Congratulations, and thanks for the graphic. In my case, “going all-out” means the final minute or two of wild thrashing to get it over with (see my earlier post), not the shrewdly self-correcting pacing that you did over 20 minutes. The latter is what I guess I’m aspiring to. In your case you did it well above previous data suggested you could. In mine my “target” FTP was just the same as my guess of what a botched ramp would have been without the botch. I feared it might be too high, especially after not having done anything but Z2 for over a month, and I really didn’t want to just bail 10 minutes in. Like @isaac124 I did have power number to sneak peeks at so maybe my belief that I was getting the feel of it was actually just looking at numbers and playing safe. Glad someone has the knack of disregarding the numbers and outdoing themselves substantially without falling on their face!
I do have one more just factual sequel to my experiment with a month of only longer slower. I did an easier VO2max this morning (Dade -1) to see what intervals would be like again. Except for some gadget hassles, the workout went just fine – in fact, felt easier than in the past. I was a little surprised that the 5 weeks of nothing but longer slower don’t seem to have diminished either of this old man’s two higher zones, threshold or VO2max. So now, I’m trying to kludge together a “polarized” regimen of some sort, just because the change up has been a lot of fun and hasn’t crippled me. What I’m really curious about is whether staying out of that middle zone in training can actually help me in an event later in the summer ridden in that middle zone? Seems odd, but so far it at least hasn’t hurt.
Oh, the ramp test. Not a fan of it. And re: “shrewdly self-correcting pacing” - let me update the pic with estimated FTP from the test to give a better idea of power output relative to threshold:
relative to estimated FTP do you still think I was shrewd? Or simply hanging on for dear life? More than a few times I felt like a guppy that had jumped out of the tank and gulping the air for water. Shit happens when you teeter totter around threshold.
thats as good as it gets for me, although I didn’t fall to the ground at the end. Based on my experience doing longer and longer intervals, it kinda felt like if sufficiently motivated I might have hung on for another 10-15 minutes although power may would have dropped (to 260ish). So guessing a 30-35 minute TTE?
For the FTP estimate I took the 274W average and multiplied by .95 for 260W estimated FTP. Both before and after WKO5 had my 20-min aerobic at 94.8%, so I think that is a fair multiplier (and consistent with multiple time periods in WKO). And WKO5 modeled FTP gives 259 and 34:43 TTE if I remove a few easy indoor trainer (~65% aerobic endurance) rides from the 90-day window. And with all rides over last 90-days, WKO gives me 257W modeled FTP and 35:32 TTE. Haven’t had a chance to review all of this until today, just now at lunch, and my reaction is to be conservative and manually set FTP to 257.
No, not the ramp test. (Not a fan either.) The Kollie Moore Baseline test, for which I copied your version in the Workout Creator, did, and then posted on June 3. I’ll re-insert the graphic here.
I’m talking about the cute pigtail at the end, shortly after it starts to ramp. The ramp I copied from you is slow and purposeful. My execution of it is a (brief) moment of desperate fireworks and then the anticlimactic fizzle – I think an involuntary gesture to get it over with. Not pacing. I’ll try again in a month or so and see if I can’t go more gently into that goodnight.
I do appreciate your filling in that your push to a new level didn’t feel as elegant as it looks!
ah, that ramp Ya on my 20-min field test there was a lot of life choices questions swirling in my mind by minute 8… Somehow I held on and finished the full 20-minutes with 4 bonus seconds before hitting the button and letting off the gas… only to turn a corner and get the full brunt of a 12mph wind gusting to 22mph… exactly what am I doing on an otherwise perfectly nice & windy & warm Saturday afternoon? Another 20 min later and I thought
“that wasn’t so bad, why don’t more people do 20-min or Kolie Moore field tests?”
Did my first FTP test using Progression 1, and ended up within a couple of watts of my Ramp tested FTP. Pretty short TTE though so gives something to work on.
One benefit I noticed is I’m approaching the workouts differently. Knowing I can hold my FTP for x minutes means that I know that I can hit the targets for the given workouts which massively helps with the mental side of it.
Hi all, two questions as I am thinking about doing this test this weekend.
Are there any scenarios in which this test is less accurate than the ramp test for assessing FTP? It seems like the contrary since you are literally riding FTP and trying to feel that edge.
I haven’t done this test before and am coming off sustained power build high volume and half of climbing specialty high volume - should I go for the baseline test or maybe start with progression 1?
The ‘risk’ with the TTE test is that it is more dependent on pacing. The ramp test you do it and if you go full send… you get your result, it may not be the best training level for you, but it is consistent.
The TTE test you can over cook it and have a super short TTE with ‘too high’ of an FTP. Or you can screw it up the other way and ride tempo/sweet spot for 90 minutes. Just taking the result of any old test and plugging it into TrainerRoad may not give you the result you want.
The risk of the ramp test is a too high FTP. I’d be more concerned with a too high FTP from ramp test.
TrainerRoad workouts are designed around Coggan classic levels/zones. In other words they are designed around having a good FTP estimate. The test protocol doesn’t matter, you just want an accurate FTP estimate.
Honestly if you test your FTP on a ramp test, you have finished workouts successfully go with the pacing from the test - so try to stick to 102%. Check how it feels and if you can do more. If you do this in resistance/level mode (this way is a lot better and…easier in my experience) you push more watts during the ramp or even at the end if you have some more power in the tank. The first can be “checking the feeling” how FTP should feel. In the worst case scenario - your “real” FTP will be couple watts higher FTP than this from the test. But this way your workouts will be more doable. If you overshoot the power - this is also informative where you stand.
Not so sure, if you TTE is 80 minutes, doing 4x20 is not enough to stimulate you in a sufficient way (as I understand from Kolie Moore’s lectures) so you will want to do 5x20 or something like that. iLevels do not consider something like 80 min TTE I think…
Thanks everyone. Any thoughts on which test I should start with?
Again, I haven’t done this test before and am coming off sustained power build high volume and half of climbing specialty high volume - should I go for the baseline test or maybe start with progression 1?
Ya on my 20-min field test there was a lot of life choices questions swirling in my mind by minute 8… Somehow I held on and finished the full 20-minutes with 4 bonus seconds before hitting the button and letting off the gas… only to turn a corner and get the full brunt of a 12mph wind gusting to 22mph… exactly what am I doing on an otherwise perfectly nice & windy & warm Saturday afternoon? Another 20 min later and I thought
