It says in the workout description something like
“This test is assuming you’re expecting an FTP increase, if not please lower the workout intensity”
Why would you test FTP expecting it to be the same/lower?
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OK, that makes sense and I missed that aspect in my reading.
I am coming from an odd start point (FTP increase per AIFTPD & my gut at the end of my most recent Base phase, but knocked down by the X-factor of a whole blood donation at the end of that phase). So I applied my usual reduction (6% drop) starting with the increase that AIFTPD offered to get what I have set as my current FTP.
I am looking at this test a more of a “validation” of that guesswork than expecting an increase. So I will probably apply a reduction to the Workout Intensity for my odd case.
I started with Friel’s 30-min protocol in 2016, and then after getting a power meter later that year, decided to push that 30-min out longer and longer. There is nothing special about the protocol, its not sacrosanct like some treat Hunter Allen’s 5-min power at vo2max estimate before doing the 20-min TT.
I’m of the opinion you should just start a little under and then ramp up a little, and test out where the tipping point is by feeling what happens with +10W increments. Just go long and learn how to do a sub-40k TT if you want to think of it that way.
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Yup, that aligns with my overall goal here and the lower targets present in the article.
Yep makes sense if you just want to test the test!
His recommendation of 95% and 100% of current would have you at a 2% FTP drop after 25 minutes, and scrambling to make back average watts so I’ve bumped it to put you at 100% (well, 99.6 actually) before the ramp. Most people would be going over this assuming an intended increase so would bump it even further
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You could argue that there could be a ‘progression 7’ or whatever for very advanced testers of doing waved over/unders with tiny variances (say 5 minutes each at 98/101/99/102/100/103%) to feel exactly where FTP was and what it felt like…
…although TBH at that level I think you’d be one of the athletes that Kolie mentioned in the latest podcast where his ‘test’ protocol is emailing them “what do you think your FTP is right now?” then putting that in as the result 
Performance is the best indicator of performance
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IMHO tiny variances are ridiculous and comes from overthinking things and spending too much time in Erg mode. I’m not a special snowflake, however it is pancake flat outside my door and stays pretty much flat for an hour going east. And then it’s basically a long climb up to the Pacific Crest Trail and summits of the Sierra Nevada mountains.
So I do my testing outside. Last test a couple weeks ago was ridiculously steady power, here is ~90 seconds with 7W std deviation of power something I’ve rarely seen on the trainer in Erg (w/powermatch)
Hey, it’s flat here, what can I say? The rest of that one was around 14W std deviation with a Variability Index of 0.9997
Was a smidge under threshold, with a little more muscular endurance could have ridden that much longer.
As far as protocol goes, yeah there’s the test kolie recommends but folks can also just go out and ride at what they feel their threshold is for as long as they can. Kolie is a big believer in RPE and vibes dictating the pace
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I actually started at the same point - AIFTPD suggested 262W which I wasn’t 100% sure felt correct (high). So I started with my current FTP of 254W, which would have confirmed ~258-260W depending on length of ramp. In the end, my goal was to confirm that I can comfortably hold 255-260W. Whether I hit 258, 260 or 262 was irrelevant.
… though I was vain enough to accept AIFTPD result of 262W even though KM resulted in 260W, but with a long ramp rate.
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Yeah I had just listened to watts doc #26 “FTP Testing Revisited” before doing my test the other day, and in that episode he basically says to just pick a number and see how long you can hold it. I started out on my test aiming to hold 263 watts based on my mftp in WKO5, by 10 minutes in I was averaging 268 and it felt sustainable. Every time I tried to push the average over 268 my breathing and heart rate steadily increased so then I would drop the average back down and it would feel sustainable again. I held 268 for 40 minutes and then I was getting near the top of the climb I was on so I did 5 more minutes as hard as I could pushing the average up to 272. Looking at my power curve after the fact, the “nose” of the curve occurred at 268 watts, which coincidentally, was where I felt like my FTP was during the test. So I think doing this test with a specific result in mind in ERG mode is asking for trouble.
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A.k.a. deadly sin #1.
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This (apart from running out of road and the associated shenanigans😄) sounds like a perfect FTP test. 
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It drinks champagne that tastes just like cherry cola?
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It squeezes you tight and nearly breaks your spine.
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No you definitely don’t have to ramp up in the end, this is actually the difference between progression 2 and progression 3 in the original article about the tests. If I had more road I would have definitely kept going to see how long I could hold 268
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The ramp is in the early progressions in order to show those who under shot their target what the feel of crossing the line is imo. Us more experienced riders can feel that and knock it back even 3w to get the steady breathing feeling back
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I got bored. Because the TR seems to be phasing out the teams function, it would be a shame to lose the workouts that were built. So, I made them in intervals.icu (I think that link should work). You can download them in whatever form you’d like. For some reason, when you import a workout from Intervals into TR’s Workout Creator, the %FTP gets knocked down 1%—that’s why there is a second set with “TR” in the title.
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Nice!
Worked for me. Thank you!!!