If you find vo2max tolerable and sweetspot hard its overstating. If the reverse is true, its understating. This is how it seems to be for most
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Waaaaay up at the top I mentioned doing the Ramp test after spending months of doing only sweet spot and threshold work (SSB + SPB)…when I hit the VO2max it turned pretty ugly. The next day I decided to do the KM’s threshold test, thinking I’d test higher than the VO2max reliant Ramp. They both gave me pretty much the same FTP but the KM test felt much easier vs the ramp.
So the ramp might only feel like it’s over/understating but might be pretty accurate (for your Threshold level, that is…your VO2max level might not be accurate derived from either test).
My 1/2¢.
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So finally I’ve talked myself into doing a Kolie moore test protocol on Sunday. I finished ssbiMV training block and currently i’m on recovery week
I have a question about setting initial target FTP guess for the test.
from the article in original post: “…you want to use my tests but aren’t sure where your target FTP is, a 3- to 8-watt increase is a reasonable starting point…”
What does this mean? I think I am going to set my target FTP to be about the same as what my last TR ramp test was but Xert thinks my current FTP is 6W lower than that based on some recent short duration max effort breakthrough tests that I’ve done. WKO5 thinks my FTP from the last 30 days is 11 watts lower than Xert due to no long sustained duration workouts. But WKO5 thinks my 90 day FTP is similar to my FTP from my best ever ramp test back in December 2019 which is prior to a 3 week break.
thanks for sharing!
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I think the short answer is - regardless of numbers, and so long as you have some experience of riding for long-ish durations at FTP - ride to feel. Settle in at a sustainable effort, where your breathing is controlled even if fatigue slowly starts to build in the legs. A lot of the variations given have the first section below FTP anyway, and allow for a ramp towards the finish, so it’s better to be a bit conservative at the start. While you can get a hard ‘number’ from the average power of the main test period, the important ‘data’ is learning how your body feels riding at certain power levels for certain periods of time (I feel at least). If you think you had a bit left out there, and ramped up at the end considerably, then your FTP might be a bit higher than the test average. But honestly, training with your FTP a handful of watts “low” when doing longer efforts is preferable to it being too high (if you’re aiming for TH work at 98%, then it’ll be way better if you’re “accidentally” at 95% than 101%, having under, not over-estimated) .
One of the strengths of the test protocol is that (unlike shorter ones) is that it helps develop a sense of what FTP feels like, and (hopefully) helps you move away from treating it as an attempt to get the ‘highest score’ possible. As Kolie said somewhere (I think?!), he sometimes gets his athletes to do the test without power numbers visible!
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yeah i thought i was gaining a sense of what FTP feels like back when i was doing galena+2…
but i’m starting to worry that it was really over Threshhold… based on my notes and what I remember, I could get through the last interval, but it was a real mental thing… IDK if it’s correct but FTP riding is a place where your legs might be screaming, but your breathing is still “under control”
Hmm - 3x20 done almost at threshold (rather than all at like 96%) is still hard! What’s your max HR (just looking at the file)? You probably weren’t far out on FTP there.
I’d set off on something you know is under FTP for the first period, and see how you’re going after 15/20 mins. This is all “useful” data - even if it turns out you can raise power a bit for the rest of the test. Trust your body and your judgment: if you’ve done Galena +2 you do probably have a reasonable sense of what TH feels like. The first bit of the test should feel more like what the first two of those intervals felt like (by the looks of it) than the last one.
185bpm inside… best in last 365 days was 193bpm
and if you don’t have experience, try it and develop a feel for riding long durations at FTP! 
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Excellent, hope you ‘enjoy’ it! Have a read of the workout description, I put a rough idea of what to expect in there. If you’re thinking you might be a bit down maybe dial the workout down and ease back up if it feels ok, or just go into the 98% as it is and decide if you can make the jump to 102% (or whether turning it down a bit there makes sense)
@isaa124
Use whatever FTP you have chosen to do your workouts at in TrainerRoad. The test that @alexgold123
has put together has you ride at 102% of your current FTP after the 10-min Sweet Spot block. This is done so that you’re slightly over-reaching.
When I performed the test I had my FTP set at 280w, but I suspected my FTP was actually a little higher (290-295w) so my goal was to ride at 290w for the first 20 minutes and then aim for 300w and ride as long as I could hold this for. This was purely on feel and I was able to complete the entire test.
I had the same questions as you, but found that with my “plan” mentioned above, the test is actually quite “easy” to pace.
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That was me getting cramp 
, I was far from exhausted and very angry when it happened (imagine tapering and getting all excited only for it to strike)
I’ve been plagued by it recently (Waking up in the middle of the night at times with it). But I will redo the test again in a few weeks, but I found when I was holding the power it wasn’t deadly or anything.
I wouldn’t use this as an example. But since then, I’ve been doing all my workouts at 300W, and its been about right.
haha… ok I’m sorry for putting you on the spot like that then… I was asking purely for academic reasons 
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No, because I was continually evaluating my RPE and wanted to make sure I was staying on target.
Great thread and really ties in with where I am in my training this season.
Just did the test and averaged 284w for 42 min (thanks @alexgold123) . Current FTP is from a recent ramp test is 278w on TR which hasn’t really changed since I started base training after a couple of months not riding a lot. However I think my TTE has improved and hopefully having just started general build it will start going up with some more intensity in my training.
I think both tests complement each other well and I suspect that during base your FTP will be higher doing Kolie’s test but towards race day it will skew toward the ramp test being higher. My eFTP on intervals.icu is 294w.
Which number should I use for my TR FTP?
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That looks a solid attempt, and still 10+ bpm off your max heart rate on the ramp test so not a crazy sprint anywhere in there - I’d take 285 personally, as you did that for 40 minutes. 
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It was on default which I think was 120 but I have increased it to 300 and new eFTP is 296w so 2w higher.
I’m sure I’ve missed it in the nearly 200 replies, but explicitly, how does one score/evaluate the test? Do you just take the average of your power over all three test steps? Or just the first two if you don’t/can’t reach the third (TTE) step?
The guy who actually knows his stuff who wrote the article says:
Your FTP will be equal to the average power of the entire test, and I double check it with the WKO modeled FTP.
…which I took to mean the hard riding bit, and translated to this in the desciption of the custom workout (which is ‘progression 1’):
To get FTP, assuming you’ve ridden at least ~25 minutes, just manually select from the start of the test interval to where you stopped in workout analysis - the average power is your result.
I’d still say if someone managed 25 minutes it’d be a questionable result with regard to TTE, but it’d be an FTP drop at that point so you’d at least have some data re what you FTP wasn’t!
HTH
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Thanks. Regarding this:
That includes even the first step, correct? Even though below FTP?
I.E. include the 92-95% at 10 minutes step of the Baseline Test? NOT starting at the second step (100% FTP)?
Sorry for being so dense with this - I just want to be 1000% clear so I don’t mess it up when I give it a shot for the first time next week.
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