increases and decreases, and is aimed at more deliberately catching “real” changes in FTP vs some predefined schedule that is currently in place via Training Plans and Plan Builder.
With all that in mind, I just don’t see a benefit at all and more likely problems with the suggestion. I think the current & pending direction TR has outlined makes the most sense.
I personally changed my ftp too much when the feature came out. Yup I was one of those guys checking daily, even 5 watts felt too much and failed more workouts then ever before. It set me back IMO, I think it’s better to get your levels up and then change FTP if it’s the start of a new block. In the end I kept my ftp at a realistic figure and built my TTE.
I was looking frequently, but only accepted at original ramp dates. Don’t see the harm in that.
Was there any benefit to just looking?
If number goes up it’s a dopamine rush.
Definitely. It gave me some (limited) insight into how the AI models fitness across a block of successful workouts with consistent evaluations. Mostly it was intellectually interesting.
But no, it did not make me faster.
I’ve always been the reverse… number goes up, sessions become more painful. Definitely not something to look forward to in my eyes!
Out of curiosity today, I did an AI FTP, followed by a ramp test. AI FTP 290, Ramp 270. Goldencheetah CP (I know, not the same thing…) for last month 280. I’ve been doing TrainNow along with outside rides and not on a plan, with FTP manually set at 285, and most workouts have been doable (exception: high power VO2 max, which is probably why Ramp underestimates for me)
Anyway, none of this is criticism, just feedback for TR folks. Maybe 290 would work if I were following a plan, who knows, but at least 290 is closer to what I feel my “real” FTP is than 270, so it’s an improvement over the ramp test (though unsurprisingly for me, I always felt the old 20 minute was better)
Checked AI FTP yesterday: 207
Did the ramp test: 207
First time AI FTP has been dead on. Maybe I’ll trust it next time.
@IvyAudrain I’d like to add another voice to the #feature-request for some sort of clearer visualisation of when AI-FTP will be available. Some sort of countdown for the 14 (soon to be 28 days).
I have a Ramp Test today on the schedule as the start of Build. No AI FTP is appearing though I’m reasonably confident that I last used it more than two weeks ago to see what it would suggest as I restarted post-Covid.
I just finished up a 4 week specialty block and have a ramp test scheduled for Tuesday as my next ride but no FTP Detection button available. Have they already switched to the 28 day window? I haven’t had any issues with using FTP detection on previous blocks and was hoping to see it today before going back to sweet spot base.
The button won’t work until within 24 hours of the actual Ramp Test scheduled day.
Might be something else causing a TR go-slow today.
Haven’t seen issues mentioned for others, but my AI-FTPD button is also not available. Plus my rides aren’t syncing to Garmin.
That could all be coincidence of course 
, but it’s a minor inconvenience.
Thanks for the info. Must have missed that change. It used to work for me earlier than that.
Joining the chorus, I also have a ramp scheduled tomorrow and no AI detect button. My last AI detect was 6/2 so it has been longer than 14 days. Maybe they made the change to 28 days on backend?
Interestingly I’m not entirely sure why AT put the previous ramp test on my calendar as it was mid-block. One day it just proposed an adaptation to replace a VO2 wo with a ramp. I could have done something to precipitate that but I can’t think of what.
Not sure this matters, but I wonder if setting a time for the Ramp test at the earliest time of the day would help push the button to activate sooner?
Good thought but didn’t work for me. Changing date to today did make it finally show for me but interestingly I swear I did that earlier and it didn’t work. Almost seems like the combination of setting the time to 12am AND today made the detect button finally show, which makes it seem like the schedule date had to be in the past instead of in the next 24. If that is true then that may be an inadvertent bug. I only share for the purposes of potential beta feedback, not to complain.
While I like many are eager to see what the result will be, my primary use case to do the detect the day before the scheduled ramp is because I know it will then replace the ramp with a scheduled workout. I intend to do that workout outdoors and want to get it sync’d with Garmin tonight so it’s on my head unit and ready to go so I’m not mucking with it at 5am tomorrow.
Are you on the latest Beta app?
I set the date for mine to yesterday and it finally let me use the AI-FTPD. Weird and not sure what is up there. Still having a weird syncing issue with Garmin but might (most likely) be completely unrelated.