Thanks guys for the feedback.
I really believe that breath and heart rate are the ultimate validation for whether any workout difficulty is set right - better than ftp or the result of a test since they’ll adapt to my current rest and diet, and lets leave pain out of it since its so subjective.
bbarrera: 145/175 == 0.82. My max is ~195 * 0.82 == 160. From a couple years of experimenting 162 is what I believe is my lthr, so over-unders out to take me to 165 or so, assuming I’m able to stay cool and hydrated.
I think I’m going to drop my ftp by 8% to start, see if that gets my heart and breath down where it belongs. I can raise it up if the workouts don’t feel juicy enough.