A little embarrassed to post my failure, but doing it anyway. This was my first attempt at a Kolie Moore FTP test. I knew I wanted to try because I under-perform on ramp tests and really don’t want to do 20 minutes at 105%. Everyone here makes the test not seem all that bad, and provides accurate results.
I did @alexgold123’s baseline test, as I did not anticipate an increase in FTP. I knew the test wouldn’t be all that great right when I finished the 10 minutes at 96%, but attempted to chug along as best I could. I remembered reading above about someone not making the 25 minute time and just treating it like a 20 minute test, so I figured I would do that in the worst case scenario. Which happened!
Initially I was disappointed as I had just conquered disaster -2 at 215w FTP so for my new FTP to drop to 201w seemed a little staggering. Buuuut I did take 9 full days off the bike before getting back in to training this previous Tuesday. I did 4x12 and 2x20 at 90% earlier this week and I would say they were quite challenging at 8-9/10 RPE, above sweet spot RPE for me which I usually give like a 6-7/10.
So I’ve only read 250 of the 520 comments in this thread thus far, so forgive me if this has been answered…how frequently can I test? I mean, it’s akin to a threshold workout and doesn’t feel all too bad afterwards, so I would imagine it would more than okay to retest within a week.
My plan would be to do a couple more sweet spot workouts this week (I’m doing a custom SS progression) at the 201w FTP. In the past, if those workouts felt a bit too easy I’d simply bump my FTP up. But this time, if they are in fact too easy, I would like to retest because I don’t know if I’m really sure what SS vs threshold should feel like right now.
I also wanted to mention as others have as well, that this test really does make you not as scared to do those future long SS and threshold workouts because you know what you are capable of! After lowering my FTP, I’m very excited to now be able to accurately test and see progress from this point.
I’m pretty sure Alex designed his TR versions of the tests with the idea you would’ve made some marginal FTP gains after a block of training prior to testing. His percentages are based on target FTP being slightly higher than your existing FTP if I’m not mistaken, so if you expect that your FTP stayed the same, then you would be working at higher percentages of target FTP than you should be if you’re following the test prescription. That’s my understanding anyhow, but I could be very wrong. I’ve been purely an eager observer and learner in this thread and really only started dabbling in testing this way.
There are several options. His baseline test puts you at 99.66% at the end of the 15 minute block at 102%. I intentionally chose this one for that reason.
Don’t hold me to that. Maybe in that podcast I didn’t get it across as well as I wanted that you may want to read other signals that you’re improving before doing another test. I think most people I’m coaching right now have only done… two? tests this year. Maybe up to three.
At the end of TR ramp test, I was nauseous as if seasick. At end of KM test (outside) today, I was extremely tired and depleted but still able to ride 8 miles back to my car at a relatively normal pace. The KM FTP was 20 points higher than my recent TR Ramp Test of 211. Also, the result was 10 points higher than previous indoor KM test using erg mode. I plan to use KM instead of ramp going forward. Overall, pleased with progress for a 68-year old cyclist.
First time doing the KM Progression 1 test today after my first 4 week training block with TrainerRoad. Very happy with the result. Followed it up with 70 minutes of Endurance work.
FTP: 275w to 292w (+17w / +6.2%) WEIGHT: 73.2kg to 71.8kg (-1.4kg / -1.95%) W/KG: 3.76w/kg to 4.07w.kg TTE: 30min 30sec
First time engaging with structured training and first time in the 4w/kg territory for me. Pumped! I haven’t ever been in this territory before. It seems trusting ‘the process’ is well and truly paying off. I have definitely learnt a lot about myself physically and mentally as a cycler the last month.
To those new to the protocol here are my musings:
I found this a much better way to test FTP than the ramp test. As others have said in this thread, it was intense and you push yourself, but I found that I felt a lot better off the bike and more ‘refreshed’ per-say. Can see myself recovering a lot better from this test than the ramp test.
I also like getting the TTE metric alongside the FTP metric because that is something that I would like to focus on as well in my training. You don’t get that with a ramp test so that is another positive for doing a test like this.
I did the test on Resistance mode and chose to not do it in ERG mode. I have been toying with doing it on or off ERG mode and decided to do it in Resistance mode as per the KM article and being able to ‘feel’ your FTP etc. Found it to be a very useful way of doing it. For me anyway - just my N=1. Others prefer it in ERG mode.
The previous week was an Endurance week where I did noting but 10hrs in Zone 1 (Sieler Zones) but I had the weekend off so came into the test with a full 2 day break.
I usually ride fasted but fuel for VO2 and Anaerobic sessions - pasta the night before and fruit and toast before the sessions. I fueled the same way for the Progression 1 test this morning.
All in all, I will be using the KM Progressions for the FTP tests moving forward. Thanks @empiricalcycling for making his thoughts and learnings public and also to @alexgold123 for making the tests in his workout group.
My current TR ramp test FTP is 273. Zwift has been telling me my FTP is in the 290s, so, I decided to see if this is true by setting the Kolie Moore test intensity at 107% (target FTP 292).
I made it 20 minutes into the baseline test after a 20 minute LSCT warmup, although I suspect the exhaustion was mental as much as physical after a long busy weekend. I believe the baseline gave me a valid result, so I’m setting my FTP at that result (282 FTP) and we’ll see how the next block of training goes.
You can’t base your FTP on a 20 minute effort, that was a major point of the article. There doesn’t seem to be an agreed definition of a minimum TTE at FTP, but 35 minutes is the shortest I’ve seen thrown around.
The other main point of the article is that you should be able to feel the tipping point. So maybe that’s what you felt - I’ve no reason not inclination to question that - but for anyone else reading, a 20 minute effort does not constitute a valid long-form FTP test.
Warmup is not a part of the test. If you could hold the power for 20 min it is definitely not your FTP. 30 min (or better 40) is bare minimum to call it FTP.
You can try that, for sure, but in my experience TrainerRoad doesn’t necessarily give you a good feel for what different zones should feel like due to the lack of any long intervals at or below FTP in most of the plans.
When basing my plans on the ramp test, I could still complete 98% of the workouts in SSB for example - 10 minutes slightly above threshold is doable after all - but it was soul-destroyingly hard and my progress came to a grinding halt. This was with an FTP 3-7% too high.
So if it was me, I would redo the test, and start wayyy lower than you think you should, like 250W maybe. Hold that for 20 minutes. Then slowly ramp your effort up, like 1W/minute at most, until you feel the effort start to change drastically. Then back it back down a few W just to be safe, ride until you’ve got a minimum TTE and start ramping up again just to feel what it’s like over FTP.
You don’t have use the average power of the test as your FTP btw - if you spend a decent amount of time at a steady wattage and can feel a drastic change if you go up 5W, you can call that your FTP.
I don’t think I fully captured the spirit of the test, while I was pretty tired, I still had legs to try another hill after the descend, albeit much reduced intensity.
Seems like FTP could be in the 232-239 range, probably good to use the lower bound or 230.
