@therealemm LOL, I dig what you said, dude!
Legit, and I do agree w most of what you said. Esp about TR being a closed system, and working within that system to dial it in. 100%.
Just on the ramp test, it’s good… for some riders.
The thing is, the ramp only gets good results for certain riders; those who perform quite well at >100% FTP efforts, especially in the 120 - 180% FTP range. These riders’ max 5 min, 2 min, 1 min, 30 s, 10 s power are much higher relative to their FTP.
My 10 and 5 are ooookay, but not really, they suck pretty bad, and my 2, 1, 30 s, etc are absolute garbage. So the ramp will always nail my FTP super low, and then my WOs are all garbage.
I’m a TT rider / soloist / Threshold rider, in the 45 - 240 min range. So something like Smith -2 really dials it in perfectly for riders like me.
I mean, TR is a pretty incredible system and it can do a lot of things, but some responsibility is on us!
We have to know at least a bit about ourselves to help the system out a bit!
EDIT TO ADD: The big reason I leaned on Smith -2 for this dude, not the ramp, is that it seems pretty obvious he’s got it set too high, for now. So IMO, doesn’t make a ton of sense for him to mash his face into a ramp test. Smith -2 will prove the point just as well; FTP is too high, with much less discomfort, and would even give him the opportunity to hold it for a while, and play w the difficulty +/- for a bit…
Thought that maybe made sense? Legit question; unsure.